Workshops offered by Janice

I am available to lead retreats, workshops, or continuing education events for clergy, lay leaders, and faith communities. I have done such work for Eden Theological Seminary (St. Louis), the Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ, the Detroit Metropolitan Association of the Michigan Conference, Pilgrim Heights Retreat Center (Iowa UCC), the Montant Northern Wyoming Conference, UCC and local churches of several denominations in 5 states. Nearly all the groups I have worked with have hired me for a return visit. References are available. Fees are reasonable and negotiable. Here are some upcoming workshops that I’m leading. If one is in your area, you may email me for more information.

Some of the workshops Janice has led recently include:
                  The Gospel of Thomas
                  The Art of Letting Go
                  Poetry as Spiritual Practice
                  Dreaming and Drumming
                  Christianity: the Cutting Edge
                  Reclaiming Christianity

If these opportunities interest you and you live in one of these areas or have an interest in my coming to your area, you can email me from this website.

Here is a brief description of some retreats and workshops that Janice has led that have been well received.

I Know We’re All Welcome at the Table, But Do I Have to Sit Next to You? We’re good at welcoming the stranger, but how do we live in peace with those people in our lives whose religion or politics drive us crazy? How do we work for justice and notmake our opponent an enemy?

Christianity in a World of Interspirituality: understanding our faith in the context of other world spiritual traditions; using prayers, readings and practices from other faiths to help us go deeper into our own; reading the Bible in the light of other world scriptures; claiming both what is universal and what is particular about Christian truths; allowing other faiths to help us find the depths in our own.

Welcome When It’s Hard: helping congregations have the hard dialogue about welcoming lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered people (or other marginalized folks); planning worship that makes all people feel included.

How to Read Scripture So Nobody’s Bored: training for clergy and lay readers on how to read so scripture comes to life and draws people into its wisdom

Worship Where the Whales Are: How do we design and lead worship that takes us deeper into faith,
deeper into community, deeper into our true selves, deeper into God? How can worship honor our heads (our thinking selves) but lead us deeper than that, into our hearts and souls?

More Grace; The Art of Letting Go: “The mature spiritual life is more about subtraction than about addition.” Life is a continual process of letting go: letting go of loved ones, of dreams, of youth; letting go of fears, of control, of expectations, of resistances. How do we live with grace in the letting go times? How can we understand letting go as a spiritual practice?

Reclaiming Our Own Christian Tradition: Many of our own people don’t connect very deeply to our tradition (marginalized folks who have been wounded by it; intellectuals who find its claims childish; women who have not heard their story in its history; moderns who are exposed to a cafeteria of spiritual choices); this workshop offers tools to help people find power and purpose in Christian tradition.

The Spiritual Life of the Spiritual Leader: for pastors and worship leaders: looking at our prayer life, our efforts to live more contemplatively, our presence and role as spiritual leaders, the connection between our prayer life and the congregation’s worship.

I would be glad to talk with you about other possibilities, including programs for liturgical seasons.

Click here to send Janice and email.