Smart Start Sessions
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| Associates Smart Start | There is no single portfolio for ministry as an associate or assistant in an Episcopal congregation. Some lead specialized ministries. Others supervise ministry and program staff. Still others serve as the chief of staff within a congregation. The variations within this role make it one of the more interesting and complex in the church. In this Smart Start, through a combination of plenary sessions and facilitated break-outs with colleagues in similar roles, we will help associates develop their leadership capacities while responding to the challenges and opportunities inherent in their role in changed and changing churches. -Explore the vocation of an associate by defining your leadership role in a CEEP Network congregation -Learn about the changing landscape of American congregational life -- and how that impacts lay and clergy leaders -Identify areas for learning, growth, and change in your practice of congregational leadership -Discuss ministry challenges and opportunities in a cohort of colleagues | The Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick, The Rev. Alan Bentrup, and Missy Morain | Associates Track |
| Before, During and After: Handling Communications Crisis in Ways that Strengthen Your Community | Participants in these sessions will learn how to prepare--well in advance--to communicate effectively during a crisis; how to respond during the crisis itself, and how to help interested parties understand when the time has come to move beyond a crisis. The sessions will cover a variety of situations ranging from natural disasters to instances of misconduct, including those involving legal and church disciplinary processes. | Jim Naughton and Kathleen Moore | Communications Track |
| Congregationalists with Bishops? Effective Lay Leadership | Lay leaders are key to the future of our Church and your leadership ensures our ability to support and sustain ministry in the coming years. With clergy retirements and increasing bi-vocational callings, the lay leadership of our churches is more critical than ever to making our parishes work in ways permitting the gathering of congregations and effecting the Gospel work. This session, facilitated by the Rev. Dr. James Lemler, a CEEP Network founder, will offer multiple ways to engage in a conversation about the ministry of vestries and wardens - the front-lines of parochial lay leadership. The Rev. Meghan Froehlich, The Episcopal Church’s Director of Transition Ministry, will lead us through anti-bias training to help us think broadly about the nature and character of leadership within our parishes. We will move through this discussion of who we are and how we lead into peer-to-peer conversations and learning led by CEEP Network Board member Anne Schmidt and the Rev. Scott Gunn, Executive Director of Forward Movement, as we ask the questions that will strengthen your lay leadership in your parish’s unique setting. | The Rev. Dr. James Lemler, The Rev. Scott Gunn, Anne Schmidt, and The Rev. Meghan Froehlich | Vestry & Wardens Track |
| Endowment Smart Start | This Smart Start is for endowment leadership and all roles that connect with endowment. It offers learning at all levels with a goal to inspire, connect, and equip all attendees. We’ll cover topics to take you to the next level, including achieving endowment growth amidst rising risk. Understand your intentional endowment and road map. Capture learning for endowment structure best practices. Glean insights from a fiduciary pitfalls crash course. Asset managers from 19/19 Investment Counsel, Zevin Asset Management, Church Investment Group, the Episcopal Church Foundation, Intentional Endowments Network, and endowment experts from CEEP Network member parishes will present content and facilitate conversation. Join us to connect and learn with and from lay and clergy peers and expert practitioners. | Jim Murphy (ECF), JoAnn Hanson (CIG), John Reilly (19/19), Kevin Callahan (Zevin), Ernie Petrey, Mark Green, and Deirdre Mary McElroy | Endowment Track |
| Parish Administrators: Conversation and Connection | CEEP Network Administrators gather for our annual roundtable discussion about the hottest topics in managing parishes. This session is reserved for professional parish administrators. | Fred Staley, Wendy Mauney and George Plews | Parish Administrators Track |
| Rectors and Deans Gathering | Join peers from across the CEEP Network for private time with the Rev. Adam Hamilton of the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. Adam will present the vision his team has created for reaching beyond our walls to a society desperately seeking connection. In this age of deep division and tribalism across the nation with a fraying social contract and growing alienation, engage in a facilitated conversation with your peers around what questions we need to be asking at this moment to be of service. *Please note, the Rectors and Deans Gathering is for rectors and deans of cathedrals/seminaries only. | Presented by: The Rev. Adam Hamilton. Facilitated by The Rev. Canon Steven Lee and the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas. | Rectors & Deans Track |
| Stewardship for Everyone: Supporting & Sustaining Ministry as a Lay Person | The Stewardship for All Smart Start will engage you in conversation around the dramatic changes happening in philanthropy and what the latest research suggests for future ministry funding. Participants will receive in-depth knowledge of current church giving trends based on the latest and more comprehensive research to-date from the Lake Institute. On Day 2, we will specifically address the challenges you are experiencing as indicated in a pre-conference survey. We will be sharing resources for understanding and implementing best practices to help you achieve your ministry funding objectives. | Kristine Miller and Kurt McKinley | Stewardship for All Track |
