29 November 2016 | Bečići, Montenegro [Karen Holford] Every year family ministry leaders from all over the Trans-European Division come together for a Family Ministry Leaders’ Training event (formerly CFLE) to learn, discover new ideas, share their experiences, and form lifelong friendships. Various modules are covered during several years of training events. This year the training was held in Montenegro’s Hotel Splendid 16-20 November, immediately after TED Year End Meetings.
Karen Holford, TED Family Ministries director, organised the training event and taught the module in Christian Parenting. She covered topics such as meeting children’s relational needs, helping them to manage their emotions, nurturing their character, setting loving limits, family spirituality, and intergenerational church worship.
Dr Gabor Mihalec, a pastor and couple counselor from Hungary, taught about Human Sexuality. He covered sex education for children of all ages, helping teens navigate relational challenges, intimacy in marriage, and protecting marriages from infidelity. His teaching involved a range of methods, including group discussions, debates, video clips, and planning an appropriate sermon series on sexuality.
One of the ideas that the group found particularly inspiring was a quote by Irenaeus that ‘the glory of God is a human being fully alive’. From then on being ‘fully alive’ was the group motto, and each person found their own unique way to express their aliveness. Some ran to the local town of Budva and back before breakfast. Some climbed the hill opposite the hotel to discover an old olive tree that was still fully alive after 2000 years. Some paddled in waterfalls and swam in the ocean, and others simply enjoyed the spa!
On the closing evening the group celebrated with a mini graduation ceremony. Pastor Aster Bruce from the North England Conference was the only person to complete the course series this year. He started his training in 2008 but had missed one of the modules and had to wait until 2016 to complete the course. He has already put his learning into practice by running effective family evangelism programmes in his local church.
Looking ahead to 2017, TED Family Ministry Leaders Training will focus on Family Evangelism, Families in Society, Human Development, and Making Sabbath a Delight. The training will take place 5-10 May in Budapest, just before the General Conference Reach the World Conference for Family, Women’s and Children’s Ministry leaders. For further information about the TED Training event contact Esti Pujic or Karen Holford. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor
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