Vibrant Faith Ministries offers a variety of training opportunities to maximize your ministry effectiveness and nurture a vibrant faith. Our trainers share insights from their congregational experience and draw upon the latest research to provide you with an exceptional learning experience that links exemplary faith practices to a solid theological framework. Listed below are some of our current training offerings:

60-90 Minute Workshops

Adult Faith Formation

“If we want Christian children and youth, we need Christian adults and parents” … and every Christian adult is a faith parent! This is foundational to living faith. Recent research demonstrates that traditional adult education in our congregations has not been successful at living faith to the next generation. The fundamental question is, “What can congregations do to help equip faithful and effective disciples?” The answer takes us beyond the classroom and understands every aspect of our life of faith as an opportunity for adult faith formation. Come and learn ways your congregation can equip all adults in faith formation that will bless homes, congregations, and the larger world that God so loves.

Children in Worship

They wiggle. They giggle. They are disruptive and adults can’t hear and concentrate. Do they really understand anything? So, why include children in worship? Remember that Jesus welcomed the children and reminds us that we have vitally important lessons to learn from the children. So, how can we make worship welcoming and engaging to children? How can children participate in worship? What worship leadership might children provide? If we want them in the pews, in the congregation and in relationship with Jesus Christ and one another when they are no longer children, let’s plan to include and honor them now.

Christian Education of Very Young Children

Is this really something we have to do? After all, we start Sunday school for young children. We offer confirmation. Will they learn anything? Can they understand and remember? Isn’t the nursery enough? Learn how to partner home and congregation, equipping all of the adults in the young child’s life to nurture faith from pre-birth or adoption on. Learn the simple, everyday things we can do to get our very young children off on the right faith foot. There are books that tell us every step of the way what is happening physically intellectually, emotionally and socially with our child's development. What about faith development? Learn the simple, everyday things we can do to observe, nurture ,and celebrate our child's faith development.

Congregational Support of Parents

Parenting is inherently a spiritual journey, one for which parents feel ill-equipped and woefully inadequate. There is no answer book for their questions. Most don’t have a network of other parents with whom to share expertise and experiences. They don’t know where to turn for resources and help. What do parents need from congregations in order to parent their children well and faithfully? They need knowledge. They need skills. They need a network of support. They need to feel safe, loved, empowered, and forgiven.

Cross+Generational Ministry

A congregation has the potential to bring all the generations together to pass on faith. Yet too many congregations divide people into age-segregated classes, rather than interacting and worshipping together. This workshop will address why it is essential to gather the generations, identify the generations and each generation’s unique gifts; experience simple approaches for creating circles of blessings in all aspects of your congregation’s ministry.

Faith-full Grandparenting and Godparenting

How can we grandparent these gifts of God so that we support our children as parents, love our grandchildren in faithful, life-giving ways, and help pass on a life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ. Learn how to “meddle” in loving, supportive ways. Come and discover how to bridge distance and time apart, love them well, stay in touch, give good gifts, and build relationships we all treasure.

Four Keys in the Life of the Home

Learn a variety of ways to bring the life of faith into the home on a regular basis through the Four Keys of caring conversation, family devotions, family rituals and traditions and family service. Together we will explore ways of looking at the seasons of living your days, years, and church year that are grounded in faith, hope and love through these practices. Come and find out how to turn a personal or family vacation into a Christian pilgrimage

Getting Your Congregation on Board

The number one concern of those who attend Vibrant Faith Event is how to get more people on board when you go "back home." We will look more closely at the issues raised by those concerns and how to address them. Participants will explore 1) who's the targeted audience; 2) what are the key resources to get you started back in the congregation; and 3) two leadership outlines that will help determine what needs to be done, when, and how.

Gifts-Based Ministry

If we truly believe that people are given gifts for the good of all believers, then there is no such thing as a volunteer: there is only the invitation to disciples to use their gifts. Too much time is spent in congregations twisting arms or pleading for folks to volunteer, only to have the same people on board. The danger that some people feel burned out and some people feel left out. God created and calls each person to make a difference. Discover how a gifts-based ministry can revitalize your congregation and engage everyone, regardless of age, to be the community of Christ.

Milestones Ministry

A faith milestone is a marker along life’s journey that says, “This is something important and God is here, too.” Begin today, being deliberate about looking for opportunities to name and claim God’s presence in the lives of children, youth, and adults. Learn how to combine family enrichment and corporate worship, partnering home and congregation in the vital task of living the faith. It is a strategic way to reach out to not-so-involved caregivers in the faith lives of children. You will receive a framework to develop milestones for every age and stage of life, beginning at birth and continuing through baptism, first Bible, communion, new driver's license, marriage, first home, retirement, and more!

My Body, God's Gift: Faith-filled Conversations About Sexuality with Children and Youth

Sexuality is God’s good gift to humankind. As children mature physically, this is a time to partner home and congregation to make sure that the children we love have good information, clear and consistent values, and support to be moral. It is important to reclaim sexuality from the media and industries that exploit, demean, or misuse it in our culture. Finally, a way to partner home and congregation to mark this vital faith milestone!

Rituals and Traditions: Finding God in Everyday Life

We already have a multitude of rituals and traditions. How do we wake one another up, say goodbye for the day, welcome one another home, and say good night? How do we celebrate birthdays and holidays? What stories and recipes and activities and values shape our identity as a family? How might we pray for one another when leaving for the day, when facing a hard decision, when dealing with stress? Find God in the midst of these daily or seasonally repeated experiences and we will suffuse family life with God’s presence. This makes it very clear what our family values, believes and promotes, and how faith shapes us individually and as a family.

Sabbath: Rediscovering God’s Spiritual Oasis in a World Traveling at Warp Speed

We live in a world addicted to speed, achievement, acquisition, and busyness. People are frazzled, stressed, burned out, and exhausted. We have forgotten God’s example, God’s commandment, and God’s invitation to re-creation in observing the Sabbath. What would Sabbath look like? How can we recapture the natural, healing, restoring rhythms of a life well lived? Can we reclaim Sabbath for ourselves, our families, and our congregations? Yes, we can!

Spiritual Journeys of Young Men

The church has been losing its 18-35 year-old men at an alarming rate. Research from the book Coming of Age: Exploring the Identity and Spirituality of Younger Men by David W. Anderson, Paul Hill, and Roland D. Martinson, identifies six major areas of concern in the lives of younger men and how the church needs to address those concerns in order to invite men back into the life of the church. It is not only the younger men who are coming of age, but the church, too, that needs to come of age in the twenty-first century, to reach out to these men in a faithful and compassionate way.

The Adolescent Brain- This is not an Oxymoron

In the past 20 years much has been learned regarding the development of the human brain. It is now possible to observe the brain as it functions and grows. The research shows exuberant brain growth takes place in infancy and during puberty. These are incredible windows through which to observe how God shapes human beings. In addition, these times are doors of opportunity to walk through and help shape the values, faith and life choices of adolescents. Participants will learn about the growth of the brain and how these insights must shape our ministry practices.