| Stewardship for Professionals: Conversation & Connection for the Professional Fundraisers | The Stewardship Professionals welcomes our colleagues from across the Episcopal Church! We are excited to offer a stimulating Smart Start that will inspire you, give you some of the latest research on faith-based giving, and give you time to learn and share from your peers. The workshop will be facilitated by David Rocchio, Director of Stewardship at the Cathedral of St. Philip(GA) and Melissa Spas of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving(IN). We will kick-off our session with a theologically grounded presentation and discussion on relationship building and fundraising in a church setting. We'll then dive into the latest data to try to get a better understanding of the current trends in giving generally and churches, in particular. Finally, we'll bring it back to us and discuss successes and challenges in our parishes--it's a time designed for us to learn from each other, understand that we are in this together, and establish relationships that we can call on throughout the year. | David Rocchio and Melissa Spas | Stewardship for Professionals Track |
| Strategy Smart Start | We will discuss the dynamics of clergy and lay leadership as part of a “Strategy Network of People”, supported by practical tools and resources you can take home with you. This is your opportunity to take the first steps in developing a new strategy for your church, or you can use this process to critically review your existing strategy in light of the hard data available and a myriad of stories of success or not in making major change a reality We will seek to ensure a common understanding of the components of strategic planning, plus its implementation. What are your desired outcomes that form the vision for your church as we all adapt through major change to the world of tomorrow? We will consider how your strategic plan and approach needs to be adjusted based on the size and complexity of your church from the very small, through the medium to large churches and Cathedrals. The Strategy Smart-Start is for those leaders that need to explore this critical aspect of effective leadership, and will be supported by the three strategy workshops that are scheduled as part of the main conference. | Paul W. Coombs, Lauralyn Lee, and Adam MacDonald | Strategic Planning Track |
Track
Description:
Location:
Associates Smart Start
Associates Track
Description: There is no single portfolio for ministry as an associate or assistant in an Episcopal congregation. Some lead specialized ministries. Others supervise ministry and program staff. Still others serve as the chief of staff within a congregation. The variations within this role make it one of the more interesting and complex in the church. In this Smart Start, through a combination of plenary sessions and facilitated break-outs with colleagues in similar roles, we will help associates develop their leadership capacities while responding to the challenges and opportunities inherent in their role in changed and changing churches.
-Explore the vocation of an associate by defining your leadership role in a CEEP Network congregation
-Learn about the changing landscape of American congregational life -- and how that impacts lay and clergy leaders
-Identify areas for learning, growth, and change in your practice of congregational leadership
-Discuss ministry challenges and opportunities in a cohort of colleagues
The Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick, The Rev. Alan Bentrup, and Missy Morain
Location:
Before, During and After: Handling Communications Crisis in Ways that Strengthen Your Community
Communications Track
Description: Participants in these sessions will learn how to prepare--well in advance--to communicate effectively during a crisis; how to respond during the crisis itself, and how to help interested parties understand when the time has come to move beyond a crisis. The sessions will cover a variety of situations ranging from natural disasters to instances of misconduct, including those involving legal and church disciplinary processes.
Jim Naughton and Kathleen Moore
Location:
Congregationalists with Bishops? Effective Lay Leadership
Vestry & Wardens Track
Description: Lay leaders are key to the future of our Church and your leadership ensures our ability to support and sustain ministry in the coming years. With clergy retirements and increasing bi-vocational callings, the lay leadership of our churches is more critical than ever to making our parishes work in ways permitting the gathering of congregations and effecting the Gospel work. This session, facilitated by the Rev. Dr. James Lemler, a CEEP Network founder, will offer multiple ways to engage in a conversation about the ministry of vestries and wardens - the front-lines of parochial lay leadership. The Rev. Meghan Froehlich, The Episcopal Church’s Director of Transition Ministry, will lead us through anti-bias training to help us think broadly about the nature and character of leadership within our parishes. We will move through this discussion of who we are and how we lead into peer-to-peer conversations and learning led by CEEP Network Board member Anne Schmidt and the Rev. Scott Gunn, Executive Director of Forward Movement, as we ask the questions that will strengthen your lay leadership in your parish’s unique setting.
