The 12th Annual Renewal Network Conference
Christ Our Renewal
Theme Speaker: Rev. Dr. Charles Congram
Saturday, November 5, 2011, 9:00 - 4:00
Wellington Square United Church
2121 Caroline Street
Burlington, Ontario
Chuck Congram is a retired Presbyterian minister from Lakeshore St. Andrew's in Windsor, having led this dwindling congregation into a large (Sunday worship attendance of more than 1000), thriving and contemporary church. As a church planter and as a chapel speaker for professional sports teams and the Windsor Police Department, Chuck is known for his ability to encourage and bring core scripture truths to the heart.
Throughout his 35 ministry years, Chuck was passionate about the development of leadership within the church and he became a student of leadership principles, leading to the foundation of The Leadership Roundtable, and, as a member of the Pastors of Excellence program, he has been intimately involved in mentoring other pastors from coast to coast.
Theme Core Concept: the definition of renew is to begin again or to reestablish. In order to fully embrace Christ as our renewal we need to be able to clarify what beginning again or reestablishing looks like in that context. In each of the two sessions we will afford individuals opportunity to allow Christ to be the renewing agent in specific places of their lives and spiritual development.
In this session we will take a journey through Genesis chapter 3 to clearly establish what was lost in the garden of Eden and the role Christ alone can play in reestablishing those relational values and facets in our lives. The key component will be gaining greater clarity on our lost identity. It will also involve an examination of the key role played in his life by the words spoken at his baptism.
Most of the time we fail to allow Christ to penetrate to the deepest places of woundedness in our lives. As a result, we may continue to cycle through dysfunctional behavior and relational chaos. In this session we will look closely at the renewing work of Christ in the life of the demoniac as recorded in Mark chapter 5. We will then see how Paul applied this concept of clarifying identity before anticipating behavioral changes in his letter to the church at Ephesus.
Christ Renewing Our Churches: A Panel Discussion. Rev. Dr. Diane Walker moderates this panel discussion about what's needed and/or working for church renewal. Young ministers representing our Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church communions will share ideas. With mainline churches still in decline, exciting initiatives for renewal are occurring, among them new worship forms, and "movements" such as mission-focused churches, plus "Fresh Expressions", "Emerging Church" and "Unbinding The Gospel" emphases. The panelists will share about what they think can or does work, and why. This will be a real "ideafest", drawing from the rich ministry experiences of the panelists. Come join the "feast".
Moderator Rev. Dr. Diane Walker, minister of Pelham Community Church in Niagara Presbytery of the United Church of Canada, has for several years been Senior Editor of Fellowship Magazine, enabled by Church Alive and Community of Concern, the UCC "renewal" organizations. She recently facilitated development of "Cruxifusion", a new coming together of younger UCC ministers who will continue proclaiming orthodox faith "renewal" in the UCC. She lives with her family in Fenwick ON.
Good News: $10 CD's will be available at the conference for the panel discussion and theme address recordings.
The workshops are being offered only once, just after the lunch hour. In the morning, a panel discussion will take place just before lunch.
#1 - Renewing Our Minds - Eliminating False Beliefs as a Step to Mental Health - Rosemary Elstone
What we believe can make us sick. Overcoming false, destructive thoughts
patterns (cognitive distortions) about ourselves, others and God is a major
therapeutic technique for restoring emotional balance, establishing healthy
relationships and developing positive behaviours. This workshop will
encourage critical analysis of belief systems, perceptions and behaviours,
using the standards set out in Scripture, the example of Christ and the
findings of research as a tool for facilitating emotional freedom and
personal transformation. 'Audience participation' and questioning
encouraged.
Rosemary Elstone is an independently employed Christian psychotherapist in
a practice with a cognitive behavioural focus and a specialization in trauma
and relationship counseling. Rosemary is a board member at Christian Healing
Associates in Toronto, and is active in the charismatic renewal in the Roman
Catholic Church.
#2 - Unbinding The Gospel: Your Experiment In Prayer, Community And Sharing The Faith - Rev. Dr. Orville James
Unbinding the Gospel is a faith-building process of praying, learning,
sharing and deepening faith-community relationships. It's designed to help
mainline churches especially. A main goal is to grow each person's comfort
level and ability to share faith within their own faith community, which can
then result in similar comfort and ability to share faith outside their
church. Exciting church growth has been a frequent result when churches
undertake the Unbinding the Gospel process.
Rev. James is enabling this process at Wellington Square. He will explain
why and how the process works and why he regards it as very beneficial for
mainline churches in building faith understanding, sharing and community
among church members, plus their ability to share with "outside" others.
Rev. Dr. Orville James has served as senior minister at Wellington Square
United Church, Burlington for approaching 15 years. Ministry is strongly
present in his family history, with father, uncles and brothers all UCC
clergy. Prior to WSU he served Port Colborne UCC, and also in the Maritimes.
Recently he became Chair of a Halton Presbytery Task Group on church
outreach and evangelism, where his interest in his workshop topic was
kindled. He received his doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary in New
Jersey, USA.
#3 - Renewal and Healing Flows From The Throne Of God - Ted and Carol Ward
We will walk you through the Holy Temple (showing you all the aspects of
the second Temple), proceeding right through the veil into the Holy of
Holies to sit at foot of the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat of God.
Receive prayer and be refreshed, renewed and healed as we enter the throne
room of God and together seek His face.
Ted and Carol are founders of Christian Healing Associates and leaders of
the School of Healing Prayer in Toronto; they frequently address conferences
and lead workshops, both nationally and internationally. Both are active
members of the Association of Christian Therapists.
