1. Giving a Blessing: Nuts and Bolts, Edith Gallaher

So you have been asked to offer the Sacrament of Blessing… Wonder how to get started? Wonder what time-line is appropriate? Wonder about setting, recording, editing, and follow-up? Wonder what questions to ask your self? Let’s discuss and explore practicalities of giving blessings. Question/answer, examples, brainstorming, and shared experiences will be used to encourage and give tools with which to work.

2. Introducing Evangelist Ministries to Members and Friends, Edith Gallaher

Explore how to introduce the ministry of the evangelist and invite others to know you and your ministry. A PowerPoint presentation and discussion with handouts will be used to introduce ways to educate and encourage persons in group settings to utilize the ministry of an evangelist. New tracts and specific information on the evangelist web-site will be shared.

3. Congregational Blessings Create Pathways of Peace, Terry Snapp

Using the recently released resource, Create Pathways of Peace in the World, as well as actual congregational blessings, the class will focus on the elements and steps of the entire blessing experience. Participants will be invited to share their own experience. Attention will be given to follow-up that is focused on long-term integration of the blessing into the life of the congregation.

4. Blessing the Difference: Evangelists and Congregational Personality, David Schaal

In healthy families, each child should be honored according to his or her uniqueness. Likewise, each congregation has its own personality which must be nurtured if it is to grow. How can evangelists help?

5. Theology of Blessing and Sacrament, Don Compier

This class explores the theology of prayer and of the sacraments. We will compare notes with some key thinkers in the Christian tradition and explore how God uses us and common material things to bring blessing into the lives of many.

Explore together the roots, growth, and varied manifestations of the experience and expression of “sanctuary” in the life of the evangelist.

7. Awaken, Revive, and Quicken – Your Apostolic Witness, Susan Skoor

Do you long to bring new life into the role of the evangelist? Are you feeling like your ministry is in need of revival? Does the “evangel” in your evangelist ministry need strengthening? Explore apostolic witness and the challenge of reviving people, congregations, and yourself.

8. Enriching the Life of the Church: Intergenerational Mutual Mentoring, Erica Blevins-Nye and Tom Mountenay

Older and younger people see the world in very different ways. The traditional model of mentoring based on the principle “of the older and wiser instructing the younger and less experienced” will be enhanced by appreciating “Reverse Mentoring” which acknowledges that the younger have much wisdom and experience to share “upward” with the older. For example: when it comes to the rate of change in our culture, younger people are in touch with things for which elders do not yet have vocabulary.

9. Listening to Concerns…Voicing Our Hopes: Open Forum Panel

Voice your worries and concerns, trusting they will be heard. Share creative ideas that build on others’ thoughts. Speak and listen for new insights, for resolution of dilemmas, for creative imagination which is prophetic and liberating. Dialogue among sages and sinner saints can render much!

We Share Identity, Mission, Message, and Beliefs is a foundational identity document for the church that is being used to align church message, programs and resources. Come explore We Share and its implications for the evangelist.

11. Blessing: Discovering the Divine Imagination, Barbara Howard

This session will explore images of God as the Divine Imagination and offer opportunity to understand blessing as “the discovery of a fresh well.” John O'Donohue’s text, Bless the Space Between Us, is a fine resource for evangelists and those who seek an evangelist’s blessing. If possible, please purchase or borrow the book from the library and read in preparation for this session.

Spiritual direction is an intentional process of deepening our life with God with the help of a trained spiritual “guide.” We meet with the spiritual director to talk about our relationship with God and the spiritual concerns in our lives. The spiritual director listens and asks questions that help us reflect more deeply on our spiritual journey. Prayer and meditation practices may be suggested, but the spiritual director’s primary role is to listen, provide encouragement, and serve as a compassionate presence supporting our movement toward spiritual wholeness.