Theme for 2020
“Reinventing the Church”
Sponsored by:
The Church of God Cincinnati.
Meeting together to assist and encourage each other’s ministries since 2012.
Throughout history every successful individual or organization has been forced to meet destructive forces that threaten to extinguish its existence. The Church is no exception. Century after century the Church has been forced to reinvent its method of preaching the Gospel. Now we are facing the most significant challenges since the Protestant Revolution. Yet we are experiencing blessings that are greater than the adversity.
How are you and your congregation meeting the challenges? It isn’t 1934 or 1950—or even 2015. Today’s tribulations require new methods to solve the current problems. We’ve been blessed with opportunities to serve in a greater way than we’ve ever had. The Quality Church Retreat will meet by a GoToMeeting connection on Sunday, May 3rd beginning at 10:00 AM EDT to explain some of the best ways to benefit from the crisis.
Please RSVP to Carmen Kincade or submit an information request via the form on this page if you would like login information to attend.
Below you will find the schedule of sessions as well as a brief description for each.
We look forward to meeting with you virtually for this exciting event!
Schedule of Sessions
Sunday May 3rd, 2020
All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time*
10:00 to 10:20 Introduction—prayer, Reinventing the Church by Jim O’Brien
10:20 to 11:10 Common Faith Academy by Dusti & Deanne Howell
11:10 to 11:25 Break
11:25 to 12:15 2020 COG Survey: How to Best Serve Our Congregations? by Blake Silverstein
12:15 to 12:30 Break
12:30 to 12:40 Bill Jacobs: Electronic Counseling
12:40 to 1:00 Wrap-up—questions, comments,
Where Are We Going With the Online Academy?
COVID-19 has pushed schools and workplaces into the digital arena, forcing us to do things online that we’d prefer doing face-to-face. This is not the last pandemic we will face. As we look for healthier digital opportunities, learn how you can go from being a passive consumer in this process to an active producer. Join us for an early look at the first pilot class that finished as well as the second class that has just started. We’ll look at some successful elements of other online programs (The Bible Project, Hillsdale College, Masterclass.com, PragerU, KhanAcademy and Emporia State University) and share a vision of where the Common Faith Academy’s online program is looking to go. This will be an interactive brainstorming session. We are looking for help in clarifying this vision. Additionally, you’ll learn how easy it is to build and online module in the Moodle Course Management System. We are looking for visionaries and content developers to give us pragmatic ideas that will help us build this new digital academy.
Bios: Dusti and Deanne Howell graduated from Ambassador College in the late 1980s. They both received graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Just before Ambassador University closed, they wanted to hire Dusti to move the Bible curriculum online, starting with the Epistles of Paul class. That never happened. Since 1997, Dusti and Deanne have been teaching online and face-to-face courses at Emporia State University.
2020 COG Survey
Young people are leaving the church en masse and we don’t know why. Many suspect they know why, but nothing definitive. We want to know how to encourage these young ones and hear from them what’s missing that would promote their growth as followers of Christ. To this end, CEM (with the help of other ministries in the COG community) created a survey to be shared with the various Sabbath-keeping churches. Blake will discuss what we hope to discover from the survey and how it can be used to assist your church in becoming better servant leaders.
Bio – Blake Silverstein is the director of Christian Educational Ministries in Whitehouse, Texas. He attends Katy Christian Fellowship in Houston, Texas and loves spending time with his son, Jeremiah, and wife, Tracy.
How to Use the Internet for Pastoral Counseling
When you can’t meet for face to face counseling, what are some effective ways to help your members? We will discuss some ideas
to keep in mind.
Bio: Bill Jacobs and his wife Elaine live in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they operate Life Resource Ministries. This ministry produces educational materials about Christian living, youth advocacy, family, parenting and mental health issues. Bill’s session will reflect a depth of wisdom drawn from his experiences as a licensed counselor.
For information about this event, please contact us by filling out this form.