Presbytery of Santa Barbara

EPs Missive October 2009

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:15:04 -0700

  Executive Presbyter's Missive October 2009

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Reflection on presbytery missional and organizational work and a few resources both written and internet links that I have found helpful for ministry. Please take time to explore the Presbytery website http://www.sbpres.org where information is updated weekly. Sign up to follow SBPresbytery on twitter, and follow the daily updates and brain candy that comes from this social community. May the Lord bless you all in your ministry.

Call to Prayer:
1. IMPACT leaders, Co-Directors Sandy Dinkler and Randa Dinkler, have resigned and the Impact Board is advertising for a new executive director.

2. The missions of the Presbytery including:
Word of Life and Ronnie Urzuah, Sean Chow, Jay Licada, Cesar Perfecto,
Highlands Church and Graham Baird, Caleb, Jamie Baird (congratulations on the new marriage)
Grover Beach First: with a PNC receiving PIFs, Presbytery supports their original site purchase loan.
Goleta Community: finishing their Mission Study
Santa Maria First: Israel Gonzales,
Front Porch Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: and their new facilities,
Beau Smith: newly installed college pastor
David Berge: newly installed associate pastor-Ojai

Narrative: This September and October, apart from usual ministry with COM, CPM, other committees and Administrative/Finance tasks, the great joy has been the start up of the Venerable Company of Pastors.

Now many don't seem to want to say the word "Venerable." The word seems self-serving. Yet the pastors of the churches are expected to preach, lead, pastor and help articulate vision for the churches of the Presbytery. This is venerable or weighty work, a Godly call. Dr. Quinn Fox from the General Assembly Mission Council’s Office of Theology and Worship came to lead us in worship and outline Calvin's vision for "the Company". It is a not political, not a governing body, rather it is the worshiping community of pastors, doing Biblical study together, praying together, and seeking to be accountable with one another. At our preliminary meeting 30 pastors gathered and all elected to join in future monthly gatherings. Next one scheduled for November 18.

An additional "Company of New Pastors" gathered with our newly ordained, and some Commissioned Lay Pastors. These six younger pastors also want to meet and are considering welcoming 3rd year seminarians, individuals certified ready to receive a call and those in program work in churches such as youth workers and others. Be in prayer as we begin this foundational work of a “company of new pastors.”

I had opportunity to visit additional churches, preach for many and visit and consult with pastors. Financial issues face many churches. I am providing “Outside Leadership” for Carpinteria Community's stewardship program this year. Our new Stewardship section of the website has LOTS of resources, we also have a number of resource packs in the Presbytery Office to pick up, so make sure your people are gearing up for a quality stewardship drive. Our January Presbytery meeting’s focus will be Stewardship with a presentation by Eugenia Gamble on the heart of stewardship. Make a point of bringing your stewardship elders and committees to the January 30th meeting.

Mission giving to the Presbytery remains slow, so be in prayer for what you and your church can do to help with our anticipated shortfall. Your continued gifts and pledges to “Hearts and Hands” are needed now as in the past.

News You Can Use:

Sign Up now for Early Registration for the Santa Barbara Mission Conference January 16th.

PC(USA) World Mission Workers gathered in Cincinnati, along with CIW chair Chuck Curtis, for World Mission Celebration ’09 following the four week World Mission Challenge. During this time Esther Wakeman was recently able to travel through Southern California. Esther serves in Thailand and her husband is Rob Collins. You can read more stories from the World Mission Challenge here.

Web Site Update: The website continues to be upgraded and updated, with the idea of bringing needed resources and content to the churches. A new Stewardship page has lots of resources for your stewardship programs this year. Our smaller churches will appreciate the boiler plate materials. Check out the "Annual Campaign" section, especially the "Annual Campaign, Narrative Budget brochure", and also the newsletter articles.

