GA 2023 NETWORKING LUNCHES

Connect with others who have similar ministry interests at the 43rd General Assembly/Gospel Priorities Summit. Boxed lunches will be distributed at a location on the Cherry Hills campus (to be announced). Enjoy a time of fellowship and enrichment from 12:00-12:50 p.m. Unless otherwise noted, all lunches are at Cherry Hills Community Church.

Tuesday, June 20
Wednesday, June 21
Thursday, June 22

TUESDAY, JUNE 20

APOLOGETIC PRINCIPLES FOR CHURCH PLANTING

BUILDING RETIREMENT SAVINGS AND TAX-EXEMPT HOUSING EXPENSE WITHDRAWAL

Organization: EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.
Host: Bart Francescone
Location: Room 248

Come to learn more about your EPC 403(b)(9) Retirement Plan and what you can do to build your retirement nest egg. You will hear about the free personal investment counseling and retirement planning resources available and get your questions answered. Did you know that ordained EPC ministers can withdraw funds to cover housing expenses on a tax-exempt basis? Come and find out how.

Bart Francescone is the Executive Director of EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.

CHOOSING TO PLANT A MULTI-ETHNIC CHURCH

DISABILITY MINISTRY STORY & SUPPORT

Organization: Presbytery of the Coastal Mid-Atlantic
Host: Michelle Munger
Location: Room 253

Are you involved with supporting a person with a disability and their family in your congregation? We are gathering to share stories about how your ministry with those with a lived disability experience has had an impact. Perhaps you would like to start and need ideas on how to do that. We want you to join us. Is there a challenge you are working through? Let’s work on it together.

Michelle Munger is author of Margins of Grace: Becoming Champions of Faith and Family in the Midst of Disability and serves as Director of www.atthekingstable.org, a ministry devoted to helping churches reach the disabled.

HOW TO REVITALIZE YOUR LEADERSHIP PIPELINE

Organization: Knox Theological Seminary
Host: Scott Manor
Location: Room 115 (Tree House)

Equipping your church and leaders for ministry with an accredited seminary education while staying active in your church and community is easier than you think! Join Dr. Scott Manor and other members of the Knox Theological Seminary team for a time to focus on the changing nature of the seminary landscape, emerging new church-centric educational methods, and a demonstration of how Knox is helping meet the needs of churches, denominations, and biblical learners today.

Scott Manor serves as President of Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

NAVIGATING THE LETTERS (LGBTQ+) WITH A FAMILY MEMBER

Organization: Where Grace Abounds
Host: Scott Kingry
Location: Room 170

Join a panel of family members (parents and siblings) who will share a variety of experiences with an LGBTQ family member. Some questions which often arise are “how can I keep my own personal convictions around gender and sexuality biblically and love my family member well?” “When do I apply God’s grace?” “How do navigate difficult truthful conversations?” and “What are helpful and healthy boundaries?” We’ll explore some of these experiences and leave some time for Q&A.

Scott Kingry serves as Program Director for Where Grace Abounds, a Colorado-based ministry designed to guide and support men and women who seek to understand sexuality and relationship, and to inspire all people to know and personally appropriate God’s plan for their sexuality and relationships.

REVIVAL AND REVIVALISM IN AMERICAN PRESBYTERIANISM

Organization: Westminster Society
Host: Don Fortson
Location: Pavilion 2

Join us for a presentation by Dr. S. Donald Fortson III on the history of revival and revivalism in the American Presbyterian tradition.

Don Fortson serves Professor of Church History and Pastoral Theology and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Charlotte (North Carolina) campus. He is author of Liberty in Non-Essentials: The Story of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and many other books on Christian and Presbyterian history.

WORLD OUTREACH: HOME FROM THE FIELD

Organization: EPC World Outreach
Hosts: Shawn Stewart
Location: Room 173

Join us for lunch and hear just a few of our World Outreach global workers describe how God is using and blessing their work among people groups of the world with little to no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Shawn Stewart serves as Coordinator of Field Development and Co-op Support for EPC World Outreach.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21

CHURCH PLANTER BEST PRACTICES

Organization: EPC Church Planting Leadership Team
Host: Dave Strunk
Location: Pavilion 1

Church planters (and anyone interested in church planting), join us for lunch and a group conversation. For planters, come prepared to share the two most important things you’ve learned in church planting since COVID. For those who might be interested, come prepared to take notes and hear from our planters on the best practices in church planting right now.

Dave Strunk is the planting pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Maryville, Tennessee, and a member of the EPC’s Church Planting Leadership Team.

COME AND ASK YOUR CHURCH HEALTH QUESTIONS

Organization: EPC Church Health Leadership Team
Host: Bob Stauffer
Location: Orchard 1 and 2

Join Bob Stauffer, the EPC Church Health Leadership Team, and presbytery Church Health Coordinators for  time to ask questions about the development, expansion, and ministry work of the Church Health Gospel Priority.

Bob Stauffer serves as the EPC’s National Director of Church Health.

