My husband Bob, Maggie Carter and I just returned from a week in Florida attending the PCUSA Evangelism and Church Growth Conference. We bookended the conference with a few days of fun in Orlando and a visit to Bob’s parents. It was a great trip, just a bit too hot and muggy for my taste.
The conference was held at the Tradewinds Resort at St. Pete Beach. We were right on a beautiful gulf beach amongst families on vacation. Quite a lovely setting, and that setting made it easy to slip quickly into “vacation mode” in the down times (the margaritas helped too). A nice “plus” for a conference, that’s for sure!
This conference was a “big tent” event, with 5 separate conferences meeting together for large plenary sessions and meals. The 5 separate conferences were Youth Workers, Campus and Collegiate Ministries, Church Transformation, Evangelism and New Church Development.
Maggie attended the Evangelism Conference (which fits her gifts perfectly, if you know her). Bob and I attended the New Church Development Conference (NCD). The three of us learned as well as shared our story. Isaiah’s Table and its story was known by many at the conference even before we arrived. Therefore we were able to give information as well as receive it, which was a refreshing change for me.
At breakfast the first morning, Bob and I were warmly approached by a young woman that looked familiar. When she introduced herself we immediately remembered her from Peacemaking Conferences of long ago. Tara worked with our kids in the youth programs of those conferences and we would eat meals together and hang out in the evenings. In the time since we had seen her a decade ago, she had graduated seminary, gotten married, has been working as a Pastor at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in DC and had been voted in as the vice moderator of the General Assembly this year, which she decided to resign from a few days later (that’s another story … click here).
Anyway, as Tara said to me, meeting again and briefly catching up “completed a circle” for us all. That’s what the connectional nature of the church is all about. That’s one of the beautiful things about being part of a large denomination. Now Tara is following Isaiah’s Table on Facebook. I know she and others we met at the conference from around the country will be praying for this new thing God is doing, that we call Isaiah’s Table. What a blessing it is to be connected with brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the country who are rooting for us to grow in faith and love. What a blessing that national staff people are a phone call or email away to answer questions and help us achieve our goals.
We are unique among the New Church Developments in the denomination. We are not a “church plant”. We do not have an NCD pastor. We, at least at this point, are not intending to become an official, chartered church of the Presbytery. We truly are doing a new thing… or more accurately, God is doing a new thing through us. What we will become is in God’s hands, but in telling our story, I am more convinced each and every day, that this plan of God’s was in the works LONG before any of us could have imagined, and well before my family met Tara at a Peacemaking Conference. God is sneaky like that- thanks be!
My next post will be more about the content of the conference. Til then…
Peace, hope and joy to you all,
Nancy