LEARN Seminars
The Local Education and Renewal Network (LEARN) provides access to the learning resources of the Andover Newton community through the LEARN On-line Seminars. LEARN Seminars offer education and renewal experiences for both laity and clergy, tailored to meet specific needs. They are conducted entirely on-line and do not require students to attend classes on the Andover Newton campus.
To register for each seminar, please click on the yellow sign-up square following its description below. You may register for as many as you wish and pay by check or credit card. For details, please see the registration page for each seminar.
All LEARN seminars are non-credit, open registration. You do not need to be a matriculated Andover Newton to attend. No application other than registration and payment is required.
If you have any questions please contact the Learn Administrator at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Thank you the Andover Newton Theological Learn Team.
To register with credit card please use links provided with each listing.
To register and pay by check please use this LEARN Seminar Registration Form.
LEARN Seminars List
| Seminar ID | Title | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| LS500 | Never Call Them Jerks Instructor: Arthur Paul Boers Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Jan. 16 – Feb. 12 Register by Jan. 6 |
| LS511 | Going Deeper/ Reaching Wider: Theological Convictions Empowering Congregational Vitality Instructor: Tony Robinson Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Feb. 27 – Mar. 23 Register by Feb. 17 |
| LS512 | Becoming a Blessed Church Instructor: Graham Standish Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Jan. 16 – Feb. 12 Register by Jan. 6 |
| LS520 | Tending to the Holy: Practicing the Presence of God in Ministry Instructor: Bruce G. Epperly Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
October 3 – 28 Register by Sept. 23 |
| LS521 | The Art of Managing in the Church Instructor: John Wimberley Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
April 30- May 25 Register by April 20 |
| LS522 | Leading Strategically Amid Change Instructor: Ken McFayden Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
June 4-29 Register by May 26 |
| LS523 | Friends Among Colleagues: What we all need to Survive and Thrive in the Parish Instructors: Melissa Lynn DeRosia, Marianne J. Grano, Amy Morgan and Amanda Adams Riley Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
April 30 - May 25 Register by April 20 |
| LS524 | Why is it So Hard to Preach about Money? Instructor: Craig A. Satterlee Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
April 23-May 18 Register by April 13 |
| LS525 | Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be: Four Practices for Improving Ministry Instructor: Barbara J. Blodgett Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Oct 17 - Nov 11 Register by Oct 7 |
| LS526 | Discovering the Open Source Church Instructor: Landon Whitsitt Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Jan 23 – Feb 17 Register by Jan 13 |
| LS702 | Growing Agile Leaders Instructor: Robert Dale Register Now (credit card required) Use this form to register with a check |
Feb 6 – Mar 2 Register by Jan 27 |
To register with credit card please use links provided with each listing.
To register and pay by check please use this LEARN Seminar Registration Form.
LEARN Fall 2011 Seminars
LS520 Tending to the Holy: Practicing the Presence of God in Ministry
Instructor: Bruce G. Epperly
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS520, $195
Project Option: LS520P, $75
Dates: October 3 – 28
Registration Deadline: September 23
Description: Integrating spiritual practices with the everyday tasks of ministry can transform a pastor’s professional and spiritual life. Practicing God's presence in the ordinary tasks of ministry inspires wholeness, spiritual transformation, vision, imagination, endurance, and healthy self-differentiation in ministry. This seminar will provide spiritual and professional resources to nurture vitality and wholeness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships supportive of faithful excellence in ministry. Participants will explore a variety of theologically-grounded spiritual practices that will deepen their experience God’s presence in preaching, teaching, pastoral care, spiritual formation, administration, and prophetic hospitality.
Reading: Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry and Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout by Bruce and Katherine Gould Epperly.
Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be: Four Practices for Improving Ministry
Instructor: Barbara J. Blodgett
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS 525, $195
Project Option LS 525P, $75
Dates: October 17-November 11, 2011
Registration Deadline: October 7
Description: In this seminar you will learn how to improve your ministry through four practices: soliciting meaningful feedback, finding a wise and trustworthy mentor, creating a supportive and engaging peer group, and choosing the right role in public life for you. You will reflect on what makes excellence in your ministry challenging, and ways you can nevertheless strive for it. By the end of the seminar you will have discovered new perspectives from one another and learned new strategies you can implement right away.
