1.  A Brief Pastoral Rule, a Resource for Sustaining Faithful, Vibrant Ministry with Steve Wright, Chris Pritchett and Jeff McCrory.

Both ruling and teaching elders are called to lead the congregation to discover what it means to live lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph 4:1; Phil 1:27). The challenges and obstacles to such life in today’s world are legion. A brief pastoral rule, produced by the Re-Forming Ministry Initiative of the Office of Theology and Worship, was recently offered “as a resource for sustaining faithful, vibrant ministry.” We will focus on the theological and practical aspects of the pastoral rule. How might we faithfully lead men and women to be reformed and always reforming according to the Word of God in the power of the Spirit?

Please review the document in the attached link prior to this Open Space gathering. https://www.pcusa.org/resource/pastorl-rule/ or

https://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/a_pastoral_rule.pdf

2.   Church Administrators’ Network, Aligning the Church’s Resources with God’s Mission, Jim and Dana Cialdella from San Clemente Presbyterian and Shawn Reilly of St. Andrews  

Linking mission and vision to staff evaluations. Paperless process. Not just what we do with goal setting but how we do it linking our values as well.  A true full picture of what success looks like that will encourage and motivate the staff in a catalytic way for your mission.  Every Pastor and personnel chair wants to dialogue in this process together with two executive coaches with over 25 years of experience and a fellow church that can talk through lessons learned. 

 3.  Youth Workers’ Network: A Forum for Collaboration and Partnership by Jeremy Ryan, Director of High School Ministries at Geneva Presbyterian in Laguna Hills   to help develop a youth ministry network that would extend throughout and beyond the Los Ranchos presbytery. The network’s primary focus would be to help develop a means of collaboration, guidance and encouragement among local churches.

4.  Christian Formation and Discipleship Network: A Forum for Collaboration and Partnership with Lynn Taylor and Nancy Pearson

THE CHRISTIAN FORMATION & DISCIPLESHIP TEAM  invites you to experience two things: Remember the story of the Lord’s Supper shared at the November presbytery meeting? Please come and meet CAROL JONES, the official southern California leader/trainer. Carol will help you catch the vision for how this unique ministry can make an impact in the lives of children, teens, and adults in your congregation, in addition to providing an excellent point of entry for guests visiting for the first time.  Secondly, eight 2012 VBS curriculum preview kits will be available for your perusal.  For more information, please contact Lynn Taylor, ltaylor333@cox.net or 714-392-1340.  

 5.  LA County/USC Hospital Chaplaincy with Estuardo Bazini-Barakat — A Ministry of Compassion. Space to share about the missional work being done at LAC/USC. Additionally, we can share with the Presbytery the video of Estuardo’s interview at LAC/USC.

 6.  For Your Benefit – Making the Most of the Board of Pensions Offerings to support your Ministry and your Staff                                                                       Clayton Cobb, new BOP  regional representative.

Topics addressed will include:                                                                                         Philosophy and theology of benefits as part of compensation                                               Brief review of our current benefits and how to make the most of them                              The Affiliated Benefits Program for other church employees                                                The Employee Assistance Program as a resource for pastors and personnel committees      Supplemental 403b Retirement Savings Plan for all church employees and other Optional Programs for pastors and church workers

 7.  Anatomy of a Presbytery Gathering with Kirk Winslow and Leanne Strommen, Moderator and Vice-Moderator of Los Ranchos Presbytery  These 75 minutes will be a light-hearted look at the actual working pieces of a presbytery meeting.  While aimed especially for first-time presbyters.  But anyone who has ever wondered what an omnibus motion really is, or why some seemingly reasonable statements or questions get ruled “out of order!” while others are allowed; how to actually get your ideas introduced in a meeting, or how to change a process of conversation…this is the Open Space course for you!  Come meet your new moderator and vice moderator and let them run you thru the basics of a meeting- what the goal of meeting is, how work is conducted, when, how and for how long you can speak.  What to do if you agree with something, and your options if you don’t.   Join us and “decency and order” will take a new place of love in your heart.

 8.  Stories from Erin Dunigan’s “Not Church” Across the Border.  Erin Dunigan and Candie Blankman:Creative and adaptive, this mission partnership of Los Ranchos has much to teach all of us for doing ministry in the 21st century.  Come and hear inspiring stories of how God is at work and is gathering His people without many of the traditional ministry resources and through everyday life together in Baja.

 9.  A New Vision for Hispanic-Latino Ministries with Alfredo Delgado, Consultant for Hispanic Ministries

What has been the typical vision and model which we have used to reach Latinos in recent years in the PCUSA? Why it has not been successful. Why, then, are there non-Presbyterian Latino churches which are economically self-sufficient?   Why are they growing while we are not?   What can we do to make a difference in our Latino/Hispanic ministries?  We will be talking about planting new churches or creating new ministries among Latinos.