2022 Continuing Education for Pastors and Lay Workers

The Church workers of the District met online and in person over the mornings of Wednesday and Thursday last week for the annual Continuing Education Program. Instead of gathering in one place pastors and lay workers met as they were able in their Zones, allowing for some fellowship time as well as some learning and sharing.

We heard from Pastor Stuart Kleinig on the topic of How to help people encounter and share Christ when experiencing conflict, a topic that we can relate to across various areas of our lives. Pr Stuart reminded us to consider that Jesus was always seeking to deal with the sin present within each person through his teachings and parables.

On Thursday we heard from John Jeffries from the organisation Partners in Ministry on the topic of How to make your church more welcoming.  One of the valuable insights from his presentation is that the average church with 100 members in Australia gets 150 visitors per year, and these are not just on special Sundays but across regular Sundays. Another insight was that it is the ten minutes after the service where the newcomer makes up their mind whether this is in fact a welcoming church.

We are in conversation with John to provide a free online webinar so church leaders and volunteers can hear more about this topic.

We were also fortunate to hear from LCA Churchwide departments, Church Worker Support and Grow Ministries. Verena Johnson spoke about the many wonderful resources available on the LCANZ Learning Hub and Jodi Brook from Grow Ministries spoke to the variety of resources available through the Grow website