2023 Annual Meeting SATURDAY MORNING Workshops
All participants will have on opportunity to attend 2 workshops on Saturday morning. Please review the topics below and indicate your top three workshop choices on your registration form.
"Two are better than one," according to Ecclesiastes... but how can we be better together if everyone can't enter the church building or hear the service? Learn with members of Mayflower UCC about their process of becoming A2A with the help of Wider Church resources, and how this welcome can be scaled to churches of all sizes and shapes.
Accessible to All (A2)
As LGBTQ+ youth are impacted by harmful legislation in our states and across the country, it's become more important than ever to provide safe, loving, affirming spaces. Learn from KO congregations who are hosting or supporting these organizations about what works well, and where the challenges are, as you consider what you might offer in your local community.
Supporting Trans Youth
A conversation with Rev. Dr. Lisa Wolfe, professor of Hebrew Bible, Endowed Chair at Oklahoma City University and a member of Church of the Open Arms. Rev. Dr. Wolfe's most recent book is a feminist interpretation of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) for the Wisdom Commentary Series by Liturgical Press. Join her for a presentation and discussion on strategies for opening up this challenging and provocative book for a contemporary audience, including the passage that inspired our Annual Meeting theme. For extra fun, we’ll discover a verse of Ecclesiastes that may refer to beer—and the women who brewed it!
Where are the Women Hiding in Ecclesiastes?
Resources and volunteers are spread thin while the need for our ministries continues to grow. Join guests from the UCC Insurance Board, including Mayflower UCC member Howard Sewall, for a practical discussion on ways to prevent and mitigate liability and property risks at your ministry. Co-leading with Howard are Lisa Gonzalez and Elizabeth Vance. Leave with key takeaways and actionable items that can help prevent a significant loss and disruption to your ministry.
Preventing and Mitigating Risk in your Ministry
Join Dr. Vicki Harvey from the UCC Mental Health Network for an introduction to one of the Just World Covenants designed to support local church mental health ministries. A WISE church joins the mission to being Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, and Engaged in the Mental Health of the community and the wider world. It's important but complicated work, and we don't have to figure it out alone! Dr. Harvey is a psychologist and has been working on the WISE team of the Mental Health Network for the past 5 years actively certifying churches as WISE and developing other mental health resources. She will speak of her own passion for this work, which is born of personal tragedy, engage our enthusiasm for this ministry, and give us a step by step guide for our own WISE program.
Becoming W.I.S.E.
The challenges faced by churches and communities today can feel overwhelming in scope and number. So often, the hardest part is knowing where to even begin in our work for justice and hope. Join Rev. Dr. Justin Shamell of Eden Seminary for an immersive workshop modeled on teachings from Eden's newly-launched Center for Lived Faith and Organizing. The Center is a partnership with the UCC's Justice and Local Church Ministries, with a focus on providing tools and training for lay leaders.
Faithful Witness in Troubling Times
In the style of lectio divina, engaging with poetry can open up Scripture as a gateway to both meaning and presence. Join Jim French, Conference Council Vice President, for an exploration of poetry as a way that allows us to experience the world to open our hearts to compassion and possibility. We will learn about how poetry can be used in group practices, including some specific ideas from Community Church in Partridge that you can take home and adapt to your own setting.
Poetry as a Key to Sacred Reading
Among the many operational considerations for ministries, your emergency preparedness plan should be a top priority. It is critical for ministries to consider and evaluate their safety and security plans to protect their sacred spaces and the people within. Lisa Gonzalez and Elizabeth Vance of the UCC Insurance Board will host a safety and security discussion with a focus on active intruder threats and resources developed to help ministries stay safe.
Keeping Sacred Spaces Safe
As we grow into the 2018 edition of the Manual on Ministry, we're also becoming more fluent with the Marks of Faithful and Effective Authorized Ministers. This new tool for engaging ministerial fitness provides transparency and a collective language for authorization, and it's part of our updated search-and-call profile system for ministers and churches. Clergy are invited to join Dr. Jill Baker and Rev. Dr. Mary Schaller Blaufuss for an opportunity to explore Eden Seminary's new Marks Self-Assessment tool. They will discuss how your report might support further personal vocational discernment, or the discernment of those seeking authorization in our Conference.
Important: participants must have completed the Marks Assessment tool by Sept. 18 to receive a report. Contact Rachael Pryor (rpryor@kocucc.org) for an invitation to take this assessment if you have not already done so.
Exploring Your Marks Assessment
Join with local leaders from Kansas and Oklahoma to learn about campaigns happening right now in our statewide and national advocacy, specifically focused on energy policy. Public comment periods are currently underway for these issues; our workshop will focus on how to participate and what we think will happen next, with the support of the UCC’s Environmental Justice ministry and Interfaith Power & Light. If you indicate interest in this workshop during registration, we’ll be in touch ahead of time about how you can get started immediately!
Climate Hope: Faithful Energy Campaigns
Whether it’s a natural disaster, an allegation of sexual abuse, a building fire, or an embezzlement, our ministry settings need to be ready to respond quickly and responsibly in the early moments of a crisis. Rev. Kurt Gwartney is an award-winning leader in the communications field who currently serves Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Okla. as the senior director of communications. He’s also a faculty member in the Center for Ministry and Lay Training where he teaches an eight-week communications course. Participants will take away specific, hands-on techniques to implement immediately in your ministry setting that will help you handle a crisis.