Care for the Family helps churches engage

Care for the Family has hailed the success of its 'Engage' conference to refresh and re-energise church leaders in their service for the Lord.

More than 1,000 church leaders came together in Cheltenham and Nottingham for the charity's two one-day conferences in autumn to find out more about how they could engage with their communities and hear encouraging stories of successful church-led projects.

Engage is Care for the Family's newest event for those in church leadership with the next conference scheduled for 21 March 2009 in Belfast.

This year's conferences saw keynote addresses from Ian Coffey, Rob Parsons, and David Oliver. Seminar sessions looked at money matters, engaging in the workplace, drug prevention, building teams, marriage, parenting and leading churches to engage.

Richard Hardy, Head of Church Relations at Care for the Family said: "Both days were quite remarkable. There was a real hunger from all who attended to share ideas with each other and to find out more about church engagement. The feedback has been extremely positive.

"Church leaders have found renewed hope and a new sense of purpose not only for themselves but for their church and community."

Many of the participants testified the conference's positive impact, with one church leader saying he came away feeling "less depressed in his calling as a pastor".

Others said they felt energised, inspired and a renewed calling after the conference.