Forward in Faith
“Faith in the Future” is about equipping our church to understand and thrive in the 21st-century religious landscape by providing context, publishing ideas, and hosting conversations with leading experts.
Strategic Area 1: Widening our Welcome
Towards the end of 2021, through the Forward in Faith initiative, UDLC came up with a plan for the future. The plan was divided into 5 Strategic Areas. This is an update on Strategic Area 1, which is Widening Our Welcome. Strategic Area 1 was broken down into 4 focuses…
“Who Are We That We Could Hinder God” by Pastor Keith
For my part, I leave our church every single day feeling incredibly hopeful, energized, and excited about what God has in store for us in this new time. Thanks to the dedicated work of our staff and leaders, we are primed for a burst of growth, creativity, and positive change.
The Emerging Model of Stewardship
In short, we are moving away from giving out of a sense of duty and obligation, giving which is focused on the institution, and seeing the church as different from business, to being focused on donors (relationships, thanking, offering opportunities to practice generosity), cultivating diverse income sources, giving which is value and mission-driven, and an embrace of business principles and practices.
Faith in the Future with Rev. Abigail Rusert, Director of the Institute for Youth Ministry, Sunday, May 23rd
We will be joined by Rev. Abagail Rusert, who is the Director of the Institute for Youth Ministry and teaches a practicum course in youth ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is the Principal Investigator on the Log College Project grant—an initiative to help churches research and design new forms of youth ministry for the 21st Century. Abigail has worked with youth and adults as an associate pastor, youth director, seminary intern, chaplain, and camp counselor. She speaks regularly at ministry training events, churches, and conferences. Abigail is a graduate of Valparaiso University and Princeton Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Thomas, live in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with their kids: Dorothy, Solveig, and Frank.
Faith in the Future with Dr. Lisa Kimball and Rev. Tricia Lyons, Sunday, April 18th at 11AM
We will be joined by two of Pastor Keith’s ministry heroes and favorite people, Dr. Lisa Kimball and The Rev. Dr. Tricia Lyons, who are among the most insightful, generous, and deeply caring leaders in the church today. They are both professors at Virginia Theological (Episcopal) Seminary. A married couple, they marry together the passion for faith formation (Lisa’s area) and evangelism (Tricia’s specialty). We know you will really enjoy this time together. We’ll laugh, learn, dream, and be inspired to live our faith and lead our church into the future.
Faith in the Future with Lutheran Scholar Tim Wengert
Timothy J. Wengert is one of the most preeminent and prolific Lutheran scholars in the world today. And he taught both Pastor Keith and Lindsay Bates about the Lutheran Confessions! He will join us to talk about how our Lutheran tradition and theology provides a platform to speak to the world now and into the future.
Modes of Belonging: Many Ways to Belong to UDLC
One of the blessings of our experience during the pandemic has been our ability to connect with so many people online—folks who have attended, connected, joined, and donated to our church. This experience has expanded our understanding of our ministry, how we connect, and who belongs to our community.
Faith in the Future with Lindsay Bates: Innovative Ministries
Lindsay Bates, has been spent the past two years researching what Faith communities that look different than the well-loved model of worship on Sunday morning and bible study on Wednesday evening. She has found that most Churches that innovate well do so from a place of loving their communities, finding ways of being the Church that might look different in order to meet their community’s needs. Join us to hear about these congregations and dream about how UDLC might share our love and sense of humor with Ambler in a new way.
What is Faith Formation?
Faith Formation at UDLC is “life long, life wide, and life deep.” It activates our baptismal faith and identity throughout our lives, so that we grow in love for God and neighbor, deepen our understanding and appreciation of our traditions, both theological and Biblical, and feel empowered to live out our faith in the world.
Christianity is a Communication Event
Communications has been a vital part of the faith communities from the very beginning—from the 10 Commandments on stone tablets to Paul’s letters written on scrolls, from Martin Luther and the printing press, to newspapers, TV, radio, and now the internet, churches have adopted new technologies to communicate the grace and love of God. Our experience during the COVID pandemic has demonstrated just how important it is to have a good digital platform, from our live-streamed worship to website, email, social media, and more. Some churches, including UDLC, were already trending in this direction. The pandemic has just sped up the process for all of us.