Hello Lay Servants and future Lay Servants!

We are almost ready to post our Spring Training courses. Don Gibson has agreed to instruct the Advanced course entitled:  Teaching Biblical Faith: Leading Small Group Bible Studies. It just became available a few weeks ago. Since the District has scheduled Spring Conference on April 23, the new date for training is May 21, 2022, at Bolivar UMC. We have 21 Certified Lay Servants who need to renew in 2022, (that’s this year). To register, please click here.

We will also be offering Basic, April 29 & 30, at Bolivar UMC. Basic is offered on Friday evening and all-day Saturday. Gary and Ann Kreider will teach that unless someone else would like the opportunity to be the instructor. Instructions on registration will be sent very soon. It will be posted on our Tusc. District site and the eocumc.com site. We will again use Eventbrite for our registration. More information is below...

Our Tuscarawas District Lay Servant Ministries Committee has dwindled in number so if you know of someone who would be interested in serving on the team please forward their name to us and we will notify the District Nominating Committee.

Gary and I will be meeting with our District Superintendent, Rev. Cara Stultz Costello, on February 22, so if you have any concerns or good ideas for our Lay Servant Ministries, we will pass them on at our meeting.

Because there is such a large number of Certified Lay Servants who need to renew this year it is our thought that Tusc. District LSM should offer many courses this year.

Tusc. District has four Certified Lay Speakers; and two Certified Lay Servants who need two more required Advanced courses to qualify to be Certified Lay Speakers.

Melanie Thomas, at the Conference Office, will post the courses being offered in all the EOUMC Districts. Courses can be taken in any district or online. She has posted the new 2022 catalog for Lay Servant Ministries which shows all the approved courses that can be offered and also those courses that are on the way.

Hopefully the Nominating Committee for Tusc. District will find our replacement since we are interim at this time.

Stay safely under His Wings,

Gary & Ann Kreider, Interim Directors for Tuscarawas District Lay Servant Ministries

Email: [email protected]

Cell – Gary – 330-806-4648   Ann – 330-806-5247

Bishop Tracy S. Malone invites all East Ohio Conference clergy actively serving in ministry to come together for a day of rest and renewal on Saturday, April 2 from 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at Faith UMC in North Canton.

Clergy are serving and leading in stressful, exhausting, and difficult times. This Clergy Day Apart, designed by a team of active clergy, is an opportunity to feed your soul through reinvigorating worship, fellowship, self-care, and conversation. Clergy will hear a validating and empowering message from featured speaker the Rev. Twanda Prioleau and will participate in engaging breakout sessions designed to help you reflect, reconnect, re-center, and revel in your ministry. Rev. Prioleau is pastor of Christ UMC in East Baltimore, MD and author of the book Breathe: A Pastor’s Journey to Wholeness.

For more information click here!

You are invited to participate in an East Ohio Conference learning opportunity that will benefit you, your family, and your church small group. On four consecutive Mondays, beginning January 31, the Multicultural Ministries office will release a new installment of a study guide designed to teach elementary school-aged students, with adult help, to celebrate Black History. The guides will use material from “All In God’s Image: A Celebration of Black History and Diversity” which is a Sunday school resource released in 2021 that was written by Corinne Dunn an East Ohio lay person who is a professional Diversity Learning consultant and trainer. “I am excited that more people can engage in this revised format and different ages can learn together about African American history,” Dunn said.

The purpose of the East Ohio Conference Spiritual Formation and Christian Education Committee is to support the discipleship ministries of East Ohio congregations in the areas of Christian Education and Spiritual formation for all age groups. We currently have the following topics available for training in your local congregation:

1. Safe Sanctuaries for the Local Church

2. Getting Messy Church Started in Your Setting

3. Offering Worship Engagement Manipulatives in Your Congregation

4. How Can Your Congregation Offer Sensory Sensitive Inclusiveness?

5. Creating a Race and Religion Forum in Your Congregation

6. Offering Outdoor Discipleship as a Way to Reach More People in Your Community

7. Hitting the Milestones with Children and Youth in Your Congregation

8. What Every Child and What Every Youth Should Experience

9. Training Effective Teachers

10. Developing a Discipleship Pathway for Your Congregation

A few other topics are in the works and will be available in the future:

1. Spiritual Formation and Christian Education in the Small Membership Church

2. Digital Discipleship

If you are interested in any of the above topics/training opportunities, please reach out to Rev. Gary Jones, Director of Spiritual Formation in the Connectional Ministries Office - [email protected] or 330-499-3972 ext. 120.

The Conversation Book Study, Wednesdays at 6:30 pm, March 9 – April 27, by Zoom and in person at North Canton Faith United Methodist Church.

North Canton Faith United's Love Your Neighbor team invites you to join us in our efforts to build deep understanding and design intentional actions. To learn more and to register visit https://www.myfaithunited.org/adult-programs-groups/ or email [email protected] or [email protected].