Massachusetts Conference
United Church of Christ

209th Annual Meeting

Spiritual Practice Workshop Choices
Saturday, November 1, 2008

Explore a way of life shaped by practices that respond to God’s grace and reflect God’s love for you, for others, and for creation.

Each participant will attend one workshop. Please indicate your first, second and third choices on your registration form.

1. Praying and Acting for Justice: Two sides of the same coin
How does prayer inform your commitment to social justice? How does doing justice shape your prayer life?

Facilitators: Peter Wells, an Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC and Edie Rasell, the Minister for Workplace Justice for the United Church of Christ.

2. Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice
How can our churches support parents and grandparents to strengthen the practice of faith in the every day activity of raising children? We will explore the practices of family life that enable adults and kids to grow in faith together.

Facilitator: Christina Braudaway-Bauman, an Associate Pastor of The Wellesley Congregational Church, who has written parenting curricula for Families First Parenting Programs and is the mother of two lively boys.

3. Changing Course Midstream
We may set out to do things “the way we’ve always done them,” but along the way God often calls us to change course midstream. Hear the story of one church headed toward the “wrap-up” of their strategic planning process that took a very different turn toward deep prayer, sharing, and discernment. Share your stories and hopes for a church steeped in prayer and guided by the Spirit toward new life, mission and joy.

Facilitator: Kathryn Matthews Huey is an ordained UCC pastor serving on the national staff of the United Church of Christ. Her work focuses on spiritual formation and church vitality.

4. Discernment: How can your local congregation experience this process?
The communal practice of discernment places group decisions within the context of God’s transforming power. Seeking wisdom as a group requires a lot from participants but may provide solutions we did not anticipate and may help us to find better paths toward the future as a faith community. Building on the experience of this Meeting, a discernment process will be shared for your local congregation to experience during the coming year.

Facilitators: Martin Copenhaver, keynote speaker and the Senior Pastor of The Wellesley Congregational Church and Kathy Musser, an Associate Pastor of The Wellesley Congregational Church.

5. Journaling as a Faith Practice
In today’s fast paced world, it is a challenge to intentionally nourish our inner spiritual life. Journaling is an effective method for discerning God’s presence and the Spirit’s movement. Bring your journal and an inquisitive mind prepared to explore a variety of ways to discover and enrich your spirituality.

Facilitator: Carol Atwood-Lyon, an Acting Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

6. Becoming a Hospitable People
First time guests to our Sunday morning worship services very quickly discern whether or not to return again. The depth and quality of our hospitality ministry is crucial if first-time guests are going to become regular attenders. In this workshop you will have an opportunity to examine your congregation’s hospitality from the moment a guest arrives, through the worship service and on to the coffee hour. Come and learn how your congregation can become more welcoming and hospitable.

Facilitator: Paul Nickerson, an Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

7. Out of the Rut and Into the Strut: Renewing the Work of the Board
Discover inspiring, practical ways your board can make its meetings become opportunities for deepening faith, developing leadership, and ultimately renewing your church.

Facilitator: Larry Peers, senior consultant with the Alban Institute and a consultant for the Massachusetts Conference UCC Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Program.

8. Practicing Worldliness: Generosity & Stewardship
We rediscover God’s own kind of worldliness as we move from grasping to sharing, to giving. Come and reflect on your experiences.

Facilitator: Andy Gustafson, an Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

9. Singing Our Lives to God
We are a church that sings its faith! What we sing and how we sing reveals much of who we are. When people sing of God, theology is formed and expressed. How does music become an integral part of the theology and spirituality by which you live? Come and discover!

Facilitator: Chad William Kidd, an ordained UCC clergy person serving as a hospital chaplain, as Minister of Music at the First Congregational Church of Reading, UCC and as the Director, ad interim, of the Boston University School of Theology Seminary Singers.

10. Walking the Labyrinth
Looking to experience a spiritual practice at this gathering? Come walk the Labyrinth! Wendy Vander Hart will orient you to some of the history and practice of the Labyrinth and set your feet on the path (or your fingers with a wooden finger Labyrinth!) Be ready to integrate your body, mind and soul, and be open to God’s leading on your life path.