The Rev. Dr. James Lemler, The Rev. Scott Gunn, Anne Schmidt, and The Rev. Meghan Froehlich
Location:
Endowment Smart Start
Endowment Track
Description: This Smart Start is for endowment leadership and all roles that connect with endowment. It offers learning at all levels with a goal to inspire, connect, and equip all attendees. We’ll cover topics to take you to the next level, including achieving endowment growth amidst rising risk. Understand your intentional endowment and road map. Capture learning for endowment structure best practices. Glean insights from a fiduciary pitfalls crash course. Asset managers from 19/19 Investment Counsel, Zevin Asset Management, Church Investment Group, the Episcopal Church Foundation, Intentional Endowments Network, and endowment experts from CEEP Network member parishes will present content and facilitate conversation. Join us to connect and learn with and from lay and clergy peers and expert practitioners.
Jim Murphy (ECF), JoAnn Hanson (CIG), John Reilly (19/19), Kevin Callahan (Zevin), Ernie Petrey, Mark Green, and Deirdre Mary McElroy
Location:
Parish Administrators: Conversation and Connection
Parish Administrators Track
Description: CEEP Network Administrators gather for our annual roundtable discussion about the hottest topics in managing parishes. This session is reserved for professional parish administrators.
Fred Staley, Wendy Mauney and George Plews
Location:
Rectors and Deans Gathering
Rectors & Deans Track
Description: Join peers from across the CEEP Network for private time with the Rev. Adam Hamilton of the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. Adam will present the vision his team has created for reaching beyond our walls to a society desperately seeking connection. In this age of deep division and tribalism across the nation with a fraying social contract and growing alienation, engage in a facilitated conversation with your peers around what questions we need to be asking at this moment to be of service.
*Please note, the Rectors and Deans Gathering is for rectors and deans of cathedrals/seminaries only.
Presented by: The Rev. Adam Hamilton. Facilitated by The Rev. Canon Steven Lee and the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas.
Location:
Stewardship for Everyone: Supporting & Sustaining Ministry as a Lay Person
Stewardship for All Track
Description: The Stewardship for All Smart Start will engage you in conversation around the dramatic changes happening in philanthropy and what the latest research suggests for future ministry funding. Participants will receive in-depth knowledge of current church giving trends based on the latest and more comprehensive research to-date from the Lake Institute. On Day 2, we will specifically address the challenges you are experiencing as indicated in a pre-conference survey. We will be sharing resources for understanding and implementing best practices to help you achieve your ministry funding objectives.
Kristine Miller and Kurt McKinley
Location:
Stewardship for Professionals: Conversation & Connection for the Professional Fundraisers
Stewardship for Professionals Track
Description: The Stewardship Professionals welcomes our colleagues from across the Episcopal Church! We are excited to offer a stimulating Smart Start that will inspire you, give you some of the latest research on faith-based giving, and give you time to learn and share from your peers. The workshop will be facilitated by David Rocchio, Director of Stewardship at the Cathedral of St. Philip(GA) and Melissa Spas of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving(IN).
We will kick-off our session with a theologically grounded presentation and discussion on relationship building and fundraising in a church setting. We'll then dive into the latest data to try to get a better understanding of the current trends in giving generally and churches, in particular. Finally, we'll bring it back to us and discuss successes and challenges in our parishes--it's a time designed for us to learn from each other, understand that we are in this together, and establish relationships that we can call on throughout the year.
David Rocchio and Melissa Spas
Location:
Strategy Smart Start
Strategic Planning Track
Description: We will discuss the dynamics of clergy and lay leadership as part of a “Strategy Network of People”, supported by practical tools and resources you can take home with you. This is your opportunity to take the first steps in developing a new strategy for your church, or you can use this process to critically review your existing strategy in light of the hard data available and a myriad of stories of success or not in making major change a reality
We will seek to ensure a common understanding of the components of strategic planning, plus its implementation. What are your desired outcomes that form the vision for your church as we all adapt through major change to the world of tomorrow? We will consider how your strategic plan and approach needs to be adjusted based on the size and complexity of your church from the very small, through the medium to large churches and Cathedrals.
The Strategy Smart-Start is for those leaders that need to explore this critical aspect of effective leadership, and will be supported by the three strategy workshops that are scheduled as part of the main conference.
Paul W. Coombs, Lauralyn Lee, and Adam MacDonald
Location: