Living Stones 2024 Summer Delegate Assembly
Early Registration opens May 1. Thursday workshops. Evening Worship Thursday and Friday.
Workshops @ Living Stones 2024
Workshops @ Living Stone 2024: Open to anyone, VMC is hosting 12 workshops on July 18 from 9 – 3. Topics include: Race, Faith and Finance, Inner Healing, Celebrate Recovery, Will Our Children Have Faith? The workshops are free, but registration is requested.
Evening Service: Where Do We Go from Here?
Leonard Dow will join us Thursday evening in worship. Speaking about moving forward in difficult times. He is Vice President of Community and Church Development for Everence® – leading the effort to serve emerging diverse communities and churches that historically have been underserved.
Evening Service: Living Stones Among Us
Hear inspiring stories of God at work among us. Pastors and congregants from various congregations will share the hope, excitement, and inspiration experienced, felt, and lived through the Spirit’s work. Stories will be interwoven with songs and prayers to mark these living stones among us.
Standing in the Gap: a Bridge to Poverty
It is difficult to discuss money and finances within the congregation, especially when we know people are living in vastly different financial realities.
Fort Monroe Learning Trip
Join the learning trip to Hampton, Virginia from October 11-13th, visiting Fort Monroe and Calvary Community Church (C3) Hampton.
Achieving Relational Wholeness
This workshop will provide a supportive space to explore our beliefs about how God sees us and how that influences our self-perceptions and relationships.
ICYMI
In case you missed it. Check out recordings of previous events.
Christian Mission and Indigenous Communities Today:
A panel discussion with Nancy Heisey, Andrew Suderman, and Jason Rhodes Showalter
Historically, Christianity has often been a partner of colonization projects both in North America and beyond. How have Anabaptist mission leaders -- of Mennonite Mission Network, VMMissions, and Mennonite World Conference -- shifted their practices to address these failures and to respect indigenous communities as we continue to share the good news? Join us for a panel discussion in search of faithfulness, justice, and a better future.
Effective Church Leadership
with Craig Maven
How well is your church leadership working? Who is responsible for what in your church? Are there clear lines of communication and decision making? Who casts vision? Who carries the vision? Where does accountability lie? And who is accountable to whom?
Maybe you have never thought much about these questions, but ineffective church leadership promotes ineffective ministry. There are a few key principles that help move church leadership towards effectiveness.
Beyond the IDI: Receiving, Accepting, and Adapting with Karl McKinney
Over the past year and a half VMC has led its credentialed leaders through the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)®, a training designed to give leaders better language and goals for their own and their congregation's intercultural work. Pastor McKinney's presentation will help pastors and leaders keep moving towards racial justice, using language from the IDI in pursuit of just and healthy congregations, reminding us that we as Christians need "to intentionally learn how to relate to the cultural differences between ourselves and other people." All people interested in racial and cultural diversity are welcome to attend even if they are not familiar with the IDI. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)® is a widely used and effective cross-culturally valid assessment for building cultural competence.