Unleashing the Power

‍Unleashing the Power is a North American program intended to combine spiritual formation and practical skill-building to energize and equip Friends in nurturing healthy and faithful congregations.

Nine virtual workshops are proposed for 2022–2023.
Most, if not all, of the series workshops will be an hour-and-a-half in length and held on a weekday evening. Beginning in October 2022, these monthly Zoom workshops will cover topics such as the following:

• Community ministries (shelters, tutoring programs, food pantries, etc.)
• Having grounded conversations across differences
• Conflict within congregations
• Gifts and leadings and how these can guide nominations and service in the Meeting
• Small congregations
• Children’s ministries
• How congregations can be supportive of parents
• Hybrid worship communities and the implications of this beyond worship
• Faithful closure for congregations reaching the natural end of their life cycle

We hope that many of our North American churches and Meetings will send one or more members to each of these workshops. Dates, facilitators, and registration information are coming soon, and we will all be enriched by the presence of Friends throughout North America.

“…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”— Ephesians 4:12-16

Workshops

January 2023

Gifts & Leadings—Service & Nominations

Charlotte Stangeland

Thursday, January 26, 7 p.m. ET

Charlotte Stangeland, of Iowa Yearly Meeting, will lead a discussion about the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. How can we increase our awareness and openness to the Spirit’s leadings? How can we recognize and appreciate each others’ spiritual gifts? The discussion of gifts will focus on the grace gifts in Romans 12 and the leadership gifts of Ephesians 4.

February 2023

Navigating Meeting Conflicts Like Quakers

Bill Eagles

Monday, February 13, 7 p.m. ET

How are Friends dealing with conflict while coping with the shifts coming from the society, the public health issues, and the place of religion in our lives? Bill Eagles leads an examination of applying Quaker principles in an evolving environment. Or, putting it more plainly, remembering in moments of conflict that we might be wrong—and what to do about that possibility.

Bill Eagles is a past clerk of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, a retired lawyer, and a practicing mediator, as well as a member of the Friends United Meeting Board.

March 2023

Faithful Always: Adjusting Meeting Structures to Flourish as Who We Are Today

Emily Provance

Tuesday, March 14, 7 p.m. ET

Many North American Meetings have changed a great deal in the past ten to twenty years. A lot of our numbers are smaller. In this gathering, we’ll talk through many of the ways in which Meetings and churches can faithfully adjust to changing conditions. We’ll touch on each of the following areas, spending extra time on those that are of the most interest to Friends who are present:

• Rethinking our distribution of responsibilities among members—do we really need all the same committees and positions we used to?
• Adjusting from a full-time pastor to a part-time pastor—how does the relationship change to honor the released minister’s part-time status?
• Becoming a Meeting without a pastor—how can a church make the shift from having to not having staff?
• Reassessing our relationship with property—is it time to think about selling our building, or maybe consider sharing it with others in new ways?
• Combining congregations—what are some of the different ways in which this can be approached?
• Changing a Meeting’s status—could there be times when a congregation is called to transition to a virtual Meeting, or maybe a house church? What would those transitions be like?
• Considering legacy—how could a congregation respond faithfully to the need to close, and how could the Meeting’s ministries be honored in closing?

The gathering will focus on recognizing who we are as congregations now and finding the institutional structures most likely to support the work to which God calls us.

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