On Saturday, December 9th members of NOAH Core Team will host a Retreat at Cedar Crest Camp from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. This retreat will be held at Cedar Crest Camp, 7900 Cedar Crest Camp Road in Lyles, TN.
Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. followed by a series of three workshops. These workshops will speak to the question of the public, faith and politics. The question was posed, “Does our faith call us to active involvement in public and political life?”
Sophia Kristina R. Agtarap
Sophia Kristina R. Agtarap, Director of Communications, the Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, will lead participants in looking at the use of social media as a tool regarding the stewardship of our citizenship and in civic engagement.
Phyllis Hildreth
Phyllis Hildreth, J.D. and Rev. Dr. Herbert Lester will challenge participants to examine a faith-based model of public responsibility. “Armed with this insight, we will investigate the campaign for a Community Oversight Board in Nashville as an example of civic engagement on the ground and how societal problems can be reduced to winnable issues to build organizational capacity,” said Phyllis Hildreth, J. D., Academic Director, Institute for Conflict Management and Associate Professor at Lipscomb University as well las Chair of Metro Human Relations Commission.
Pastor Herbert Lester
Rev. Dr. Herbert Lester, Jr., is Senior Pastor at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church. The final workshop facilitated by Ray Sells, retired United Methodist Clergy and member at New Covenant Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), will lead participants in the “how to” of the “relational meeting” as a building block in “relational organizing.”
Ray Sells
Leaders from Edgehill United Methodist Church and Clark Memorial United Methodist Church began to have conversation on how to be most effective in their participation in NOAH given that they were both relatively small congregations. In June of this year, as part of leadership training with NOAH (Nashville Organized for Action and Hope), the two churches agreed to hold meetings together and invited pastors and leaders from Blakemore, Gordon and McKendree United Methodist churches, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and NOAH’s leadership. After several meetings, the decision was made to hold a retreat. “We wanted to begin talking about engagement in public life and civic responsibility from a faith perspective, what that means and what it could look like,” stated Rev. Dr. Herbert Lester, Jr. “We look forward to this first retreat under this leadership core team,” said Lester.
For more information on the retreat, registration fees and NOAH, call 615-329-4464.