Thank You for Your faithful giving to the Missions of the Presbytery
Presbytery Council approved over $100,000 in cuts to the 2009 budget, and we lost two staff positions.  Even with budget expenditure cuts we are in need of an additional $70,000-100,000 to cover our Presbytery Commitments to New Church Developments and transformational churches. Your Hearts and Hands and Mission On Our Doorstep gifts are still very much needed.

Major Dates Ahead:
• Oct 30-31: Synod Assembly ~ Newport Beach, CA 
• Nov 2-4 New Church Development Coaching/Training, San Clemente 
• Nov 10: Noon: Company of New Pastor’s-Lunch
• Nov 10 Tuesday: Presbytery-St. Andrews-Santa Barbara 
• Nov 14: Synod CCPM ~ LA 
• Nov 14: Mission Marketplace-Presbyterian Women-1st Pres Santa Barbara 
• Nov 15 Dr Armstrong preaches Carpinteria 
• Nov 18 Company of Pastors 10am 
• Nov 18 CIW 2:30 
• Nov 19 CPM and COM 
• Nov 21 St Andrews 50th Anniversary 
• Dec 9 Company of Pastors 
• Dec 17 COM 
• Jan 16, 2010 Missions Conference: Santa Barbara 
• Jan 23: MONVEE rollout-Emmanuel Pres, Thousand Oaks 
• Jan 30: Presbytery meeting-Stewardship
• Feb 28-Mar 2, 2010 Pastors’ Retreat 
• March 14-GA Moderator Bruce Reyes Chow-dinner @ First Pres Santa Barbara RSVP 
• March meeting of Presbytery, moved to May 1.2010

Resources and Ideas
An ongoing compilation of resources

Monvee goes public roll out on January 23, 2010:
http://monvee.com Monvee: Monvee is a discipleship program designed to help individuals build a discipleship program for themselves. The program is in beta testing, so check it out at:
Basically the program includes a book by John Ortberg, video curricula for small group use, and a computer dashboard for individuals to develop a personalized discipleship program. This design comes from the results of the "Reveal survey" (see link below) work, that identified that a key component of continued discipleship is for individuals become responsible and take charge of growing in faith, discipleship and mission. Monvee is designing a program to accomplish this unique task.

Enhanced Services from the Pension Benefits Program 866-640-2772
This one number gives pastors and credentialed staff access to enhanced services. These include:
financial services,
tax advice,
free legal services including a free 30-minute attorney consultation,
financial advisors,
advisors for tax planning,
debt and credit management,
budgeting cash flow analysis and
college funding.
A special area of Identity Theft Support provides consultation with fraud resolution specialists and all forms, letters and assistance in restoring your identity and good credit. All of these are free included benefits. I’m thinking you might want to write that phone number down. 866-640-2772 Also now until May 31 is an open enrollment for the Group Long-Term Care Insurance: http://www.pensions.org

Video Resources: Did you know under the video tab at http://www.sbpres.org you will find some great internet streaming resources.  A conversation between Hitchen and McGrath on atheism and religion, a video broadcast where you can click “on-demand” and get a menu of great presentations by David Hill Plenary address on stewardship, Mark Lau Branson, Philip Lotspeich, and others.

Links
http://www.missionalweb.org/
http://pgf.typepad.com/
http://www.thegreatemergence.com/
http://www.ThePresbyterianLeader.com
http://www.thoughtfulchristian.com
http://www.daveramsey.com/
http://www.revealnow.com/
Muslim group encouraging and working toward religious tolerance:
http://www.reformislam.org/

Find Your Inner Hebrew, click on the MP3 file,:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt00.htm#mp3

Blessings, Jan

EPs Missive August 2009

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:14:21 -0700

Reflection on presbytery missional and organizational work and a few resources both written and internet links that I have found helpful for ministry. Please take time to explore the Presbytery website http://www.sbpres.org where information is updated most every week. Sign up to follow SBPresbytery on twitter, and follow the daily updates and brain candy that comes from this social community. Blessings to you all in your ministry.

