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Workshop to Train Conference Ministries Consultants
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (March 7, 2002) - A training workshop began today for a major new conference-level ministry initiative called Churches Planting Ministries.
Details of the new program will be presented during a number of conference annual meetings of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) that are scheduled to begin in April. Five conferences are scheduled to launch the initiative this year, including Central, North Pacific, Northwest, Pacific Southwest and Southeast. Other conferences will launch their programs later.
Churches Planting Ministries is a coordinated Covenant initiative to mobilize and equip Covenant congregation-based ministries of compassion and justice, according to its director Max Lopez-Cepero.
The workshop is designed to train newly recruited conference consultants, to prepare them to assist churches in their conferences with compassion and justice ministries. Workshop representatives include 21 individuals from the five conferences that are launching this year as well as the East Coast Conference.
Program leaders include Sue Sporte, former field consultant for the Church and Community Project of McCormick Theological Seminary; Sally Johnson, a member of the initiative's consulting staff and special assistant to the ECC president; and Lopez-Cepero.
"The call to compassion and justice ministries is a central part of our biblical, evangelical gospel witness," said ECC President Glenn Palmberg." When we reach out in the name of Christ, God blesses both our communities and our churches.
"It is a real joy for me to see the Churches Planting Ministries initiative take shape to provide us with much-needed assistance in this area," Palmberg continued. "With its launching in five conferences this spring, and with more to come in the near future, we are taking a significant step forward in strengthening and expanding our mission as a Covenant."
Strong support for the program also comes from Paul Peterson, president of Covenant Ministries of Benevolence (CMB), which is a partner in the project. "For many years CMB has supported local congregations and conferences in developing community ministries," Peterson observed. "We are enthusiastically committed to partnering with congregations in developing ministries of compassion and justice as we continually strive, as Covenanters, to enlarge our practice of the Great Commandment."
The training workshop is scheduled to continue until Sunday.
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