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Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

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Women’s Leadership Training 2010

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The two hundred and fifty participants of the 2010 CEP Women’s Ministries Leadership Conference will enjoy remembering some of the pieces of this great weekend of training and encouragement.

For those who missed it, for those who have never come, we want to give you a snapshot taste of the weekend…we hope you will be with us in 2011!

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Click here to view the Conference Image Gallery

Women told us:


  • “I have never had a conference impact me as much as this one did. I am so excited to expand my understanding of the concepts presented…I have been giving a lot of thought to the legacy I want to leave behind.”
  • “I am proud to be a woman in this denomination.”
  • One first-time attendee summed up the conference well: “excellent teaching, valuable training, and warm fellowship,” sending the women back to their ministries “informed and inspired.”

Highlights:


  • Jerram Barrs’ teaching on the book of Ruth showed us how Boaz’ example stands as a miniature depicting God’s missionary calling in front of the backdrop of lawlessness and rebellion in Israel (similar to the times we live in).
  • Tara Barthel sent us home thinking on the value and importance of woman-to-woman discipleship.
  • Three workshop periods with five workshops offered in each
  • Times scheduled for women to be with others in their geographic regions.
  • An opportunity for leadership women to meet with those in similar leadership roles.
  • A denominational night in which we saw the “big picture” of the PCA.
  • Fellowship around the dinner table.
  • …and a bit of fun and laughter!

Missed it? You can still benefit! A flash drive of all general sessions and most workshops can be ordered online. Visit the CEP Bookstore. Downloads are also available of the general sessions and each of the workshop sessions (four of the five workshops are available in each session).

Click on the links below for conference resources, and check back for updates!

Power Point Presentations and other Handouts:

Jerram Barrs

Ruth I (Plenary session) – PowerPoint

Ruth II (Plenary session) – PowerPoint

Ruth III (Plenary session) – PowerPoint

Questions to go along with Ruth – PDF

God’s Law and Our Renewal in the Image of God (Workshop) – PowerPoint

Sherrie Drury

Leading Them, Loving Them (Workshop) – PowerPoint

A Man’s Guide to Work

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A Man’s Guide to Work

Excerpts from:A Man’s Guide to Work: 12 Ways to Honor God on the Job, By Pat Morley

YOU WERE CREATED TO WORK, and you will feel most happy, most alive, and most useful when you are doing the work you were created to do.

Unfortunately, over 50 percent of all workers are dissatisfied with their jobs — a record high — and as many as 80 percent are not in jobs best suited for them. That’s tragic, since about half of your 112 waking hours each week will be devoted to work and your work commute.

Most men do not have what we might call “a theology of work.” They feel theologically stranded-left to cobble together their own doctrine of work. They have not been trained for the marketplace.

Ask most Christian men, “Is business or plumbing a calling, like being a pastor? What is God’s purpose for you in the marketplace?” or a dozen similar questions, and you will probably get blank stares. That’s not because the Bible is thin on the subject. Far from it. The Bible is replete with wisdom for every work situation you will ever encounter.

MEN WHO FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST are an occupation force “ordained” to serve in the markets of men. We should regard work not just as a platform for ministry — work is ministry, and we are stewards put in charge until Jesus comes back, a fifth column who infiltrate a world stained by sin, acting as salt that preserves the way of Christ and light that leads broken people out of darkness.

Same Work, Two Results

Picture two airline ticket agents. They do exactly the same job, but one views his work as something he does to earn money, so when he finishes his shift, he can do what he really wants to do. He is easily irritated by customers complaining when their travel plans go awry.

The second agent views his work as a calling. Every time someone comes to him with a problem, he sees it as an opportunity to serve the customer and represent his great God. The agent does what he was called to do to the glory of God, even when facing resistance from a particular customer.

That second ticket agent understands the big idea of this chapter: Whether you’re a businessman or a minister, your work is a calling. It has intrinsic value, and it has potential to bear eternal fruit that honors God.

Read the rest of the article http://www.maninthemirror.org/alm/alm180.htm

2010 Women in the Church Love Gift

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Click here to read about the history and the purpose of the WIC Love Gift

“Making the Gospel-the good news of the coming of the Kingdom-accessible to all, in word and deed.”

