38th General Assembly
Seminars
Click here, for a printable schedule of the seminars.
Seminar Descriptions
Tuesday 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
President, Third Millennium Ministries
Increasing Churches’ Giving Through Missions
Missions is often the first thing to be cut from a church's budget during a down economy. In this session, Dr. Richard L. Pratt, Jr., will talk about giving your church a new vision for missions that will rejuvenate its overall budget giving in order to advance God’s kingdom.
Pastor of Shepherding
Perimeter Church
Minority Rules: What the Church Can Learn from Minorities
The church is in decline in America. Christians are a minority, but they live and act like the majority to the demise of the movement. Come and listen to TE Randy Schlichting speak about how we can learn from other minority movements and become a healthy, world-impacting church. Size does not necessarily determine success.
Pastor, Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church
Effective and Biblical Communicant's Classes
Ed Eubanks will consider the principles that undergird a biblical and effective communicant’s class: what topics should be covered, how to work with parents, helping communicants integrate into the life of the church, when communicants should be admitted to the Sacrament of Communion, and practical matters such as ways that a Session can make communicants’ interviews easier.
MNA Special Needs Ministries Director
Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in Action:
Changing our Ministry Mindset from Crisis Care to the Daily-ness of Disability
In the Church, we're reasonably good at responding to crises. We know what to do when someone has an acute illness or a bout with cancer. But we often don't know what to do when a family lives for years with disability or chronic illness in their midst. How does the ongoing nature of disability or chronic illness create unique challenges--and opportunities--for all of the body of Christ? Come learn how meaningful ministry to and alongside of people touched by disability can refresh and deepen your entire congregation’s understanding of the Gospel.
Director, HarvestUSA, Mid-South Region
Help! I Think I May Be Gay…What’s A Pastor to Say?
The church must do more than faithfully exegete God’s Word on human sexuality and its misuse. Pastors and leaders must know how to pastorally intervene in the lives of countless numbers of men and women who struggle silently in their churches with same-sex attraction. This seminar will provide a biblical understanding of same-sex attraction as an aspect of fallen sexuality, and will help the pastor to know how to walk alongside someone who struggles in this area and give practical, biblical hope.
Pastor, La Plata Community Church, PCA
The New Missing Generation: Helping Your Church Engage the Seniors in Your Community
Demographics show that the number of seniors in our communities is growing. Where do these seniors worship? What is to be done with shut-in communities such as nursing homes? How should the church prepare for the Baby Boomer generation that now is retiring and soon is to be considered “senior citizens”? In this seminar, you will receive practical teaching on how your church is to grow a successful ministry to seniors in your community – including hosting Bible studies in retirement communities, holding a Sunday worship service in the local nursing home, developing Bible studies in nursing homes, training nursing home residents toward ministry, raising up volunteers to serve on your community’s local council on aged, and more.
Pastor, Reformed Presbyterian Church
Westchester
The Prayer of Jehosaphat: God’s Lesson Plan in the School of Trials
We will explore the threat and opportunity inherent in every trial and learn the three R’s of God’s lesson plan for life in his purpose for us through trials. In the larger context of Jehoshaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:12, God mentors us in prayer and equips us for handling trials great and small, both for ourselves and for ministering to others. Each attendee will receive a free copy of The Prayer of Jehoshaphat: Seeing Beyond Life’s Storms.
Peacemaker Ministries
The Leadership Opportunity: Living Out the Gospel Where Conflict and Leadership Intersect
A primary responsibility of being a shepherd is to prepare and assist church members to respond to the inevitable conflicts of daily life in biblically faithful ways. This workshop will provide a practical plan and proven tools for this vital task. Among other things, we will address these questions: How do some leadership styles trigger or aggravate conflict? Why is applying the gospel the key to leading people through conflict? What are the key steps to shepherding people through conflict? How can a pastor provide an entire congregation with a practical theology for peacemaking? How can pastors effectively delegate peacemaking responsibilities to gifted people in their church?
