CPR Goes to Campus!

June 25-29, 2012 at Brite Divinity School

CPR is going on the road to seminaries across the country teaching practical skills in starting and renewing churches. Cameron Trimble and Michael Piazza will be teaching a 3.0 hour course (CEU credit for pastors and leaders in the community!) that includes understanding organizational life cycles, transformational mission, networking in the 21st century, using social media to grow your church, transformational worship and ad-MINISTRY-ation.

The course is designed to include a one week intensive from 9-5pm on campus. The cost is $549.00 for students registering for non-academic credit. Students seeking credit need to register through Brite Divinity School.

Course Description - reNEW: Skills for leading new and renewing progressive churches

This course teaches practical skills for starting a new progressive church or leading the renewal of a church that is stagnant or in decline.  It is designed around the premise that churches are rarely resurrected, but can be born again, hence the skills needed in both situations are very similar: creating compelling vision, an effective communication strategy, data management, community development, external mission, transformational worship, etc.  This class is designed by the Center for Progressive Renewal and offered for credit, continuing education units, or audit.

Instructors:

Rev. Michael Piazza currently serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Progressive Renewal, specializing in church multiplication and renewal. Rev. Piazza served as the senior pastor of the Cathedral of Hope during a time of unprecedented growth. When he arrived in Dallas in 1987, the church had 280 members and a budget of $280,000. When he retired to become Dean of the Cathedral, the church’s membership was more than 3,500, with a consolidated budget of more than $3 million. This growth took place in a setting that was hostile to the church’s constituency and during a time in which the church performed more than 1,500 funerals for persons with HIV/AIDS.  Today Rev. Piazza lives in Atlanta, GA.

Rev. Cameron Trimble is the Co-Director and CEO of the Center for Progressive Renewal.  She most recently served as an advisor to the Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Team of Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ, and as Associate Conference Minister of Church Development in the Southeast Conference of the UCC. She has both started and renewed churches and has coached dozens of churches across the country in numerous denominations. Each setting has given her a unique perspective on the challenges of cultivating leaders equipped to meet the needs of the future of mainline Protestantism.  Rev. Trimble lives in Atlanta, GA (though she feels like she lives on Delta).