Sept. 25-26

Keynote Speaker:

Wrightson S. Tongue

How to minister in a congregation without selling out your ideals

We began our ministry with such lofty ideals. We would listen to God, not the whims of our world. We would be frontline crusaders for truth and peace and justice. We would stand firm in our belief that the gospel impacts society, not just the individual soul.

Then we went to church, where more effort was spent in choosing the carpet color for the fellowship hall than in creating a plan for ministry with migrant workers. Board meetings weren't the strategy sessions for social action we imagined. Rather, they were efforts to keep the largest number of congregants happy. Somewhere between the leaky roof and the ham & bean supper, we lost our ideals.

Conference Leader

Wrightson Tongue

This year's ESR Pastors Conference will focus on pastoral ministry with a social conscience. Speaker Wrightson S. Tongue will share his thoughts from more than 40 years of ministry as both pastor and activist. In the process we will discover how we can do pastoral ministry without selling out our ideals.

ESR welcomes Wrightson S. Tongue as the keynote speaker for this year's conference. Wrightson is pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Herkimer, New York, having previously served parishes in North Carolina, Virginia, and the New York Area West starting in 1961. Wrightson also has had a parallel career in music, centered in New York and London, and music has been a large part of his ministry as well. In 1969, Wrightson began serving a prison term for refusing to be drafted. During the 1990's, he was active in the prodemocracy movement for Burma. These two life-themes, ministry and activism, will be the centerpiece of his lectures.

SCHEDULE

REGISTRATION

You can download the full-color brochure (98KB) or a simple registration form (33KB). Print the document, fill out the form, and send it with your check to the address given.

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