Conference to host retreats for youth workers and pastors

Virginia Mennonite Conference is hosting two upcoming retreats, both at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center. If you are a youth minister or sponsor, we encourage you to consider attending “The Changing Face of Youth Ministry,” with Rachel S. Gerber.

If you are a credentialed minister in a VMC congregation or constituency, we invite you to “Learning from the Early Church,” where Alan Kreider will guide us through lessons and insights to be gained from first- to third-century examples.

.

Youth Workers’ Retreat • January 23-25, 2015 • Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.” This classic line from The Fellowship of the Ring is also true about our time: the world around us has changed. Our youth are growing up in a society that in many ways looks, acts, and interacts differently than the ones we grew up in. But have our approaches to youth ministry adapted to this new generation?

Rachel S. Gerber, Mennonite Church USA Denominational Minister of Youth and Young Adults, will show how the youth of today approach faith and the church, and provide opportunities for sharing and reflection on approaches for youth ministry with this new generation. Learn more and register.

.

.

Ministry Retreat • February 27-March 1, 2015 • Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center

All VMC pastors and credentialed leaders are invited to the Ministry Retreat on “Learning from the Early Church.” Speaker Alan Kreider invites us to discover the way forward in our post-Christian
world by learning from the early Church. Having spent a lifetime living and thinking about mission in the post-Christendom West, Kreider worked with Mennonite Mission Network for nearly thirty years, mainly as a missionary in England. He taught at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and is Professor Emeritus of Church History and Mission. Learn more and register.