Jesus Christ beautifully models for us how to relate to people with special needs: with dignity, grace, truth, genuine hospitality, mercy, justice and faithfulness. When we learn to see people with disabilities through Jesus’ eyes, we end up seeing all people-including ourselves-more accurately as a result. Focusing on both our shared value as God’s image bearers and our common need for grace motivates us to make the Gospel more accessible to people with special needs. Whether this happens through community outreach, church inclusion, mercy ministry, or adapted discipleship-in God’s kindness-the Gospel ends up becoming more deeply meaningful and accessible to those of us with less-noticeable-disabilities as well. All of us need the good news of the coming of the Kingdom. All of us need to experience the Gospel every day in word and deed. And that is, at the core, what MNA Special Needs Ministries is all about: Equipping and encouraging PCA churches to make the Gospel accessible to all, in word and deed.

How will the 2010 Women in the Church (WIC) Love Gift help?

Your generous gifts will enable us to provide the following:

  • The Gospel and Disability Educational Gift Packs: Practical resources for developing special needs ministries that are built on sound biblical principles rooted in Reformed theology. They will be distributed to 500 PCA churches.
  • Trainer Development: Equipping trainers who will work one-on-one with local PCA congregations and help them to develop self-sustaining local disability ministries and network with similar ministries in their geographic regions.
  • Luke 14 Matching Grants: Made available to PCA churches that are starting new initiatives to serve individuals and families touched by disability in their local congregations or their communities. “Go out…and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23).

Watch the 2010 Love Gift Video:

Use the following links as resources for this year’s WIC Love Gift:

Love Gift Bulletin Insert (Acrobat Reader Required)

Love Gift Program Information (Acrobat Reader Required) – Information and ideas to use along with the Love Gift video.

Order the Love Gift Bulletin Inserts – Get these inserts free to distribute in your church.

Order the Love Gift DVD – Get a free copy of the DVD to show in your church.

The “Rest of the Story…” – Follow up and get to know the families and congregations featured in the Love Gift video.

MNA Special Needs Ministries Website

Please make your check payable to:

2010 WIC Love Gift and mail to: Women in the Church
Christian Education and Publications
1700 N. Brown Road, Suite 102
Lawrenceville, GA
www.pcacep.org

How We Teach and How They Learn, Part 4 – The Imaginative Learner

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Previously we have covered in brief the four basic ways we process information. Now we will focus on each one. First the Imaginative, or Concrete-Experience, learners.

Each learning style is asking a different question, and unless you as the teacher or preacher understand how to answer that question, you may not reach this learner. (These same learning styles characteristics are true of those sitting in the pews listening to sermons as well. So pastors, listen up.) The Imaginative learner is asking why – why do I need to know this? Convince him or her that what you have to say is important and you will have a willing listener.

Imaginative learners like to talk in broad overview and not details. They see the big picture, but not the tiny dots that compose the picture. They learn by listening and sharing ideas. What scares teachers is that the more they talk the more they learn. This is hard for many of us to grasp, but they need to talk through the information they are processing. They don’t learn well from lectures, which is true of 3 out of these 4 learning styles (sorry those of you who like to speak a lot!).

Read the entire issue of Equip in PDF format (Acrobat Reader required)

These are very social folk who are sociable and sensitive, sometimes too much so. They are willing to help others sometimes even to their own hurt. They are empathetic over against sympathetic.

When they are confronted with truths, they translate it into what they see in people, usually other people.

These learners enjoy interactive activities, and they work best in a noisy environment (sorry teachers).

Win-lose activities don’t work for them as they do not want to see anyone left out or ‘hurt’ by not winning. (These are not the ones you want on your debate team!)

People in this category can be very color sensitive. I can work in a sterile white room, but for them this would be a distraction. If you have ever studied the effects color has on people, you know that pastels work best. But be careful not to have too much color as that distracts almost everyone.

Now, how do you reach these folk so that they learn? First of all don’t expect to be the director of information. They want to be actively involved in the learning experience (true of 3 of the 4 groups). If you want them to learn, direct them to finding the right answers you would have otherwise told them yourself. (Remember, the things they hear once, they will forget 90% of in one week. The things they are involved in they can remember as much as 90% over their lifetime! Make your teaching count.)

