Jane

There were 2,000 participants who came together at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Ga., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for the PCA’s 5th Christian Education and Publications Women’s International Ministry Conference, Amazing Grace 360, emphasizing the whole Gospel for the whole life and whole world. Older women and younger women came from across the PCA with representatives from several countries where PCA ministry is realized. 200 of the participants were under 20 years of age and 200 were over 66 years of age.

With the confusion abroad about “grace” the conference sought to present a program that would encourage and enable the participants to understand the “it is all about God” who is a God of grace and mercy. That theme was carried throughout the conference with Nancy Guthrie leading the plenary sessions unfolding the whole story of: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (covered by Brian Habig mentioned below). Her messages were clear and set the stage for the more than 30 seminars on different aspects of the whole story.

500 of the participants came for the pre-conference events which featured Lydia Brownback as the plenary speaker and breakout seminars for that “pre-con” event. Kevin Twit and Indelible Grace (above, bottm left photo) effectively led the conference in the worship sessions. Kevin Twit is a PCA teaching elder and has assisted CEP and the women’s conferences on previous occasions.

One of the highlights of the conference, along with the good solid teaching and warm fellowship of the participants, was a Friday night concert, featuring Laura Story (second from right) an accomplished singer and songwriter and winner of the prestigious Dove Award for her album Great God Who Saves, and who serves on the worship leadership team at Perimeter PCA Church in Duluth, Ga. And Saturday night there was a concert featuring Kevin Twit and Indelible Grace.

Indelible Grace has produced a number of CDs, featuring some of the great hymns often set to new music. Kevin is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary. He is also an RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) campus minister at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Read entire issue of Equip to Disciple, 4th Quarter 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

Another highlight of the conference came following the Saturday night dinner, as PCA women from across the country and from more than eight countries were introduced who brought greetings from such locations as: United States, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, Canada, West Africa, Greece, Korea, Latin America, the Caribbean, Far East Asia, and Europe. The evening session was narrated and led by Barbara Thompson of Zachary, Louisiana, and Susan Phyllis of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The theme for the evening was appropriately called, “faces of grace.” During that evening session the wives of PCA military chaplains, especially those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, were asked to stand to an auditorium filled with a standing ovation for their families’ service to God and our country’s security.

Joni Erickson Tada addressed the conference via video and brought encouraging words to those who have known suffering and the Lord’s faithfulness in sustaining them through difficult times. Nancy Guthrie (above, fourth from left) who had experienced the pain of losing two children was able to meet with many of the mothers present with similar experiences. A fitting climax of the Saturday evening event was remembering Georgia Settle, now with the Lord, who served as the first coordinator of women’s ministry with CEP and the PCA. Her husband Paul, a former coordinator of CEP, was welcomed. He brought a brief message and prayer for the conference.

Brian Habig concluded the conference in the Sunday morning worship with a message from Romans 8 entitled “Home.” The morning message drew together the “consummation perspective,” in a most effective way- the theme and the variations on that theme went throughout the conference. Habig, a former RUF minister, presently serves as pastor of Downtown Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

Another of the highlights of the conference was giving the participants an opportunity to see the more than 50 exhibits, featuring a variety of “Christian” ministries in the church, and other church related ministries. They also had an opportunity to see and purchase the many training resources and study materials that were available from CEP. One of the participants remarked, “I have never seen so many good resources relating to women’s ministry in one place.”

CEP Coordinator Charles Dunahoo said before the conference, “We have carefully designed the entire conference around the theme Amazing Grace 360- focusing on God’s grace, not from an ‘easy believism’ concept of grace, but from a biblical historical redemptive focus on Christ and his sufficiency. The conference highlighted, “The whole Gospel, the Whole life, and the Whole World.” As the conference ended, Dunahoo said “God allowed us to experience that purpose in even greater measures than anticipated.”

Jane Patete, CEP’s women’s ministry coordinator said, “Our prayer was for the Triune God to be lifted before the conference in teaching, fellowship, prayer, and singing the songs of the Kingdom, and that we all would be reminded of his redeeming grace and equipped to live and serve as the citizens of His Kingdom.” As the conference closed, she remarked, “God answered our prayer, to Him be the glory.” DVDs of Nancy Guthrie’s sessions, along with audio of the entire conference, are available from the CEP Bookstore.

Please choose one of the following resources to read in preparation for coming to Leadership Training 2011. (We are full of grace, so there will be no test if you don’t!)

These selected resources will:

1. Focus our hearts, minds, and ministry goals on the God and Gospel that calls us to serve.
2. Remind us that it is not the latest marketing trends, nor well-crafted strategies, but humble, broken, obedient, prayinghearts tuned to God’s call of kingdom service and leadership founded on a biblical, covenantal approach to ministry.

A summary is available for each of the following-just click on the title. These are available through the CEP Bookstore. Call 1-800-283-1357 or visit www.cepbookstore.com to order.

• Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders – a classic!
• The Heart of a Servant Leader – C. Jon Miller – pastoral, compassionate letters that model biblical leadership for the reader
• Leadership for Women in the Church -Susan Hunt and Peggy Hutcheson – another classic!
• Women’s Ministry in the Local Church – J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt
• Leading with a Limp – Dan B. Allender – What God can do with flawed leaders!
• Leading with Love – Alexander Strauch
• The Enduring Community – Brian Habig and Les Newsom – A useful picture of what the Bible has to say about His Church – a good training tool for leaders
• The Church – Richard Phillips, Philip Ryken, Mark Dever -Reminds us of the context of our call to leadership and service – “The Church is the vessel for the display of God’s glory throughout the world.”

