Saturday, Sept. 17 • Immanuel CRC, Brampton
Begin the fall season by energizing and engaging your ministry leadership team at The Accessible Gospel: Connecting Universal Worship Design Principles with all Church Ministries. For more information email – connections.ont@crcna.org
This one day gathering takes place Saturday, September 17 from 9:00-3:30 at Immanuel CRC, Brampton, ON. Examine significant ways that worship and various ministry streams interface, inform and support each other. Following a time of opening worship, you can choose from the following informative sessions and discussions:
MORNING SESSIONS
Prayer That’s Not in the Liturgy
Join Erick Schuringa in exploring how to use your prayer teams and a variety of prayers and prayer experiences before, during and after worship.
Worship with the Mission in Mind: Welcoming the Neighbourhood in Christ
Christian worship participates in the rhythm of gathering God’s people from the world and sending them into the world. Each local church gathers and sends in its community. There are, however, powerful forces of fragmentation at work, eroding our sense of community: the automobile, media, and consumer thinking, to name a few. Join Marian Lensink and Tom van Milligen to consider ways in which our worship can be shaped as we engage our parish.
Exploring Ideas and Practices for Worship
Ruth Ann Schuringa will lead this conversation for the encouragement and support of worship staff, volunteers, leaders and planners. Share your best (or worst) ideas, and what you learned from it, as well as tools, books, resources, songs, and anything else relating to your worship ministry.
Children IN Worship
One of the leading predictors of youth remaining engaged in the life of faith is their involvement in corporate worship. Lesli van Milligen will explore how Universal Design can help congregations engage children of all ages in the worship service and will look at specific topics of Pray Stations, Children’s Messages and Kinesthetic Worship.
10 Ways to Move Toward Inter-Generational
“Intergenerational Ministry” is the “in” phrase these days, and the youth ministry world is beginning to explore ways to get out of its silo and find its place within the intergenerational faith formation of the entire congregation. Facilitator Syd Hielema will explore 10 specific practices that will serve both youth ministry and the intergenerational church in strengthening their faith formation work.
AFTERNOON SESSIONS
Imaging the Word
Listen and see how one church has made visual art an integral part of its church experience. Anita Van Zeumeren will get you inspired with lots of ideas of how a visual arts ministry can work. You don’t need to be an artist, but you do need an imagination and passion!!
Worship with the Mission in Mind: Sending the Worshiper with Christ
As we consider worship that gathers God’s people, what does it mean to be a people sent into our neighbourhood? Given our changing context and culture, how does a worshiping community go with Christ into the neighbourhood? Tom van Milligen and Marian Lensink invite you to join them as together we consider a new parish model of missional engagement.
Planning Collaborative Intergenerational Worship
Marja Fledderus will share practical ways to explore new ideas while maintaining the beauty and richness of tradition, and the bonds of respect and love. We will look at some successful examples, and create a working timeline for trying it out.
Children and Worship
Join Diane Dykgraaf in discussing the benefits and blessings of worshiping with children in the Worship Centre and also in the church. We’ll take a look at how the principles of Universal Design are already included or can be incorporated into the Children and Worship program. How can we tweak our programs for children to make sure there is space for each child to experience God’s love and grow in their faith?
Exploring Universal Design