{"id":27320,"date":"2026-06-19T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=27320"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:58:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:58:26","slug":"networking-groups-new-at-ac2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/networking-groups-new-at-ac2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Networking Groups are new this year at Annual Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Rhonda Pittman Gingrich, Annual Conference director<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Networking Groups are designed to provide an opportunity for those with similar leadership roles in their congregations to gather for more informal, but facilitated and intentional, conversation to make connections and share mutual support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversation topics will include: What is working well for you? What challenges are you facing? What resources have you found helpful? What resources\/support would you find helpful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Networking Groups will be offered on the following topics as part of the Tuesday morning \u201cImagine!\u201d programing on June 30 at the Annual Conference in Fort Wayne, Ind. All networking groups will meet around tables in Halls B\/C of the Grand Wayne Convention Center (where business and worship are taking place), expanding the circle to accommodate all who want to participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>See the schedule, topics, facilitators, and table numbers below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tuesday, June 30, 9:30-10:30 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Lay Leaders<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Audrey Hollenberg Duffey at Table 15<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Music Ministry<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Carol Elmore at Table 34<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multi-Vocational Pastors<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Ryan Braught at Table 22<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tuesday, June 30, 10:45-11:45 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Deacon Ministry<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Dennis Lohr at Table 48<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Worship Planning<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Cindy Laprade Lattimer at Table 26<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Youth Ministry<\/strong> Networking Group will be led by Becky Ullom Naugle at Table 54<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information about Annual Conference 2026 in Fort Wayne, Ind., from June 28 to July 2, go to www.brethren.org\/ac2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/board-approves-statement-of-intent\/\">Mission and Ministry Board approves statement of intent regarding future of the General Offices<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/intercultural-ministries-frontliners\/\">\u2018Frontliners\u2019 certified to serve in their districts on behalf of Intercultural Ministries<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/juneteenth-prayer\/\">Juneteenth Prayer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/networking-groups-new-at-ac2026\/\">Networking Groups are new this year at Annual Conference<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/brethren-bits-113\/\">Brethren bits<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Networking Groups are designed to provide an opportunity for those with similar leadership roles in their congregations to gather for more informal, but facilitated and intentional, conversation to make connections and share mutual support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1258,3482,3805,1871],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-27320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2026","tag-networking-groups","tag-rhonda-pittman-gingrich"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27321,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27320\/revisions\/27321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27320"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=27320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}