EXECUTIVE PASTORS AND CHURCH ADMINISTRATORS

Organization: EPC Office of the General Assembly
Host: Patrick Coelho
Location: Room 256

Get to know your fellow Executive Directors, Executive Pastors, Church Business Administrators, and others involved in church operations for this time of fellowship and sharing best practices.

Patrick Coelho serves as Chief Financial Officer for the EPC Office of the General Assembly in Orlando, Florida.

FEMALE PASTORS, CHAPLAINS, AND TE CANDIDATES

Organization: Presbytery of the Alleghenies
Host: Carolyn Poteet
Location: Room 249

All female pastors and chaplains (female Teaching Elders and female candidates for TE ordination) are invited to join us for an opportunity to connect, encourage, and pray for one another. Please note that this lunch is not for female Ruling Elders but is specifically designed and reserved for female TEs and ordination candidates.

Carolyn Poteet serves as Lead Pastor for Mt. Lebanon Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

MEET OUR NEWLY COMMISSIONED GLOBAL WORKERS

REVELATION 7:9: HOW TO BE A COMMUNITY-CONSCIOUS CONGREGATION

Organization: EPC Revelation 7:9 Task Force
Host: Rufus Smith
Location: Room 115 (Tree House)

For interested churches who want to improve the delivery of the Great Commission and Great Commandment with their 1-2-5 mile radius. In effect, how to be a community-conscious congregation, whether that’s becoming multi-ethnic, inter-generational, or reaching marginalized families.

Rufus Smith serves as Senior Pastor of Hope Church in Cordova, Tennessee, and is Co-chairman of the EPC Revelation 7:9 Task Force.

SHARPENING PARENT SKILLS AMIDST TODAY’S ADOLESCENCE CRISIS

Organization: Gospel App Ministries
Host: Bill Senyard
Location: Pavilion 2

Per the CDC, a shocking 42% of adolescents are experiencing sadness and hopelessness (up 50% from 2011), including 57% of females and 70% of LGBTQ+ students. Among all students, 22% have considered suicide (up 36% from 2011). It is a mental health crisis for our most vulnerable demographic: adolescents. Are there practical and doable things that anxious Christian parents can use to lean against this trend? What difference does the gospel make? How can churches come alongside families so that the body of Christ may be built up? What does relevant, life-changing evangelism look like among adolescents today? Well-known secular child psychiatrist Urie Bronfenbrenner put it this way: “Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her.” This network lunch will consider ways we can creatively flesh this out in real life amidst this serious cultural crisis. It can make a real difference.

Bill Senyard is President of Gospel App Ministries and is the creator of the free popular online program for anxious Christian parents of teens and tweens called “Good Enough Parent” (www.goodenoughparent.online). His passion is to help “good enough parents” to become more “good enough parents.”

SMALL CHURCH LEADERSHIP: DEVELOPING THE BODY IN ITS CALL TO HOPE

THE CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF WESTMINSTER DIVINE

EDWARD REYNOLDS (1599-1676)

Organization: Westminster Society
Host: Jeff Jeremiah
Location: Room 225 (Fireside Room)

Come and hear Jeff Jeremiah chronicle the life of Edward Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich in the Church of England and one of the Westminster Assembly divines, and how his ministry has application for today. Jeff Jeremiah was elected Stated Clerk of the EPC in 2007 and served in that role until 2021, at which time he was named Stated Clerk Emeritus.

YOUR EPC HEALTH BENEFITS AND IMPROVING YOUR PERSONAL WELL-BEING

Organization: EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.
Host: Bart Francescone
Location: Room 248

These past few years have been overwhelmingly stressful for many and have taken a toll on our physical and mental well-being. This session will present some sobering facts from national healthcare data, but more importantly introduce you to steps you can take to turn things around and get you on track to better health. You will be introduced to the many free personal care, wellness programs, and financial planning resources offered through the EPC health and retirement programs. Come and be encouraged!

Bart Francescone serves as Executive Director of EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 22

BUILDING RETIREMENT SAVINGS AND TAX-EXEMPT HOUSING EXPENSE WITHDRAWAL

Organization: EPC Benefit Resources, Inc.
Host: Bart Francescone
Location: Room 248

Come to learn more about your EPC 403(b)(9) Retirement Plan and what you can do to build your retirement nest egg. You will hear about the free personal investment counseling and retirement planning resources available and get your questions answered. Did you know that ordained EPC ministers can withdraw funds to cover housing expenses on a tax-exempt basis? Come and find out how.

DISCERNING AND ENGAGING THE CULTURE THROUGH FILM

Organization: EPC Church Health Coordinators
Host: Ritchey Cable
Location: Room 225 (Fireside Room)

Popular-culture films and Christians have a complex relationship. Some believers divide films and other media into “secular” and “sacred” categories and boycott those things which are not “Christian,” while others watch or listen to whatever they want with very little discernment about the themes washing over them. A common way we evaluate the worth of a film is simply based upon the content of evil portrayed, rather than having any other meaningful ways to interpret and evaluate the media we view.

Films are a glimpse into the soul of the culture that made them. Learning to “read” the films and other art of the culture is an excellent step in learning how to apply the gospel to the individuals living in our modern-day society.