What is interesting about the question they ask, why, is that it is easy to answer. When you begin any lesson or sermon by motivating them to what to hear more, you’ve got them. This is what we tell preachers in homiletics to make the introduction to the sermon. Let me explain. I have had many students tell me that they did not like history. So, whenever I taught a course that was involved history I had to begin by explaining what difference knowing this information could make in their lives and ministries. Once they understood that, they were now motivated to stay with me for the rest of the course.

Remember, in any class you teach, or any sermon you preach, you can probably expect that 75% of your listeners do not process information the same way you do. The more you understand, and implement, what you now know about these other learning styles, the more effective you will be. This is not ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit, it is understanding how He made us in the first place.

The Women in the Church Love Gift

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From the earliest days of the PCA, women cared for and supported our new denomination through the annual Women in the Church Love Gift Offering.

To date, $2,983,710 has been given as God has used women in the church to love and support the ministries of the PCA.

Listed below are the needs/projects from PCA Committees and Agencies coupled with the response of God’s people.

The purpose of the annual WIC Love Gift is to promote denominational connectionalism and demonstrate our corporate helper-design as women in the church. The gift rotates annually among all the PCA Committees and Agencies.

Showing the annual WIC Love Gift in your church does several things: It educates the people in the pew, promotes unity and greater understanding of the PCA and provides good opportunities for monies to be appropriately channeled to specific ministry needs.


Women in the Church Love Gift History







































Year – Committee/Agency Amount
2010 – Mission to North America – Special Needs Ministries $122,000
2009 – Administrative Committee $45,000
2008 – Christian Education and Publications – Children’s and Youth Ministries $80,900
2007 – PCA Retirement and Benefits, Inc. – Survivor Assistance Service $92,000
2006 – Mission to the World – Street Child Ministries $200,000
2005 – Covenant College – Art Equipment $55,000
2004 – Mission to North America – Advance and Strengthen ESL ministries throughout the PCA $78,000
2003 – Reformed University Ministries – Establish and sustain RUF across the United States of America $78,600
2002 – Christian Education and Publications Children’s Ministry $83,000
2001 – Ridge Haven – Renovate and remodel facilities, add playground, and update grounds $72,420
2000 – Mission to the World – Develop mercy ministry manual and commnity health ministry in Port Elizabeth, South Africa $108,350
1999 – Covenant Theological Seminary Uniting Hearts in Ministry Scholarship $104,984
1998 – Mission to North America Multicultural Church Planting $118,853
1997 – Christian Education and Publications Youth Ministries Department $111,000
1996 – Office of the Stated Clerk Office Equipment $90,027
1995 – Mission to the World – Scholarships for missionary kids to attend Covenatn College $135,576
1994 – Covenant College – Establish a visiting lecturer program $83,500
1993 – Mission to North America – Church planting partnership fund $129,000
1992 – Christian Education and Publications – Expand the WIC Ministry $104,000
1991 – Insurance, Annuities, and Relief Widow’s Ministry $96,000
1990 – Mission to the World – Missionary retreats $100,700
1989 – Ridge Haven – Establish and Office of Development $125,000
1988 – Mission to North America – New York City church planting project $128,000
1987 – Christian Education and Publications – Expand WIC Ministry $74,000
1986 – Covenant Seminary – Expand the Family Nurture Project $100,000
1985 – Office of the Stated Clerk – Equip and staff PCA Archives $56,000
1984 – Covenant College – Refurbish lobby $60,000
1983 – Mission to the World – Develop family life audio visuals in Spanish for Ecuador $40,600
1982 – Mission to North America – Facilities for PCA center in Manhattan $60,400
1981 – Christian Education and Publications – Purchase audio visual equipment and materials $34,000
1980 – Ridge Haven – Equip the kitchen $40,000
1979 – Mission to the World – Build churches in Ecuador and Mexico $40,000
1978 – Mission to North America – Purchase mobile chapels $38,000
1977 – Christian Education and Publications – Publish a Youth Ministries Manual $31,400
1976 – Mission to the World – Support the Tuberculosis Clinic in Korea $29,400
1975 – Mission to North America – Produce and broadcast media spots $20,000
1974 – Help the General Assembly permanent committee equip their offices $18,000