Conferences
Major Conferences Featuring Vocation
In a liberal arts setting that strives for excellence, vocational ideas need to be given serious intellectual treatment in major conference format. In fact, conferencing is a spiritual discipline in the Wesleyan tradition (Steve Moore, The University through the Eyes of Faith). All planned conferences will involve national-level speakers, faculty, and students in presentations. In addition to plenary sessions, we will do seminar sessions, literature tables, video presentations, etc.
“The Vocation of a Pastor” Conferences
Held biennially for the period of the grant, these conferences will focus on issues related to discerning a possible call into the ordained pastoral ministry. Our aim is to stress the importance of ministry—particularly the role of ordained pastor—to our students and to increase the level of serious consideration some of them will give to this potential calling. This biennial conference will include treatment of issues related to the Women in Ministry and Leadership program. The second of these two conferences will be designed for publication in book or booklet form.
“Vocation in the Wesleyan Tradition” Conference
This conference, held fall of 2007, will be a final, culminating event of major significance. It is designed to treat a set of topics that flesh out a world-class, classically Christian understanding of vocation that is informed by our Wesleyan and Methodistic perspective. Our aim, after four years of experiencing the transforming effects of vocation throughout our community, will be to explore and state what a Wesleyan voice brings to the increasingly vigorous national discussion on vocation.
We will involve numerous national-level speakers, faculty and students, Wesleyan and nonWesleyan voices, in a comprehensive conference that we will promote nationally. The conference will cover topics such as issues facing women in ministry, the Wesleyan global interest in service, women in the professions as their calling, a broadly appreciative ecumenical posture, spiritual formation through Christian practices and disciplines as means of grace, and many more.
Our aim is to produce a published book (as a potential textbook pending planned course revisions) that will itself enhance the intellectual sustainability of our vocational initiative internally and will make a contribution to the intellectual discussion nationally.