Fwd: Building Skills for Congregational Health at The Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Goldberg, SPI Director <william.goldberg@emu.edu>
Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 2:46 PM
Subject: Building Skills for Congregational Health at The Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University
To: "Philip L. Horning" <info@gehmanmennonitechurch.org>

Web Version | Subscribe | Forward to a friend January, 2017   Churches are Agents of Social Change We are all leaders and our actions influence others. Whether you are a pastor of a large or small church, a member of a congregational community, or a parishioner taking part, you help shape the direction of the church and its place in the community and the world.   Effective leadership requires recognizing the potential of those around you and finding ways to transform trauma, lessen conflict, and reach out to individuals or groups that may disagree with you.   The skills you can learn at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute are "life lessons".  They can help you move your church forward and positively affect the church, other parishioners, your community, and your relationship with those who share your beliefs and those whose beliefs differ.   The Summer Peacebuilding Institute is offering several courses this year that can increase your skills and increase the capacity of your church for positive social change.  Let us help you help your churches and your communities.   Mini-Grant Opportunities Recognizing that church budgets may be stretched tightly, we want to help where we can.  If your congregation sends two or more people to SPI 2017, or one person for two or more courses, we are able to provide, if necessary, a discount of 1/3 of the cost of the training fees for each person.  We hope that will be helpful and make it possible for you and/or other pastors, elders, lay leaders, or congregation members to attend.   Click on the links to the upper left or scroll down to see what courses interest you and can help with your calling.   And if you want to know what past participants think of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, click either (or both) of the following links for short videos in their own words: SPI in One Word SPI Community Day   We look forward to seeing you at the 2017 Summer Peacebuilding Institute!   Bill Goldberg Director, Summer Peacebuilding Institute In this issue Leadership and Congregational Health Trauma Awareness and Building Resilience Restorative Justice, Peace Education, Recovering from Sexual Harms, and Global Christianity Recently added course for SPI 2017 Forward to a friend Know someone who might be interested in the email? Why not forward this email to them. Leadership and Congregational Health For some people, leadership comes naturally.  Others have to work at it. Whichever situation you are in, there is always the need for greater skills and analysis of leadership.   If you are already a leader or looking to move into a leadership role, you need skills to manage people, conflicts, resources, and trauma as well as a variety of techniques for decision-making and strategic planning. Click the links below for more information on courses that will help you develop tools for reflective practice and evaluative thinking skills to improve workplace and program functionality.   Leadership and Management for the Common Good (May 8 – 16, 2017)   Leading Change in Complex Adaptive Systems (May 18 – 26, 2017)   Program and Project Management (May 29 – June 2, 2017)   Deliberative Processes for Social Change (June 5 – 9, 2017)   Circle Processes (June 12 – 16, 2017) Trauma Awareness and Building Resilience Congregations, communities and individuals worldwide and in your home town are impacted by trauma, pain, and violence in times of conflict, disaster, and disease.   Trauma affects how people think, feel, and behave. Unhealed trauma often leads to more violence as victims act out against others or become self-destructive.   Often times our attempts to help fail because we do not take into account the trauma suffered by those we are trying to help or we do not adequately understand the trauma.   Click the links below for information on courses where you can learn trauma analysis skills and how to integrate trauma-sensitive practices in your church and personal situations.   STAR Level 1 (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) (May 29 – June 2, 2017)   STAR Level 2 (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) (May 8 – 16, 2017)   The Transforming Power of Identity and Dignity (June 5 – 9, 2017)   STAR for PK - 12 Educators (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) (June 12 – 16, 2017) Restorative Justice, Peace Education, Recovering from Sexual Harms, and Global Christianity In addition to the courses listed above, there are several other courses that may be of interest to you and/or members of your congregation both at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute and the Eastern Mennonite Seminary. These courses include but are not limited to the following:   If social justice issues are occurring in your community over racial, ethnic, or religious differences, you may want to take Restorative Justice. Learn about a justice system that puts fixing relationships and the needs of the victim, the offender, and the community above the need for punishment.   If a violent event has occurred in your community consider attending Truth-telling, Reconciliation & Restorative Justice. Discussions will center both on healing at personal and community levels as well as A key discussion area in this course will be on ways that  future applications of truth-telling amidst ongoing police violence against communities of color in the US.   We recognize that many institutions do not have the knowledge to handle the tragic cases of sexual abuse that sometimes occur in congregations and communities. Spotlight on Sexual Harms: Institutional Best Practices will give you the necessary tools to identify sexual harms, facilitate organizational interventions, and foster individual and institutional healing and resilience (see the next section for more information on the course and the instructor).   Explore the history, missionary dynamics and current changing demographics of the Christian church worldwide in Global Christianity.   Discuss the education that is needed for the elimination of direct and indirect forms of violence in Peace Education. Explore strategies to reduce bullying, implicit bias, ethnocentrism, physical fights, or institutional discrimination in schools, the congregation, and the community.   For a full list of SPI courses, click here.   For a full list of May and June Seminary courses, click here. Recently added course for SPI 2017 Spotlight on Sexual Harms: Institutional Best Practice   Meet Dr. Carolyn Stauffer   Dr. Carolyn Stauffer, is the Co-Director of Eastern Mennonite University's Biomedicine program and teaches courses in the Masters in Organizational Leadership Program as well as the Department of Applied Social Sciences.  Stauffer's areas of expertise include gender-based violence, sexual abuse and resilience, social capital enhancement, and gender-sensitive humanitarian interventions.   Click here for a more detailed bio of Dr. Stauffer.   Click here for a course description of Spotlight on Sexual Harms: Institutional Best Practices.   Click here for a link to a short interview with Dr. Stauffer where she discusses   The timely need for tools, skills, and knowledge to address sexual harms How to get beyond the defensive walls of "it can't happen here" Legal protocols, ethical responsibilities, and transparency How social systems can perpetuate, curtail and/or help in the healing of sexual harms.   Summer Peacebuilding Institute | Eastern Mennonite University 1200 Park Road • Harrisonburg VA 22802 | spi@emu.edu | Unsubscribe info@gehmanmennonitechurch.org from this list