If anyone is interested in reading current books about the cultural changes that are influencing our congregations, I picked up a suggested reading list compiled by the Faculty of Eden Seminary. Suggestions include; Strategic Leadership for a Change by Kenneth McFayden, Toward a Hopeful Future: Why the Emergent Church is Good News for Mainline Congregations by Phil Snyder and Emily Bowen, and Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers is telling the American Church by Kenneth Dean.
I also ran into an old friend, Lorin Cope, today. Lorin is now the Director of Donor Relations for Crossroad in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Crossroad is more familiarly know as Fort Wayne Children's Home to some.) He spoke about the ways Crossroad has changed in the last decade to keep up with current social service needs of young people. They are now involved in more outsourcing for parents and children and have fewer residents. At Trinity, we often discuss Crossroad as a mission partner and try to find ways to support their work. One church is raising money to sponsor a fall festival for the residents. Other special needs are periodic as well. Lorin offered to come to Trinity to speak and interpret the work that is now being done at Crossroad. I am bringing back materials for our committee to consider.
I have been invited to the OCWM (Our Church's Wider Mission) luncheon tomorrow (July 4) as a representative of a congregation that faithfully supports wider church mission. They haven't given any more detail than that, but I will bring back information from that event as well. Our Synod day tomorrow begins at 7 a.m. and will conclude at 8:45 p.m. so that we can adjourn in time for 4th of July fireworks over the Bay. The Tampa Convention Center sits right at the top of the Bay and we will be able to watch fireworks from the riverwalk area.
The Global Ministries booth has a constant stream of speakers. Today I was able to hear from several African Church leaders. Someone from Swaziland spoke about the efforts of the church to stem the tide of violence in places like Sudan and Libya through the working relationship with Muslim religious leaders. Another speaker talked about the challenges of the church in South Africa. An interesting and consistent theme was their desire to resist secularism and a passion to hold on to their religious rituals and way of life.
I attended a workshop today titled, "10 keys to becoming an open and affirming church". In my conversation with Paul Shupe from Lexington, Mass, he spoke about this same issue and ways that Hancock UCC is approaching education and affirmation. More information can be found at www.ucc/lgbt There is an ecumenical "Welcoming Church Coalition" which suggests that step one is to create a leadership group to explore possibilities. I also picked up a booklet that our finance committee will find helpful "10 Ways to Increase Giving in Tough Financial Times".
Other workshops with interesting titles that I have flagged to attend over the next two days are; "3 strategies for reaching new people", "2 Ways to keep your church building from killing your congregation", 5 key elements of growing a Stillspeaking church", "5 key elements of Hospitality", "20 tips to improve Church Hospitality", "6 ways to improve your Church Newsletter" and "5 ways stillspeaking can increase worship attendance". These are offered at various times through the day and I hope to bring back resources for our committees and church leaders. I still need to make a run on the bookstore too. There are a lot of good resources to be found there.
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