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October 16, 2008

Presbyterian communicators gather at end of October for final regional conference of 2008

by Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related communicators from throughout the west are set to gather Oct. 29-31 at the Menucha Retreat and Conference Center outside Portland, OR, for the third and final regional Presbyterian Communicators Network (PCN)  conference of 2008.

PCN was founded in 2005 to bring together PC(USA) communicators at all levels of the church for idea-sharing, networking and support, and training and skills-development. A national PCN conference occurs in Louisville during years when there is no General Assembly. Regional events are held around the country in off-Assembly years.

The next national PCN conference will be part of the PC(USA)’s “Big Tent” event next June in Atlanta — a concurrent gathering of nearly a dozen denominational groups and conferences.

The Menucha conference will include worship, workshops and five plenary sessions on various aspects of church communication. Plenary speakers include:

• Nathan Solla, owner and creative director of WorldLight Media, a strategic branding and Web design company that caters to non-profit organizations and Christian business owners, speaking on “Communicating Faith in a Web 2.0 World”;
  
• Corey Schlosser-Hall, executive presbyter for the Presbytery of North Puget Sound and former communications director for Seattle Presbytery, speaking on  “Worthy of the Calling to Which You Have Been Called: Missional Living in a Web 2.0 (verging on web 3.0) World”;
  
• Susan Lindsey, senior communications associate for Mission Communications of the General Assembly Council, speaking on “Growing Christ’s Church Deep & Wide,” a new denominational evangelism emphasis endorsed by the recent 218th General Assembly in June 2008;
• Megan Slick, a freelance SEO (search engine optimization) copywriter who  recently started Insite Copy, LLC, of Portland, OR, speaking on “Writing for the Web — Helping You Spread the Good News”; and
• Rob Bullock, director of mission communications, Communications and Funds Development, “I’m From Louisville, I’m Here To Help. Seriously … ” — an introduction to new staff and programs designed to improve churchwide communication.

The conference will also include a number of workshops led by communications experts around the church on such topics as social networking, podcasting, cooperative ministry through technological resource sharing, photography as mission and ministry, an introduction to media relations, and online Christmas shopping that benefits mission.

Worship leaders for the conference are the Rev. Ken Sunoo, a pastor and communications assistant for Seattle Presbytery, and the Rev. Cynthia O’Brien, pastor of Smith Memorial Presbyterian Church in Fairview, OR, and a former newspaper and publication relations writer.

For more information and registration materials, visit the Web site.