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Church coach and consultant
Principle of Transform ministry
Leadership Freedom for Your Ruling (and therefore Teaching) Elders
The Ruling Elder is the most underutilized, yet often overworked, role in the church. How can that be? Simply put, he is consumed by often inefficient and ineffective "board" work of the Session, presented with an impossible "shepherding" system, not given an effective way to disciple the flock, and not himself cared for and shepherded. There is a better way that begins with clarifying the roles of the Ruling Elder, the Teaching Elder, the Session, and the Session board. But this is not just about efficiency, it's about love, real Christian community throughout the church, and life on life discipleship that all permeate the church throughout its ministries. This seminar will be a breath of fresh air for all Teaching and Ruling Elders at the Assembly. Theory will give way to specific actions that churches can take to eliminate the barriers and create "leadership freedom."
Author and Speaker
Equipping Pastors International
Attacks on Men in Ministry from a Wife's Perspective
All Christian leaders are in the bull's eye of the enemy's target. As a pastor's wife for over 35 years, Carol watched and experienced attacks on her husband. She will candidly share tips on how they learned to combat and cope in the battle called "ministry."
Downtown Presbyterian Church
When Flow Charts Aren't Flowing: Fleshing Out Connectionalism in the PCA
In Presbyterianism, "connectionalism" is a key concept. When presbyteries examine future ministers, this is the kind of terminology we want them to know -- and for good reason. The question is, almost forty years into our existence as a denomination, how are we doing at fleshing out this term? In our presbyteries, do sister churches feel more like siblings, or competitors? Are fellow PCA churches handling money like connected families, or like autonomous congregations? Are fellow pastors a haven for our ministers, or a threat? If we're not where we should be in this area, what might growth look like for us?
Executive Director, Stone Gate Resources
To Be Spiritually Mature You Must Be Sexually Mature; To Be Sexually Mature You Must Be Spiritually Mature
Based on his new book, Undefiled: Redemption From Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, best-selling author, speaker, and counselor, Dr. Schaumburg, explains that the way we handle our sexuality and spirituality is meant to show the supremacy of Christ. If we separate our sexuality and spirituality into different compartments, we not only diminish our sexual beauty, our sexual purity, and our sexual meaning, but also our very soul. Attendees will be given valuable resources and tools for the local church.
Professional Educator
Covenant Seminary Graduate
Teaching Bible to Middle School Students
Does your Christian Ed middle school program need a fresh approach? Are you a parent wondering how to teach God's word to your middle school student? This seminar will provide needed instructional information on how to teach God's word to this increasingly difficult audience. Now more than ever, our Christian education needs to encourage gospel-centered truth in the hearts and minds of our middle school students. We will look at ways to encourage spiritual growth during these years through a variety of activities and lessons. We will learn how to spice up and vary Biblical teaching with hands-on activities that will engage this population in a meaningful way.
Seminary/Pastor Relations Manager, BibleWorks
BibleWorks
This seminar will give hands-on practical help with how to use the many tools and resources in BibleWorks. Attendees will discover basic principles of how to harness the powerful search engine, understand how to use key BibleWorks tools and resources: quickly access information in lexicons, dictionaries, and grammars; learn many "shortcuts" and quick keys to speed up research; and explore maps, vocabulary flashcards, synoptics, & diagramming tools.
Youth and Family Ministry Consultant
Education Specialist and Children’s Ministry Coordinator
2020 VISION: Growing Your Church Through Children and Youth Ministry
Ministry to youth and to children should not be competing but complementing each other as they support the whole ministry of the church. How do we make kingdom disciples by teaching youth to lead those growing up behind them? How do we train a church to intentionally disciple their children so that they become mature Christians at a very young age? Many youth and children’s workers in the PCA are working together to accomplish the 2020 VISION – raising up young people in our church who will be strong men and women for Jesus by the year 2020.
