Plano, TX Covenant Group Facilitator Training, August 15

Friends,

Later this month I will be leading another small group facilitator training at our Community UU Church in Plano, TX. The following is from the event announcement on their website. Click Here for full details.



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Covenant Group Facilitator Training
9 AM to 3 PM, Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Community Unitarian Universalist Church
2875 East Parker Road, Plano, Texas 75074

Please let us know in advance if you will be participating and any childcare needs by emailing covenant@communityuuchurch.org.

This all day workshop led by Peter Bowden is intended to train those whowish to explore being Covenant Group facilitators, or to brush up your skills if you already are one. This workshop or its predecessor is required to serve as a Covenant Group facilitator at Community Church during the next year.

Covenant Groups will be launched in mid September for the 2009-2010. The training is free to members and friends of Community Church, and $ 25-30 for others. Lunch and child care are available. Registration limited to 60 participants. For more information contact the Rev. Patrick Price.

Peter Bowden is a Unitarian Universalist consultant working with congregations across the United States and a children's television producer. Peter's Unitarian Universalist work is focused on helping congregations use small groups to strengthen lay leadership, build community, deepen spiritual exploration, and through this inspire greater engagement with the world out-
side our congregations' walls. On the television side, Peter works on a number of nationally syndicated children's shows including the Curious George show and Peep and the Big Wide World. He lives in Newport, RI with his wife, the Rev. Amy Freedman, minister of Channing Church, and their daughter, Liza.

Here's what Peter has to say about covenant groups:

"Small Group Ministry (is) a way of 'doing church' which strives to deepen and expand the ministry of a congregation using an intentional system of lay-led small groups. Imagine all that your congregation is trying to accomplish, everything your minister, staff, leaders and members are called to do as a community. We have learned that we can design lay-led and clergy-supported small groups to accomplish this work and ministry. At the heart of healthy congregations and life/world changing ministries we find 1) strong relationships, 2) engagement with meaningful issues, 3) leadership/leadership development, and 4) inspired action. You might think of Small Group Ministry not as a new program, but an alternative model for doing what Unitarian Universalist congregations have been doing for years."