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Important This Week
- Sign up now for Aug. workshop on understanding your community.
- The conference merger team (JCVDT) will hold a Zoom call on Tuesday for anyone interested.
- Support the Conference while shopping on Amazon.
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MissionInsite community outreach event set for August
Next month, on August 3, the conference will be holding a workshop on “How to Understand Your Community” facilitated by Paul Nickerson. This is going to be an excellent opportunity for clergy and members of local churches to look at how you can learn who is in your community and the ways that information can benefit your congregation.
This workshop will provide information on MissionInsite. MissionInsite is a mission context analysis tool for churches. It’s used to receive high quality demographic research, real-time congregant analysis, and easy to use web-based discovery tools. Churches can use this information to look at who is in their community, how the church membership directly compares to the local community, the beliefs and make-up of those living around the church, and much more. These studies are a requirement of the new Local Church Profile for churches in search and can also be a helpful tool for churches looking to start a new ministry, expand existing programs, reach new people, and more. Best of all, MissionInsite is free for all churches in PSEC thanks to your gifts to OCWM.
Facilitator Paul Nickerson leads Nickerson Coaching and is a Senior Associate with Griffith Coaching in Orland, Florida. He provides training and coaching for new and renewing congregations around the country from a variety of denominations. He brings 30 years of experience as a local pastor, in middle judicatories, and as a consultant, teachers, and coach.
The “How to Understand Your Community” workshop will explain how to use all of the information gathered from MissionInsite to benefit the missions and ministries of your local congregation. The workshop will be offered on Friday, August 3 from 6:00-8:30p at Zwingli UCC, Souderton. The workshop cost is $20/individual or $50 for a church group.
Click here
for and event flyer.
Register now
.
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Aug. 4 Search and Call Summit also hosted by Nickerson
In addition to the "How to Understand Your Community" workshop, Paul Nickerson will also be the speaker/facilitator for this year's Search and Call Summit, on the topic of "Assessing Pastoral Candidates." Learn how to avoid common mistakes made, how to check references, how to be clear on where the church is going, and best practices for interviews. Representatives from all churches currently in the search and call process should attend the workshop on Saturday, Aug. 4 from 9:00a-12:00p at Zwingli UCC, Souderton. The event is free to churches in the search process, but you must
register
so that we can have materials ready. Contact Rev. Sharon Morris (
morris@psec.org
or 484-949-8774 ext. 302) with any questions.
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Thanks to PSEC clergy who helped sent books to Ghana
After two years of planning, collecting, sorting, and shipping, the Ghana Book Drive came to a successful end when 15,000 lbs of books were off-loaded at the Evangelical Presbyterian Seminary in Peki, Ghana. The picture shows boxes of books for the seminary made possible by many of our clergy is the PSEC! I want to personally thank all of your for your donations. You have provided the students at Peki with a plethora of information and inspiration.
~
Rev. Patrick Morris
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TODAY: UCC webinar on faith communities, the fall elections
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From 2:00-3:30p
TODAY
there will be an "Our Faith, Our Vote: Interfaith Webinar" to learn what you can do and how to have the most
impact in your community.
- Learn how to set up a voter registration drive for your congregation.
- Hear best practices for engaging candidates on key issues.
- Learn about voter protection efforts and how to help ensure every vote is counted.
- Share examples of what other organizations and faith communities are doing this election cycle.
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Sign up to financially support PSEC when shopping Amazon
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same selection of products and the same prices, but the foundation donates 0.5% of eligible purchases to the charitable organization selected by the customer. Make sure that your purchases are benefiting the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference by
clicking here.
If you are a member of Amazon Prime, "Prime Day" sales -- one of the biggest shopping days of the year -- will be on July 17. Make sure you shop those deals at Smile.Amazon.com and support PSEC!
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Update: Camp Noah disaster survivor camp still needs help
Camp Noah is in good shape. However, there are still some unmet needs:
- A few more people on-site as volunteers (trained online) and working with the campers would be helpful.
- Monetary donations are always welcome.
- Card/board games for elementary age children to use during free time (games would be for between 2 and 6 players).
- While food has been donated for the campers, grown-up snacks for the volunteers to keep up their energy through the week (sugary food such as cookies, gum, lifesavers/hard candy; and crackers, granola bars, fig newton-type carbs) would be very helpful.
To date there are 31 congregation/faith community/individual families involved, including these PSEC churches: St. John's UCC, Orwigsburg; St. Mark's UCC, Cressona; and St. Paul's UCC, Fleetwood.
It would be ideal for donated items to taken to St. Luke's Lutheran at 449 N 9th St., Reading by July 31. Call Robin in the St. Luke's office at 610-375-9216 to confirm best times to deliver the items. (Mondays and Tuesdays 11a-1p are often best.)
For more on Camp Noah, read
this article
on the Conference website from June.
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Mission teams needed at four hurricane recovery locations
Volunteer mission teams needed at multiple hurricane recovery spots
The UCC Disaster Ministries has four active hurricane recovery work sites and ALL need volunteer mission teams! Read about those sites and more in the most recent
Disaster Ministries newsletter
.
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Resource: How churches can help in extreme heat situations
Summer is here! It is time to remember the dangers of extreme heat. Heat can be deadly and
community action really can save lives.
Extreme heat kills more people every year than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods
combined.
For actions you and your church can take to help, check out
this resource
from the PSEC Disaster Coordinator.
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New online racism curriculum now available from UCC
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Begin a journey with
Sacred Conversations to End Racism,
an updated curriculum from a 2008 online UCC curriculum:
Sacred Conversations on Race
. The updated curriculum is introduced in four phases. Each phase is six to eight weeks and is intended to lead participants into conversations leading to sustainable actions that are historical and foundational to the
how
race was constructed,
who
constructed and sanctioned race as model for American society, and
what
role the Christian Church played in supporting the division of humanity by skin color. Check out the free online curriculum
here
.
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Church Events
Submit your Church Events
here
View a complete list of Church Events
here
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Educational Opportunities
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Church Openings
Trinity, Rehrersburg
: part-time beginning August
St. Peter, Knauertown
: part-time beginning ASAP
Wyomissing, Gouglersville
: part-time beginning ASAP
If you’re interested in a position, contact Rev. Sharon Morris:
morris@psec.org
or 484-949-8774 ext. 302.
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Classified Ads
Submit your Classified Ads
here
View a complete list of Classified Ads
here
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Missed a week? Read past eNews here:
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