Dear District Family,

Julie and I want to express our appreciation for your generous Christmas gift. We are deeply grateful for your sacrifice, especially during these challenging economic times. We thank God for you, your ministries and your faithfulness to the mission God has given us. May 2023 be time of much fruit for the Kingdom because of your faithfulness.

As part of our redevelopment plan we are increasing our focus on evangelism and discipleship for the next few years. What evangelism method are you effectively using at your church? What clearly defined pathway do you have in place to move a new believer to a mature disciple?

We don’t want you to wrestle with these questions without providing some resources to help you! The District Office is hosting several webinars and podcasts in 2023 that will introduce you to resources or open opportunities for you to engage with topics that will assist you in these areas….AND MORE!

The first of these webinars will be on January 31 at 7 pm. Our guest will be Dr. Ken Priddy, director and founder of the Go Center, Inc. You can find his website here: https://gocenterinfo.wordpress.com/

Ken will be joining us to discuss his resource for evangelism entitled, New Hope for Graying Congregations. As part of his presentation we will open the Q&A function to allow you at ask questions to better understand this resource.

Over the next few months, we hope to offer open discussions on a program from the Billy Graham School of Evangelism at Wheaton, the new Evangelism Explosion, and other evangelism resources.

Please register to join us for our first resource webinar with Dr. Ken Priddy, January 31 at 7 pm. 

Check back soon to our calendar for registration information.

IPM has recently announced its 2023 one-day introductory training schedule (Zoom) for anyone interested in answering the question, “Is Interim Ministry for You?”

https://interimpastors.com/2023-training-days/ to get information and register for the one-day introductory training.

Please send stories to Linsie Fish at info@cmamad.org

On-Call District Support - We are available to our district family of workers to help you in anyway processing stress and difficulties. Click here to read more.

January 17 - Missions Mobilization

February 10 - The Gathering

February 13 - Missions Mobilization

February 16 - Budget & Finance

February 16 - Church Health

February 27 - 28 - LO&CC

2023 Printable Calendar - Please note, changes are made throughout the year as needed.

Click here to register!

NEXT Ministry Conference registration is live.

Cost = $25 per adult, $15 per student

See webpages for more information:

• February 25—Princeton Alliance Church—Metro/Spanish Eastern

• March 4—Crown College—North Central

• March 4—Lewisburg Alliance Church—Eastern PA

• March 11—Indiana Alliance Church—Western PA 

Join us for The Alliance Arts Festival at Council 2023 in Spokane. The event is being launched to celebrate the arts, integrate them into personal and corporate worship, and foster a deeper sense of community among Alliance creatives.

This is a chance to pay forward the creative gifts God gave you by helping others deepen their walk with Jesus through the arts. It’s also an iron-sharpening-iron networking opportunity for Alliance artists to connect, collaborate, and co-create through a variety of media.

Participants are invited to submit their work in the areas of cinematic, visual, and language arts. Submissions will be accepted between February 1 and May 1, 2023. To qualify, all works must have been completed after May 2021 (the date of the previous Alliance Council). Submissions deemed by the judges to be gratuitously vulgar, violent, or sexual in nature will be disqualified from entry.

More information and submission instructions coming soon!

Cinematic Arts: Films of various categories, including but not limited to fictional/narrative short film, non-fiction/short documentary, conceptual, music video, and animation. Entries can be no more than seven minutes in length and can be submitted in any language. English in-frame captions will be required for non-English submissions. Films must have a minimum resolution of 1080p, landscape or portrait, and must be encoded in .mp4 or .mov formats. All music and other non-original/copyrighted material (images, videos, etc.) used in entries must be properly licensed and credited at the end of the film.

Visual Arts: Photography, mixed media, illustration, painting, drawing, and other works of 2-dimentional art. Entries must be submitted in high-quality .jpeg/.jpg formats with a minimum resolution of 2400 x 3000 pixels (300 ppi @ 8x10 inches).

