The Inaugural MidAmerica Minister’s Meeting“Let’s Try This: Experimental and Entrepreneurial Ministry in Our Time.”
Special rate at the Marriott; call 1-800-514-4684 and use code UUA. Room rate is $89 and includes internet. Wednesday, April 15th, beginning around 7pm, through Friday, April 17th about noon. Followed by the first-ever one-site MidAmerica Regional Assembly, at the Marriott. Our colleagues are trying experiments in ministry: new urban starts, multi-site congregations, and varieties of worship forms and places. As we continuously reinvent the form for the changing age, what are these pioneers learning? We’ll hear from the founding minister of an urban start, a founder of an innovative worship and community model, and two trailblazing multi-site pioneers. The planning committee - five ministers from each chapter - hopes that the program will leave you encouraged and hopeful about our faith, and ready to take smart risks for our time and places. Presenters and Workshop Leaders include: Ian White Maher, founding pastor of Original Blessing, a UU new start in Brooklyn, NY. Ian is thinking and living deeply a new model of church, community, and service. Robin Tanner, Minister, Piedmont UU Church in Charlotte and Salisbury, NC. Robin is a passionate and visionary advocate for a growing faith. David Ruffin, founder of Sanctuary Boston. David and friends built on previous innovations to create worship and community that reached millennials and others in new ways. Scott Tayler, Director of Congregational Life at the UUA and previously minister of UU congregations in Rochester and Canandaigua, NY. Scott is the pied-piper of multi-site cooperation, theme-based ministry, and mission-driving congregations. Scott will moderate a discussion Thursday morning with Ian, Robin, and David, and the gathered ministers, about what they are doing, what they’ve learned, and how we can learn from them. Thursday afternoon, Robin and Scott will lead a workshop on multi-site, and David and Ian on new-starts. In addition, Phil Lund, MidAmerica staff, will lead a workshop on congregational-based spiritual direction. There will be joint worship (some led by MidAmerica ministers, some by our guest presenters), an odyssey, collegial conversations, social time, and parallel chapter meetings for Heartland, Central Midwest, and Prairie Star UUMA chapters. If you are a UUMA member in MidAmerica, please mark the dates on your calendar and plan to come! Register online: https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1649981 |
Historically, spiritual direction has occurred at the margins of religious communities, most often being offered outside the walls of local congregations. The Clergy Seminar Series in Congregation-Based Spiritual Direction is designed for parish ministers and other religious professionals who would like to place the practice of spiritual direction at the heart of congregational life. During each seminar session, we will explore paradigms for congregation-based spiritual direction—from brief individual spiritual direction to group spiritual direction and beyond.