Call to Prayer:
1. IMPACT Teams are back from mission field, Co-Directors Sandy Dinkler and Randa Dinkler

2. With sadness of Spirit we share with you that dear Gladys Meriwether, wife of Roger Meriwether (former pastor of Emmanuel Thousand Oaks) went to be with her Lord. Our hearts go out to their family.

3. The following from our 2009 prayer list:
Presbytery Staff, EP Jan Armstrong, Stated Clerk Michelle Holmes, EPemeritus Ken Working
Retired ministers: Robert Cleath and Richard Wardlaw
Word of Life Presbyterian, Pastor Ron Urzua, CLP Sean Chow, Ray Licata-Presbytery Moderator
First Presbyterian San Luis Obispo, Pastor James Blades, Associate Pastor Andrew Rock, Parish Associates Ann Martel and Curtis Illingworth, Retired Pastor Jack Springer.
Goleta Presbyterian Church, Interim Pastor Dale Ridenour, SLP Jeannie Cavender, Minister member at large Steve Jacobsen.
Retired Ministers Robert Wennberg and Alan Stones.

Narrative: This July, apart from usual ministry with COM, CPM, other committees and Administrative/Finance tasks, the big project has been Front Porch and the residential ministry under construction. Keep praying as we look to lease-up the residence hall and the Front Porch board works on a myriad number of details. I had opportunity to visit additional churches, preach for many and visit and consult with pastors. Financial issues face many churches. Our new Stewardship section of the website has LOTS of resources, we also have a number of resources in the Presbytery Office to pick up, so make sure your people are gearing up for a quality stewardship drive. Mission giving to the Presbytery remains slow through the summer, so be in prayer for what you and your church can do to help with our planned shortfall.

News You Can Use:

August 20-21, Presbyterian Global Fellowship: "Moving back into the neighborhood"
http://www.peachtreepres.org/pgfgathering/Default.aspx?panel=Workshops

Sabbatical Funding source for you, Deadline Sept 1 !!:
The Louisville Institute is pleased to announce our 16th annual competition for sabbatical grants for pastoral leaders. Last year we awarded 48 grants to applicants from a pool numbering nearly 400, and we anticipate a strong set of applicants again for this year’s competition, which closes on September 1. In addition to our sabbatical grants, we also offer study grants to pastoral leaders; applications for those grants are due September 15.Though we do not lack for applicants, we seek to broaden our applicant pool beyond the “usual suspects” that already know about the Institute.

Details of our grant application process and eligibility requirements are available on our website, www.louisville-institute.org. I invite you to peruse the website to familiarize yourself with our sabbatical and study programs, and to pass our website address along to your network of regional officials. By way of summary, here are some core program facts:
·         Applicants must be regularly employed in a recognized religious leadership position. Applicants may be ordained or lay, and may or may not have a formal theological degree. Eligible positions include pastors and other parish ministers, chaplains, faith-based community agency leaders, and church judicatory officials.
·         Awardees will ordinarily have been in their current place of ministry at least five years, and will plan on staying in their current place for at least a year beyond their sabbatical. They will be at least five years away from retirement. Exceptions are possible, especially in church polities built on an itinerancy model.
·         Awards are made for either eight- or twelve-week sabbaticals. Sabbaticals are taken in a continuous single period. Applicants choose whether to apply for an eight-week sabbatical, with a $10,000 award, or for a twelve-week sabbatical, which bears a $15,000 award. The size of award request has no bearing on the chances of receiving an award.
·         Applications are due no later than September 1, 2009. Award announcements will be made by December 1, and sabbaticals must be taken between March 1, 2010 and August 31, 2011.
·         For study grants, rules are somewhat different; please see our website for that program’s eligibility and project guidelines.
·         Full program information and application materials are available at our website, www.louisville-institute.org.

