LEARN Seminar Listings Winter 2009
LEARN • Winter 2009 • Spring 2009
Winter 2009 Seminars
| Seminar ID | Title | Dates | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| LS105 | A Spiritual Disciplines Primer Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Peace |
Jan. 28 – Feb. 24 Register by Jan 18 |
$125; Project Option $75 |
| LS100 | Called to Journey: Traveling Together through the New Testament Instructor: Dr. Judy Haley |
Jan. 26 – Feb. 21 Register by Jan. 16 |
$125; Project Option $75 |
| LS506 | Creative Church Boards and Councils Instructor: Charles Olsen |
Jan. 26 – Feb. 20 Register by Jan. 16 |
$275; Project Option $75 |
| LS206 | Recruiting and Supporting Volunteers Instructor: Dr. Wilda Morris |
Feb. 2 – 27 Register by Jan. 23 |
$125; Project Option $75 |
| LS502 | Servant Empowering Organization: Building a Church of Small Groups Instructor: Tom Bandy |
Feb. 23 – March 20 Register by Feb 13 |
$275; Project Option $75 |
| LS508 | Appreciative Inquiry: Shaping Conversations, Leading Change Instructor: Mark Branson |
Jan 26 – Feb 6 and Feb 23 – Mar 6 Register by Jan 16 |
$275 |
| LS511 | What’s Theology Got to Do with It? Instructor: Tony Robinson |
Mar 9 – Apr 5 Register by Feb 27 |
$275; Project Option $75 |
Winter 2009 Seminar Descriptions
LS105: A Spiritual Disciplines Primer
Level: Basic
Core Seminar LS105, $125
Project Option: LS105P, $75
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Peace
Dates: January 28 – February 24
Registration Deadline: January 18
Description: This seminar a broad introduction to the spiritual disciplines. Using Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth as our organizing text, we will explore the power and purpose of the spiritual disciplines in the life of the church and of its members. The seminar will have a special focus on preparing participants for the use of spiritual disciplines during Lent.
Reading: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster.
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LS100: Called to Journey: Traveling Together through the New Testament
Level: Basic
Core Seminar: LS100, $125
Project Option: LS100P, $75
Instructor: Dr. Judy Haley
Dates: January 26 – February 21
Registration Deadline: January 16
Description: Together we will explore how the New Testament calls us to journey more deeply into our calling as Christians. We will examine both the gospels (called to be like Jesus, to believe, to justice, and to love) and the letters (called to be the church). Our guidebook, written from a Roman Catholic perspective, will help us to think about the role of scriptures in American churches today. Alongside foundational issues of biblical studies, such as the synoptic problem, we will discover creative ways to bring the New Testament to life in our churches.
Reading: Journey Through the New Testament by Teresa LaCompte
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LS506: Creative Church Boards and Councils
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS506, $275
Project Option: LS506P, $75
Instructor: Charles Olsen
Dates: January 26 – February 20
Registration Deadline: January 16
Description: Every congregation's Church Board or Council operates within a unique and distinct story. Creativity and effectiveness flows from claiming this as gift and process. This seminar will explore the formation, practices, issues, and impact of creative church boards, as we focus on these themes: Formation, Practice, Issue, and Impact.
Reading: Transforming Church Board into Communities of Spiritual Leaders
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LS206: Recruiting and Supporting Volunteers
Level: Intermediate – assumes a leadership role in a congregation that includes working with volunteers
Core Seminar: LS206, $125
Project Option: LS206P, $75
Instructor: Dr. Wilda Morris
Dates: February 2 – 27
Registration Deadline: January 23
Description: Participants will discuss how churches can be effective in recruitment and support of volunteers to staff church programs and outreach. Topics will include motivation, matching volunteers’ gifts with ministry needs, training, support and encouragement, and what to do when a volunteer becomes an obstacle to the success of a program.
Reading: Simply Strategic Volunteers: Empowering People for Ministry by Tony Morgan and Tim Stevens (Loveland, Colorado: Group, 2005); Safe Sanctuaries: Reducing the Risk of Child Abuse in the Church by Joy Thornburg Melton (Nashville,N: Discipleship Resources, 2002).
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LS502: Servant Empowering Organization: Building a Church of Small Groups
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS502, $275
Project Option: LS502P, $75
Instructor: Tom Bandy
Dates: February 23 – March 20
Registration Deadline: February 13
Description: Intentionally organize your church to increase mission through leadership development and team multiplication. The "fluid" church that escapes bureaucracy and hierarchy requires a different focus for board and management, redeployment of staff, and a foundation of trust. This seminar explores the principles and dynamics of accountable spiritual growth and team multiplication, and provides practical guidance to radically reshape the organization for consistent outreach.
Reading: Servant Empowering Organization by Tom Bandy (Chalice Press, 2007)
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LS508: Appreciative Inquiry: Shaping Conversations, Leading Change
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS508, $275
Instructor: Mark Branson
Dates: January 26 – February 6 and February 23 – March 6 (The two week break provides time for participants to lead an appreciative inquiry experience).
Registration Deadline: January 16
Description: Appreciative Inquiry provides a way for a church to engage its own best stories and imagination in service of deepening the faithfulness of its practices and the innovations needed for changing contexts. During the first two-week section of the seminar the process and theoretical underpinnings of AI will be explored. Participants will design an initial project for their own churches. During a two-week interim those projects will be engaged. This will be followed by another two-week on-line section in which the initial results will be discussed and an ongoing project will be designed. At various times other materials on organizational change, leadership theory, missional ecclesiology, and embedding innovations will be included.
Reading: Memories, Hopes, and Conversations by Mark Branson
Recommended Reading: Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig Van Gelder; Appreciative Inquiry: Change as he Speed of Imagination by Jane McGruder Watkins and Bermard Mohr; Leadership on the Line by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky; The Missional Leader by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk.
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LS511: What’s Theology Got to Do with It?
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS511, $275
Project Option: LS511P, $75
Instructor: Tony Robinson
Dates: March 9 – April 5
Registration Deadline: February 27
Description: Using Tony’s book What's Theology Got To Do with It: Convictions, Vitality and the Church, this on-line seminar will engage participants in a conversation about re-funding the life of congregations on a theological basis. Tony defines theology not as an academic discipline primarily but as a "perspective on life" and "wisdom proper to the life of the believer." He suggests that core Christian convictions shape and inform a particular perspective, a way of seeing life and living it. Moreover, he claims that there is an integral relationship between congregational health and vitality and the capacity of a congregation, and its leadership, to articulate core Christian and theological convictions and bring them into dialogue with congregational life. His approach provides many examples and illustrations from congregational life.
Reading:What's Theology Got To Do with It: Convictions, Vitality and the Church by Anthony Robinson and Not Ashamed of the Gospel by Fleming Rutledge.
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