Join us on the beautiful Heidelberg campus in Tiffin, Ohio as we continue Connecting Vital Ministry Networks. Our focus will be on helping clergy and lay leaders create and nurture vital congregations and their ministries.

In addition, we are once again encouraging affinity groups and networks of folks with a common calling to plan a gathering or event during the Conference Annual Gathering.  We will work with group leaders to provide time and space for interested folks to get together to meet or get re-acquainted, share interests, learn something new or make plans for the future. 

If you would like to sponsor an event or meeting, let us know.  We welcome the opportunity to help connect your group with others who share your interest.

The Goist Family string quartet, members of Immanuel St. Bernard UCC, Cincinnati, and a favorite of 2009 Annual Gathering participants, will be with us again in 2010 to provide beautiful music for worship.

Stephen, Phillip, Michael and David Goist during 2009 closing worship.

Updates will be posted here and included in Connections, the Conference monthly newsletter, as well as special mailings.

•  2010 Annual Gathering Schedule

•  Network Events & Workshops

•  Photo gallery from 2009 Annual Gathering

•  2009 Annual Gathering Resources & Photos

Register online for 2010 Annual Gathering now

Leaders

Rev. Geoffrey Black, United Church of Christ General Minister and President, will preach at Saturday's worship service and will lead a Friday evening workshop, What Matters in the United Church of Christ.

More about Geoffrey Black

NOTE ABOUT ANNUAL GATHERING EVENTS BASED ON UNBINDING THE GOSPEL.

Due to a family emergency, Martha Grace Reese will not be attending the Ohio Conference Annual Gathering to lead our events.

She has assured us that she is sending her "A Team," Jeff Gill and Nancy Wood, to lead these events for us.

Both Jeff and Nancy have extensive experience with Unbinding the Gospel and are excited to be joining us. We continue to look forward to a great event with Unbinding the Gospel.

more

www.gracenet.info

Rev. Martha Grace Reese is a consultant and researcher specializing in faith, faith sharing and congregational transformation in mainline congregations.  She is an ordained pastor who serves as President of GraceNet,Inc. and Director of the Unbinding the Gospel Project, a new grant project funded by the Lilly Endowment. Reese is author of the best-selling Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism (Chalice Press, 2nd ed. November, 2008) and the Unbinding the Gospel Series.

Dr. Marian R. Plant is associate professor and Schauffler Chair of Christian Education at Defiance College and is the author of Faith Formation in Vital Congregations (Pilgrim Press, 2009). The book provides a framework for ordained or lay pastors; professional church educators; family life coordinators; educational ministry volunteers; and committee, task force, or board members to provide strategies for preparing the way forward in adult Christian formation.

Faith Formation in Vital Congregations is part of the Congregational Vitality series providing local churches with tools to revitalize and prepare themselves for ministry in the 21st century.