Pastor, New Life Presbyterian Church
Discovering Trinitarian Relational Elements and Incorporating Them Into Our Lives and Our Churches
This seminar will present a brief analysis of the Trinity's relational dynamic, which results in three major relational elements: Knowledge, Access, and Delight. These three elements will be examined, defined, and steps given to bring the relationships in our lives more to Trinitarian relational standards.
President, Peacemaker Ministries
Church Discipline: Securing the Blessing While Avoiding a Lawsuit
This workshop explains why biblical discipline is one of the greatest blessings provided by a church that is faithful to Scripture. It also explores cultural opposition to spiritual accountability and the lawsuits that have been brought against churches that failed to carry out discipline in a prudent manner. Finally, it explains how churches can lay a solid scriptural and legal foundation for discipline and avoid legal liability by amending their bylaws, obtaining informed consent from their members, and following carefully developed guidelines when exercising discipline.
Tuesday, 4:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
*Seminar and optional Boxed Dinner
Bryan Chapell
President, Covenant Theological Seminary
Roy Taylor
The PCA: A Strategic Plan for Our Future
In this seminar Bryan Chapell and Roy Taylor, with other representatives of the Cooperative Ministries Committee (i.e., Coordinators and Past Moderators if the General Assembly), will present a Strategic Plan for the Future of the PCA in accord with the actions of the 2006 General Assembly. The two-hour session will present the major elements of the plan and allow for questions and answers prior to the General Assembly’s consideration of the Strategic Plan.
Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
Stepping Out - In Faith
The foundational building block of any ministry is FAITH, without which we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). How do we appropriate the promised provision of God to build His Kingdom and to encourage others to reach out beyond their own natural resources to do what could only be done through God's Spirit and power? Do we truly believe that God is able to do "exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20)? Our world so desperately needs churches and church leaders who lead their people to step out in faith beyond what could be done "in our own strength" - to demonstrate before the world the real power that God has made available to us.
RE Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA
First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS
Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Process for Churches
Strategic planning in the context of a church setting seeks as its end to serve God in the best way possible and to do Kingdom work effectively. That is, strategic planning is a purposeful process whereby the leadership of a church discerns what plans God has for their church. While it borrows concepts from strategic planning in industry, it is first and foremost a spiritual process the leaders of a church undertake to understand God’s calling for their particular church at this time. This planning process might be pursued for a variety reasons, including the church’s being faced with a significant issue or challenge that needs to be met, the church’s having a sense that there are unrealized opportunities it would like to pursue, or the church’s wanting to make decisions better, particularly in a resource-constrained environment where trade-off decisions need to be made. This presentation will be a practical guide for churches who might be interested in undertaking an initiative such as this. Specifically, a methodology, sample tools and techniques, and a timeline will be presented. Case study examples from three churches that have gone through this approach will be used to highlight key learning points.
President of RTS, Charlotte, and Interim President, RTS, Orlando
Great Expectations: The Role Relationship of the Pastor's Wife and Church
Participants (pastors, elders, and wives) in this seminar will receive a sample of an actual course taught in the home of Dr. Michael Milton and his wife Mae in Charlotte, NC, where Mike serves as President of the Charlotte campus of RTS. Great Expectations is a warm, Biblical-based, wisdom-approach seminar designed to help the pastor and/or elder’s wife in (or about to be in) ministry in three major areas of their role relationships: (1) The Pastor's Wife and Her Husband, the Pastor! (2) The Pastor's Wife and the “Other” Woman, the Church!; and (3) Burdens, but also Blessings of the Pastor's Wife! The presentation is offered with pastoral experience, warmth, and prayer for strong pastoral marriages and more fulfilling pastoral ministries in the local church.
My Grandmother Is Praying for Me
Based on a new prayer devotional written by Kathy March, Pam Ferris, and Susan Kelton, this seminar will discuss the “journeys” of the three authors: the Journey of Faith teaches how to weave our personal story of faith within God’s larger story of redemption and responding to God’s call in our lives; the Journey of Writing tells why and how this book came to be written along with stories of grandparents impacting their grandchildren for Christ; the Journey of Application will give an understanding of our responsibility to the next generation, embracing our opportunities to influence them, and how we can be intentional in our prayers and interaction with them, specifically our own grandchildren.
