The Festival of Homiletics is like summer camp for preachers

During the Festival, you’ll hear from outstanding preachers from diverse backgrounds, traditions, and ministry settings. You’ll participate in passionate worship, dive deep with preaching master classes, and fellowship with preaching colleagues from around the world.

This year, in-person attendance is capped at 1,200 to maintain rigorous safety protocols—but even if you can’t join us in person, you can still participate!

Choose from a free or premium version of the online Festival—or better yet, come to Minneapolis for a celebration of preaching you won’t forget.

Unleash new momentum in your ministry. This April, join the experience that delivers ministry leaders a breath of fresh air and an uncommon energy — bound to generate powerful momentum in your ministry. Gather with future-focused children’s and youth ministry leaders for an inspirational and wildly practical three-day event. Unlock insights and connections to maximize your impact and sustain your own health in the year ahead.

Through this conference we will see that there are new and innovative ways to be the church as we come TOGETHER to resource, support and learn from one another. We have the chance and responsibility invest into students, to share the message of Jesus, to be a listening ear, to love faithfully, to seek justice, to live out the word of God.

We have 40+ practical workshops, Keynote Speakers (Ebonie Davis, Ho-Ming Tsui, Jason Persuad & Panel of innovative student leaders, special guest appearances including OJ the DJ, award winning worship band (Sanctus Church Worship) with time set apart to respond to the Holy Spirit, to network with others ministry leaders and get access the latest resources for ministry.

"The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener." (William O’Brien) Is this true? If it is, it could be read to say, “The success of a church depends on the interior condition of its leadership.” How are we as leaders (whether paid or lay)

- attending to our interior journeys of faith, healing and transformation?

- mindfully support the congregations we are serving?

This workshop will explore the theme of the leader's interior condition and will consider four foundational spiritual disciplines for healthy church leadership: Meditation; Lectio Divina, the Gift of Paying Attention, and Acceptance Prayers.

This ecumenical conference...

gathers worshipers from across Canada, the US, and beyond

brings together people from a variety of roles in worship and leadership, including pastors, worship planners and leaders, musicians, scholars, students, worship bands and teams, organists, visual artists, preachers, chaplains, missionaries, liturgists, council and session leaders, and more

You can attend the Annual Event in person in St. Louis or in a hybrid format via AE Online. You can also attend in person for one, two, or three days.

About APCE
APCE is an association made up of those who are serving or have served in educational ministries, as ministers, professional or volunteer educators, or students, in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, The Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Moravian Church in America, and the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Frequently we hear that people resist change. Does this have to be true? Could we find ways of engaging change, transformation and renewal that energizes the church while allowing the church to live more fully into the future to which God calling forth? This workshop explores the dynamics of leading change as well as drawing from both the congregational life cycle and the rhythms of the journey of renewal.

As the church begins a new year with the First Sunday of Advent, we pray that this service of repentance will lead to a renewed journey of healing and hope within all parts of our church.

The service will feature leadership from the diversity of our denomination, including The Rev. In Kee Kim of St. Timothy Presbyterian Church, who will preach the sermon and the Rev. Drs. Heather Vais and John Vissers, who will share in reading the Confession as part of the service.

The third edition of the Global Forum against Racism and Discrimination – Race to the top: putting racial equity and justice at the forefront of development agendas – will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, from 29 November to 1 December 2023.

This edition will focus on the importance of placing race at the center of developing and implementing strategies for socioeconomic development. Government officials, including ministers, policymakers, practitioners, academics and members of civil society and artistic communities, will be invited to discuss effective strategies to address systemic racism.

How many times have you sat through a poorly run meeting, knowing that if the session were being better facilitated, you would be accomplishing twice as much in half the time?

Discover the skills, knowledge, and behaviours to help you effectively facilitate in a wide range of situations. This 2-day, 14-hour workshop will introduce you to the core competencies of facilitation, modelled through the use of multiple engaging facilitation techniques grounded in adult learning.

You will gain a greater understanding of your own personal facilitation style and learn how to use your strengths to maximize your effectiveness as a facilitator.

We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored so that we can become peacemaking and reconciling people. This lecture will offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world, such as lament, relinquishing power and reinforcing agency. Embodying these practices enables us to be the new humanity in Christ, so the church and world can experience reconciliation, justice, unity, peace, and love.

There is increasing attention to the fear and anxiety caused by climate change. It manifests in a variety of ways, causing both physical and emotional distress. If you feel these effects directly, or if you experience them through your grandchildren, coworkers or neighbours, we invite you into a day of helpful learning. Spend a hope-filled day with Dr. McCarroll learning about biophilia, eco-literacy and other protective practices.

This is a day for leaders in local congregations to learn more about preaching. You don’t need to be an ordained minister to preach! God speaks through all of us, and this is a day to learn how to study scripture, craft your message, and deliver a sermon. The Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis of Knox College will be teaching this workshop.

The Toronto Children’s Ministry Conference is a gathering of people who are dedicated to the spiritual growth of children – parents, church volunteers, ministry leaders, and anyone who has a passion for ministering to children.

We’re gathering both online and in person this year!

Alongside the digital conference experience, you’re invited to join us in-person at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The digital conference space will remain as the home base for us, but we’ve heard loud and clear that there’s something electric about attending in-person next to other wanderers. Whether you’ll be with us in Minneapolis or online, you’ll have access to view conference recordings until January 1, 2024.

Join leading thinkers, clergy and others to creatively engage with issues facing the Church in Canada.

The Annual Carr Lecture in Fall 2023 features Rev. Dr. Ross Lockhart, Dean of St. Andrew's Hall and Professor of Mission Studies at Vancouver School of Theology. Dr. Lockhart will offer a lecture titled Super, Natural Vancouver – Christian witness and mission in a secular age.

As we emerge from our homes and return to our places of worship, we’ve discovered a world that has fundamentally shifted. While some transitioned from the pew to the couch to engage and nurture their spiritual lives, others disappeared altogether. Longstanding trends of declining church membership accelerated during the pandemic and have found exhausted church staff working harder than ever to connect with their congregations. Habits changed, theology was challenged, and connections were severed, pointing to an unavoidable truth: The church we know is at a critical crossroads.

Is the faith community adequately prepared to support each other during these difficult times? Do churches and faith leaders have a plan to help those on the brink of suicide?

This conference will:

-share stories of hope and recovery

-give authentic answers of why people die of suicide

-educate you on the signs

-give insight on how to help those considering taking their own lives

Come join us at our International event at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in our first-ever conference on how to end poverty.

Humans have a spiritual side however, many institutions

frequently deny this side of them. We shall tackle humanity

holistically at this conference by acknowledging the existence

and the significance of spirituality in reversing poverty in people's

lives.

The Climate Crisis & Empowering Hope: 2023 Hybrid Conference

September 20-23, 2023