Available to speak at your church: Rev. Dr. Esther Wakeman, PCUSA missionary in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Hear about the new things happening in global mission in our denomination. She will be in our tri-counties Friday, Sept. 25 through Friday, Oct. 2 as part of World Mission Challenge and World Mission Celebration ’09 of the PCUSA.
Esther serves vice-president for religious affairs and community relations at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Payap was founded in 1974 as the first Christian college in Thailand, and it is now a university with nearly 6,500 students and another 700 faculty and staff. Only 3 percent of the students and 30 percent of the faculty and staff are Christian. The Department of Religious Affairs has seven on staff, and they are responsible for worship services, required chapel programs, small prayer groups, retreats, workshops, international work camps, pastoral visits at times of sickness and death, and counseling.
She is a native of North Canton, Ohio, and a graduate of Malone College in Canton, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. She went to Chiang Mai in 1979 to teach English at Prince Royal’s College and met and married PCUSA missionary Rev. Rob Collins in 1980. Together they have three children, Nathan, Paul, and Anna. From 1984 until 1993 the family commuted between Chiang Mai and Pasadena, California, while Esther earned an MDiv and PhD in clinical psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary. After her ordination they returned full-time to Chiang Mai.
World Mission is revitalized under the direction of Hunter Farrell and the administration of Exec. Director Linda Valentine. At least 150 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be hosting mission speakers this fall through World Mission Challenge, a second of its kind effort to connect Presbyterian congregations across the country with their denomination’s mission personnel. World Mission Challenge speakers will be emphasizing the Presbyterian commitment to doing mission in partnership with churches and institutions in other countries.
Sunday morning, Sept. 27 and Wednesday evening, Sept. 30 have been booked. All other times are available. Please contact Chuck Cutis at 687-0754, x103; ccurtis@fpcsb.org. Or you may contact Michelle Holmes at 683-1548, x22; mholmes@sbpres.org. Please consider hosting Esther for a day and a night. She would love to speak to your group about her work in Chiang Mai and the exciting new developments in PCUSA World Mission.

Web Site Update: The website continues to be upgraded and updated, with the idea of bringing needed resources and content to the churches. A new Stewardship page has lots of resources for your stewardship programs this year. Our smaller churches will appreciate the boiler plate materials. Check out the "Annual Campaign" section, especially the "Annual Campaign, Narrative Budget brochure", and also the newsletter articles.

Thank You for Your faithful giving to the Missions of the Presbytery
Presbytery Council approved over $100,000 in cuts to the 2009 budget.  Even with budget expenditure cuts we are in need of an additional $70,000-100,000 to cover our Presbytery Commitments to NCDs and transformational churches. Your Hearts and Hands and Mission On Our Doorstep gifts are still very much needed.

Major Dates Ahead:
August 20-21, Presbyterian Global Fellowship: Moving back into the neighborhood:
http://www.peachtreepres.org/pgfgathering/Default.aspx?panel=Workshops
Sept 26, 2009 Next Presbytery Meeting at Moorpark: Program focus on Albania Church Partnership
2010 Missions Conference date: Saturday, January 16, 2010
2010 Pastors’ Retreat, dates: Feb 28-Mar 2, 2010 content led by Paul Ford, and time together. Make sure you put the Pastors’ Retreat, in your calendar.

Resources and Ideas
An ongoing compilation of resources

Posted Earlier in 2009:
http://monvee.com Monvee: Monvee is a discipleship program designed to help individuals build a discipleship program for themselves. The program is in beta testing, so check it out at:
Basically the program includes a book by John Ortberg, video curricula for small group use, and a computer dashboard for individuals to develop a personalized discipleship program. This design comes from the results of the "Reveal survey" (see link below) work, that identified that a key component of continued discipleship is for individuals become responsible and take charge of growing in faith, discipleship and mission. Monvee is designing a program to accomplish this unique task.