Speakers: Kathy March, Pam Ferris, and Susan Wright Kelton began their journey of writing a devotional for grandmothers in 2008. The book encourages grandmothers to be involved in the lives of their grandchildren and to pray intentionally and persistently for them. Their desire is that the Lord would use the ideas and encouragement in their book to draw the next generation of believers to Himself so they will reflect His character and walk in His power and strength.
Pastor
Grace Covenant Church
Nietzsche, Postmodernism, and the Pulpit
The purpose of this seminar is to help pastors in sermon preparation in light of the prevailing postmodernism in our culture. The lecture will include a brief biography a Nietzsche, followed by an explanation of his concept of “God is Dead” and his concept of “Nihilism.” A critique will be offered, along with a discussion as to how an understanding of these two Nietzschean concepts can aid the pastor in sermon preparation.
Senior Pastor
Briarwood Presbyterian Church
Mentoring the Next Generation of Pastors
The observable comment has been made that Christianity is just one generation away from extinction. While we are assured of the triumph of God’s Grace, this comment reminds us of God’s means in that each generation must be committed to evangelizing and discipling not only its generation but the ones to come. The same is true with Pastors. Faithful and effective Pastoral leadership is a gift from God through the means of an intentional mentoring/discipling process for the coming generation of Pastors. How can we, as Pastors, be instruments of God to mentor the next generation of faithful and effective pastors by use of the academy and apprenticeship? Join Pastor Reeder as he discusses mentoring and modeling.
Professor of Practical Theology
Covenant Seminary
The Underlying Nature of Conflict in the Church: The Clash of Ministry Styles
Church conflict is hardly ever what it seems on the surface. This seminar explores the underlying causes of disagreement, quarrelling, and turmoil in the local church that lead to the “forced exit” of 34% of pastors at least once in their ministry.
Pastor
Hickory Withe Presbyterian Church
What Is Biblical Church Membership?
How do we think about membership in the local church? What are the biblical requirements for being a member? Is membership itself even biblical? These are all questions that I and other leaders get regularly from people in our congregations. My seminar will look at the question of membership from Scripture, examining two specific topics: 1) the biblical basis for membership, and 2) the biblical requirements for membership.
Chalmers Center for Economic Development
Covenant College
When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself
Do you ever wonder if efforts to help people do any good? Can you truly make a difference in the lives of poor people both at home and abroad? Find out the answer to these and other questions about ministering to poor people during this workshop led by Dr. Brian Fikkert. Many well-meaning attempts to help poor people are based on faulty assumptions about the nature of poverty, resulting in approaches that do harm to poor people and to those who are trying to help them. Come and learn several foundational principles that are essential for effective ministry in any context within the U.S. and around the world. In this workshop, Brian will share paradigm-shifting principles from his best-selling book by the same title (www.whenhelpinghurts.org).
Executive Director
StoneGate Resources
Preventing Adultery in the Local Church
The issue of adultery and sexual purity is one of the most, if not the most, serious spiritual battles elders are facing. We can’t afford to wait until the next case of moral failure. Adultery is preventable! In this seminar, Dr. Schaumburg will outline specific steps for prevention that he has learned in over eighteen years of counseling church leaders.
MNA Church Planting Coordinator
Every Church Plant a Church
How can my church become involved in God’s call to plant churches? Where does one begin? How do I make church planting a part of the mission of our church? How do I develop the leadership and resources needed to get the job done well? This seminar will seek to answer these questions and suggest practical, tangible steps a church can take to move down this path.
Director, Metokos Ministry
Pulpit Committees: The Strategic Role of Pulpit Committees in the Life of the Church
This seminar will cover finding the “right fit” (knowing the church's needs: hint, the PCA profile is NOT enough); finding the “right committee” (qualifications for Pulpit Committee members: hint, you do not “pick one of each group in the church”); and finding the “right format” (the “flowing stream” method compared to the “pool” method: hint, pools get stagnant).
