Workshops
Workshops are offered after each plenary session. These learning experiences give detail and insight into the plenary topic, will provide practical approaches for annual conference leaders to address the plenary topic in their area of responsibility, and will offer opportunities for annual conferences to partner with program general agencies and/or other annual conferences.
Saturday |
Saturday, January 31, 2009
10:15 – 11:30 a.m.
P1 Learning the United Methodist Way
MaryJane Pierce Norton and Carol Krau
Participants in this workshop will consider how engagement with the poor and the marginalized offers opportunities for learning in concrete ways how to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and those of our Methodist ancestors.
Audience: Leaders in Christian Education, Nurture, Small Groups, and Discipleship
P2 Beyond Always: Local Churches and Ministry with the Poor
Vance Ross and Sandy Jackson
14:7 records Jesus saying: "For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me". This workshop will challenge the notion that this excuses poverty by showing the systematic nature of poverty and the simultaneous ways God’s church can combat it.
Audience: Lay and Clergy Leaders
P3 Stewardship: The Haves and the Have Nots
Don Joiner
This workshop will explore how strategies for stewardship can address the economic realities that create a system of haves and have nots both in US and across the globe.
Audience: Leaders in Stewardship
P4 Elimination of Poverty as a Way of Congregational Transformation
Tom Butcher and Bener Agtarap
Meaningful congregational transformation goes hand in hand with mobilizing and organizing people of faith for the elimination of poverty. Learn how you as a conference leader can engage congregations to move communities of poverty from systemic disparity to holistic vitality.
Audience: Leaders in Congregational Development and Evangelism
P5 Youth and Poverty – Impact and Possibilities
Mike Ratliff
In this workshop, participants will explore what is reality as it relates to young people and the impact of poverty on their lives and examine how the church finds significant ways to walk along side of young people as they seek a path out of the grip of poverty to experience a sustainable lifestyle of abundance.
Audience: Leaders of Youth and Young Adults
P6 Planning for Ministries with the Least of These
Melanie Gordon and Richard Gentzler
This workshop will focus on ways to address the issues related to the poor and poverty through age level and family ministry plans offered by the Annual Conference.
Audience: Leaders in Family and Age Level Ministries
P7 Worship With ALL the People of God Where You Are
Safiyah Fosua and Taylor Burton-Edwards
This workshop will help participants identify issues of barriers, class, and entitlement that inform the practice of worship and the planning of worship. Discover ways of worship planning and worship itself that enable true community with the poor.
Audience: Pastors, Worship Leaders, Annual Conference Leaders for Worship Resourcing
P8 Poverty of Soul: A Spiritual Approach to the Elimination of Poverty
Tom Albin
Why are we "rich in things, and poor in soul"? Why are people still hungry? The UMC has more than enough money, people, and power to end poverty and hunger now. Come prepared to sing, pray, and think in ways that can change our hearts, our homes, our communities, and the world.
Audience: Leaders interested in spirituality
P9 If Knowledge is Power, How Can Higher Education Make a Difference in Eliminating Poverty?
Cynthia Bond-Hopson
Education is the great equalizer and the research is in – the more you learn, the more you earn. This workshop will explore ways that local churches and annual conferences can partner with United Methodist-related institutions to address access and financing higher education and community and societal issues. It will explore how to empower and mentor students through service learning projects and examine how faculty and student research can eliminate poverty and improve lives.
Audience: Leaders committed to supporting the Black College Fund and Annual Conference Committees on Higher Education and Campus Ministry
P10 The Challenge of Globalization and its Impact on the World’s Poor
R. Clayton Childers
This workshop will equip conference leaders with facts and trends regarding economic globalization and the impact it is having on the poor of the world.
Audience: Conference leaders shaping the conference’s ministry regarding the Global Health Initiative, Church and Society Leadership
P11 The Church’s Witness on Gambling and Its Tension with Economic Development and Poverty Issues, Native Americans, and Gambling Enterprises in the US
Cynthia Abrams and Tom Grey
Gambling creates systemic and societal problems that extend beyond the game itself. This workshop explores what the church can do to inform our members about this effort and mobilize for advocacy and action on these issues.
Audience: Pastors, Conference Leaders, Local Church Leaders, Church and Society Leaders
P12 Living Into Our Vision of a Living Wage: Eliminating Poverty
Through Just Work and Just Wages
John S. Hill
This workshop will equip clergy and lay leaders, through interactive exercise and discussions, with tools and resources to engage in conversations, partnerships, and actions in support of fairer wages.
Audience: Pastors, Conference Leaders, Local Church Leaders, Church and Society Leaders
P13 The Faces of Poverty: Understanding the Extent of Poverty in the US and the World
David Wildman and Andris Salter
This workshop will help participants explore the extent, complexity, and implications of poverty across the church.
