All God's Children: Justice in God's Mission
Fri., April 13-Sat., April 14, 2018
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
616 N. Highland Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Every other year, WMI hosts a mission conference focusing on how individuals and congregations can be more effectively involved in God’s global mission. Our 2018 conference will bring together local, national, and international mission leaders to talk about the integral role of justice in God's mission. Topics will include U.S.-Mexico border ministry, human trafficking, contextual ministry in local communities, ministry to the homeless, and more!
Register Now!
Registration fee is $65 for individuals and $275 for churches/groups (flat rate that includes unlimited individual regisrations and lunch on Saturday). The conference is free for PTS students, faculty, and staff.
On-site registration is by check and cash only. Registration opens at 6:00 p.m. Friday and 8:00 a.m. Saturday and will be held in the Chapel Auditorium Lobby.
Click here to download our 8.5x14 poster to share with your church or organization! You can also download a small (two per page) or large bulletin insert to advertise the conference to members of your congregation.
Individual Registration
Register as an individual (including PTS students, faculty, and staff) or member of a church/group
For a paper registration form, please call the WMI office at 412-924-1364.
Click Here for Conference Schedule
Friday, April 13, 2018
6:00 p.m. - Registration open, Chapel Auditorium Lobby
7:00 p.m. - Opening Worship, Chapel Auditorium
7:30 p.m. - Welcome & Introduction of Speakers, Chapel Auditorium
7:45 p.m. - Plenary Presentation and Q&A, Mark Adams & Miriam Maldonado, Chapel Auditorium
8:45 p.m. - Reception, Chapel Auditorium Lobby
Saturday, April 14, 2018
8:00 a.m. - Registration open, Chapel Auditorium Lobby
8:00 a.m. - Morning Prayer led by Ellen Dawson, McNaugher Lounge
9:00 a.m. - Worship, Chapel Auditorium
9:30 a.m. - Plenary Presentation and Q&A, Brian Cress
10:30 a.m. - Break
10:45 a.m. - Workshop Session 1, Long Hall Classrooms
11:35 a.m. - Break
11:45 a.m. - Workshop Session 2, Long Hall Classrooms
12:35 p.m. - Break for Lunch & Display Table Interactions, John Knox Room and Chapel Auditorium Lobby
2:00 p.m. - Workshop Session 3, Long Hall Classrooms
2:50 p.m. - Break
3:00 p.m. - Final Plenary and Q&A, Mark Adams & Miriam Maldonado, Chapel Auditorium
4:00 p.m. - Closing Worship, Chapel Auditorium
4:30 p.m. - Dismissal
Click Here for Conference Workshop Sessions
Conference participants will attend three workshop sessions during the conference. Choose your sessions (three choices plus one alternate) from the following offerings:
| Workshop Number | Leader(s) | Title | Description |
| 1 | Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado, PCUSA Mission Co-Workers serving with Frontera de Cristo | Immigration and the Churches' Response | Discover how God is using an unlikely group of persons from both sides of the contentious U.S./Mexico border to respond in faith to the challenges and opportunities of immigration. Participants will be equipped to participate in building just relationships across borders. |
| 2 | Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore | Bread for the Journey: Books as Resources for the Missional Journey to Justice | Come join our conference bookseller for a lively reminder of how books are vital for holistic Christian discipleship and have been used throughout history for personal and social transformation. There will be good suggestions of books and authors for your own journey to justice. |
| 3 | Brian Cress, International Justice Mission | Integrating Justice into your Transformational Ministry |
Justice is not just what we do, but who we are as transformed Christians. Beginning with the integration of justice into your ministry and the education of the next generation of leaders, we will answer the questions “Why justice?” and “Why now?” |
| 4 | Hunter Farrell and Balajiedlang Khyllep, World Mission Initiative, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Changing the Rudder: Re-Engineering your Church’s Engagement in Mission | Come meet new World Mission Initiative leaders Hunter Farrell and Bala Khyllep as they share the surprising results of a survey of 735 Presbyterian congregational mission leaders and what they need to improve their congregations' global mission work. |
| 5 | Kimberly Gonxhe, Metro-Urban Institute, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Precious, Gorgeous, and Beloved of God: The Black Woman | This workshop will focus on the distinctiveness of black woman experiences around the world, forms of sociocultural oppressive forces, and methodologies for dismantling such systematic repressions. |
| 6 | Scott Hagley, Assistant Professor of Missiology, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Why You (Alone) Cannot Change the World, and What to do About it | Exploring a theology and practice for developing mission partnerships |
| 7 | Dave Lettrich, Bridge to the Mountains | Street Ministry | Developing relationships with, and providing a bridge of hope to, those experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. How mountain excursions, white water rafting, and similar activities are creating breakthrough opportunities for people on the edge of life. |
| 8 | Rodney Lyde, Temple Baptist Church | Mission Possible: How You (People of Faith) can Participate in Creating a Just Pittsburgh | Learn the core competencies in creating a sustainable ministry (local mission) that advances the cause of justice for all God’s children. |
| 9 | Karen Rohrer, Church Planting Initiative, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Thinking Through Adaptive, Trauma-Informed Worship | If the Gospel is good news for people who are perishing, worship must welcome those who carry hurt with them. This workshop will explore how we can be mindful of the stories of those in our pews and those who may come when we gather for worship. |