Christian recording artist, songwriter
and Show Hope representative
Scott Roley
Sr. Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN
Arlin Troyer
Sr. Pastor, Grace Fellowship, Spring Hill, TN
Wendy Cosby
Program Director, Show Hope, Franklin, TN
Nick Lyndon
Director of Communication and Ministry Initiative, Show Hope
Creating an Effective Orphan Care and Adoption Ministry in the Local Church
Come to an open forum, hosted by ministry leaders, pastors, adoptive parents, and additional orphan care advocates, which focuses on moving toward effectively engaging the local church to live out the James 1:27 mandate to care for the 140 million orphans worldwide.
Wednesday, 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Pastor Emeritus
Briarwood Presbyterian Church
The Minister & His Wife: Functioning as a Team in Kingdom Building
Learn how both husband and wife can use their individual gifts in ministering to one another, to the congregation, and to their own families. We will also cover how to creatively involve the whole family in ministry.
Professor of Practical Theology
WTS, Philadelphia
Pastor, Crossroads Community Church
and Director of The Shepherd’s Institute
Seven Elements of an Effective Shepherding Plan
So you've tried to implement a shepherding plan in your church and it didn't work. Dr. Witmer will describe seven elements of an effective shepherding plan. If your plan doesn't have them all, it will be unlikely to succeed. Seminar attendees will receive a free copy of Dr. Witmer's latest book The Shepherd Leader.
Teaching Pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church
The Apologetic Potential of Trinitarian Worship
Drawing from the giants upon whose shoulders we stand, from Augustine to Calvin, Owen, and Edwards, this seminar will seek to show how a healthy dose of trinitarian theology in our worship offers our churches a powerful means of inreach and outreach.
Assistant Professor of History, Covenant College
A History Presentation of Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and their Struggle for Autonomy and Reform in the New South
Through an exploration of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), this study examines how rural southern African-Americans responded to the oppressive environment of the post-Reconstruction South. A study of this denomination provides a greater understanding of Black leaders who remained in the South, endured white paternalism, established their own autonomous institutions, and challenged white perceptions of African-Americans during the “nadir” of race relations.
Professor of Art, Covenant College
Reflections on an Ear, or Why the Body Matters
We have a faith which values our human activity in the fullness of God's creation. This faith is connected to the material world because our faith is an incarnational faith, and one that is deeply rooted in the person who took on human flesh and "dwelt among us." Matter, it seems, matters to God. Christ humbled himself to a particular culture, placed in a particular time in human history. Christ neither rejected matter nor revered it, and neither should we. Morton's mediated survey of current and past art will offer some directions to our relationship with matter and culture.
Vice President for Faculty Development
The Church as a Worshipping & Equipping Community of Grace on a Kingdom Mission
This seminar will explore the church’s identity and purpose around a vital understanding of key biblical concepts of worship, grace, community, equipping, kingdom, and mission.
Chancellor and CEO
Reformed Theological Seminary
Elders as Shepherds: not merely decision makers
Participants in this seminar (pastors, elders, and wives) will examine in a very practical way the responsibilities and joys of being a shepherd to the flock of Christ. Both Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders are to serve as shepherds of God’s Flock. Paul told the elders from the Church in Ephesus: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28 ESV). Paul even shed tears when he ministered to the people in Ephesus, publicly and from house to house and he clearly implied that these elders, too, should shed tears over their flock. As an elder, do you shed tears over the people in your church? Do you understand your responsibilities as a Shepherd of those whom Christ purchased with his own blood? What are your responsibilities as a Shepherd and what are some practical ways to fulfill those responsibilities? Are you ready to account to God for his sheep assigned to you?
