Workshops
Saturday 10.50-11.50
- Getting started with children’s, youth or young adult ministry Penny Fuller, Meg Prowting and Sarah Hulme
Are you feeling stuck and uninspired? Come along and find out how you can start or revive ministry with children, youth or young adults (even if you don’t have anyone under 30 in your church!).
- Dual transformation, discipleship and the four quadrants Andy Fishburne and Abi Jarvis
In the TV show Love It or List It, Kirstie and Phil help homeowners decide whether to renovate their existing home, or sell up and start anew somewhere else. In this workshop, Methodism’s ‘Kirstie and Phil’ will introduce you to a visual tool to think this through in relation to church: should we focus our energy on the new expressions of church, or is it better to transform what we already have, in order to make a vibrant disciple-making community?
- Church at the Margins: If poverty contradicts the will of God, what is ours to do? Eunice Attwood and Matt Finch
Come and join an alternative Street Banquet (there is no food) to explore how you might respond to people experiencing poverty in your communities.
- A group conversation about discerning God, leadership and an ever-changing landscape. Emma Nash and Nigel Pimlott
The world has changed, expressions of church and faith are changing, and culture is changing. Leadership needs to be adaptive and agile, responding to the changing context. Let’s discover together what's working and what God might be saying and doing.
Find out about team coaching, one-to-one coaching, and browse a curated list of leadership resources
- Inclusive Evangelism: the unique selling point of the Methodist Church? Holly Adams, Ali Johnson and Ruth Wilde
Does the future of the Methodist Church rest on our calling to both inclusion and evangelism? How do these two aspects of our mission integrate? What does this look like in practice? And how might we take actions to step into this locally?
Saturday 4.45-5.45pm
- A Methodist Way of Life and young people Andy Fishburne, Abi Jarvis and the Children's Youth and Family Team
Come and explore how A Methodist Way of Life can be a guide to living well for people of all ages, and how different generations can bring gifts to the other generations in a faith community. We’d love to hear your experiences and ideas.
- A group conversation about burnout Emma Nash and Nigel Pimlott
Leadership is demanding, and leading people through change even more so. Church leadership, both lay and ordained, involves navigating complex power dynamics and strong emotions. What kinds of attitudes and practices lead to flourishing and give us the best chance of resisting burnout?
Find about about support you can access, whether you're a lay leader or a minister
Contact the Connexional Team Wellbeing Officers for advice
- Pioneering 101: People not projects Eunice Attwood and Matt Finch
What can the woodland eco-system tell us about creating new Christian communities?
- Called to smallness? Holly Adams, Sarah Hulme, Ali Johnson and Revd Dr Gary Hall
Are you size-anxious? Many of us are as worried about the sizes of our churches and mission projects as we are about our waistlines, bank balances and car engines. But surely that’s not the Jesus-economy? In this workshop we'll hear voices from around the church, including from rural communities, and rethink the way we might embrace smallness as a missional strategy, and as a theological mindset. We'll ask how ‘smallness’ enables transformation, what the role of ‘bigness’ or Connexionalism might be, and what this might look like in our contexts. Let's follow the call, confidently and non-anxiously, into intentional smallness.
Sunday 9.50-10.50
- Stories from the New Places for New People movement, and how you can join in Eunice Attwood, Matt Finch and Sarah Hulme
- Starting with what you've got Children's Youth and Family Team with Emma Nash and Nigel Pimlott
Churches that may not be attended by any children and young people, including the very smallest churches, can sometimes feel as if children’s and youth work is beyond them. Every church can build a positive relationship with their local school, however, or with the uniformed organisation that meets in their hall, doing what they can, not what they can't. Come and explore what that might look like for your church.
- Creative ways of reflecting: a hands-on workshop Andy Fishburne and Abi Jarvis
A hands-on workshop. One of the core steps of A Methodist Way of Life is to ‘reflect on the journey’. Come and try some ideas we will bring along, or feel free to use the space to reflect on the weekend in your own way with friendly companions around you.
- Sofas not Stages: creating brave and safe spaces for real talk Holly Adams and Ali Johnson
Conversations change things, and one of the best places to have a conversation is on the sofa. But this is not just any sofa, it’s a space that’s both brave and safe. Come and take a seat on the sofa that featured in Lost in Wonder, the Methodist Church’s Edinburgh Fringe show in 2023, and hear how creating space for ‘real talk’ is at the heart of any effective evangelism strategy. Share ideas and explore what it means to create safe and brave spaces in your context, and what actions might you take to intentionally embed ‘real talk’ into your mission and ministry.
- How to give Sunday worship a Spiritual boost The Spirituals with Trey Hall and Sarah Hulme
Hosted by our special guests, The Spirituals, you know that this is going to be incredible. We’ll explore what we can do to make music and singing in our churches beautiful, transformative and liberating. And what to do if no-one can play an instrument.