| 10 | Juan Sarmiento, The Outreach Foundation | Godsent? Mission, Migration, and Your Church | Immigrants can help your church rediscover how God is at work across the world and across the street. In this workshop you will receive practical guidance on how to create authentic forms of transformative collaboration in Christ’s name. |
| 11 | Derek Seipp, East Asia Strategy | Discipleship Making Movements and Church Planting | With research from 604 movements in Asia, Africa, Europe. even North America. we will examine fundamental principles and practices of these movements. |
| 12 | Holly Seipp and Sherrill Rudy, Living in Liberty | Human Trafficking | Non-profit Living in Liberty offers a secure safe house (12-18 month transitional living program) for victims of human sex trafficking and street outreach with women in the Pittsburgh greater region. Living in Liberty also educates the community-at-large about sex trafficking, its prevalence worldwide, and its presence in our own communities. |
| 13 | Michael Stanton, Open Hand Ministries | The Beloved Communities' "War" on Poverty | Since the War on Poverty was declared in 1967, the wealth gap between blacks and whites has increased. For 10 years OHM has responded to this disparity in a Christ-centered manner, resulting in a model that prioritizes the formation of community and “wealth-building.” |
| 14 | Ginny Teitt, New Wilmington Mission Conference | The Uttermost Parts of the World in our Neighborhoods | The global crisis of people seeking safety and a new life may be the opportunity of the century for revival of the church in this country and mission outreach to people and tribes around the globe. Christians must become a part of the refugee solution if we are to be found in obedience to Christ's commands to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger. |
| 15 | John Welch, Vice President for Student Services and Community Engagement, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Missions and Race | This country was founded in the spirit of exploitation and conquest and racism has been the fulcrum for oppression and opportunity. Despite a long history of global evangelism, a mission field closer to home has been ignored and sometimes violated. |
| 16 | Kenneth Woo, Assistant Professor of Church History, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Refugees and Resistance in an Era of Reform: Calvin's Geneva as Context for Mission | An oft-overlooked dimension of John Calvin’s career as a reformer in Geneva was his preoccupation with the plight of the persecuted in his native France. We will examine how justice and mission converged in Calvin’s story, and its implications for today. |
Register Now!
Group
Register your church or group (flat rate that includes unlimited individual regisrations, including cost of lunch on Saturday, for members of your group) - $250 until March 13!
Individual
Register as an individual (including PTS students, faculty, and staff) or member of a church/group
For a paper registration form, please call the WMI office at 412-924-1449.
Keynote Speakers
Mark Adams and Miriam Maldonado
Presbyterian Church (USA) Mission Co-Workers serving on the U.S.-Mexico border
Mark and Miriam serve with Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian Border Ministry centered in Agua Prieta, Mexico, and Douglas, Ariz. Mark has served as the U.S. coordinator since 1998. He and Jocabed Gallegos, Mexican coordinator, are responsible for coordinating the six ministry areas of Frontera de Cristo: church development, health and family ministry, the New Hope Community Center, mission education, and the Just Trade Center. Miriam is a certified permaculture instructor and she helps cultivate healthy food and loving community in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Agua Prieta with DouglaPrieta Trabajan. She also works as a liaison with the CRREDA drug rehab center.
Through Frontera de Cristo, Mark and Miriam help bring together people from both sides of the border, building relationships and understanding between them. “We help them reflect biblically and theologically about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,” writes Mark, “in light of our spiritual, social, political, and economic connected-ness.”
Mark was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1998, in his home church, Clover Presbyterian Church. He is a minister member of Presbytery de Cristo, PC(USA). Mark is co-author of the book Just Coffee: Caffeine with a Conscience, which explores the connections between coffee, migration, and faith. He wrote the introduction to the book Bishops on the Border: Pastoral Responses to Immigration, in which the Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic bishops of Arizona reflect on the church’s call to respond in faith to the realities of immigration.
Mark and Miriam have three children: Cindy, Anna Flor, and Nathan.
Brian Cress
International Justice Mission
Brian Cress is director of denomination and youth mobilization for the International Justice Mission in Washington, D.C., where he works to connect denominations, church networks, and youth ministries with the goals and strategies of IJM. Brian is the author of 10 Minute Moments Seeking Justice, the creator of IJM’s “24 Hour Justice Experience,” and the youth curriculums “Questions to Live By” and “Evil and Suffering”.
Brian has spoken at churches, denominational conferences, youth events, camps, schools, and retreats throughout the United States and in the Dominican Republic, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Africa. He has led IJM trips to India, Philippines, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, and the Dominican Republic. Prior to joining IJM in 2007, Brian served on the pastoral team at a church in Bellevue, Wash., where he was a pastor for 27 years, serving as youth pastor, family ministry, and executive pastor.
Brian and his wife, Lori, who serves as an IJM volunteer, live in New York City, and have three grown children.