Professor of Philosophy
Covenant College
One of the hottest controversies among evangelicals today concerns a view called “openness theism.” Against a more traditional understanding of God as unchangeable and omniscient, openness theists argue that the God of the Bible is a God who sometimes suffers pain and anguish, a God who is subject to change, a God who does not have complete knowledge of the future – in short, a God who takes risks. In this session, we’ll consider the distinctives of openness theism, why we should care about it, and how we who are Reformed might respond to it in a biblically faithful way.
Chancellor and Professor Practical Theology
Redeemer Seminary
When Perfect Isn't Good Enough
Many pastors sense that their lives are out of control, that they strive for excellence but find it's not enough. Whether they are appreciated or not by their congregations, the real issue is that perfection, performance, and control obscure genuine Gospel ministry. Why are we so tired? Why are we overwhelmed by the calendar? Why do we feel we are one Sunday away from failure? In this seminar, we are going to look at some ways back to spiritual life, indeed to knowing the altogether new life promised in the Gospel, so that union with Christ and prayer are at the center of our ministries, indeed, our lives.
Managing Partner, Clymer & Musser, PC
Elder, Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church
The Church and the State: Is the Bushel of the State Threatening to Cover Our Light? A legal update on matters in the courts affecting the church.
In the wake of battles in several states over the issue of same-sex “marriage,” the institution of federal “hate crimes” legislation, and the adoption by states and local governments of special rights for those engaging in homosexual behavior, many churches are unsure of their legal rights. Churches have broad constitutional protections designed to ensure the free exercise of religion and to prevent intrusion by the state into matters of doctrine and church autonomy. The seminar will give an overview of major issues occurring in American courts and suggestions to strengthen the bylaws of a church to ensure the broadest possible protections of church autonomy.
Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church
So You Wanna Be a Ministry Rockstar
Jeffrey Lancaster will discuss struggling with the seductive power of fame, success obsession and the longing for “guru” status in the light of Jesus’ model of ministry.
Joe Novenson
Sr. Pastor, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church
RE, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church
RE, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church
Eldership: A Servant Partnership: Being a Band of Brothers, Not a Bunch of Bosses
The purpose of this seminar is to familiarize ourselves with biblical and theological foundations for faithful living and serving with brothers as church officers in the service of Christ and His Church. We will seek to practice these dynamics and apply the truths with each other.
Christian recording artist, songwriter
and Show Hope representative
Scott Roley
Sr. Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN
Arlin Troyer
Sr. Pastor, Grace Fellowship, Spring Hill, TN
Wendy Cosby
Program Director, Show Hope, Franklin, TN
Nick Lyndon
Director of Communication and Ministry Initiative, Show Hope
Creating an Effective Orphan Care and Adoption Ministry in the Local Church PART II
Come to an open forum, hosted by ministry leaders, pastors, adoptive parents, and additional orphan care advocates, which focuses on moving toward effectively engaging the local church to live out the James 1:27 mandate to care for the 140 million orphans worldwide.
Wednesday, 4:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
*Seminar and optional Boxed Dinner
Ligon Duncan
Sr. Pastor
First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS
Redeemer Presbyterian, New York City
The PCA - A Way Forward: What We Can All Agree On and Why We Should Stay Together
Read Tim Keller's essay, "What's So Great About the PCA"
This seminar will discuss the origins of some of the historic and present tensions and debates in the PCA, but go on to celebrate the many and major commonalities we share and enjoy, and the potential that God has graciously granted to us as a church family—things we often overlook and under-appreciate. The thrust will be informing and encouraging our brothers and sisters (1) to rejoice and treasure what we commonly embrace, (2) to suggest ways we can walk together in areas where there is less unanimity, (3) to chart ways forward for the future.
Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.
Pastor Emeritus
Briarwood Presbyterian Church
Developing Missionary Vision in the Local Church
Dr. Barker will address analyzing the mission-mindedness of the congregation, then structuring a strategy and program to move ahead in vision, organization, and commitment of resources and people to the task.
CEO, Jobs For Life
I Need a Job!
