
DATE
Thursday, October 1st – Friday, October 2nd, 2020
VENUE
100% online.
PURPOSE
Genesis Summit is an inter-denominational event that exists to EQUIP, ENCOURAGE, and EMPOWER ministry leaders to foster communities of spiritual transformation.
TARGET AUDIENCE
- Lead Pastors and Teams
- Youth Ministers
- Worship Leaders
- Missions Leaders & Missionaries
- Children’s Ministry Pastors and Directors
- Family Ministry Pastors and Directors
- Chaplains, Pastoral Care & Spiritual Directors
THEME: Suffering and Spiritual Formation
As you come together online with likeminded leaders from across Canada and the world, Genesis Summit will be a time for you, and your team, to gain insight, be equipped and empowered to minister within the 21st Century.
The theme of Suffering and Spiritual Formation is particularly relevant during these pandemic times. How do we minister to those who are suffering? How do we cope with our own suffering? If the COVID-19 situation has taught us anything, it is the awakening to our fragility and vulnerability in life. Such a reality opens up an opportunity for us to deepen our awareness of God’s presence and sustaining support in the difficulties and challenges of life. Suffering enters our experience uninvited and disrupts our fragile equilibrium. These sessions are designed to strengthen the spiritual practices that align us with compassion, hope, and the vital presence of God in every ministry and life situation. Come and explore with us the spiritual opportunity to deepen and augment your spiritual vitality and that of the communities and ministries we are called to serve by the God of all compassion.
Keynote presentations by Rev. Dr. Phil Zylla, Vice-President Academics of McMaster Divinity College. Dr. Zylla has served as Senior Pastor in three congregations over seventeen years in three regions of Canada and has been involved in theological education for over eighteen years. His interests are in the theology of suffering, theology of ministry, spirituality, and pastoral care. His keynote addresses will cover the topics of:
· The Posture of Compassion: Staying Near to Suffering – What is suffering? Unintended difference, explore the fundamental compassion of God as the root source of spirituality of the actions of understanding and solidarity with those who suffer.
· Fragility of Life: Vulnerability and Sorrow – Cultivating a community/ministry of concern rooted in the actions of God who hears, who comes and who stays with those who are broken-hearted.
· Hope as Protest: A Spirituality of Suffering – Spiritual practices that will enable the Ministry Leader in their capacity to sustain and nurture the subtle persistence of hope in our lives and in the lives of those we serve.
· Suffering and Ministry – Challenges and best practices, establishing a foundational framework for the next phase of ministry into an uncertain future.