Special Events
Nurturing Pastoral Leadership & Development
Educational Retreats & Colloquies
These annual events will offer all clergy the opportunity to join together with partners from different backgrounds to learn and reflect on transitional times in their ministry. During the event, there will be opportunities for discussion, reflection and learning. The TWT Program Director is open to suggestions for questions and topics to be addressed at a future event.
Better Together: The Gifts of Cross Denominational Collaboration
Join Rev. Jenny Gregg, Episcopal Diocese of Western Mass, Rev. Joel Bergeland, Zion Lutheran Church, Pittsfield, MA and Rev. Mike Denton, First and South Church, Pittsfield, MA as they share their stories of collaboration. Over the last several years, the downtown churches of Pittsfield have worked together on a variety of efforts that have brought life and revitalization to our community and individual congregations. Come and hear our joy and work together. Bring your own stories and let's together dream of communities that are enriched by a collective witness of our love in Christ. Wednesday, November 1 at 7 pm. Registration here.
Past Events:
Money and Beyond: Practical Ideas for Stewardship in 2023
What does stewardship ministry look like today? What are the best practices to incorporate into your fall stewardship campaign? Join Grace Pomroy as she explores what stewardship is (and what it isn't), how to talk about giving with Millennials and Gen Z, how to make "the ask" during your fall stewardship campaign, and what the future of church funding might look like. Grace will share a mix of stories, data, and practical tips that you can use this fall and all throughout the year.
Hone for the Holidays
For active clergy, the holidays bring not only some of the most meaningful moments of the year, but also some of the most stressful, as the relationship demands, at each turn, dial up the pressure. This interactive session is an invitation to get clear, to get grounded, and to enter the holidays with a curious eye, alert to patterns in the congregational system, in the family system, and in one's own physiological system that could provide information and insight.
Jake Morrill is a leadership coach and organizational consultant, promoting maturity in relationships, at home, church, and work. Jake is a long-time student of Bowen Family Systems Theory, and is on the Faculty of the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.
Financial Literacy and Budgeting
This seminar explores some of the opportunities embedded in budgets and the budgeting process. Rather than viewing budgets and the budgeting process as simply a requirement of good governance, we will examine how budgets and budgeting can be used to build community and attract new members.
James L. Elrod Jr.’s career in finance has spanned thirty five years, including significant time in the nonprofit sector. He has served on the boards of a variety of organizations, include Christ Church Greenwich and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He serves on the faculty at Yale Divinity School, teaching nonprofit finance, and lives in Riverside, Connecticut.
Leading in a Liminal Season with Rev. Susan Beaumont
Liminality refers to the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs during transition, when a person or group of people is in between something that has ended and something else that is not yet ready to begin. During this webinar, we introduce liminality and explore the challenges and opportunities facing organizations in liminal space. We will explore this pandemic season as a liminal season requiring a unique leadership stance and a different body of leadership work.
The Rev. Susan Beaumont is an ordained minister in the American Baptist Churches, USA. Susan has worked with hundreds of congregations and denominational bodies across the United States and Canada. She is known for her ground-breaking work in the leadership dynamics of large congregations. For more information, check out her website: www.susanbeaumont.com.
Tempered Resilience - How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change with Rev. Dr. Tod Bolsinger
Ask any leader and she will tell you that leading change is hard work. But the hardest part of all? It's the part that almost none of us expect. The most soul-sucking thing for most leaders is not the challenge of a changing world, but overcoming the resistance of our own people to make the changes they need to survive and thrive.
Tod Bolsinger, author of Tempered Resilience and Canoeing the Mountains, will share the insights gleaned from 30 years of ministry leadership, being a professor of leadership formation, and a coach and consultant to ministry leaders all over the world.
Nurturing Clergy Resiliency, Creativity & Wellness with Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund
This January 2021 event was focused on the needs of Pastors & Chaplains for a chance to take a deep breath and tend to their bodies and spirits in the midst of pastoring during multiple pandemics. Through presentations, workshops and conversations around building resiliency, attending to mental wellness, and nourishing the spiritual life of faith leaders, authorized minister found respite. The event also included opportunities to participate in spiritual practices and other forms of hands-on self-care.
Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund is the author of the widely regarded book Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family and Church (Chalice Press, 2014) and blogs at sarahgriffithlund.com. In addition to serving as the Senior Pastor of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis, she is the Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the UCC's Wholeness Advocacy Team of Justice and Local Church Ministries.
Questions: Contact the Program Director (Ramsey-mabroukh@sneucc.org)