All clergy serving in ministry in the West Ohio Conference are invited to join us on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 9:00 am for a Clergy Day Apart.
Doing Ministry on Malta: The Good News of Shipwreck with Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean
You’re not imagining it: it’s a mess out there. Between cultural shifts in religiosity (especially among the young), Covid-19, and disaffiliation, many of our flocks feel stuck, spent, and exhausted—and so do we. And yet our current cultural realities offer opportunities for ministry that were unimaginable even five years ago. What does the landscape of pastoral leadership look like after shipwreck, and how does that energize our work as faith leaders? This interactive day will (playfully) help us reimagine what ministry looks like on the “unknown shores” of 2024.
Kenda Creasy Dean is an ordained United Methodist pastor and the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she works closely with the Institute for Youth Ministry and the Farminary. She is the author of numerous books on youth and the church, including Innovating for Love: Joining God’s Expedition through Christian Social Innovation, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, and The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul-Tending in Youth Ministry, co-authored with Ron Foster, which just came out in its 25th anniversary edition, rewritten with (millennial) Megan DeWald. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio), Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington, DC), and Princeton Theological Seminary (New Jersey), in 2013 she co-founded Ministry Incubators with Mark DeVries to support innovative leadership and new and sustainable approaches to ministry. Kenda has served churches in Arlington, VA, College Park, MD, and Kingston, NJ. She and her husband Kevin love hanging out with their hilarious grown kids and digging their toes in the sand on the Jersey shore.
NOTE THAT THIS EVENT WILL START AT 9:00 AM WITH OPENING WORSHIP.
Doors open at 8:30 AM