Facilitator: Wendy Vander Hart, an Acting Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

11. Is it I, Lord? Discerning your Vocation and Call to Ministry
We are all called to ministry – by virtue of our baptism. The question is, to what form of ministry are we called? Lay and authorized ministry comes in countless varieties within many settings. Our true challenge is the process of discernment – using friends, faith community, prayer and study to determine how God is longing to grow us into our true selves. Frederick Buechner wrote: “The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep need meet.” Let’s explore discernment and those places together.

Facilitator: Dick Sparrow, Minister and Team Leader, Parish Life and Leadership Ministry, United Church of Christ.

12. Maturing in Faith
Faith Formation is a life-long journey. While Sunday School and bible study are formal ways children of God are discipled in their faith, mentoring can be the life giving water that allows the blessings of one’s faith to flow, encourage, hearten, and bless. The spiritual gifts of both mentee and mentor are enriched, confirming that the church is “one body, many parts.” Looking at the biblical model for this process, how can we become mentors in our faith?

Facilitator: Elsa Marshall, Commissioned Minister for Christian Education and Youth at the Maple Street Church of Danvers and a Massachusetts Conference UCC Christian Education consultant, and her mentee, Taryn Bevins.

13. Practicing Justice, Doing Acts of Mercy and Service
When the prophet Micah told his people how to practice faith, he told them to do justice and to love mercy. Jesus said to “love your neighbor as yourself”. Caring for others in Jesus’ name in active and tangible ways helps those we serve where they truly hurt and have need. How do disciples seek to serve in faith filled ways?

Facilitator: Angela Knapton, Chair of the Massachusetts Conference UCC Commission for Mission and Justice and member of the Hadwen Park Congregational Church in Worcester.

14. Keeping Sabbath!
The pause that refreshes…gives perspective/joy and delight! Come discern how to reclaim our heritage and this Gift from God! Consider as well how we in the Church can learn from one another, hold one another accountable, and be an even greater alternative community of blessings!

Facilitator: Dale A. Hempen, an Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

15. Healing as a Faith Practice
Healing is an indispensable part of the wholeness that God intends for all creation. The early church considered prayer healing and laying on of hands as part of its mission. Come experience and explore the potential for creating healing liturgies through confession, anointing, laying on of hands, communion, and more, and discuss how to integrate healing ministries into our faith communities.

Facilitator: Dirkje Legerstee, ordained UCC pastor and workshop leader.

16. Discernment in Personal Decision Making
Do you believe God has a will for your life? While your answer may be ‘yes,’ you probably also realize it’s not always clear. This workshop will consider a process for perceiving what God may be up to. How might you develop a listening heart for God?

Facilitator: Jill Graham, an Acting Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

17. Growing Together: Spiritual Exercises for Church Committees
Come to experience how your church committee, council or working group can become a community that encourages spiritual growth and fosters a spirit of cooperation, harmony and mutual support.

Facilitator: Susan Dickerman, an Associate Conference Minister for the Massachusetts Conference, UCC.

18. “Hey, Save Us!” A premiere performance
This new play – designed for Sunday morning church services – celebrates all of creation and calls us to save our planet! Through music, poems, drama and poetry the Just Peace Players encourage people to think about ecology from a perspective of caring for creation as sacred work. Come discover new ways to see God’s presence in the world and in each other, and to work for peace and justice at home and across the world.

Presenters: The Just Peace Players

19. One Great Hour of Sharing as a Faith Practice
Through the discipline of sharing resources, the love of Christ is made real and lives are changed. By our participation in One Great Hour of Sharing, the refugee, relief and development fund of the United Church of Christ, we become integral to the ever expanding mobius circle of giving and receiving. Come find your place in the circle through which individuals and communities around the world become self-empowered.

Facilitator: Susan Sanders, the Minister and Team Leader of Global Sharing of Resources Ministry, United Church of Christ.