Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ

New Church Leadership Institute: Church Planting Basic Training

August 12-15, 2008

Cost: $550.00 for general registration (not including housing or coaching),
$850.00 for seminary credit (not including housing)

Church planting is a priority of both our conference and our denomination. Thanks to a generous grant awarded by the Carpenter Foundation, we will be offering our first Leadership Institute in Church Planting at Emory University. This Institute will gather potential and practicing new church developers for one week during the year for an intensive training in the latest tools and theories for evangelism and church planting.

The instructors for the courses are seminary professors or seminary trained consultants who specialize in church development and coaching. In partnership with Lancaster Theological Seminary, these courses are offered for graduate level credit as well as continuing education credit. The following areas will be covered in our training:

Developing a foundational theological framework for evangelical ministry with social justice values as evidenced by coursework, readings and presentations,
Understand the basics of developing new churches in dynamic, multi-racial, multi-ethnic environments as evidenced by course project or paper,
Understand and apply a framework for organizational strategic leadership,
Increase their personal strategic leadership effectiveness in three key areas: thinking strategically, spotting opportunities in alignment with the strategy, and influencing others' commitment to long-range visions and objectives,
Strengthen their personal spiritual practices so as to encourage an articulate, passionate faith experience while deterring long-term burn out.
Determine how to enhance the learning processes necessary for effective strategy making and strategy implementation within their churches in the future.

Here are some important documents from our 2007 Program:

For more information, go to www.ucc.org/newchurch or contact Rev. Cameron Trimble at ctrimble@secucc.org.