CEA Regional Workshops

One of the great resources that the Christian Education Association has to offer is the Regional Workshop. Those of you who were able to attend the CEC know what a blessing it can be to attend a workshop. But not everyone can spend the time or money to go to a larger conference. Plus sometimes the topics just aren’t what you or your volunteers need at the time. That’s one of the wonderful things about Regional Workshops. They come to you and you pick the topics!

I have been blessed to have my home congregation host three of these workshops. We have had quality speakers cover a variety of topics for age groups from cradle roll through adults. It would be hard for me to contact the speakers we needed for specific topics. That’s one of the real blessings to hosting a workshop through the CEA. The leg work of contacting speakers and getting them lined up is done for you. The speakers donate their time for these workshops. You are responsible for their travel expenses. We charged participants a small fee to help cover some of the expenses.

So, what responsibilities do you have as host? You determine the topics what format to follow. We offered 4 sessions with each track and allowed our participants to have the option of attending all sessions within one track or switching between them. We also provided brunch foods and a lunch. Our workshops have been from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. You can have more or less sessions for a longer or shorter period of time. You determine what is best for your region.

You are responsible for advertisement. This involves contacting the area congregations and informing them of this wonderful opportunity - letters, calls, bulletin articles, newspaper, etc. You know the routine. You are responsible for the registration and the finances. Then of course, you are responsible for the actual physical running of the conference. You determine where to have it, when to have it, you’re responsible for setting up, providing resources that may be needed by the presenters such as AV equipment, arranging a place for the presenters to stay and other little things such as that. For the quality workshop that is put on, it is a small price to pay.

I can’t express how great these workshops have been for us. In Louisiana, there is not the number of congregations as there are in other areas that many of you are from. (Read Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, etc.) These have been a way for us to connect to other congregations while growing in ways to minister. They have been such a blessing to other congregations that I have had them contact me asking when we are hosting another one.

If you are interested in hosting a regional workshop or would like to learn more about them you can contact Pat Malone, Mike Malone or Charles Wilson. I would also be happy for you to contact me if you have any questions about our past workshops. Please consider taking advantage of this wonderful resource.