Planning for “Sent” November 11

The Great Commission calls us to go,make disciples, baptize and teach. Learn from a storyteller, changemaker, organizer and  theologian on how to be SENT into this world. SENT: a one day conference for us all. Everybody is invited to Aldersgate UMC in East Brunswick on Saturday, November 11, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Storytellers

Danielle Fanfair and Marion Hall | Folklore Films  

Danielle serves as strategist and producer for Folklore Films, a film series that tells better stories to the city of Houston about Houston, one folkloric character at a time. She explores the stories people who are using change, trauma and pain to fuel passion through life-giving work. Through films, she tells “visual poems,” to tell good stories, inspire new folklore, and cross-pollinate audiences of different, yet like-minded people.

Marlon is a curator of human potential. Academically trained as an Anthropologist, an accomplished film-maker, and published author. He is a Lecturing Fellow for Duke University and curates Folklore Films which is dedicated to illuminating the beauty from brokenness and the folklore within us all.

Changemaker

Mark DeVries | Ministry Incubators

Mark has trained youth workers across the United States and Canada, as well as in Russia, Uganda, South Africa, Ecuador, Trinidad, Nicaragua, and Northern Ireland, working with a wide variety of denominations. He has taught courses or been a guest lecturer at a number of colleges and seminaries, including Princeton Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt Divinity School, David Lipscomb University and others. Mark is the author of a number of books, including Sustainable Youth Ministry (IVP, 2008), Family-Based Youth Ministry (IVP, Revised and Expanded, 2004) and 2011 releases, Before You Hire a Youth Pastor and The Indispensable Youth Pastor (Group Publishing), both co-authored with YMA Vice-President, Jeff Dunn-Rankin. He is also the president of Ministry Architects, the consulting firm working with Greater New Jersey in developing Next Generation Ministry

Organizer

Christian Coon | Urban Village, Chicago

Christian is the pastor of Urban Village Church, a fast-growing congregation in Chicago that is one of 30 new “planting churches” started by the United Methodist Church in 2009 that are designed to bring in people who have been turned off by traditional religious institutions. Urban Village attracts a large number of young adults. Total attendance each Sunday averages between 250 to 300 congregants, with an estimated 80 percent of them under 40.  The church has three core watchwords: bold, inclusive and  relevant with clear core values, a highly targeted demographic and authenticity.

Theologian

Eric Barreto | Princeton Theological Seminary

Eric is a Baptist minister who pursues scholarship for the sake of the church.  He regularly writes for and teaches in faith communities around the country. He has also been a leader in the Hispanic Theological Initiative Consortium, a national, ecumenical, and inter-constitutional consortium comprised of some of the top seminaries, theological schools, and religion departments in the country. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.