For many congregations, the “traditional” Sunday school of our childhoods is a thing of the past. Today, churches are doing Sunday School in a myriad of different ways and the choices can be overwhelming! In this workshop, we’ll look at current Sunday school trends for children and youth, rundown a list of popular models and curriculum options, and discuss some things to consider when choosing what will work best in your context. (*This workshop is not a sponsorship for any particular curriculum or publisher.)

The adolescent mental health crisis has been at the forefront of national conversation, yet it continues to plague our local communities and congregations. The church has a unique opportunity to address the adolescent mental health crisis by allowing and equipping youth to rest in their identity as beloved children of God. Yet, how can the church resist the temptation to perpetuate the toxic cycle of achievement that runs rampant in our culture? How do we as pastors and educators cultivate hope in our young people as they navigate the world? How can we equip young people with Christian practices that will ground them during life’s chaotic moments? Join us as we build our mental health toolbox, exploring techniques and practices that we can bring home and share with anyone in the church who is passionate about the lifelong faith formation and flourishing of young people.

This workshop is designed to explore this and other important questions by demystifying A.I., exploring both its practical uses and the ethical considerations it brings to our faith communities. You’ll learn about generative A.I. programs like ChatGPT, understand their capabilities, and discuss how these technologies can be harnessed to enhance your ministry. In the first part of the class, we’ll break down how generative A.I. works, what it can do, and its potential applications in your daily ministry tasks. The second half will focus on our collective response as faith leaders—how can we ethically and effectively integrate A.I. into our work while staying true to our values as faith leaders?
This workshop will be a blend of lecture, lively conversation, and hands-on praxis, allowing you to experiment with generative A.I. tools and reflect on their role in your ministry. Whether you’re tech-savvy or just curious, this session will provide valuable insights and practical skills to help you navigate the digital landscape with confidence and faith. Come ready to explore, discuss, and discover how generative A.I. may become a meaningful part of your ministry toolkit.

Interact with members of APCE’s Strategic Planning Task Force and Implementation Team who have created new strategies and a new structure with the goal of ensuring that APCE remains vibrant, relevant and useful into the future. Discover how this new plan will provide support for you in your role as a leader in faith formation. Be inspired to become involved in one of the new Mission Teams. May your soul be stirred by what lies ahead!

Is your Sunday School hour for children and families thriving or dying? How involved and enthusiastic are your children and families about your regular worship services? During COVID, we took the opportunity for change to begin a new program that would reach more children and families who wanted to be together on Sunday mornings. Family Worship is first and foremost child and parent friendly. That means the worship content is developmentally appropriate for all ages, specifically focusing on younger children. This is a service where all are welcome and children feel free to move about and parents do not feel judged. Children and parents engage in the liturgy through singing, prayers, retelling scripture, storytelling, sacraments, sensory activities, and a fellowship time with a snack. The worship moves through fun-loving and relaxed tones to thoughtful and deep moments. Come and experience a Family Worship service and learn how to incorporate into your own faith formation and worship contexts.

“A Telos for Diverse Worship” explores the concept of telos, or purpose, within the context of diverse worship practices. It delves into the idea that worship serves as a means of expressing and embodying the ultimate purpose or goal of the Christian faith. Participants engage in discussions and reflections on how diverse worship practices can contribute to the fulfillment of this telos, embracing the richness of various cultural, linguistic, and musical expressions in worship. By embracing Revelation 7:9 and Through practical insights and theological reflections, the workshop aims to inspire participants to cultivate inclusive and meaningful worship experiences that reflect the diversity of God’s people and contribute to the flourishing of Christian community.

The Godly Play Foundation is engaged in a multi-faceted initiative to inspire brave spaces so that every child who comes close to Godly Play encounters a felt sense of their inherent worth and dignity as uniquely and fully created in God’s image (Beloved Me) and co-creates a way of being and inspiring and inclusive communities which celebrate the diversity of God and God’s creation (Beloved We). This workshop will introduce the process we have used to carry out this vision on both a macro-level (organizationally) and micro-level (auditing our lessons and materials for implicit bias). We will include some Godly Play storytelling so participants can experience first-hand some of the new language and materials that have been developed as part of this process. In addition, we will share the work that has taken place to date and tips for how to update your own Godly Play materials (or any other curriculum you may be using at this time) to reflect the diversity of God’s creation.

Sometimes our souls hunger for nurture in solitude. But often we are nurtured in our lives of faith in community. Come prepare your heart, mind and soul with an interactive art experience. Visio Divina is a spiritual practice of sacred seeing. It invites us to see with our hands, our eyes and our spirits what God is saying to us, what God invites us to be doing in this world. Our souls are quenched, our thirsts are satisfied when we spend time with biblical texts, engaging texts with our heads, our hearts and our creative spirits. In this workshop you’ll have a chance to sit with and respond to music, poetry, and biblical texts using a variety of materials including fiber, paper, paint, beading, stitching, and simple weaving. Yes, you should come if your soul is parched. Yes, you should come if your soul needs nourishment so you can nourish others during Lent. Yes, you should come if getting messy and creative with art is what you love.

