March 2006 CE&P News

YXL

2006 Children's Conference

2006 Women's Leadership Conference

Meet CE&P Trainers

YXL YOUTH CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Because Christ-Centered Leadership Matters for the Rising Generation

What happens when you take a premier leadership development conference for high school students and make it even stronger? You get YXL! From the tradition of PYA (Presbyterian Youth in America) comes YXL. Christ-centered leadership development coming from a strong biblical and reformed world and life view await all students and youth ministry leaders who attend.

CE&P is honored to sponsor a conference that is used by the Lord to help students grow in their walk with Christ, their world and life view, their development as leaders and to foster interaction with other like-minded, kindred-spirit students that can last a lifetime.

CE&P, in cooperation with Covenant College invites you to prayerfully consider sending a group of high school students to the YXL conference June 12th- June 17th, 2006, at Covenant College.

For more information please call us at CE&P 678-825-1100 or check out our website at www.pcacep.org/yxl

Dean Conkel Coordinator of Youth and Family Ministries Christian Education and Publications

175 attend 2006 Children’s Ministry Conference

Participants from across the PCA and several other churches met together in Atlanta January 17-19 for the annual Children’s Ministry Conference “Growing Kingdom Disciples, Planting Seeds of Faith in the Next Generation.” Participants came from 90 churches in eighteen states with fifteen from non-PCA churches. The keynote speaker was Dr. Paul Tripp, a counselor with Christian Counseling and Education Foundation in Philadelphia, minister, author, and professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. Using his expertise as a father, pastor, teacher, and counselor, Tripp focused on the tension between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self and making the invisible kingdom visible in the life of our covenant children.

Other plenary speakers included Dr. Allen Curry of Reformed Theological Seminary and a CE&P regional trainer, and Mark Lowery of Great Commission Publications, who spoke on the covenantal theme in making kingdom disciples. Seminars were offered on a variety of topics, such as: making your Sunday school sizzle, working with your senior pastor, involving children in ministry, growing a children’s ministry, and choosing the right curriculum and other resources. Participants also had opportunities to meet with one another and share common interests and ideas.

Of the many comments, one pastor of family and children’s ministry, as he was leaving the conference, said, “this was the most meaningful and helpful conference I have attended in all my ministry experience.”

2006 Annual WIC Leadership Training Conference Scheduled

Around 250 women from across the PCA are expected to attend the annual Women In the Church Leadership Conference. This year’s conference theme is “Content in the Context of Relationships.” The pastor/teacher for the conference will be Dr. Philip Ryken, Senior Pastor and author from Tenth Presbyterian PCA in Philadelphia. His topic will be “Communion of the Saints” based on his book by the same title. Mary Beth McGreedy from the Covenant Church in St. Louis, Tara Barthel from Rocky Mountain Community PCA in Billings, Montana, Jerdonne Davis of Erskine College, and Cheri Bachofer of Briarwood PCA in Birmingham will also speak.

Meet CE&P’s Regional Trainers

Christian Education & Publications has two groups of regional trainers that work with our staff to reach into local churches. A general group of trainers made of up eleven men and women aim to help churches create an effective, life changing, and biblically solid Christian education ministry. Women In the Church has a group of ten trainers who aim to help your church implement an effective, biblical women’s ministry. They are available to local churches and presbyteries to assist in a variety of training and consulting ministries. We are featuring one trainer from each category in this issue of Equip for Ministry. Regional trainers can be scheduled from the CE&P office by calling 678-825-1100 and more information can be found online at www.pcacep.org/training

Kathy Woolner lives in Valencia, Pennsylvania, with her husband Barry, a PCA pastor. Kathy is the mother of four children. She earned a B.A. in Theology (with a minor in Elementary Education) from Berkshire Christian College. She has taught Sunday school and VBS at all age levels in her 30+ years of teaching. She has been a children’s choir leader, a youth group leader, a VBS director, Sunday school curriculum writer, shildren’s church leader, and teacher of women’s Sunday school and Bible studies. As Christian Education consultant for Westminster PCA (Butler, Pa.) for several years, she evaluated curriculum, orchestrated long-range Christian Education planning, initiated child protection policies and catechism programs, and conducted teacher training workshops. She is currently on the leadership councils for Ascension PresWIC and Gospel Fellowship PCA WIC, where she is also a Bible study leader. While on a short-term mission trip, one of her most recent teacher training workshops was conducted at Eglesia Presbiteriana, a PCA church in Osorno, Chile. She enjoys singing in the church choir and quilting (which she also teaches). Her long-time goal in Christian Education has been to help Christians of all ages to think, to think biblically, and to think critically about all things in believers’ lives and God’s world.

Melanie Cogdill, WIC trainer, resides in Laguna Niguel, California, and attends Aliso Creek PCA with her husband Dwayne and 9-year-old son Jack and 2-year old son Harry. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and has been in the PCA for 22 years. Her father has been a PCA elder for 21 years and Dwayne is a ruling elder at Aliso Creek PCA. Melanie is a graduate of USC with a degree in English and Journalism. For the past nine years, she has served as the managing editor at Christian Research Institute (CRI) and prior to that time was full-time staff with Campus Crusade. Melanie has served as the PresWIC President for South Coast Presbytery for the past five years. Enjoying gourmet food, Melanie says her hobby is anything having to do with food, reflected by her having a collection of 110+ cookbooks. The Cogdill’s host a book club reading group with their friends from church. The topics include contemporary literature (fiction) and Christian worldview books.

Back to Equip