Reading:Becoming the Pastor You Hope to Be by Barbara Blodgett. Excerpts from: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck; Cultivating Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger et al; “Mentoring Clergy for Effective Leadership” by David Gortner and John Dreibelbis; Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice by Edward Chambers.
LEARN Winter 2012 Seminars
LS500 Never Call Them Jerks
Instructor: Arthur Paul Boers
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar LS500, $195
Project Option: LS500P, $75
Dates: January 16 – February 12
Registration Deadline: January 6
Description: Church leaders inevitably face intense conflicts rooted in complicated relational, behavioral, familial and social dynamics. In this course we reflect on our vulnerabilities and discover the shape of responsible and faithful leadership. We investigate: how family systems understanding promotes non-anxiousness, developing self-awareness and self-understanding, current countercultural challenges in such conflicts, and spiritual resources for dealing with these challenges. We grow empowered as leaders and agents rather than victims.
Reading: Never Call Them Jerks: Healthy Responses to Difficult Behavior by Arthur Paul Boers. Leadership from Inside Out: Spirituality and Organizational Change by Wes Granberg-Michaelson, Family Ties that Bind: A Self-Help Guide to Change through Family of Origin Therapy by Ronald. W. Richardson, “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor.
LS511 Going Deeper/ Reaching Wider: Theological Convictions Empowering Congregational Vitality
Instructor: Tony Robinson
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS511, $195
Project Option: LS511P, $195
Dates: February 27 – March 23
Registration Deadline: February 17
Description: Using Tony’s book What's Theology Got To Do with It: Convictions, Vitality and the Church, this seminar will engage participants in a conversation about re-funding the life of congregations on a theological basis. Tony defines theology not as an academic discipline primarily but as a "perspective on life" and "wisdom proper to the life of the believer." He suggests that core Christian convictions shape and inform a particular perspective, a way of seeing life and living it. Moreover, he claims that there is an integral relationship between congregational health and vitality and the capacity of a congregation, and its leadership, to articulate core Christian and theological convictions and bring them into dialogue with congregational life. His approach provides many examples and illustrations from congregational life.
Reading: What's Theology Got To Do with It: Convictions, Vitality and the Church by Anthony Robinson and Not Ashamed of the Gospel by Fleming Rutledge.
LS512 Becoming a Blessed Church
Instructor: Graham Standish
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar LS512, $195
Project Option: LS512P, $75
Dates: January 16 – February 12
Registration Deadline: January 6
Description: Is your congregation grounded in following God's call, or is it mired in disagreement over whose vision is the right one? Does your congregation base its decisions on prayer and discernment, or on analysis and paralysis? Are your leaders trained to seek God's guidance, or do they seek their own counsel? Graham will show us how to open congregations to grow spiritually so that seeking and doing God's will becomes the foundation of the church's work.
Reading: Becoming a Blessed Church by Graham Standish.
LEARN Spring 2012 Seminars
The Art of Managing in the Church
Instructor: John Wimberly
Level: EMP
Core Seminar: LS 521, $195
Project Option: LS 521P, $75
Dates: April 30-May 25
Registration Deadline: April 20
Description: This seminar is built on John’s highly successful book The Business of the Church. John will help participants think about their current management of staff, volunteers, buildings, grounds and finances in the light of best management practices. Attention will be devoted to understanding the differences between management and leadership. The participants can ask for specific management issues to be addressed such as personnel evaluations, capital reserve funds or financial reports. In addition to reading John’s book, a number of helpful articles will be posted for additional points of view on key management issues.