Audience: Leaders needing to understand the issues of poverty globally
P14 Developing Global Ministries With the Poor
Rachel Lieder Simeon
Poverty is rampant in many places in the world. This workshop will help participants to gain insights into who is most affected by poverty in developing nations and how the church can respond.
Audience: Leaders seeking to develop poverty ministries in areas outside the United States
P15 The Role of National Mission Institutions in Ministries with the Poor
Joanne Reich, Ellen Knudson, and Hortense Tyrell
Poverty hits at home, even in an affluent nation. Gain greater awareness of how our US national mission institutions respond to the issues of poverty in our midst.
Audience: Leaders interested in partnering with our United Methodist mission institutions
P16 Moving From Ministries of Mercy to Ministries of Justice
Neal Christie
This workshop will provide resources that will support conference and church leaders in guiding the church to join in developing awareness, understanding systemic change, addressing root causes, and organizing people for community change and social action.
Audience: Pastors, Conference Leaders, Local Church Leaders, Church and Society Leaders; VIM Leaders
P17 Ending Global Poverty: What United Methodists Can Do and Are Doing
Liberato Bautista and Mark Harrison
This workshop will explore local actions aimed at eradicating hunger and eliminating poverty. It will examine the intersections of economics and politics, as well as faith and religion, in the struggle to end poverty.
Audience: Pastors, Conference Leaders, Local Church Leaders, Church and Society Leaders; VIM Leaders
P18 Nutritional Poverty: Men Respond!
Larry Malone
This workshop will present two UMM partnerships established to deal with hunger. For hunger in the US, UMM works in partnership with Society of St. Andrew in a national feeding program called "Meals for Millions." UMM works to alleviate hunger and starvation internationally through the World Methodist Council men’s affiliate, in a partnership with Stop Hunger Now.
Audience: UMM leaders at all levels
P19 The Link Between Poverty and Health
Hilda Davis-Carroll
This workshop will describe the cultural, social, and communal factors that contribute to diseases of poverty. The participants will experience a global village and learn the factors that contribute to health and also the barriers that contribute to disease.
Audience: Conference Communicators; Health Task Force Leaders
P20 Welcoming the Stranger: Mobilizing Congregations for Immigration Reform
Bill Mefford
This workshop will train leaders to mobilize churches to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. It will focus on basic grassroots organizing practices with a theological basis and creative ideas for implementation.
Audience: Leaders in Church and Society, Racial/Ethnic, Mission and Outreach Ministries; VIM Leaders
P21 A Threat to the Common Good: Racism and Poverty
Eliezer Valentin-Castañon
This workshop will address the impact of racism on poverty and how we cannot address one without addressing the other. In the Church, we observe how poverty and racism intersect as ministries that serve the impoverished also serve a disproportionate number of racial/ethnic minorities. This workshop is for leaders who struggle with the question, "Does race trump class or is it the other way around?" and offers advice and ideas about how to be in ministry effectively with the poor without perpetuating systems of racial injustice, inequality, and insensitivity.
Audience: Persons interested in issues of religion and race
PLC - Learning Center on Poverty (10:15—11:30 a.m.)
The Four Areas of Focus learning center is a self-guided, web-based exploration of each of the quadrennial initiative emphases of the church. Through interactive learning objects, discussion forums, fun quizzes, multimedia and online exploration, participants will build a strong foundation for understanding and interpreting these areas of focus. These four separate learning opportunities will be offered once each following the foci emphasis in plenary. Facilitators will be available to assist participants with using the technology and engaging in the variety of activities to foster learning and exploration.
Workshops Following Global Health Plenary
Saturday, January 31, 2009
3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
G1 Good Nutrition + Exercise + Lots of Rest = Effective Learning
MaryJane Pierce Norton and Carol Krau
This workshop will explore the implications of good health on the brain and the quality of human learning and how this relates to the issues of global health.
Audience: Leaders for Christian Education, Nurture, Discipleship, Small Group Ministries
G2 Leading the Church to Wellness
Vance Ross and Sandy Jackson
Local churches can be places of health, healing, and wholeness. This workshop will look at how conference leaders can help local churches introduce holistic health – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Audience: Lay and Clergy Leaders
G3 Stewardship of Our Bodies
Don Joiner
Participants will continue building a holistic understanding of and comprehensive plan for Christian Stewardship as they consider how caring for our bodies and addressing issues of global health are aspects of stewardship.
Audience: Leaders in Stewardship
G4 Jesus Came to Heal – What About Us?
Tom Butcher and Bener Agtarap
Jesus healed the sick and encouraged his disciples to do the same. This workshop explores practical ways that churches can participate in ministry that promotes global health.
Audience: Leaders in Congregational Development and Evangelism
G5 Global Health Issues and Their Effect on Young People
Cancelled
G6 All God’s People Healthy for Life
Melanie Gordon and Richard Gentzler
Global Health may feel unrelated to the ministries the annual conference offers in age level and family ministries. Through this workshop, participants will be able to identify particular ministry areas that address this major need and determine plans that will work best for those they seek to serve in their annual conferences.
