2010 Congregational Leaders Seminar

Come, Let Us Reason Together:   
Developing Common Understandings for Discernment
a seminar for pastors, elders, deacons and other congregational leaders

Papers Presented:

The Rule of Christ in His Church by Kent McDougal

Biblical Roots, Interpretive Connections by Mathew Swora
        Mathew's outline

Living Side by Side with Difference by Cynthia Lapp
        Cindy's outline

Friday and Saturday, January 8 – 9, 2010   

Christ Community Church will host this event at First Christian Church, 2500 University Ave, in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
Schedule and Content
We begin with a session on Friday evening from 7-9 p.m. entitled “The Rule of Christ in His Church: Binding and Loosing as Ethical Discernment in Matthew's Gospel," led by Kent McDougal, pastor of Christ Community Church.  Kent will present "the rule of Christ" from Matthew 16 and 18, suggesting that these texts provide a framework for ethical discernment regarding matters of faith and life that we as a conference currently face.
 
On Saturday morning, two different presenters will demonstrate how using the same assumptions about following Jesus can result in differing conclusions.  Mathew Swora, pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church, St. Paul, Minn., will present how one arrives at the current position of the Mennonite Church regarding human sexuality.  Cynthia Lapp, pastor of Hyattsville (MD) Mennonite Church, will present how one arrives at the position of affirming committed same-sex partnership.
 
Saturday afternoon will be given to discussion and discernment in small and large groups, led by David Boshart, pastor at West Union Mennonite Church, Parnell, Iowa.  The goal of the seminar is to engage pastors and congregational leaders in theological reflection around issues of variance.   The seminar will conclude by 3:30 p.m.   

A brochure with a registration form and has been mailed to churches AND is available in the right sidebar, above.  The planning committee for this event includes Tim Detweiler, Mathew Swora, Kent McDougal and David Boshart.

Brochure
with registration form

Please read before the seminar:
A Mission-Focused Approach To Congregations at Variance with Conference

Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love
 
Being a Faithful Church: Testing the Spirits in the Midst of Hermeneutical Ferment by Robert Suderman

Also recommended:
Reasoning Together by Ted Grimsud and Mark Thiessen Nation