What do you do when someone says those words? What if he or she is an ex-offender, has a poor work history, little education, or few skills? How, despite these barriers, might it be relatively easy for your church or ministry to address this person’s need to find and keep meaningful employment? This workshop explores Jobs for Life’s (JfL’s) proven, biblically-based strategy featured in byFaith magazine, MNA Multiply, and the Chalmers Center’s When Helping Hurts, which is used by churches and ministries across the country to go beyond temporary hand-out assistance and prepare individuals for success at work. You will learn how the Church is transforming lives for God’s glory through JfL and how your congregation or ministry can use JfL as a powerful tool to offer mercy to those in your community.
Sr. Pastor
Perimeter Church
Making Session Meetings the Best Night of the Month: How the Session is Supposed to Work
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing the PCA is understanding how to get the leadership structures within the church to function properly. In this seminar, Randy Pope will help you find the right answers to these and other troublesome leadership questions: How many people should be on the session? How is the session to be structured? Who is the appropriate leader of the session? What does it mean to be a leader? What are the pastors’ responsibilities? What are the elders’ responsibilities? How does the pastor find time to do all the things for which he is responsible? Join us for what could be your most burden-freeing time of the General Assembly.
PCA Women’s Ministry Trainer
Women's Ministry 2.0: The Hows & Whys of Incorporating Social Networking, Technology, and Culture Into Your Ministry
Relevant. Authentic. Current. Missional. These ministry terms are bandied about to describe culturally relevant ministry. Yet how does our women's ministry balance a biblical world view with understanding and engaging our post-modern culture to reach Millennial women and involve them in ministry? This seminar will explore cultural tools like online social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), book/film clubs, and more, as well as how involvement in those things as Christians does help us to fulfill God's cultural mandate.
Author and Speaker
No More Wasted Sorrows: Helping People Go Deeper With God in Grief
People who are grieving a loss—the loss of a marriage, or the loss of a child or spouse—often find that their heretofore casual faith did not prepare them for the significant emotional, relational, and spiritual challenges that accompany deep grief. They find themselves undone by sadness, questioning God’s goodness, alienated from friends they feel “don’t get it” and empty in their search for meaning. Nancy Guthrie, who has faced the loss of two of her children, will provide insight into the real needs of grieving individuals and how to minister to them in a way that will help them to emerge from their sorrow convinced of God’s goodness and equipped to comfort others.
Senior Pastor
Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church
Counselor to Women and Families
Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church
Women as Helpers & Protectors: The Role of Women as Counselors to the Next Generation
Our churches today are overwhelmed with the needs of a post-modern, largely unchurched, younger demographic grappling with how to be godly singles, daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, and church members. How can pastors and elders best lead women suffering from long-term issues such as eating disorders or cutting? How can the church help women who have endured years of physical, verbal, or sexual abuse? If the church is to adequately shoulder its responsibility to biblically counsel and nurture these women to wholeness, the experience and wisdom of biblically trained mature women to counsel, teach, and disciple will be a necessary part of its mission and ministry. How can the PCA focus on the ministry gifts of women to help and protect teaching and ruling elders as they attempt to meet the needs of the next generation of women?
Ruling Elder, First Presbyterian, Jackson, MS
BioEthics - Medical & Pastoral Challenges: Difficult Questions/Humble Answers
Bioethics is a broad field that includes various problem areas. Many of these problems arise from exploding technological advances and the effect that these technologies have on the practice of medicine. Pastors and elders are frequently asked questions by members of their congregations and by people they meet during evangelical outreach projects on topics ranging from end-of-life issues to physician-assisted suicide, from in-vitro sterilization to embryonic stem cells and cloning, from living wills to organ transplantation. The list is long. The church has wrestled with some of these problems for many years; others are becoming increasingly important. In addition, advancing genetic technologies will further complicate ethics in medicine in the next five years. The topic is so broad and complex that very little can be covered in detail in a seminar. The plan for this seminar is to set the stage with some overarching preliminary comments and then to open the forum to questions from the audience. When this has been done in other settings, the questions have seemed almost limitless, reflecting the avid interest in our churches and in the broader culture.
