Pastors Week Workshops
Workshops are offered Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. When you register, please indicate which two workshops you are most likely to attend. Workshops are offered both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons unless otherwise noted.
Continue the conversation
Diana Butler Bass
Participants are invited to meet with Dr. Bass in a smaller setting to continue the dialogue begun in the morning teaching sessions. She will not present new material in this workshop, but will be on hand to further discuss her plenary presentations. She will not use a case study approach or attempt to solve issues related to specific congregations. Rather, she will focus on broad questions and themes raised in the morning sessions. This workshop is limited to the first 20 registrants for Tuesday and the first 20 registrants for Wednesday.
Why the practices don’t matter if worship doesn’t matter
Kent McDougal and Michael Gulker
Pastors Week invites us to consider how the intentional practices of the ancient Christian tradition(s) are resources for retraditioning and revitalizing our congregations in a post-modern, post-Christendom context. This workshop will tell the story of how Christ Community Church of Des Moines, Iowa, a new Mennonite congregation with roots in a fundamentalist mega-church, discovered the power of the intentional practices of Christian liturgy as a central source and focus for this larger project of retraditioning and revitalization.
Focal practices, church life and our witness
Arthur Paul Boers
A common complaint these days is our sense of being busy, hectic and off balance. Eugene Peterson says our culture is a place where “the wonder has leaked out.” Practices promise richly grounded lives. The church is one of the few remaining places where focal practices (prayer, worship, hospitality, music) are engaged, promoted and appreciated. Honoring such priorities helps us make an inviting witness. We will explore ways of understanding, celebrating and deepening practices-oriented congregational life.
Where have all the Sabbaths gone?
Marlene Kropf
This workshop reflects on Sabbath as a spiritual practice for both pastoral leaders and for congregations. In a time when Sabbath-keeping has undergone significant changes, leaders are challenged to teach and practice sustainable rhythms of ministry and Sabbath. This workshop offers a variety of models for recovering life-giving practices of Sabbath.
Bible study as vital communal practice
Mary Schertz and Steven Schweitzer
An earlier generation not only used the Bible to guide action and doctrine, but had it in their hearts. In our more frantic age, how do we let Scripture form us, not just inform us? There are harbingers of hope, signs that biblical spirituality is a renewable resource. In this workshop we will share stories and practices that help us drink again and ever more deeply of that flowing stream.
We become the stories we hear
Mary E. Klassen
We are shaped by the stories we tell and hear. In Christian communities, these are the stories of the Bible; for Anabaptist-Mennonite congregations, experiences of persecution and migration have formed our identities. Recently we have seen how the Amish response to tragedy is prompted by stories from Martyrs Mirror. What stories can we tell to sustain us, give us identity and foster vision in our current contexts? Share insights in how we can weave these stories into our congregational life.
Testimony in congregational worship
Alan Kreider
Testimony is an important Christian practice, and it can be instrumental in the renewal of congregational life. But what subjects are appropriate for testimony? And what forms should testimony take? How is it best practiced in large congregations, small congregations and small groups? This seminar will provide some ideas and a forum for sharing experience.
Ritual practices and adolescent faith formation
Andy Brubacher Kaethler
This workshop will explore the growing interest among youth and young adults to engage in ritual practices. We will consider why it is that young people are drawn to these practices from theological, psychological, moral and philosophical dimensions. The spiritual interests of this generation bring both positive and negative possibilities for the future of the church, but in the opinion of this presenter, there is good reason to be optimistic and hopeful about the gifts and sensitivities young leaders can offer.
“Retraditioning” Communion
Eleanor Kreider
Communion raises many questions—welcome, theology, presidency—sprouting a whirl of answers—inclusiveness, real meals, domestic, weekly. But Communion is not only our practice, it is a practice of God, a divine action of hosting and embrace, of grace and healing. We will explore steps in an “innovative return” to the deep Christian ceremony of communion characterized by reverence and joyous thanksgiving.
Practicing Body Wisdom
Rebecca Slough
Our bodies know; they are wise. They are so because God created them and breathed the Spirit of life into them. The Body of Christ knows; it is wise because God calls a people together by the power of the Spirit. Come and learn principles and practices that honor the body-spirit’s/Body-Spirit’s wisdom to live more deeply and faithfully.
Registration
Questions?
Contact the Church Leadership Center
(574) 296-6269
ChurchLeadership@ambs.edu