Heritage District: Sharing Your Faith

The Heritage district Lay Servant Ministries team presents Sharing Your Faith, the Transforming Evangelism advanced course in Lay Servant Ministries, with Ken Ripley.

Fast Track to Certified Lay Servant?

Heritage district is offering a discount to anyone who signs up for both Basic (April 13) and Sharing Your Faith (April 20). Plus, anyone who takes these two courses will have the coursework they need to apply to become a certified lay servant (learn more). Offer open to all UMC laity. Both classes are on Zoom.

Course scholarships are available to those in need of financial assistance. Scholarships reduce the cost of a course to $5. Please contact your district director or cle@nccumc.org.

About the Course:

Because of the more aggressive and confrontational tactics we hear about, evangelism has developed a bad connotation. Doors are shut hurriedly, phone calls end abruptly, and e-mails left unanswered.

After all, isn’t this a task better handled by the pastor?

Perhaps it’s time to reexamine John Wesley’s model of evangelism as a full, natural circle—where it’s a communal beginning point rather than a solitary end.

The central motive of authentic evangelism is: Having received a message that’s made all the difference in our lives, we desire to share that message with others in the hope that it will transform their lives as well. Wesley models an evangelism that reaches out and welcomes, invites, and nurtures, and speaks to both head and heart.

This course leads participants to learn from John Wesley how to practice relational evangelism. They will discover that evangelism involves not only sharing our faith with others but also welcoming people into a community where they can grow in faith.

Learners will:

• Explore how to share Christ and the Gospel comfortably and naturally within all of our relationships, and how to nurture new Christians in their faith and deal with the tough questions so me may have;
• Explore the biblical models of evangelism and the relationship of hospitality to evangelism;
• Identify and reflect on faith stories;
• Discuss theological principles related to the ways people come to faith;
• Explore ways in which the church can support families as centers of faith development.

Order Your Book!

All participants are expected to read Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith prior to taking this course.

For questions about the course, please contact district director Ken Ripley (ripleykv@twc.com).

About the Facilitator:

Ken Ripley, a member of Gibson Memorial UMC in Spring Hope, has been a lay speaker since 1979 and a certified lay minister since 2018. Ken also serves as Heritage district director of Lay Servant Ministries. He is active in prison ministry and has a passion for evangelism. He is also an award-winning journalist active in civic and charitable organizations.