Headmaster
New Covenant Christian School
A Vision for Christian Education in Every Local Church
This seminar will equip and encourage pastors and elders to be conscientious and proactive in providing for the Christian education needs of the families in their congregations. Jason will address starting a Christian school, partnering with other churches to start a Christian school, starting a homeschool umbrella group, offering homeschool co-op classes, doing release-time Bible classes for public school students, etc. Jason’s desire is to challenge and equip local churches to ensure that all covenant children are receiving a Christian education whether they are in Christian schools, being homeschooled, or in public schools.
Author and Speaker
Loving and Teaching the Poetry of the Bible
How much do we really relish the poetry of the Bible? Why did God inspire so much poetry? How good are we at communicating a love for and understanding of Scripture's poetry to those we have the privilege to lead and instruct? Questions such as these will shape this seminar, which focuses on the Bible's gift of poetry and how we (particularly in the context of women's Bible studies can best receive it and pass it on.
Pastor
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Costa Mesa
Forging a Third Way Between the Emerging and the Traditional
Emerging authors, fed up with contemporary pragmatism, have offered alternative visions for twenty-first-century Christianity. Traditionalist churches have reacted negatively, at times defensively. In Deep Church, Belcher brings the best insights of all sides to forge a third way between emerging and traditional. He offers measured appreciation and affirmation as well as balanced critique. Moving beyond reaction, Belcher provides constructive models from his own church planting experience and paints a picture of what this alternate, deep church looks like--a missional church committed to both tradition and culture – valuing innovation in worship, arts, and community but also valuing creeds and confessions.
Executive Director
Forging Bonds
The Struggle With Internet Porn: How Can We Help Our Men?
Studies reveal that 50-65 % of Christian men have significant problems with pornography. Grace is the only force strong enough to overcome men's toxic shame over their sexual lust and potent enough to change the heart desires that lead them into sexual sin. This workshop identifies 7 grace-based principles that change a man's heart and his battle with lust. You can use these truths to equip the men of your church for this battle. TE Gary Yagel is the Executive Director of Forging Bonds of Brotherhood and serves our denomination as the Men's Ministry consultant. He works closely with Man In the Mirror, coaching churches and teaching their men's ministry training seminar, No Man Left Behind. He has authored numerous resources to disciple men from a grace-centric perspective, including 2 nine-week Bible studies for men, "Grace Transformed Sexuality" and "Forging Bonds of Brotherhood."
Dean of Lifelong Learning
Associate Professor of Educational Ministries
Covenant Seminary
Run & Not Grow Weary: Rx for a Resilient Ministry
Pastors – All of us enter the ministry with a sense of calling and a desire to serve. All of us know the challenge of hanging in there through the ups and downs of ministry life. This seminar will address a framework and options for resilience in ministry. Elders – Two questions: Studies show that a longer pastoral ministry can result in healthier congregations. What does your pastor really experience in ministry (not just what he tells you)? How will your elder board sustain and support your pastor? This seminar will help you address these concerns.
Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church
Preaching the Prophets in a Postmodern World
In this seminar, Richard Phillips will explain the great relevance of the Old Testament prophets for speaking to the post-modern Western world. What prophetic themes connect with our society today and how? How do the prophets effectively unveil the sins and idols of the post-modern heart? How does the prophetic vision of salvation offer hope to the world in which we live today? Attendees will receive a free copy of Jonah-Micah in the Reformed Expository Commentary series, authored by Richard Phillips.
A limited number of tickets for boxed dinners will be available to purchase for these seminars. The Boxed Dinner tickets are $5 each and may be purchased near the Commissioner Registration on site. The Convention Center will accept: Cash, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover.
Deadlines to purchase tickets for Boxed Dinners: 3 p.m. Tuesday for Chapell/Taylor
12 noon Wednesday for Duncan/Keller
It is not necessary to purchase a boxed dinner in order to attend the evening seminars.
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