Links
http://www.missionalweb.org/
http://pgf.typepad.com/

Enhanced Services from the Pension Benefits Program 866-640-2772
This one number gives pastors and credentialed staff access to enhanced services. These include financial services, tax advice, legal services including a free 30-minute attorney consultation, financial advisors, advisors for tax planning, debt and credit management, budgeting cash flow analysis and college funding. A special area of Identity Theft Support provides consultation with fraud resolution specialists and all forms, letters and assistance in restoring your identity and good credit. All of these are free included benefits. I’m thinking you might want to write that phone number down. Also now until May 31 is an open enrollment for the Group Long-Term Care Insurance: http://www.pensions.org

Video Resources: Did you know under the video tab at http://www.sbpres.org you will find some great resources.  A conversation between Hitchen and McGrath on atheism and religion, a video broadcast where you can click “on-demand” and get a menu of great presentations by David Hill, Mark Lau Branson, Philip Lotspeich, and others.

http://www.thegreatemergence.com/
http://www.ThePresbyterianLeader.com
http://www.thoughtfulchristian.com

Stewardship Resources?
Churches in both Santa Ynez Valley and Simi Valley have had 100s of people out for David Ramsey workshop of financial planning. This budgeting and planning workshop seems very well received during these financially uncertain times, and may be a good foundation to Stewardship programs planned for the fall. Call the churches for more information.
http://www.daveramsey.com/

Greg Hawkins Reveal
http://www.revealnow.com/

Muslim group encouraging and working toward religious tolerance:
http://www.reformislam.org/

Find Your Inner Hebrew, click on the MP3 file,:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt00.htm#mp3

Blessings, Jan

EPs Missive July 2009

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:10:46 -0700

EPs Missive May 2009

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:07:26 -0700

Personal reflection on presbytery missional and organizational work and a few resources both written and internet links that I have found helpful for ministry. Blessings to you all in your ministry.

Call to Prayer:
Don Carey, retired: prayer for increased strength as he recovers from surgery.

Congregation and staff at Ojai Presbyterian Church, Pastor Jeff Holland, Interim Associate Pastor Tamara Holland, Parish Associates John Melsness and Art Beals and minister member at large Scott Beck

Congregation and staff at Santa Maria Presbyterian Church Pastor Israel Gonzales and minister member at large Valerie De La Torre

Congregation and staff at El Montecito Presbyterian Church, Pastor Harold Bussell, retired minister Miji Working and minister member at large Jim Bultema

IMPACT Teams and Co-Directors Sandy Dinkler and Randa Dinkler

Minister members at large Julia Fogg of Thousand Oaks and Jill Martinez of Oxnard

Prayers for Paul Dugan and Steve Miller on their Sabbaticals this summer.

Our Presbytery meeting, Sat May 16th at San Luis Obispo: Highlights
Commissioning of our Impact Teams as they head out across the globe as Missionaries of our Presbytery.
Front Porch San Luis Obispo College Student Residence Groundbreaking

Overview:
Newly called pastor Brett Becker, is serving at St. Andrew’s~Santa Barbara. Join us for the Installation June 14th.
Dale Ridenour is actively serving as the Interim Pastor at Goleta Presbyterian.
Jay Shirley will be starting up soon as Associate Pastor at El Montecito.

Diana Hopkins started as the stated supply for Summerland.

Following the Santa Barbara Fires, with Presbytery Disaster Assistance guidance an informal gathering took place to determine what we might do in regards to disaster preparedness, visibility in the community and volunteer connecting.

Your Presbytery Council has called together a “Presbytery Awareness Task Force” to put in place a mission interpretation program that will be coming to the churches and sessions. Be in prayer for those who are working on a brochure and a mission funding model for our presbytery to put in place mid-May.

Also Presbytery Council has approved cuts to the budget, Even with budget expenditure cuts we are in need of an additional $70,000-100,000 to cover our Presbytery Commitments to NCDs and transformational churches.

Your Hearts and Hands gifts are still needed.

2010 Missions conference date: Saturday, January 16, 2010

2010 Pastors’ Retreat, dates: Feb 28-Mar 2, 2010 content led by Paul Ford, and time together. Make sure you put the Pastors’ Retreat, in your calendar.

