Preaching Conference for Clergy and Laity in Memphis and Tennessee Annual Conferences, October 28 - November 1, 2007

The Turner Center for Church Leadership and Congregational Development is offering its inaugural conference on preaching. “Preaching the Gospel For These Times” will be held Sunday, October 28 – Thursday, November 1 at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, TN.

This conference serves two main purposes: 1. Offer new perspectives on preaching the gospel to a world and a church in crises of leadership, and 2. explore the challenges of ministry and the needs of clergy and lay leaders in the Memphis and Tennessee Annual Conferences in order to learn how the Turner Center for Church Leadership can respond to those needs. Clergy and laity are invited to attend.

The conference will be led by four distinguished scholars and preachers: Prof. Brad Braxton, Prof. Mary Lin Hudson, Prof. John McClure, and Prof. Ted Smith. Each guest will offer a lecture along the theme of the conference, preach the sermon at our daily corporate worship, and then lead a discussion on the way they put their sermon together.

Small group sessions will be held each afternoon centered on four key questions:

+ What is the Gospel for these times and what are the counter-gospels in our society?
+ How is the pastoral office changing? Is the church and are pastors themselves expecting more of the pastoral office than any single human being could accomplish? How should it be reshaped?
+ How is the denomination changing? What is a Wesleyan meaning of "connection" for our time? If there have been at least five distinct phases of denomination in America, what should the next phase look like?
+ What are the main trends of our culture in which congregational and connectional ministry must take place? How can the lives of Christians be formed in this culture? Will our children have faith in this culture? How would our understanding of leadership in the church change if we took seriously the fragile lives of children in this culture?

The mission of the Turner Center is to encourage faithful and effective leadership, foster spiritual formation, enable new visions of ministry and mission, and renew our common commitment to being the church of Jesus Christ.

For more information about the Turner Center and to register for the “Preaching the Gospel For These Times”, please contact Danny Redding-Rhodes at (615) 343-4073 or danny.redding.rhodes@vanderbilt.edu. A downloadable brochure detailing the conference can be found at this link: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/divinity/programs/Turner%20Preaching%20Brochure.pdf