Our physical bodies are made up of hundreds of interesting and different parts. So it is with the body of the bride of Christ. Our local church is where we visibly live out our commitment to our Bridegroom. Investing our lives for her beauty and strength is paramount for her role in confronting a decadent world.

These reflections will include stories from thirty years as a church planter’s wife. Lessons learned in this exhilarating, sometimes exhausting, but enriching journey will be applicable to other callings as well.

To what extent am I willing to invest personally in my place of ministry? What would be the results if I did? In this session, Laverne Beachy covers topics related to personal vision: answering “Why am I here?” remembering God’s call, and discussing practical ways to make the ministry I serve “mine.” While service in God’s Kingdom is personally demanding, the results are not about me, but about Him.

How can we effectively minister to those different from ourselves? How can we learn from the mass culture while not conforming to their ways? What are the important steps in understanding a culture? How can Mennonites as a sub-culture relate to and impact the mass culture in urban America? How can we reach across our different ways of understanding the world?

We work with our heads, hands, and hearts–and we work with our words in mission administration. As with any other skill, you can train yourself to shape your thoughts and organize your words to make your writing compelling and easy to read. Learn useful day-to-day writing skills that will help you to write clearly and effectively to avoid misunderstanding, frustration, and waste.

What should a supporting church do when the mission appears to be failing, when concerns are increasing, and when support is decreasing?

Have you ever felt your role on the team is insignificant? Have you struggled to find fulfillment in serving others? Have you wondered how you can better support your leader? In this session, Joel Yoder looks at aspects of teamwork and how to find fulfillment in serving in a support role. He looks at Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, and his role in ministry with Paul, then takes those lessons and applies them to settings when we are also serving others.

Board members cannot paint every detail of the picture, as only God holds the future, yet they are wise to have a clear vision of where He is calling them to go. In this session Kevin Bauman looks at how to create the big picture, set the stage and break out the desired journey into manageable pieces. This in turn creates an environment for all involved to be focused and passionate in their personal involvement in the mission.

This session is based on the book by the same title by Jean Lush. The counsel from this book enables women to approach each of life’s changes with a positive outlook. It aids in understanding one’s special emotional needs, and stresses the value of offering support to other women. Best of all, it reassures us we are normal!

What’s a woman to do with disappointments, difficult relationships, discouragement, grief, stressful schedules, endless sacrifice, and just plain weariness in well doing? In this session, Bernice Troyer discusses a word that holds the secrets for joyful flourishing instead of merely surviving in ministry roles.

Organizational success is dependent upon three key elements: 1) a clearly stated vision/purpose statement, 2) a written methodology of how to achieve the vision/purpose, and 3) a well-defined timetable and documents for regular evaluations of everyone from the CEO to the floor sweeper.

The goal of this session is to share practical ways of resolving every day, real world relational problems between people. From the context of working with staff and residents at Allegany Boys Camp, these principles are applied to the mission field, service organizations, schools, family, and the church.

Restricted donations can cause dilemmas for an organization. Such donations may approach the line of personal gifts or be designated for projects outside the organization’s mission. In this session, Dennis Yoder explores issues surrounding restricted donations, including how to handle donations for staff support, how to honor special requests from donors, and how to discern when an organization must refuse a donation unrelated to its charitable purpose.

Ministries can expand their fundraising networks by involving their workers. But to use deputized fundraising effectively, ministries need to know how to comply with legal requirements. This session explains the benefits of deputized fundraising and provide guidance to avoid pitfalls.

Every leader needs to invent vision. Vision and foresight are fundamental elements of leadership. Many embryo-dreams are never birthed into viable visions because leaders struggle to see the real need to form the initial problem-solving ideas and then rally people behind a fully developed plan. This session teaches how to cast a compelling vision of a preferred future. Whether starting a new organization or merely developing a new product or procedure, it starts with vision!

Are you prepared to respond to conflicts around you? Jesus teaches us to respond peacefully when in conflict with our enemies. However, the daily challenge of working with employers, employees, people around us, or fellow church members can test our core principles. This session provides a Biblical perspective on conflict prevention and conflict resolution.

As He did with Moses, God uses what we have, however inadequate it appears to be, for the task He calls us to perform. The emphasis of this session is on home mission opportunities, using the metaphor of Moses’ rod.

Whether you live in a foreign country, teach in a classroom, work in an office, or serve your husband and children at home, your life can be overwhelming. In this session, Lolita Hershberger discusses how to thrive and flourish in life’s endless demands and opportunities, and how to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s gentle direction in daily decisions.

Conservative Anabaptists involved in social media will discuss what they do and how they do social media. We will attempt to cover the aspects of being a faithful Christian and using social media tools effectively. The panel will include Matt Landis from Landis Technologies, Reagan Schrock from Anabaptist Perspectives (YouTube podcasts), Christian Filbrun from Becoming Conservative Anabaptist (Facebook group), and Frank Reed (blogger at Biblical Brethren Fellowship).