Over three workshop blocks, this in-depth Bible study will dig below the surface of the seven I AM declarations in the Gospel of John. The sayings, such as “I AM the Bread of Life,” “I AM the Light of the   World,” are remarkable, yet appear in no other gospel. Why? Who is the audience? What is the context? How does the author use familiar concepts and settings to hammer home the importance of Jesus and God being one? Over and over the writer of John uses these particular images to reveal the reality of God come to earth through Jesus. Bring your Bible and join us as we explore together these rich statements and more. *This workshop is a continuation of workshop 100.

Sometimes we take on more than we can accomplish. But, reconnecting to our spirituality is a path that offers us the ability to spring back into shape and to find our resilience. The 2025–2026 PW/Horizons Bible study author, Rhashell Hunter, will lead participants in learning about Biblical women and exploring Jesus’ witness to faithfulness. You don’t have to be a PW to benefit—everyone will enjoy rediscovering our joy and our identity in Christ.

Working and living in Beloved community requires engaging theological discussion, creativity, collaboration, and vulnerability. Church workers are often asked to lead ministries which deftly navigate the intersections of culture, politics, and faith formation. Dr. Sarah Leer (she/her), an educator, former youth worker, and practical theologian, will invite participants to engage in practical conversations of LGBTQIA+ affirmation and belonging through the lens of abundance. In this interactive workshop, we will wrestle with what it means for all to know they are Beloved. We will discuss power-sharing with youth and young adults, LGBTQIA+ affirming terminology, and resources to affirm and celebrate LGBTQIA+ people in our midst. Sarah will create a space for participants to learn together while also equipping them with resources to deepen and express belonging in their ministries.

Wonder of Worship has completed its first year of the five year, Lilly Endowment funded grant regarding nurturing children through worship and prayer. We’ve done a lot of listening this first year and are ready to share what we’ve learned from child research projects, sub-grants awarded to churches for their own projects, new ideas from Quicksheets and podcasts, and our first Godly Play training sessions. We look forward to engaging workshop participants in these conversations and activities and learning from each other in the process, so that we may get closer to forming beloved community that includes all ages and abilities in corporate worship.

*This workshop has reached maximum capacity and is no longer available for additional registrations.

We all want church to be fun and enjoyable for children. But what happens when our goal in children’s ministry is to entertain instead of to form faith? What effect do entertainment models and curricula have on children’s long-term faith formation? In this workshop, we’ll explore how to form faith in your children’s ministry through the following:

• Engaging the history of children’s ministry with particular attention to what Scottie May refers to as the, “Carnival Model,” and exploring her suggested alternatives to this model.
• Exploring how theology matters when choosing children’s ministry curriculum and how various curricula views children and their capacity for deep conversations about faith.
• Examining a variety of curricula, evaluating whether it emphasizes forming faith in children or represents more of an entertainment-based approach.
• Experiencing activities that encourage faith formation as we try out elements, such as wondering questions, that are included in faith-forming curricula.

Participants will be introduced to a variety of resources, including Sunday school and children’s worship   materials, that create space for children not just to learn about God, but to encounter God. It is our hope that participants will leave fully equipped to create children’s ministry spaces that form lifelong faith in their children.

One more thing? Are you kidding me? This workshop is designed as practical hope for church workers who are exhausted. The theology of scripture reveals an inexhaustible God but that does not propel or compel us to run on empty. Come to study and share, to pray and to learn new practices. Come for a framework that offers hope beyond burnout, compassion fatigue, and exhaustion.

Through recent research efforts by Springtide, CYMT, and other organizations we know that parents feel ill-equipped, ill-informed and unsupported as the primary nurtures of their children’s faith. In this workshop we will take proven methodology, innovative processes, and practical tools to train Christian educators to equip and inform as well as create communities of care and support for parents in their contexts.

In 2023, GenOn Ministries received a grant to work with parents and caregivers, families, and churches to create resources that support the three systems collectively. Since June 2024, we’ve been hearing from the 213 families participating in the testing of these resources. Join me for a session on what we’re learning from the families and what your church community can do to connect with caregivers, kids, and youth.

