Beyond the Familiar: Exploring Evangelism in the unknown

The fourth 'Learning to be Missionary Disciples' Churches Together in England (CTE) conference will take place on 27 and 28 November 2024

Churches Together in England are putting on a 24-hour conference that draws together senior national church leaders with the portfolio for mission and evangelism, those from charities, unity movements and theological colleges working in the areas of mission and discipleship. The conference particularly focuses on the theme of Beyond the Familiar: Exploring evangelism in the unknown asking what we can learn from parts of the church with which we may be unfamiliar and the gift and challenge that they bring.

There are two keynote speakers:

Dr Lisa Adjei who is an international speaker, writer and thought leader. Dr Adjei holds a PhD in Biochemistry & Physiology from the University of Surrey, where she was a lay minister for a number of years. She is also the founder of Sankofa Collective, an ecumenical racial justice and reconciliation community for Christians. Dr Lisa works for Christian Aid as a British Church Relations Manager, she also sits on Churches Together England’s Board of Trustees and on their Racial Justice Working Group. Dr Lisa is also the chair of a global climate movement called Climate YES, a community of young Christian activists passionate about climate justice. She is a member of Trinity Baptist Church where she serves in their young adults ministry, Impact.

Fr Dragos Herescu who is the Principal of The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS) in Cambridge and the parish priest for the Romanian Orthodox Parish of St John the Evangelist, also in Cambridge. He teaches postgraduate courses on the topics of Christian spirituality and secularisation on the degree programmes offered through the Institute and the Cambridge Theological Federation. He is also an Affiliated Lecturer of the Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge. Father Dragos graduated with an MPhil in Theology with the Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge and is in the last stage of completing a doctoral thesis with Durham University, on the secularisation paradigm in the context of Eastern Orthodoxy, with particular focus on the Romanian context.

There will also be opportunities for delegates to sign up to give short Ted Talk-style papers of between 10 to 12 mins on the following topics:

• Evangelism amongst 20s-30s – sharing the good news with digital natives
• Evangelism as storytelling
• Trauma-informed evangelism – sharing the good news with those hurt by the church
• ‘Spiritual but not religious’ – good news for the nones

The cost of the conference is £190.00 per person.

This is an invite-only conference. There are a limited number of places for younger leaders (under 35) at a discounted price. For more details about this conference please contact Rev Dr Benjamin Aldous.

Article by Dr Ian Watson, CEO of NWCT taken from CTE.