We talked ADVENT

Trinity Presbytery
Youth Workers, Educators, and Pastors
met for lunch this past Tuesday, Sept 19

This group is a place for Christian Educators, Youth Ministry Professionals, Volunteers in Youth Ministry, and Pastors to connect, share news and offer support for our common ministries as we serve churches and ministries in Trinity Presbytery and beyond.

See below our gathering times for this year, see what's happening, and get some new ideas.
We hope you can join us!

Thank you First Pres for hosting our gathering and providing our lunch!

The topic was Advent and we shared lots of resources for advent gatherings, plays, devotions, and worship. Brookline offered to create a google docs forum for posting all our brilliant ideas.

We welcomed two new folks to our group:

Brooklynn Smith as the Youth Director at McGreggor

and Linda Nevling as DCE at Providence in West Columbia


If we have your information incorrect, please reply to this message.
If you know of staff changes in our presbytery, let us know that too.


Discussion Topic - Advent
We all shared our favorite ideas for Advent including festivals, plays, musical presentations, activities, and devotional materials. What a wealth of resources we all have between us.


Brooklynn has already jumped in and offered to create a Google Docs online for us to post our favorite ideas. I will have Lisa post the link on our website and I'll post on FB. Thank you!

I found a few good Stations of the Creche, Crib, or Nativity by
Leader Resources and several other downloadable versions. There is also a Children's book that I went ahead and ordered to see what it was all about.

If you wish for Amazon to designate a portion of any of your amazon purchases, use AmazonSmile and choose your organization. I've chosen to designate all my amazon purchases to APCE to support other educators.

Announcements for the Good of the Group
Announcements from the Group:
  • Emily Kienker brought Winter Camp Flyers and Camp Fellowship and announced upcoming pre-camp preview weekend in the new year.
  • Emily distributed new contact picture cards.
  • APCE in Louisville Registration is open! Jan 31-Feb 3. Let's take a big group from our Presbytery. Scholarships available. See link below.
  • SOAP (South Atlantic Puerto Rico) will host a Beyond the Box Retreat at St. Simons Island. See below for more info. We have 8 coming from our Presbytery! Scholarships are still available.
  • Erin Morgan from Youth Council announced the Great Big Youth Retreat happening on November 17-19. We need at least 125 youth to participate. See link below.
  • Chris Denny would like to create a Mission Yearbook for our Presbytery where different churches submit their best stories and outreach ministries.
  • Westminster is participating in the Great American Hymn Sing with area churches this weekend.
  • If you need to outsource your graphic design, talk to Chris. Westminster's set up is working really well.
  • Westminster is starting the Jesus Creed as a Wed. night series.
  • Chris at Westminster is using Faith5 which is a 4 week series about "Will the Next Generation have Faith?" Each week in worship he is preaching/teaching a simple spiritual practice for families to do at home. The goal being every night every family to share these 5 simple acts of faith.We printed and shared the attached booklet with all age families at church. I am adapting/sharing the ideas from faith5.org which seems to be really simple and really do able. A church out west has been encouraging faith5 for several years. the pastor posts a weekly guide for sharing faith at home: http://boldrecklessgrace.org/category/grace-at-home/. Chris passed out copies.
  • Andrea Paschal distributed drafts of guidelines and asked for input and participation, if possible, in the newly developing Discipleship and Networking Division of the Presbytery.
  • We talked about possibly having a POINT (Presbyterians Organized for Nurture and Training) Person designated for each Presbytery Cluster.
  • The 222nd General Assembly of the PC(USA) commissioned a special committee to explore and discern what Christian Education and Faith Formation look like in the future. Please help give feedback by participating in this survey - Survey Link


Upcoming Lunches in 2017
Tuesday, October 17
12:30-2:00 pm

607 Woodrow St, Columbia, SC 29205

Bring $5 for the church lunch line or you can bring your own

Thank you for hosting Ashley Lidikay
alidikay@shandonpresbyterian.org

What should the suggested topic be next?
We are skipping November due to Thanksgiving and we moved our December gathering a little earlier in the month so that it won't be so long between gatherings.

Tuesday, December 5
12:30-2:00 pm

Christmas Lunch Gathering

Forest Lake Presbyterian Church

Contact Person: Andrea Paschal
andreapaschal@flpc.org

Info from last month
In August, we were grateful to Ronda Benson for hosting our lunch gathering. It was good to come back together after the summer break.
We ate and shared resources we were each using for our grade levels and some other "just plain good" resources for any age. I'll bring a copy of what I have next Tuesday.

Chris Denny from Westminster Church shared his workshop resources for The Art and Soul of Praying and Praying in Color. Click on the links for a pdf student and leader version.


Jennifer Stanley, from Thornwell, shared a Faith Interview Assessment Tool she likes to use with entering children/youth.
Event Links
Good News!
Five scholarships are now available in our Presbytery in the amount of $135 for anyone to attend Beyond the Box Nov 2-4 or APCE in Louisville, KY Jan 31-Feb 3.

To apply, please bug Croskeys Royall CRoyall@eastminsterpres.org who is the temporary Chair of Education and Networking Division.
Beyond the Box: Innovation, Creativity, and Risk in Faith Formation 
November 2-4 - Especially if you didn't get to go to APCE this past year! 

Prayers for our entire SOAP Region through the recent Hurricanes. Please let us know if any Churches are sending groups through PDA that would be open to other congregations.
Click the button below to check
Trinity Presbytery Education and Youth Ministry Facebook page
As always, please let me know if I can help promote anything that's happening! And don't forget to promote on our Facebook Page.

Peace, Allison Kelly
Children and Families, South Aiken Pres