TE Ritchey Cable, Pastor of Gashland Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, wrote and produced a feature-length film called “The Author.” He was not trying to create Christian entertainment, but rather he had a desire to put forward a movie, written from a biblical worldview, that encouraged the viewer to ask questions around the theme of God’s sovereignty.

Join us for practical ways to understand popular culture and the media that flows from it, as well as hear creative ideas of how we as Christians can add meaningful contributions to the world of the arts.

HEALTHY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN CHURCH PLANTING

Organization: Hopewell Equipping & Counseling Ministry Center, Northampton Church Planting Network
Host: Cron Gibson
Location: Orchard 1 and 2

There are many tensions that need to be balanced while planting a church and developing leaders. This lunch conversation will give you a beginning point to help you develop teams that balance the needs for safe belonging and needed productivity. You will learn how to identify what drives the strain, how to create relationally systemic change, and reduce the stress you experience between establishing a plant and caring well for people. When teams embrace both needs people flourish, productivity increases, and missional engagement just happens.

Cron Gibson is the Founder and Executive Director of Hopewell Equipping and Counseling Ministry Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

ITEN PARTNERSHIP AND TRAINING MINISTRIES

Organization: EPC World Outreach
Host: Mike Kuhn
Location: Room 197

EPC World Outreach’s International Theological Education Network (ITEN) will provide an update to stakeholders and interested EPC members on the status of partnership and training ministries in diverse locations including Vietnam, Sierra Leone, and Ukraine.

Mike Kuhn serves as Director of the International Theological Education Network of EPC World Outreach.

LITURGICAL WORSHIP, THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE, AND PRESBYTERIANISM

Organization: Westminster Society
Host: Zac Hicks
Location: Room 170

The Westminster Society is a networking group of EPC pastor-theologians that seeks to promote confessional churchmanship within our denomination. Zac Hicks serves as Pastor of Church of the Cross, an EPC church plant in Birmingham, Alabama.

NEXT GENERATION MISSIONS

PASTORAL LETTER OF RACIAL LAMENT AND HOPE

Organization: Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope 
Host: Gerrit Dawson
Location: Room 173

Hear the process and progress of the first year’s work of the Interim Committee on Pastoral Letter of Racial Lament and Hope. Help us shape the next months of our work: Ask questions, raise concerns, offer insights, and engage with one another on the urgent question of the biblical perspective on racism and racial reconciliation.

Gerrit Dawson is the Co-Chairman of the interim committee and serves as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

PASTORS’ WIVES LUNCH

Organization: Cherry Hills Community Church Women’s Ministry
Host: Ramona Spilman
Location: Valor High School Upper Lobby

Ladies: Join us as we discover how to embrace the call of ministry on our families’ lives and connect with other women who are walking a similar journey. In addition to sharing a meal we will spend time learning together, praying for another, and cultivating new friendships.

REACHING A GENERATION LIKE NONE OTHER

Organization: Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO)
Host: Jen Burkholder
Location: Pavilion 1

Gen Z is America’s biggest generation and part of a global trend—nearly half of the world’s population is 25 and under. These young people are coming of age in a tumultuous time. The world has shifted under our feet, and the university is affected at a faster pace than the rest of culture. Academia has changed and is changing. Institutions are increasingly distrusted and in flux. And yet the campus remains the most strategic mission field for the gospel of any in the world. From the beginning, the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) has existed to promote cross-generational transformation. CCO partners with local churches to reach the campus and integrates students into the life of the church where the missional energy flows both ways. Why? Because students need to practice finding and connecting to a local body of believers so their faith will be nurtured for the long term. And when churches reach out beyond their walls, they embody the Gospel they proclaim. In an age of increasing isolation and division, the inter-generational body of Christ can be a sign of healing and hope.

Join us to learn more about what God is doing among the next generation through campus ministry in partnership with the local church, and how your church can get involved!

Jen Burkholder serves as Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Coalition for Christian Outreach, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

THE AWAKENING POWER OF A GREAT QUESTION

Organization: PastorServe
Hosts: Dave Meserve
Location: Pavilion 2

The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters; but one who has insight draws them out. (Proverbs 20:5, NIV). What if asking questions was the key to drawing out what is most important in a life? What if the right question could awaken the heart of your congregants, your neighbors, or even awaken yourself? The gospel advances by asking as well as by telling! In this networking lunch led by three curious ministry coaches, we will explore together the penetrating art of question-asking and active listening.

Dave Meserve serves as an Affiliate Coach in the Rocky Mountain Region for PastorServe.

THE POWER OF REST: EMBRACING SABBATICALS FOR MINISTRY HEALTH

Organization: PIR Ministries
Hosts: Roy Yanke
Location: Room 250

Rest as “power” seems like a contradiction. But in God’s upside-down economy, the bent is to see rest as crucial to our flourishing and as the foundation for doing good work is wise and fruitful. In this lunch gathering, we will explore together the importance and value of sabbaticals for both the pastor and the church. Steps to building a great sabbatical plan will also be discussed. This lunch is meant for Teaching Elders, spouses, and Ruling Elders.

Roy Yanke serves as Executive Director of PIR Ministries in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

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