Our Women’s Association will kick off the conference on Monday, April 15 through dinner on Tuesday, April 16. That evening, the rest of our Associations will join the conference starting with a plenary session together at 7pm.
Wednesday, April 17 through Thursday, April 18 the Better Together Conference will include daily morning sessions led by each of our ethnic Associations (Black Pastors & Leaders Association, Hispanic Association, AAPI Association), afternoon breakouts and panels, and evening plenary sessions with everyone together. Evening plenary sessions are free and open to the public.
This conference is for everyone – even if you aren’t formally a part of one of the Associations, we would love to have you join us as we grow together into Beloved Community.
Morning
Registration / Check In
8:00 – 10:00 am
Morning Session
Speaker: Melanie Forsythe-Lee
9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Afternoon / Evening
Lunch Break
12:30 – 2:30 pm
Breakout Sessions
2:30 – 4:30 pm
Dinner/Break
4:30 – 7:00 pm
Evening Worship (Plenary)
Speaker: Debby Wright
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Morning / Afternoon
Morning Session
Speaker: Rev. Catherine Gilliard
9:30 am – 12:00 pm
Lunch, Prophetic Prayer & Mentoring Meet-ups
12:30 – 4:30 pm
Dinner/Break
4:30 – 7:00 pm
Evening
Registration / Check-In for everyone else
5:30 pm
Plenary & Multicultural Worship Experience
Speakers: Dr. Charles A. Montgomery, Jr & Jay Pathak
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Morning / Afternoon
Morning Session
Association-specific worship & keynotes
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Lunch Break
12:30 – 2:30 pm
Breakout Sessions or Panel Discussion hosted by Dr. Korie Little Edwards
2:30 – 4:30 pm
Evening
Dinner/Break
4:30 – 7:00 pm
Plenary & Multicultural Worship Experience
Speaker: Rev. Dr. James Choung
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Morning / Afternoon
Morning Session
Association-specific worship & keynotes
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Lunch Break
12:30 – 2:30 pm
Breakout Sessions or Panel Discussion hosted by Dr. Korie Little Edwards
2:30 – 4:30 pm
Evening
Dinner/Break
4:30 – 7:00 pm
Plenary & Multicultural Worship Experience
Speaker: Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Join VJN leaders for a 1-day “laboratory” following the conference. We’ll digest, put into practice, and debrief what we’ve learned. Register
Dinners, Meet-ups, and Afterparties
Breakout Sessions
There has never been a better time for women to step into their callings in the Vineyard than this current moment. If you are single or married, wanting to plant as a solo lead or in a co-lead capacity, we encourage you to join Christina and her panel of women Pastors to be inspired to take the next step in your Pastoral calling.
Advocating for yourself and your calling is not always easy, and many of us find it difficult to engage in the hard and necessary conversations with the people in leadership over us. Join members of the Women’s Association National team as they give you practical tips and role play live on stage how to ask for things such as a pay raise, licensure, and ordination, leadership training, being overlooked for a ministry role, and gender bias, just to name a few. This workshop will be practical and a lot of fun!
Rev. Dr. Catherine Gilliard has held an array of pioneering leadership positions. She was the first African American president of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW), the first female president of the African American Ministers Association (AAMA), and the first African American female church planter in the Covenant. She has also served as chair of the Covenant Executive Board. Her breakout will give you practical tools and personal stories that will inspire you to step into your God given calling as a woman.
Leading as a Hispanic woman comes with a certain set of cultural challenges. Join Isis and her team of women leaders in an honest and open conversation that will equip and encourage you to take the next step in your leadership journey!
For many women, bi-vocational pastoring is a way of life. Join Jeanine as she explores unique challenges and the immense opportunities that bi-vocational pastoring offers. This workshop is for current bi-vocational pastors and those who are interested in exploring them both/and that bi-vocational pastoring provides women.
Leading a church as a married couple is rewarding and also challenging. Join Debby as she shares from her own life experiences what is like to lead with your spouse, and learn some new methods of engagement that will bless your marriage and your ministry.
Being a person of color on staff at a predominantly White church can be challenging. This candid conversation about vocational ministry on a predominantly White staff team aims to give helpful insight for recruiting, retaining, and leading staff members of color.
Once we gather a multi-ethnic church, how do we keep its members healthy? Join us as we discuss building culturally sensitive soul-care practices and habits for a diverse congregation seeking wholeness for the long haul.
Discover how chord embellishments, improvisation, and other musical elements can give your worship expression a unique multi-cultural flavor. Participants will learn to value and incorporate elements of different styles of music to bring more diversity to their music ministry.
It is different to have a Spanish ministry in the church and to have the Hispanics integrated into a diverse church. From the perspective of Hispanic Pastors, we are going to explore two different models that allow Spanish-speaking people to develop their gifts and leadership in the context of a Vineyard church, where unity in Christ is possible.
What does it look like to do evangelism and discipleship among the Spanish-speaking people? Leading a church of Hispanic immigrants has its unique beauty but also its challenges. We are going to have a conversation about how to become a beloved community that embraces the beauty and the challenges of being the church that makes disciples among those foreign of the Vineyard.
What does it mean to be AAPI? Is that who I am? Is that all I am? This workshop will explore aspects of our journey that shape our shared experiences and unique identities.
We will gather in small groups to share our own journey and how these aspects shape our story, family, and ministry.
How do we as an AAPI community of pastors and leaders support and encourage others towards leadership and influence? How do we pastor and lead from our AAPI-ness?
On both Wednesday and Thursday, there will be a panel discussion with Dr. Korie Little Edwards & Vineyard Practitioners who have fostered Beloved Community in their churches.