We were happy to announce this past weekend that registration for our Matter.15 Conference opened. Our Director of Student Ministries, Chris Wesley, recently posted about 4 reasons you won’t want to miss it. We hope your staff will take advantage of the early bird pricing.
What is matter? Science will tell you matter has mass and occupies volume. Three years ago, we began calling our conference “Matter” because we want to promote the impact and the contribution, the mass and the volume, that our local parish church can and must have in the community.
So what is the conference all about? It’s about getting focused on what we should be doing, which is what we will be doing as a church community. We’re also discussing how best to do it in the coming year, since every year our community and culture changes.
At the same time, it is a mini retreat, allowing our leaders to step back and get a handle on what’s ahead for them and their own ministry service. We host this annual church conference because it is something that God is calling us to do. Like our book projects, a conference is an important way to make us accessible to others and to be of service.
We have been blessed at Nativity to witness our church overflow through the faith and generosity of our parishioners. But throughout our history, we recognize we couldn’t have seen this happen without the wisdom and leadership we gained by participating in conferences with other churches throughout the nation. As Andy Stanley puts it (about his own church conference), Matter.15 is about pouring our “cup” (what we have learned, what we know, what works for us) into the “cups” of others.
We look forward to seeing those groups that attended last year come back. But even more, we really love seeing new groups attend and get involved in this conversation about how to make church matter, no matter your church’s current condition or demographic. As a result, we hope parish leaders will take this opportunity to forge new relationships and encourage communication with us and other churches throughout the year.
At Nativity, one of our driving principles is to be one church with one message. For all the Catholics who will join us, Matter is one visible way we hope to foster our universal call to be one Church with one message- to go make disciples of Christ.
