Pastors Week workshops

"Everyone knows someone who went to Roosevelt!" For over 80 years, Roosevelt Elementary served as the heart of the surrounding neighborhood, one that's now 1/3 African-American, 1/3 Latino, and 1/3 White. When plans emerged to tear down the building in 2006, community relationships served as a base for organizing to save it from the wrecking ball and renovate it for apartments and community space. Come hear about the role played by neighbors, congregations, and civic leaders in the struggle of preserving the structure—as well as addressing the challenges of recent years in building on this community vision!

Sermons about money have been a touchy topic for as long as there have been preachers .... and the budgets that support the preacher. At times the church has flourished from wise pulpit counsel on thanksgiving and giving. Other times, the church had been obsessed with the collection -  leaving preachers criticized and (properly) lampooned for too many sermons that ended predictably with "Big Ask." While keeping money out of the pulpit is one popular option, this ignores the multitude of biblical teachings on money. (As a friend of mine says, "If you're not reaching for your wallet when you are reading the Bible, you are not reading close enough.") In this workshop we will do some Bible study and share direct and indirect strategies for preaching that includes (but is not obsessed with) money.

If Jubilee can be described as finding out what belongs to whom and giving it back (Brueggemann), we need tangible acts like offering in worship to help us sort this out.  We may declare with our mouths in worship that the earth is God’s and everything in it but we may only come to believe this when we are invited into action which the offering can provide. 

Offering is not a time-out during worship, it is not the seventh inning stretch and it does not provide the perfect time to ask children to perform for the congregation.  Rather it can be a powerful expression of our loyalty to God, not money.

Please come prepared to share your stories and reflections of offering time in worship both good and bad.  We will explore together how to revitalize the offering in our worship in order that we may all be moved to generosity in God’s economy of abundance.

Would your congregation know what to do if it received a gift of $100,000?

Many congregations are not aware of planned giving tools and how they can help their local ministries.  As a result opportunities to receive larger gifts are missed.  This seminar will introduce and review the basic concepts of planned giving which every pastor should know but wasn’t taught in seminary.  It will include stories and illustrations from individuals and churches who are working at these issues.

Topics that will be covered include:

1. A theological overview of generosity
2. Understanding Assets (other than cash) and how they can be gifted
3. Using Donor Advised Funds and other Outright Gift Strategies
4. Understanding Gifts that Give Back (Life Income Plans – Gift Annuities, etc.)
5. Planning for End of Life Gifts (Bequests, etc.)
6. Managing and Investing Gifts (Endowment Funds, Investment Policies, etc.)

Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), a 60-year old, Mennonite-related organization, served 18 million families last year through a variety of economic development programs with over 200 partner organizations in 56 countries. More than 11,000 people in North America and Europe support MEDA programs and endorse MEDA’s values of connecting faith and work and developing business solutions to poverty.

The workshop will describe several MEDA initiatives and discuss MEDA’s focus on faith/work integration and living our faith and values. Come and learn more about MEDA through information and stories.  Participate in a discussion of issues related to “faith/work integration” and the concept of “business solutions to poverty.”

From the call of Abraham to leave his own cultural family and become a blessing to many peoples, to the culminating images in Revelation where the gates of God’s city are open for all the nations to walk by God’s light, and where all are invited to share their honour and glory (Revelation 21: 24-26), God weaves a vision for one church of many peoples.  Mennonite Church Canada is growing with congregations from many cultures, but recognizes that we are still en route to experiencing the fullness of God’s expansive vision.  With a diversity of stories--local and global, indigenous and multi-faith--we want to share some of this journey in the context of a particular history and country and consider what this experience can contribute to realizing God’s vision for an inter-cultural church in other contexts.

From its beginnings in the 16th century, the Anabaptist movement—and the Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite groups that descended from that movement—have considered mutual aid to be a central characteristic of the Christian community.  Rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the example the early church, economic sharing was a visible marker of faithful Christian discipleship.   In the centuries since then, mutual aid has taken many different expressions within the church, both formal and informal.

After a brief review of the theological and historical context of mutual aid, this workshop will explore the following themes:

• what changes or trends can we observe in practices of economic sharing within the Mennonite church during the past generation (e.g., the impact of the suburbanization/urbanization; competing appeals from Mennonite institutions and agencies; the reality of globalization, etc.) 
• what continuities can we observe in practices of economic sharing? (stories from your congregation)
• what does it look like to practice economic sharing beyond the local congregation … within our communities? within MCUSA? within the global Anabaptist-Mennonite fellowship?
• how do we best teach the practice of economic sharing within our congregations today?

Come prepared to share in vigorous conversation … and to leave with new insights!