Annual Conference webcast links can be found at the Annual Conference website. Worship sessions are available, live and recorded. Equipping sessions and business are available to registered virtual non-delegate participants.
Find Youth and Young Adult webinars here.
Learn about NEW opportunities to earn CEUs for viewing recorded materials!
Discipleship and Leadership Formation is excited to be partner with Fresh Expressions to bring three webinars in the first quarter of 2025.
Dinner Church in Every Context
A dinner table was central to the life of Jesus. Countless times, he ate with people, told parables about banquet feasts, revealed himself over a meal, and restored people over a meal. In a world of increasing isolation and food insecurity, a dinner table may be the best way to connect with your neighbors. Join us for this Fresh Expressions webinar and learn how your church could start a Dinner Church.
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Time: 11:00 am PST / 1:00 pm CST / 2:00 pm EST
CEU: 0.1
Registration Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/OAn0nBXHS_OWRXp1wYFz8Q
Verlon Fosner
Presenter
Verlon Fosner, Director of Dinner Church Collective, Fresh Expressions North America
Dr. Verlon Fosner leads an innovative network of Dinner Churches in Seattle, Washington. In 2008, they opened their first Dinner Church in an underserved neighborhood, and immediately, the room began to fill with more never-been-churched individuals than they had seen in years. Soon, they established additional Dinner Churches throughout Seattle neighborhoods on different nights of the week, yielding the same positive results as the first. They now engage with numerous neighborhoods across the city each week with a simple idea: that the church is called to set a table where the grace of Jesus reconciles us with God and with one another.
It soon became apparent that others needed a new approach to doing church. In 2014, they founded a coaching network centered on Jesus’ dinner table theology. Verlon dedicates more than half of his time to helping leaders across the country view their cities and neighborhoods with fresh perspectives.
In 2016, Verlon joined the Fresh Expressions leadership team and began offering training and conference events: Encounters, Launch Cohorts, and even a graduate program, Dinner Church School of Leadership.
Verlon has authored several books: Story Priority, Dinner Church, Dinner Church Handbook, and Trowel & Sword (with Jon Davis), which reveal the prayer practices essential for the frontlines of evangelism. Verlon has been married to Melodee for 40 years, and together, they have three adult children, seven grandchildren, a varied collection of grand-foster kids, and two granddogs.
Mental Health, Well-Being, and Congregations
Increasingly, mental health has become a critical topic with congregational leadership as churches deal with mental illness and addictions. COVID-19 has highlighted the challenges and needs of congregations to minister effectively to people combating health and wellness problems.
Are you a pastor or congregational leader who needs to know more or wants to learn how to minister in these situations?
As a result, Discipleship Ministries is excited to make known the resources of We Rise International, an Anabaptist-based organization that partners with and empowers diverse communities to improve health and social well-being.
We Rise International provides health education, training, and capacity-building for communities and their leaders.
You can attend these virtual equipping sessions for pastors and congregational leaders. In addition, CEUs for pastors are available.
Upcoming and recorded sessions include
- Helping Children and Teens Cope with Trauma
- Helping Loved Ones with Addiction, Even if They Seem to Not Want Help
- Surviving Trauma.
Use the QR Code to register for the webinars and learn about We Rise International.