Reading:The Business of the Church by John Wimberly
Friends Among Colleagues: What we all need to Survive and Thrive in the Parish
Instructors: Melissa Lynn DeRosia, Marianne J. Grano, Amy Morgan and Amanda Adams Riley
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS523, $195
Project Option: LS523P, $75
Date: April 30th-May 25th
Registration Deadline: April 20
Description: We all need friends, but the role of pastor or priest can make true friendship relationships difficult. Based on a book written by clergy women for clergy women, a group of four friends, who found their way through their first years in ordained ministry in community, this seminar walks the participants through many of the challenges clergy (both male and female) face in the parish. Topics include: navigating a call, "what role will my spouse play?" or balancing single life and ministry, motherhood and ministry, self-care and difficult situations in the parish.
Reading: The Girlfriend’s Clergy Companion: Navigating Live in the Parish With Style and Grace by Melissa Lynn DeRosia, Marianne J. Grano, Amy Morgan and Amanda Adams Riley, This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers by Lillian Daniel and Martin B. Copenhaver, seleted chapters; Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbra Brown Taylor, selected chapters.
Why is It So Hard to Preach about Money?
Instructor: Craig A. Satterlee
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS 524, $195
Project Option: LS 524P, $75
Date: April 23-May 18
Registration Deadline: April 13
Description: Putting the “M” word back into stewardship, this seminar celebrates giving money in response to an explicit proclamation of the Gospel as worship, participation in God’s own mission of reconciliation and resurrection, and active resistance to the powers of death at work in the world. Practical in nature, the seminar’s goal is to encourage and equip pastors to preach both the annual stewardship sermon and the topic on money as it is found in Scripture. For the optional seminar project, participants can prepare the manuscript of a stewardship sermon for review and comment by the instructor.
Reading:Preaching and Stewardship: Proclaiming God’s Invitation to Grow by Craig Satterlee.
Leading Strategically Amid Change
Instructor: Ken McFayden
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS522, $195
Project Option: LS522P, $50
Date: June 4-29
Registration Deadline: May 25
Description: The church both yearns for and resists leadership, especially leadership that is transformational in nature. With this premise as a basis for understanding, participants will explore the opportunities and challenges of leading as their congregations face the need for change, the pain of change, and the embracing of change as they prepare for ministry in the future. The central role of vision as a bridge will be examined as congregations make transitions from an established past to a lesser-known future.
Reading: Strategic Leadership for a Change: Facing Our Losses, Finding Our Future by Kenneth J. McFayden and several on-line articles.
Discovering the Open Source Church
Instructor: Landon Whitsitt
Level: Empowerment
Core Seminar: LS 526, $195
Project Option: LS 526P, $75
Date: January 23 – February 17
Registration Deadline: January 13
Description:
The Open Source Church is a reality. It is not an idea; it is not a hope (or a fear). It is here and will increasingly define the way that Christianity is organized and practiced. No matter one's denomination, the values of openness and inclusion are coming to define who we understand ourselves to be as the people of God. In this seminar you will be introduced to the idea of an Open Source Church, and what values and assumptions it is built upon. Together we’ll learn to critique the ideas of ministry that have defined the church for more than a generation, and explore what kinds of processes, practices, and postures will be needed to replace them.
Reading:
Open Source Church by Landon Whitsitt.
Growing Agile Leaders
Instructor: Robert Dale
Level: Engagement
Core Seminar: LS702, $195
Project Option: LS702P, $75
Dates: February 6 – March 2
Registration Deadline: January 27
Description:
Our world is shifting so radically and so constantly that leaders feel obsolete and stuck in place. Agility, a leader's ability to adjust quickly, provides traction for forward motion. Thankfully, there are several types of agility. For example, agility enables leaders to (1) ad-lib when the environment is completely novel, (2) multiply the power of partnerships, and (3) live in two worlds at the same time--the old world that's fading away as well as the new world that's emerging. Agility, then, is the basic survival skill for today's leaders.
Reading:
Growing Agile Leaders: Coaching Leaders to Move with Sure-Footedness in a Seismic World by Robert Dale (Coach Approach Ministries, 2011).
