BUILDING RETIREMENT SAVINGS AND TAX-EXEMPT HOUSING EXPENSE WITHDRAWAL
Organization: EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.
Host: Bart Francescone
Location: Room 248
Come to learn more about your EPC 403(b)(9) Retirement Plan and what you can do to build your retirement nest egg. You will hear about the free personal investment counseling and retirement planning resources available and get your questions answered. Did you know that ordained EPC ministers can withdraw funds to cover housing expenses on a tax-exempt basis? Come and find out how.
DISCERNING AND ENGAGING THE CULTURE THROUGH FILM
Organization: EPC Church Health Coordinators
Host: Ritchey Cable
Location: Room 225 (Fireside Room)
Popular-culture films and Christians have a complex relationship. Some believers divide films and other media into “secular” and “sacred” categories and boycott those things which are not “Christian,” while others watch or listen to whatever they want with very little discernment about the themes washing over them. A common way we evaluate the worth of a film is simply based upon the content of evil portrayed, rather than having any other meaningful ways to interpret and evaluate the media we view.
Films are a glimpse into the soul of the culture that made them. Learning to “read” the films and other art of the culture is an excellent step in learning how to apply the gospel to the individuals living in our modern-day society.
TE Ritchey Cable, Pastor of Gashland Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, wrote and produced a feature-length film called “The Author.” He was not trying to create Christian entertainment, but rather he had a desire to put forward a movie, written from a biblical worldview, that encouraged the viewer to ask questions around the theme of God’s sovereignty.
Join us for practical ways to understand popular culture and the media that flows from it, as well as hear creative ideas of how we as Christians can add meaningful contributions to the world of the arts.
HEALTHY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN CHURCH PLANTING
Organization: Hopewell Equipping & Counseling Ministry Center, Northampton Church Planting Network
Host: Cron Gibson
Location: Orchard 1 and 2
There are many tensions that need to be balanced while planting a church and developing leaders. This lunch conversation will give you a beginning point to help you develop teams that balance the needs for safe belonging and needed productivity. You will learn how to identify what drives the strain, how to create relationally systemic change, and reduce the stress you experience between establishing a plant and caring well for people. When teams embrace both needs people flourish, productivity increases, and missional engagement just happens.
Cron Gibson is the Founder and Executive Director of Hopewell Equipping and Counseling Ministry Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
ITEN PARTNERSHIP AND TRAINING MINISTRIES
Organization: EPC World Outreach
Host: Mike Kuhn
Location: Room 197
EPC World Outreach’s International Theological Education Network (ITEN) will provide an update to stakeholders and interested EPC members on the status of partnership and training ministries in diverse locations including Vietnam, Sierra Leone, and Ukraine.
Mike Kuhn serves as Director of the International Theological Education Network of EPC World Outreach.
LITURGICAL WORSHIP, THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE, AND PRESBYTERIANISM
Organization: Westminster Society
Host: Zac Hicks
Location: Room 170
The Westminster Society is a networking group of EPC pastor-theologians that seeks to promote confessional churchmanship within our denomination. Zac Hicks serves as Pastor of Church of the Cross, an EPC church plant in Birmingham, Alabama.
NEXT GENERATION MISSIONS
Organization: EPC World Outreach
Hosts: Saul and Jesse Huber
Location: Room 115 (Tree House)
How “young” is your mission committee? Is your church seeking more involvement from the next generation of students and young adults? Did you know that many younger Christians would love to be involved in outreach and missions? Come hear from some of our own EPC young adults who are showing us that their passion and desire for Christ to be known is alive and contagious. We will learn 7 practical ways your church can engage the Next Generation in missions.
Saul and Jesse Huber serve as Coordinators of Mobilization for EPC World Outreach. From their home base in Carbondale, Illinois, the Hubers walk alongside those in the EPC who sense a call to global missions. This includes taking people through the application process with World Outreach, gathering young adults into “Mission Cohorts” for encouragement and training, and connecting with churches to share the opportunities for ministry with World Outreach.
PASTORAL LETTER OF RACIAL LAMENT AND HOPE
Organization: Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope
Host: Gerrit Dawson
Location: Room 173
Hear the process and progress of the first year’s work of the Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope. Help us shape the next months of our work: Ask questions, raise concerns, offer insights, and engage with one another on the urgent question of the biblical perspective on racism and racial reconciliation.
Gerrit Dawson is the Co-Chairman of the interim committee and serves as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
PASTORS’ WIVES LUNCH
Organization: Cherry Hills Community Church Women’s Ministry
Host: Ramona Spilman
Location: Valor High School Upper Lobby
Ladies: Join us as we discover how to embrace the call of ministry on our families’ lives and connect with other women who are walking a similar journey. In addition to sharing a meal we will spend time learning together, praying for another, and cultivating new friendships.
REACHING A GENERATION LIKE NONE OTHER
Organization: Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO)
Host: Jen Burkholder
Location: Pavilion 1
Gen Z is America’s biggest generation and part of a global trend—nearly half of the world’s population is 25 and under. These young people are coming of age in a tumultuous time. The world has shifted under our feet, and the university is affected at a faster pace than the rest of culture. Academia has changed and is changing. Institutions are increasingly distrusted and in flux. And yet the campus remains the most strategic mission field for the gospel of any in the world. From the beginning, the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) has existed to promote cross-generational transformation. CCO partners with local churches to reach the campus and integrates students into the life of the church where the missional energy flows both ways. Why? Because students need to practice finding and connecting to a local body of believers so their faith will be nurtured for the long term. And when churches reach out beyond their walls, they embody the Gospel they proclaim. In an age of increasing isolation and division, the inter-generational body of Christ can be a sign of healing and hope.
Join us to learn more about what God is doing among the next generation through campus ministry in partnership with the local church, and how your church can get involved!
Jen Burkholder serves as Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Coalition for Christian Outreach, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
THE AWAKENING POWER OF A GREAT QUESTION
Organization: PastorServe
Hosts: Dave Meserve
Location: Pavilion 2
The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters; but one who has insight draws them out. (Proverbs 20:5, NIV). What if asking questions was the key to drawing out what is most important in a life? What if the right question could awaken the heart of your congregants, your neighbors, or even awaken yourself? The gospel advances by asking as well as by telling! In this networking lunch led by three curious ministry coaches, we will explore together the penetrating art of question-asking and active listening.
Dave Meserve serves as an Affiliate Coach in the Rocky Mountain Region for PastorServe.
THE POWER OF REST: EMBRACING SABBATICALS FOR MINISTRY HEALTH
Organization: PIR Ministries
Hosts: Roy Yanke
Location: Room 250
Rest as “power” seems like a contradiction. But in God’s upside-down economy, the bent is to see rest as crucial to our flourishing and as the foundation for doing good work is wise and fruitful. In this lunch gathering, we will explore together the importance and value of sabbaticals for both the pastor and the church. Steps to building a great sabbatical plan will also be discussed. This lunch is meant for Teaching Elders, spouses, and Ruling Elders.
Roy Yanke serves as Executive Director of PIR Ministries in Farmington Hills, Michigan.