Leadership teams, committee members, and ministry staff are all groups that need to work together. Team building is not just something we do for youth groups. There are activities that are designed to help adult groups develop effective communication and problem-solving skills. During our time together, we will look at different exercises that help group members broaden their abilities and work together.

One of the things we wrestle with is finding high quality adult education resources that are theologically sound, context appropriate, engaging, and affordable. This is particularly hard for smaller and rural churches that may not have a large adult ed budget or staff to search for and screen resources for bible studies, adult Sunday School classes, and other adult ed opportunities. First Presbyterian Church of Hastings in Nebraska was wrestling with this, so we decided to create our own adult ed resources. We are blessed with a Millennial pastor, a Gen X pastor, and a retired religion professor who serves as our “scholar in residence.” None of us knew too much about technology, but all three of us were willing to learn. Over the course of the last five years, we have generated more than 400 digital video resources that include bible studies, classes on a variety of topics, book studies, and more.
Our workshop aims to equip churches to create their own adult education resources while also sharing free resources that are already available. In our workshop we will teach Christian educators how to record podcasts and adult education classes. We will include recommendations on equipment and suggestions on how to effectively record and share these resources. In addition, we created a website called “Abundant Harvest” www.midwestministryhub.org to make the resources that we have created at FPC Hastings accessible and searchable. We hope to make these resources available for free to any church that is looking for a source of high quality, theologically sound, context appropriate adult education resources.

Come gather and participate in handicrafts to knit communities together and build relationships. Have you felt the desire to craft new avenues to engage and serve your community? This is sew the spot for you! Let’s weave our ideas together and engage in conversations around crafting as a tool for ministry as fellowship, worship, justice work, study, and good old-fashioned fun. Some simple supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring your own works in progress.
Cost: $15

What would it look like to flip our current mindset for worship planning to operate more out of a mindset of abundance, rather than scarcity? What if we began by finding the gifts in “what is,” right here, right now? At the heart of being intergenerational is a practice of receiving with gratitude each and every person as a unique gift from God. As we plan worship, how would this fundamental practice help us flip the tables, opening us to a new paradigm, when it comes to finding the gifts of our faith communities, and designing and planning creative worship arts?
In this interactive, collaborative space, we will discuss flipping the worship planning paradigm in these ways:

• Flipping from a program-oriented design process toward spiritually formative practice-mindset for both worship designers and participants
• Flipping from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset when assessing worship gifts and practices
• Flipping from a closed position to an open position, utilizing my method of “Finding the GIFTS” (an assessment tool that helps teams be more open to finding and including the various gifts of their communities)
• Flipping from a top-down (1 or 2 leading) approach to an empowerment model for worship (leadership of many).

We will also brainstorm how we might practically take these ideas into our own unique communities, seeking to create a collaborative “wrestling” with ways we might flip the tables in our own worship communities. Come ready to discuss, create, share, collaborate.

 A recent study found that 1 in 3 Americans experience religious trauma at some point in their lives. The lasting impact of these traumas varies for most, with the exception of those in the LGBTQ+ community who experience more numerous and lasting effects. Though there is no reliable data on the percentages of emerging adults with religious trauma, many are more aware of its presence in their lives and the lives of their friends. This workshop discusses what religious trauma is and how ministry leaders can become more aware of its impact, provide safe spaces for individuals to process and name their experiences, and explore avenues toward healing.

Can you remember a time when you were a child, and you had an idea about how to help someone in your community? Imagine a place where your inspiration was cultivated, like the seeds from the Parable of the Sower that fell on fertile soil. Then imagine how it would have felt seeing your idea make a difference in your community. LEAD is a faith formation method designed to be youth-led and hands-on where participants learn about God’s call to serve as they design and implement small mission projects. This method provides youth with important relationship-building opportunities that are necessary for a strong church community, as adults mentor youth and older youth mentor younger youth. Most importantly, youth learn how the congregation works together to accomplish its mission, by actually leading the congregation in mission tasks.