Session Information

Session 1: Growing Children & Youth Ministry 

• Using the basic principles of church growth, learn how to grow your ministries beyond the ones who are already there. Learn about getting outside your walls, sharing your story in a way that invites engagement, and connecting with your neighbours 
• Session Leader: Rev. W. Lee Dominick

Session 2: Build Your Children/Youth Ministry Toolbox with Ministry Architects 

• For over 30 years, Ministry Architects has been helping churches build the systems that are needed in any ministry for long term health and sustainability. Sean Williams from Ministry Architects will be with us to review some of these key systems, including Major Event Notebooks, Preventative Maintenance Calendars, Ministry Manuals, and more. The time will also include an overview of their tried and true volunteer recruiting process that will help you find all the volunteers you need for your ministry. They are excited to be with us and we’re excited to have them!
• Session Leader: Sean Williams

Session 3: Threads of Identity

• Identity is not one simple thing. It is made up of many threads; the people we come from, the communities that shape us, the experiences we carry, the stories we inherit, and the parts of ourselves we are still learning to understand.
• This will be an interactive session where leaders explore the various threads of identity, and explore how that relates to supporting and encouraging the children and youth in our contexts to explore and share their identity stories. We will explore how leaders foster spaces where our stories (and the stories of young people in our communities) feel seen and heard, and reflect on why the stories we tell about ourselves and our congregations matter.
• Session Leader: Joanne Roberts
• Joanne Roberts is a Filipina-Canadian filmmaker, former journalist, storyteller, facilitator, and educator based in Winnipeg. Her work focuses on identity, culture, media, connection, and the responsibility of telling stories with care.

   

  Joanne began in storytelling through performance before moving into journalism, film, facilitation, and community-based storytelling. As a journalist, she spent years thinking about whose voices are quoted, whose experiences are broadcast, and how a story can be factually true while still missing the human centre.

   

  Her film work includes projects exploring Asian beauty standards, cultural pressure, identity, and belonging. Her film The Good Girl examines the pressure to be agreeable, successful, quiet, and easy to accept, especially through the lens of Filipina identity. Joanne also brings more than ten years of experience teaching, with a student-centred, confidence-building approach focused on practical skills and self-expression.

There will be an opportunity for participants to choose from one of the following workshops:

Inviting children/youth into justice and action: Canadian Lutheran World Relief partners with congregations across Canada to invite prayer, action and response around local and global issues of injustice and inequality. CLWR reps will lead a workshop to introduce their materials, their approach to partnership and advocacy, and help participants brainstorm how fostering awareness and engagement with issues of justice and equality provide opportunities to connect with people of all ages in our communities.

Creating Intentionally Affirming Spaces: It is more and more essential that our communities be intentional about providing safe, welcoming, and affirming spaces to children youth who are often marginalized or set apart in other aspects of their lives. Whether that’s adapting for neurodivergence, expanding our language for LGBTQSIA+ young people, or accommodating other learning, behavioural or identity differences, we want our communities to genuinely celebrate the diversity of our human family. Twila MacNair and M Chorney are both involved with Youth and Young Adults in the Prairie to Pine Region of the United Church. They will host a conversation about how they have fostered a culture of affirming community, and what they have learned along the way.

Supporting Families with Young Children: Whether or not our congregations see children during worship, there are ways we can offer care and support to families with young children in our congregations and in our communities. Teri Skakum has deep experience of leading children and youth ministry in congregational settings, and now is involved in strengthening families in the community. She will lead a discussion about how congregations can be resources to community conversations around health and wellness for families, and especially children, and where there are opportunities for partnerships that strengthen the network of support children and youth need to thrive in all areas of their lives.

There will be a few tables with information from community partners and others who care about children and youth in our communities. Resources from the displayers will be collected and added to a resource list that will be shared with those who participate virtually.

If your congregation has opportunities for others to be involved in activities related to children and youth, and you’d like a poster or brochure displayed at the Summit, email your material to Deacon Michelle by Nov. 5th.

Posters/brochures might be about programs, retreats, etc. that others are welcome to participate in, or services that your congregation offers to your community that others might learn from.

Those who will be attending the Summit virtually will find the Zoom link posted here.