Language Arts: Poetry, short stories (2,000 or fewer words), and other written or spoken word submissions. Written entries can be submitted as text files (MS WORD preferred). Spoken word entries can be submitted in audio (.mp3, .m4v, .wav) or video (.mp4, .mov) formats. Music and/or other non-original/copyrighted material (images, videos, etc.) used in spoken word entries must be properly licensed and credited at the end of the film.

EquippingU Dynamic Influence is a two-year training track that began in 2022 for pastors and leaders of Alliance churches with attendance of 200 people or fewer. Participants meet online for four two-hour sessions each year. The trainings cover timely topics, including how small churches can grow during a pandemic. Our goal is to help pastors in small churches find resources, lead well, and help their churches thrive.

The first webinar of 2023 starts on February 22, 2023, at 12:00 p.m. EST. Please register now to not miss out on this wonderful opportunity!

In this webinar, Karl Vaters, the small church guru, will present on The Next Decade: A Scouting Report from Boots-On-The-Ground Pastors. After his presentation, there will be a Q&A session for the participants to interact with the presenter.

When the spies went into the Promised Land, ten of the twelve came back with a bad report. But there were two with a minority report. They saw the same giants, but trusted God’s promise. In this talk, Karl Vaters relates what he’s been hearing from pastors all over the country in the last few years and, despite the very real challenges, there’s some good news ahead.

While no one can predict the future, we can prepare for it. So, this session will look at:

1. What’s coming,

2. What might be coming,

3. What probably isn’t coming, and

4. What we can do about it.

Alliance Youth is hosting its first ever National Youth Worker Gathering. We are inviting lead youth workers and 2–3 members of their core team to join us in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, on February 5–8 for a time of equipping and refreshing. This is for paid and volunteer youth workers in our Alliance Youth family. We know that youth ministry can be lonely and exhausting at times, so we are offering an oasis for our souls where we can connect with other youth workers and be encouraged to lead our ministries with renewed passion. The registration cost is $150 per person. Participants will be responsible for their own travel to and from the event. Please plan to arrive on Sunday, February 5, by 5 p.m. and depart on Wednesday, February 8, after noon.

The Office of Church Multiplication

The C&MA group registration form for Exponential 2023 conference is NOW OPEN. Raise the temperature for multiplication by joining us at this upcoming conference themed “Lost Cause: Reviving Evangelism.” We will cover the registration cost for the first hundred applicants who complete this form. Sign up through the C&MA group before January 15, 2023. Email Grace Cheon with questions or concerns at multiplication@cmalliance.org.

3000 S. John Young Parkway, Orlando, FL 32805

Family Social: Monday, March 6, 2023, 5–7 p.m.

C&MA Pre-Conference: Tuesday, March 7, 2023, 8–11:30 a.m.

Main Conference: Tuesday–Thursday, March 7–9, 2023.

Join Alliance Youth for a one-day Pre-Council event for youth workers in Spokane, Washington. Today’s student ministries are bombarded with the never-ending cascade of cultural shifts, social changes, and conversations about sexuality and gender. It can be confusing for the student, paralyzing for families, and overwhelming for youth workers in the church. Alliance Youth is hosting a training event for youth workers who attend Pre-Council on May 29. We want our next generation Alliance youth workers to have tools to engage in the conversations that we are seeing in our ministries today. At this event, you will be equipped to thrive in ministry amid today’s changing culture. Alliance youth workers develop the next generation to engage the world with the gospel. We believe that the students in our churches today will greatly influence the gospel’s reach tomorrow. You are on the front lines of helping our students own the future of the church and lean into the call of God on their lives. If you work with students or are interested in learning about how to navigate the issues facing the next generation, then this event is for you. Don’t miss this opportunity to be equipped for ministry and connect with other colleagues who are investing in the next generation of Jesus followers. Plan to arrive by 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 28, as we will begin our time with an ice cream social.

Annual Report websites are now open - please complete your report before February 28th. Who will be the first in MAD to get theirs in?