Over the last two decades, new research methods have enabled child development experts to reconsider their assumptions about how children grow and learn. They’ve discovered that many of the universal stage theories we’ve taken for granted underestimate the capabilities of children and devalue their ways of exploring and interpreting the world. This means simple linear charts outlining ages and stages according to Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Fowler, and others are no longer reliable accounts of children’s engagement in faith formation. Come explore the world of new developmental theories and their implications for nurturing children’s spirituality. Learn to recalibrate your thinking about developmental tasks and milestones so that you can better support children’s faith journeys. Imagine new approaches to teaching religious stories, ideas, and practices that lean into children’s unexpected abilities. Together, we’ll create new developmental frameworks to guide religious education in congregational settings and at home.

This workshop is an invitation to explore how your congregation can welcome neurodivergent children and support their families. You will learn about neurodiversity and gain awareness of how the needs of neurodiverse and neurotypical children differ in congregational life. Participants will leave the workshop with practical advice, tips, and “tools in their faith formation toolkit” to include neurotypical and neurodivergent children in worship, faith formation activities, and congregational life.

Generational theory provides valuable insights into understanding the diverse perspectives and unique characteristics of different age groups. Within the church community, we have the remarkable opportunity to engage with all six living generations. This workshop will explore the characteristics of Gen Z (born 1995-2012); what makes them tick, what worries them, and what they are seeking in today’s world. In the workshop, we will reflect on how insights from generational theory can inform our approach to being a welcoming and relevant church community for Gen Z.

What started out as an experiment, turned into a dynamic community at Weldon Valley Presbyterian Church in Colorado, fostering spiritual growth and connection between the different generations.  Through fellowship and creative exploration of the Bible’s teachings-participants engage in journaling; blending artistic expression and thoughtful reflection. The diverse range of ages (age 11-90) fosters a unique exchange of perspectives and wisdom.  This group has emerged as a vibrant tapestry where the threads of faith, art and fellowship weave a richer understanding of God’s word.  The design of the overall program will be shared along with an opportunity to experience a shortened version of the activity along with ideas on how to adopt this to your ministry.

Are you wondering if there is such a thing as a work – life balance in youth ministry? Burn-out and turnover is high in youth ministry positions, which is bad for youth workers and the congregations they serve. The health of those entrusted with guiding and nurturing the youth of our congregations directly impacts the overall health and vibrancy of church communities. The Presbyterian Youth Workers Association (PYWA) maintains that Healthy Youth Workers = Healthy Churches. That premise helps us understand that the pursuit of a healthy ministry becomes not only a personal endeavor, but also a communal responsibility. Join us for an empowering session where we’ll unpack five essential pillars of healthy youth ministry…

Healthy Advocacy: Discover how (and what) to advocate for job benefits tailored to the unique needs of youth workers, and how that can enhance retention, morale, and effectiveness in ministry.

Healthy Boundaries: Learn effective techniques for establishing boundaries between work and personal life, preventing burnout, and sustaining long-term passion for serving youth.

Healthy Schedules: Develop strategies for crafting balanced schedules that prioritize ministry commitments and personal well-being, ensuring that youth workers are operating at their fullest potential.

Healthy Spirit: Create space for spiritual practices and a rich faith life beyond work, enabling youth workers to approach ministry with wholeness, authenticity, and resilience.

Healthy Community: Cultivate supportive relationships and promote vitality beyond our congregations, providing a healthy outlet outside of the church community.

This workshop is intended for BOTH youth workers and those in ministry with youth workers.

Presbyterian pastor and TV personality Fred Rogers welcomed everyone into his neighborhood and modeled the importance of seeing ourselves and others, listening to ourselves and others, accepting ourselves and others, loving ourselves and others.  These are the basics for creating a positive community.  How do we, as people of faith like Fred Rogers, grow, learn, and model peace for our communities and families?  In this interactive workshop with activity and conversation, we will take time together to consider the importance of self-worth, curiosity, listening, trust, play, and solitude and then how to incorporate practices into our everyday faith, community and household life.

In the aftermath of Congress’s 1994 decision to make incarcerated students ineligible for federal Pell grants, most post-secondary education programs in American prisons came to an end. With the restoration of Pell rights for incarcerated students in 2020, college-in-prison programs have begun to flourish again. This presentation highlights Rhodes College’s efforts to make liberal arts education available to incarcerated women in Tennessee by establishing a Liberal Arts in Prison Program, through which 75 women have earned over 700 Rhodes credits since 2019.

This workshop will help church leaders plan, organize and prepare the policies and practices that create camps, conferences, retreats and regular gatherings that are truly and authentically inclusive and fun for youth of all gender identities and sexual orientations. We’ll explore the theology of authentic welcome, examine particular policies, and share creative ideas for both fun and faithfulness. We’ll answer thorny questions about restrooms and sleeping arrangements, offer help navigating parental concerns, and have time for sharing questions and ideas from participants’ own experiences. (This workshop emerges from an APCE-sponsored class on LGBTQIA+ youth ministry offered online in 2023.)