#4 - Media Tools For Renewal - Michael Bromilow
Getting the "Message" out using the various media is important for
renewal; however, we may discover that we are attempting to communicate in a
time with an ever-changing array of technologies. This workshop will examine
the challenge of these newer media tools with the purpose of realizing where
we are and where we might go next with our own communications for
renewal.
After more than 30 years of teaching children, adolescents, and adults,
Michael is presently the Manager of IT Services for a private Oakville high
school, King's Christian Collegiate.
#5 - Renewal Of Theological Vitality - Rev. Dr. Frank Lockhart
Frank Lockhart, Chair of Church Alive, and a United Church minister who lives in Bowmanville, will focus on the vital role that theological vitality plays in shaping renewal.
#6 - Renewing The Congregation Through Prayer - Rev. Calvin Brown
This workshop will share the experiences Calvin has had in several
congregations of working with the Holy Spirit to move a congregation from
the typical sense of a social club to a spiritually-vital community of
faith. It involves vision casting, teaching people how to pray (both the
leadership and the people) and deepening the life of prayer in individuals
and the congregation. There will be sharing, discussion and the practice of
prayer.
Rev. Brown recently retired as Executive Director of the Renewal Fellowship
within the Presbyterian Church in Canada, a sponsor of the Renewal Network.
Currently, Calvin is pastoring congregations in Palmerston and Drayton,
Ontario.
#7 - Renewal Though The Blessing Witnessing Project - Rev. Joshua Kang
Blessing Witnessing Project is all about a simple but effective way of
sharing the Gospel with a blessing prayer to your neighbors and friends.
This method was developed by Rev. Kang out of his faith on this Word: "Faith
comes from hearing the Word of God" (Rom 10:17). By the grace of the Lord,
the Lord has been using this method with the result that some numbers of new
people have came to faith in Christ and have come to church through this
practice. Also, it has helped some people in his local church and in the
Presbytery of West Toronto to share the gospel more effectively.
Joshua served Korean Presbyterian Churches in Korea as youth pastor and
senior pastor for 9 years, and has been serving York Memorial Presbyterian
Church in Toronto (English-speaking church) for 3 1/2 years as its minister
after study at Vancouver School of Theology. Joshua is married, with 2
daughters.
#8 - Renewal Through Discipleship Growth: A Neglected Pathway - Rev. Aaron Miller
It took Jesus' original disciples a very long time to "get it" about
Christ's power and intention to bring them a totally new and better life.
They needed to understand that He was offering a "3rd Way" of living life,
one centred on His Way, not other "ways" such as Simon the Zealot's, or
Matthew the Tax Collector's--two diametrically opposed "ways" that Jesus
wanted them to transcend by embracing His Way. He wants us, His church, to
also transcend our opposed "ways" with His. The first disciples learned and
committed to His Way slowly. They had to embark on a life-long maturation
process so as to faithfully embrace and practice His Way.
It is no different for us today. In this workshop, we'll explore what His
Way means as a new way for our lives. We'll lift up some "other ways" we're
tempted to embrace and we'll also explore how we can let Christ help us
adopt life practices leading to full maturation, which can be perhaps our
most effective pathway for helping Christ bring His renewal to His church.
So, bring your thoughts, and come willing to share your ideas about
discipleship.
Aaron, currently serving the Selkirk, ON United Church, "comes naturally"
into ministry, with both his parents being ministers. He is active with
younger United Church ministers in a new movement called "Cruxifusion", a
cohort of upcoming, theologically Christ-centred younger clergy of orthodox
faith in his denomination.
8:00-9:00 - Registration, Refreshments
8:45-9:00 - Gathering Music
9:00 - Welcome, Praise and Worship, Invitation to Prayer Ministry - Carol
Ward
9:30 - Chuck Congram's First Address: What Was Lost?
10:15 - Refreshment Break
10:45 - Panel Presentation and Discussion
12:00 - Lunch, Prayer Ministry
12:45 - Workshops
2:00 - Break
2:15 - Chuck Congram's Second Address: Renewing Our Wholeness
3:00-4:00 - Praise and Worship, Offering, Communion Service, Prayer
Ministry
2121 Caroline Street
(five blocks east of Brant Street)
Burlington, Ontario L7R 1L7
Telephone 905-634-1849
From 403 Hamilton and QEW Toronto
At Exit 101, take Brant Street south nine lights to Caroline and then turn
left and proceed to 2121 Caroline.
From QEW Niagara
At Exit 97, take North Shore Boulevard (which becomes Lakeshore Road) east
four lights to Brant, turn left and proceed two lights to Caroline, then
turn right and proceed to 2121.
From Highway 407
At the end of Highway 407, take the Fairview St./QEW Niagara exit onto the
Fairview St./Plains Rd. lane, then turn left at the traffic signal onto
Fairview Street. Proceed to the fourth signal light and then turn right onto
Brant Street. Proceed to Caroline, turn left, and then proceed five blocks
to Wellington Square United.
Cost is $45 if notification is received by Monday, October 24, by mail, e-mail, online, fax or telephone. After October 24, the cost increases to $55. The registration fee includes lunch and arrival/morning snacks. You can register online (below) by MasterCard or Visa, or you can mail, e-mail, fax, or phone your name, address, phone, e-mail, denomination, congregation, workshop choice, and the conference name to the Renewal Network Office by October 24 for the rate savings. Payment may be made at the conference by cash or cheque; payment online is made by credit card.
Make cheques payable to The Renewal Network and mail to:
Conference Registrar - The Renewal Network,
3819 Bloor Street West,
Etobicoke ON M9B 1K7
Office Telephone: 416-233-6581
Office Fax: 416-233-1743
Office E-mail: <renewalfellowshippcc@gmail.com>
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