Resources and Ideas

Enhanced Services from the Pension Benefits Program 866-640-2772
This one number gives pastors and credentialed staff access to enhanced services. These include financial services, tax advice, legal services including a free 30-minute attorney consultation, financial advisors, advisors for tax planning, debt and credit management, budgeting cash flow analysis and college funding. A special area of Identity Theft Support provides consultation with fraud resolution specialists and all forms, letters and assistance in restoring your identity and good credit. All of these are free included benefits. I’m thinking you might want to write that phone number down. Also now until May 31 is an open enrollment for the Group Long-Term Care Insurance: http://www.pensions.org

Video Resources: Did you know under the video tab at http://www.sbpres.org you will find some great resources. A conversation between Hitchen and McGrath on atheism and religion, a video broadcast where you can click “on-demand” and get a menu of great presentations by David Hill, Mark Lau Branson, Philip Lotspeich, and others.

http://www.thegreatemergence.com/
http://www.ThePresbyterianLeader.com
http://www.thoughtfulchristian.com

Stewardship Resources?
Churches in both Santa Ynez Valley and Simi Valley have had 100s of people out for David Ramsey workshop of financial planning. This budgeting and planning workshop seems very well received during these financially uncertain times, and may be a good foundation to Stewardship programs planned for the fall. Call the churches for more information.
http://www.daveramsey.com/

Old Recommendations:
Greg Hawkins Reveal
http://www.revealnow.com/

Worship University (an online worship leader training school)
http://www.worshipministryu.com/public/10.cfm?affID=essmedia

Muslim group encouraging and working toward religious tolerance:
http://www.reformislam.org/

Find Your Inner Hebrew, click on the MP3 file,:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt00.htm#mp3

Blessings, Jan

EPs Missive Feb/March 2009

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:05:37 -0700

Personal reflection on recent presbytery meeting and a few resources both written and internet links that I have found helpful for ministry. Blessings to you all in your ministry, and thank you for all your encouragement as I serve as your Executive Presbyter.

Call to Prayer:
Our Presbytery meeting, Tuesday March 17th, was the beginning of a season of prayer in the Presbytery of Santa Barbara. The beginning and heart of our Presbytery meeting this month had over an hour and a half devoted to prayer, song, prayer, hearing God’s word, praying for one another, prayer for the churches, prayer for the economy and prayer for the presbytery. Let’s covenant to pray through the coming months. Plus we did all the other good business of the Presbytery.
Pray for healing for Jeff Working (Ken’s son) heart issues.
Prayer for Turkey. Art Beals has forwarded this request: Greetings from Turkey - the land of Noah, of Abraham, of Paul, of Antioch, of Acts, of the Seven Churches of Revelation, of Nicea, ………
We would like to invite you to join us in a commitment that we as the current churches of Turkey have made: as from this year, 2009, to set aside every year, the day of April 18 as the “International Day of Prayer for Turkey”.
Why April 18? We had been thinking of such a day of prayer for many years as we knew we needed more prayer from around the world. Various dates were being proposed, when, as you will sadly recall, three of our brothers were brutally murdered, martyred, in the city of Malatya in 2007. On 18 April 2007, Necati Aydin, Tillman Geske and Ugur Yüksel were murdered for no other reason than actively living and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. We know that their deaths, that saddened God’s heart and our hearts, were not in vain.  We feel that more than any other event, mingling their memory in deep prayer for the country they and we all love, will honour their sacrifice.
We therefore call upon the body of Christ worldwide to join us each year on April 18, to pray for the church and the land/people of Turkey.