Audience: Leaders in Family and Age-Level Ministries
G7 Worship and Shalom
Safiyah Fosua and Taylor Burton-Edwards
This workshop will look at worship practices that make people whole ritually and that inspire and support engagement in the health of the community and the world.
Audience: Pastors, Worship Leaders, Annual Conference Leaders for Worship Resourcing
G8 Spiritual Health and Global Health
Tom Albin
Jesus’ public ministry included preaching, teaching, and healing. What does it mean for UM leaders to engage actively in this three-fold ministry in the 21st century? What is the relationship between spiritual health and global health in the post-modern, post-Christian world today? This workshop will suggest ways to understand the world, sin, and salvation that could give new meaning to the Christian mission "to bring good news to the poor... release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…" (Luke 4:18)
Audience: Leaders in Spiritual Formation
G9 Confronting the Diseases of Poverty Through Mission Partnerships
Cherian Thomas
Participants in this workshop will gain awareness and information about these major global health issues and how the church is and can be involved.
Audience: Leaders involved/interested in global health issues
G10 Developing Health Care Ministries in the Local Church
Patricia Magyar
In this workshop participants will gain understanding of how the church, in several arenas, is and can be organized for ministries of health care through its institutions and other programs.
Audience: Leaders involved/interested in health ministries in local churches
G11 Health Care Around the World
Shannon Trilli
This workshop will help participants to better understand the relationship between health care institutions and holistic global health.
Audience: Leaders seeking to partner with health care institutions for cooperative ministries
G12 Africa University Delivers
James Salley
This workshop will teach you about the work of Africa University in AIDS research and specialized programs in health training
Audience: Leaders interested in AIDS/HIV research and health care
G13 The Church, the United Nations, and Global Health
Liberato Bautista
Both the Church and the UN can be powerful agencies for advocacy and change. This workshop explores what the church can do to inform our members about this effort and mobilize for advocacy and action on these issues.
Audience: Pastors, Conference leaders, local church leaders, church and society leaders
G14 Faith-Based Advocacy Against Addictions: How the Church Can Impact Public Policy for a Healthier World
Vincent DeMarco and Gerrit den Hartog
The Church deplores the careless use of substances that lead to addiction. This workshop examines what the church can do to inform our members about this effort and mobilize for advocacy and action on these issues.
Audience: Pastors, Conference leaders, local church
G15 Mental Health Advocacy: Equity, Stigma, Rights, and Sensitivity
Jackson Day
This workshop will equip congregational and conference leaders with current facts, theological understanding, and tested processes for ministry to persons with mental illness and their families at both congregational and conference levels.
Audience: Pastors, Conference leaders, local church and society leaders
G16 Mobilizing the Church for Advocacy on International Health Issues:
HIV and Aids, Malaria, and TB
Linda Bales and Mark Harrison
The Church is mobilizing against these killer diseases. Participants in this workshop will be equipped with facts and trends regarding these diseases and their prevalence especially in the developing world and with ways to advocate for good health.
Audience: Leaders in Peace With Justice Ministry; Leaders Working With Congregational Health
G17 Achieving Health and Wholeness: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue
Cynthia Abrams
The Bible is replete with stories about healing and wholeness. This workshop explores what the church can do to inform our members about achieving health and mobilizing for advocacy and action on these issues.
Audience: Leaders with Congregational Health; Pastors; DCMs
G18 The Challenge to be Healthy and Whole
Gary Henderson
This workshop will provide a model for creating health and wholeness for individuals, congregations, and communities. The participants will assess their knowledge of global Health while learning new ways of building health in their congregations and globally.
Audience: Conference Health Task Force Leaders
G19 Nothing But Nets
Larry Coppock
The General Commission on United Methodist Men and the Boy Scouts of America are partnering to expand the number of youth working to eliminate malaria. This workshop will provide a model for United Methodist congregations who want to 1) get youth involved, 2) build partners, and 3) join the work to eliminate malaria. This exciting Global Health Initiative can be one of the mission projects of their youth groups.
Audience: Leaders in Youth Ministry, Scouting
G20 Health Disparities Within the Church: Impacts and Solutions
Cancelled
GLC- Learning Center on Global Health (3:30—4:45 p.m)
The Four Areas of Focus learning center is a self-guided, web-based exploration of each of the quadrennial initiative emphases of the church. Through interactive learning objects, discussion forums, fun quizzes, multimedia and online exploration, participants will build a strong foundation for understanding and interpreting these areas of focus. These four separate learning opportunities will be offered once each following the foci emphasis in plenary. Facilitators will be available to assist participants with using the technology and engaging in the variety of activities to foster learning and exploration.
Saturday |