Registration is now open for the 2022 Advanced Boundary Trainings from PSEC. Each training provides three credit hours of Boundary Training. Scheduled topics are:

Click here for a flyer on all of the trainings. To register for an event , click the topic above.

The Insurance Board has created a one-page resource for Safety and Security Considerations for Ministries, linking to many resources for security, confronting violence, and more. Click here for that.

Faith communities are often on the frontlines of responding to climate-related disasters. More than a spirit of goodwill is required to effectively respond and minister in such critically important times. Because disasters often expose, widen, and exacerbate the gaps of pre-existing disparities, it is essential that communities of faith prioritize and hold fast in their commitments to equity and justice. This webinar will equip faith communities with the knowledge and awareness required to act in accordance with our values. Our featured speakers will be Marcus Coleman Jr., from FEMA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Marcie Roth from the World Institute on Disability, and the Rev. Fred Meade from the UCC’s Disaster Resource & Response Team for the Southern New England Conference. Even if you can’t make the scheduled time of 1:00p on Wednesday, Feb. 9, still register, and we will send you a recording.

Starting today, all Insurance Board participants can access legal counsel that will provide a free legal consultation and referral service. Ministries will benefit from connecting with attorneys who have an intimate understanding of polity and how issues are processed in observance of free church traditions. Ministries can contact the Legal Helpline at 800-437-8830 (prompt #7) or email their inquiry to legalhelpline@insuranceboard.org.

Click here for a flyer with information.

From the Addiction & Recovery Taskforce:  

The following excerpt is an anonymous quote, used with permission, from Help and Hope: From Families Who Have Walked the Walk: Substance Use: The Growing Need to Know, a publication of Voice and Vision, Inc.

Click here for a FREE download of the book. 

The Welcome Project PA, in partnership with Lakeside Global Institute and the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, is pleased to offer professional trauma training modules for ministry leaders in their respective contexts on Saturday, Feb. 26 from 9:00a-2:00p. The purpose of this program is to assist professionals in their caring for people who have suffered various forms of trauma, to create an awareness of the causes and consequences of trauma, and how it affects our human relationships and social interactions. Finally, this program strives to enable those who have suffered/continue to suffer from trauma, a path forward to progress and a way out of destructive cycles. For more information click here. To register, click here.

The Susquehanna Area Mission Council of the Penn Northeast Conference is inviting all churches in both PNEC and PSEC to share in its annual mission project. If your congregation is willing to participate in this offering supporting our common disaster relief ministry, please include this insert in your Sunday bulletin, along with information about how gifts should be made in your congregation. A short video explaining this Challenge can be found here. Donations received should be forwarded to your Conference office at the conclusion of the campaign, marked "High 5 for Disaster Relief". 

The winter issue of the Insurance Board's "The Steward" newsletter is now available. Topics covered in this issue include: Independent Contractor or Employee?, Employment Best Practices, Failing to Act, the new Legal Helpline, Claims Lessons Learned: Cyber Claims, and Human Resources Trends in 2022. Click here to read the newsletter.

The Pennsylvania Academy of Ministry is pleased to announce a new program, Financial Basics for Church Leaders. The program consists of four, six-week PAM classes and a half-day conference during 2022.

This program was created, in part, in response to the requested need for nuts and bolts classes for ministers, on topics such as how to read a budget. The four classes are:

PAM has obtained grant funding to subsidize the registration costs for participants. We are offering all four classes for the price of one. Along with the half-day conference on Multi-vocational Ministry on May 14, the entire program will cost only $350 per participant. Successful participants will earn 10.3 CEUs. The registration deadline for the first class is Feb. 17. More information.