Big Stuff Happening!!
Front Porch San Luis Obispo College Student Residence to Open This Fall
The Bulldozers are moving, the trash is being picked up and the Demolition work is finished!! And the buildings and residence hall and scheduled to be open this August for the first students in our Presbyterian Student Community at Cal Poly. So if your church has college students going to Cal Poly, make sure you contact the Presbytery Office to get a folder and application when they come out. Pray for the Front Porch board and all working on the project.
Overview:
At our last presbytery meeting: we approved welcoming into membership Brett Becker, the new pastor for St. Andrew’s~Santa Barbara. Pray for him as he and his family move.
We approved for ordination: Beau Smith our Front Porch~San Luis Obispo campus pastor. Pray for him as he plans his ordination service that will be held in Colorado.
We approved as Commissioned Lay Pastor, Jeannie Cavender, who will now serve as CLP for Goleta Presbyterian and has been authorized to perform Baptisms, moderate session, lead in Communion and other areas of ministry. Be in prayer as Dale Ridenour becomes the new Interim Pastor at Goleta Presbyterian.
A special thank you to Dale Ridenour for his ministry at St. Andrew’s as Interim Pastor these last few years.

We also approved Diana Hopkins as the stated supply for Summerland. Pray for her as she picks up the ministry following John McEntyre’s move to the Oakland area.

Your Presbytery Council has called together a “Presbytery Awareness Task Force” to put in place a mission interpretation program that will be coming to the churches and sessions. Be in prayer for convener: Robert Farrow, and others who are working on a brochure and a mission funding model for our presbytery to put in place mid-April. Also Presbytery Council will approve cuts to the budget in May, so if you have not gotten your mission pledge forms in to the office, please do so, or contact Michelle Holmes with an estimate. Your Hearts and Hands gifts are still needed.

Lay Leader Training and Session / Team Building
Three events highlighted our work as partner churches these last two months.

We now have 15 people in the Lay Leader Training, learning polity, preaching, pastoral care, theology and more. Pray for them, and realize that this program has had a marvelous effect on churches, where key leaders have been sent to the courses.

Over 25 people and five teams came to the Teaminar led by David Ross. David presented a model for teamwork based on Pat Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Everyone came away with a great understanding and awareness of how positive outcomes take place. They also came away with significant specific tools and skills to use in the home churches.

Pastor’s Retreat, was a significant time of connecting pastors with one another through content led by Paul Ford, and time together. Make sure you put the Pastor’s Retreat, scheduled for Feb 28-Mar 2, 2010 in your calendar now.

Upcoming Dreams and Vision:
Byung Min and Grace Korean Presbyterian Church are in the process of becoming a church development of the Presbytery of Santa Barbara, nested at Community Presbyterian Church in Nipomo. Pray for them in the process, and check out their web-link at our Presbytery Website:
http://www.sbpres.com/Site_2/한인교회.html

Presbytery of Albania
Art Beals, Paul Dugan along with members of CPC Ventura, have been in dialog about helping reformed Christians in Albania establish a denomination. We have been translating the Book of Order into Albanian, and discussing how an Albanian Book of Order might be different. In May we hope to have the first presentation to presbytery regarding our nesting/hosting/embracing a New Presbytery Development of Albania in our presbytery. The outcome being to have a vital and vibrant church in the coming years, with reformed theology and a heart for mission, established in this former Maoist country. Pray for the leadership as we put this process together.

Attachments:
You will find several attachments to this e-mail
1.         Health Care and Single Payer Solution workshop
2.         Renewal Workshop and Registration
3.         Oberammergau Luther trip with Kent Meads and Jan Armstrong

Stewardship Resources?
Churches in both Santa Ynez Valley had 100s of people out for David Ramsey workshop of financial planning. This budgeting and planning workshop seems very well received during these financially uncertain times, and may be a good pre-courser to Stewardship programs planned for the fall. Call the churches for more information.
http://www.daveramsey.com/

Old Recommendations:
Greg Hawkins Reveal
http://www.revealnow.com/

Worship University (an online worship leader training school)
http://www.worshipministryu.com/public/10.cfm?affID=essmedia

Another Muslim group encouraging and working toward religious tolerance:
http://www.reformislam.org/

Find Your Inner Hebrew, click on the MP3 file,:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt00.htm#mp3

Blessings, Jan