The location was Nashville, a city filled with history and music, rebounding from a disastrous flood. The hosts were the nineteen churches of Nashville Presbytery who prepared for the PCA family with a concert of prayer and planning.

1, 311 commissioners filled the Convention Hall to deliberate and do the business of the church. To learn more of the discussion and actions of this Assembly, go to www.pcaac.org to find pictorial remembrances and the wide ranging issues that were before the commissioners.

Dr. Harry Reeder, pastor of the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama, was elected without opposition as Moderator. His superb and charitable leadership was noted by all.

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The activities for wives of ruling and teaching elders were many:

• Specific times to gather for fellowship and prayer for the commissioners
• Selection from fifty-eight seminars ranging from godly grandparenting, how to understand and incorporate social networking into your ministry, the role of women as counselors, to looking at the minister and wife as they work in tandem in kingdom building.
• Bookstore time – meeting and greeting PCA women authors/seminar speakers
• Two days filled with programs designed to strengthen and encourage ministry marriages
• Relational opportunities to take tours ranging from an emphasis on mercy ministry to seeing sights of the Athens of the South; and time for being creative.
• A well planned and executed schedule for our children – one father wrote saying his children thought they were attending a great summer camp!
• Time to join other wives in the gallery to follow the discussion and debate on the Strategic Plan (see website listed above)
• The joy of family worship and the Indelible Grace hymn sing in the Ryman Auditorium added to our corporate fellowship.

Over 400 women attended Christian Education and Publications’ planned events. On Wednesday, they were given a beneficial glimpse filled with sweet transparency, into the challenges and opportunities of ministry and marriage. Darlene and Scotty Smith, Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN, along with Teresa Sugar, Director of Women’s Ministries, Christ Presbyterian Church, led us in testimony, strong teaching, and song. This was followed by a lovely luncheon planned by our Nashville hosts.

On Thursday morning, many of us enjoyed a time of refreshment, singing God’s praises and receiving outstanding teaching. Buddy Green, well known entertainer, and ruling PCA elder, brought his love for Jesus and the hymns of the church to encourage us in our Christian walk; Nancy Guthrie, noted author and Bible teacher, spoke to us on the hope and grace of being eternally yoked to the Solid Rock.

Many men, women, and children left Nashville and the 38^th General Assembly of the PCA with a renewed appreciation for this city and for the servant hearts of so many who worked against great physical distractions to make us feel welcomed and cared for.

Now it is time to pray for and anticipate the 39^th General Assembly, June 7- 10, 2011, in Virginia Beach, VA.

Believing that present and future generations need to know what God has been doing in the PCA’s ministry to women, this edition of the PCA’s Women’s Ministry Resource Quarterly introduces a new look and an opportunity to share more information by using the web. But, to appreciate “the new,” it’s important to have a quick look at the history of our publication:

• It all began in 1978: The Committee on Christian Education and Publications (CEP) began to print a WIC newsletter, An Occasional Newsletter from
  the Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee.
  

• Some years later the name was changed to The Local President’s Resource Letter with five issues per year.

• 1993: The WIC Resource Letter was published six times a year.

• In 2002 a newly titled The WIC Resource Quarterly was moved to a quarterly format.

• This first issue of 2010 marks a significant milestone for us. The PCA Women’s Ministry Resource Quarterly comes to you through the mail as a four page, four color publication and a link to our website with more articles and resources.

Throughout the changing names, the purpose has been constant: to help CEP carry out the mission of training, encouraging, and networking PCA women in leadership in order that they might use it to equip and disciple others to love the Lord through His church.

We hope that you will celebrate this “coming of age” in this equipping piece! We pray that it will continue to connect us to one another, across lifestyles, geography, and generations as a covenantal community of sisters in Christ.

Aware of the growing number and significant leadership role of Directors of Women’s Ministries in local PCA churches, CEP continues to provide a defined fellowship aimed at equipping these women for ministries that unite with an overall Christian education and discipleship focus.

During the past seven years of hosting this event, we have been greatly encouraged by “where we are” in God’s providence. We see discernable kingdom fruit that has accrued from CEP’s strategic outreach to women serving on church staffs. For this reason, we have gone forward in offering another educational and networking event for women who are serving as full-time or part-time paid staff women in a local church.

CEP is ably assisted in planning by Donna Dobbs, Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian in Jackson, Mississippi, and Cathy Wilson, former Director of Women at Kirk of the Hills in St. Louis, Missouri. Cathy is a former Women in the Church Trainer and currently the WASC representative for the Mid-America region. These women work with Jane Patete, CEP Coordinator of Women’s Ministries, to plan a conference that addresses and provides:

• Equipping for Word-centered curricula selection, design, and focus.
• Beneficial peer relationships.
• Spiritual refreshment.
• Denominational context.
• Informed discussions on key ministry issues.

Dr. Dan Doriani, adjunct professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary and pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri; Joel Belz, PCA ruling elder, founder and former CEO of World Magazine; and Dr. Donald Guthrie, Associate Professor of Educational Ministries at Covenant Theological Seminary, were recent speakers and point to the high caliber of training that is offered.

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At the 2009 Directors of Women’s Ministries Retreat, Nate Shurden, teaching elder at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, was the speaker. Nate led sessions designed to help participants learn how to biblically get to the heart of the matter in the counseling opportunities that seem to abound within a local church. One highlight of the event, which took place August 3-5 at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, was the time set aside for robust discussion that helped apply the gospel to people’s life situations, strengthened peer connections, and brought personal refreshment and equipping tools for ministry.

Nate Shurden received a B.A. in Moral Philosophy from Bannockburn College and a Master of Divinity (Counseling) from Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS. Nate is currently Minister of Discipleship & Young Adults at First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, and the Shelf Life Editor for reformation21, the online magazine of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.