SUSO begins
Odd for a conference that tries to jumpstart the church, the day began with a smaltzy hymn from 1963 (Moody Press!), but all was quickly redeemed (Garth Brooks came to the rescue, but I digress...)
Staff for the week, in addition to Charles Fulton, are:
Susy Miller ("process consultant" for the House of Bishops, Susy is from Florida, and is going to deal with welcoming/newcomer ministry etc. She's also going to do a workshop on "how to have an effective meeting" -- a really good thing to consider since we are all meetinged to death.
Al Johnson, a priest from suburban Chicago, who is the conference chaplain.
Kirk Hadaway, new statistics guru for the Episcopal Church, and discoverer of the statistical error that made people think small churches are necessarily in decline.
Tex Sample- seminary professor, consultant, and expert on digital culture in the church, especially in light of worship.
George Martin, "Episcopal Ad Project" guy.
Kevin Martin, former condev person in the diocese of Texas and now in Plano, TX (home of one of the few Episcopal megachurches)
Ben Helmer, "815" small congregation ministry staff person (and father of diocal's Richard Helmer, also here in Chandler)
It's a great team, and they should make for a great conference.
(By the way, most of the people here are indeed from the west, with the largest group from diocal).
Condev CORE VALUES
For this seminar, but really for the whole condev world?
The "core values" SUSO uses are right on target, including:
+Conversion to Jesus is central
+Episcopalians are formed through prayer and liturgy
+Change and growth are characteristics of healthy congregations
I've been working on such a list (for a later blog entry) and I'd agree that such things are really foundational.
Posted by mbarlowe at June 2, 2003 01:20 PM