|
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
[Back to index of April 2008 articles] Diocese Set to Hold Events on Stewardship, Evangelism
Washington Window
The diocese is sponsoring two major day-long events this spring on stewardship, evangelism, marketing and communications. The April 19 Diocesan Stewardship Conference at St. Paul’s, Rock Creek, and the June 7 Evangelism Conference at the 4-H Conference Center, 7100 Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, will equip participants to become effective ambassadors for the Church, said Jim Naughton, canon for communications and advancement. Naughton will give the keynote presentation on "Stewardship of our Opportunities," at the Stewardship Conference. Internationally known evangelist and author Brian McLaren will deliver the keynote address at the evangelism conference. The stewardship conference, an annual event, will have a different focus this year, Naughton said. "We are still offering workshops on planned giving, the annual appeal and other stewardship perennials," he said. "But we also want to help parishes identify and appeal to the people whom they are best-suited to reach." Naughton is offering two sessions of a workshop on target marketing at the congregational level, and suggested that participants examine the demographic information available on their parish’s neighborhood before attending the conference. Parishes can access such information at no cost through the diocese’s account with the Percept organization. (For access to Percept contact Naughton at 202/537-7162.) Naughton also urged potential participants to take a walking or driving tour of their neighborhood before the conference to learn where people congregate and what they do in their leisure time. "The more information you bring to the conference, the better plan you will take away," he said. Participants can register for the Stewardship Conference today at: www.edow.org/events. The evangelism conference is the diocese’s first attempt to hold a "mid-year gathering," an idea Bishop John Bryson Chane first discussed in his address to the 2007 Diocesan Convention. "There is a tremendous spirit at our conventions," Chane said. "But there is never enough time to do enough education and provide enough support for people eager to build up our congregations. That is why I called for a mid-year gathering that could focus, in depth, on some of the important tasks before us. "We’re extremely fortunate in having Brain McLaren coming to speak to us," he added. "Few people have thought more creatively about our culture, and few have been more effective in interpreting the Gospel to the seekers and doubters that we need to reach." McLaren, the author of Everything Must Change, The Secret Message of Jesus and A Generous Orthodoxy, has been invited to speak at this summer’s Lambeth Conference. In 1989, he and 10 other people founded what is now known as the Cedar Ridge Community Church. Nurtured first in living rooms, then in school cafeterias, the church now has more than 2,000 members, and owns a 63-acre campus in Spencerville, Md. McLaren has a Web site at brianmclaren.net. The evangelism conference features afternoon workshops on individual faith sharing and on media relations and communications on the parish level. The faith sharing workshops are informed by research which suggests that personal invitation is the most effective form of evangelism. "The people in our pews are our best ambassadors," Naughton said, "but many Episcopalians are shy about discussing their faith." The workshops will be led by Heather Kirk-Davidoff and Nancy Wood-Lyczak, authors of Talking Faith: An Eight-part Study on Growing and Sharing your Faith (Chalice Press). The communications workshops will be led by Carol Barnwell, director of communications for the Diocese of Texas. Participants in the workshop will receive a copy of Barnwell’s well-regarded manual on parish communications and media relations which touches on topics as diverse as publicizing parish events to dealing with the media during a crisis to the effective use of photography in parish publications. "I think Carol does the best communications workshop in the church," Naughton said. [Back to index of April 2008 articles]
|
|
||||||||||||||
