"Ministry Beyond the Bans" Leadership Training Seminar - Edmonton

Edmonton's "conversion therapy" ban has been in place now for over a year while Canada's criminal ban has been in place for over eleven months. But what have these bans accomplished over that time? How are they affecting churches? How can they affect your church?

Join Free to Care in Edmonton as we bring our national seminar, “Ministry Beyond the Bans” to People's Church. We'll explain what you need to do to protect your flock while caring for the LGBTQ community. This in-person seminar will strengthen your faith, encourage your heart, and equip you to have effective conversations with those in your congregations, family, and friends.

Seminar Speakers:

Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh is the new Executive Director of Free to Care. He brings decades of experience as a pastor in the Lower Mainland as well as leading several national initiatives helping churches respond to LGBTQ issues. He provides practical training and support for pastors, educators, leaders, parents, and fellow followers of Jesus who want to live and stand for their biblical beliefs surrounding marriage, sexuality, and gender.

Jojo Ruba is the Communications Director for Free to Care. Jojo shares his own positive experience with Christian counseling for his own unwanted same-sex attractions. As a Christian apologist, he explains how to defend the biblical view of sex and gender as both true and good.

Friday Night (open to all) Doors open at 6:30 PM; event is from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM:

Session One: Love Is True! In this opening session, Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh shares important biblical insights that will help you understand what is currently happening in the LGBTQ+ movement of our day, which has clearly been predicted by at least two New Testament authors. He will give powerful encouragement for how to both live and stand in this hour.

Session Two: Finding a Better Identity - In this session, Jojo shares how the biblical view of identity is based not on our sexuality but our Saviour. He will show you how Christians must explain how we may not choose our attractions or gender but we can choose our identity.

Saturday Morning 9 AM to 11:30 AM:

Session One: "What’s LOVE Got to do with it? EVERYTHING!" Pastor Kevin will help you think through and process two very common conversations that Christian’s tend to get tangled up with, Love Is Love and Why Is Homosexuality Wrong?

Session Two: 4 Situations Every Ministry Leader Needs to be Prepared to Deal with

The practical training Saturday sessions are tailored to (but not exclusively for) church office bearers, pastors, ministry leaders, and teachers building off of the Friday evening information evening. They seek to:

- Assist elders and pastors to respond well to church members’ questions about sexual ethics and/or identity

- Help elders and pastors speak about issues of sexual ethics and personal identity in ways that are biblically sound and that are aware of political and legal sensitivities

- Provide advice for pastors regarding the manner in which they can address sensitive issues in their sermons

- Help churches formulate / develop / adapt church policies

The session begins at 9:00 AM sharp, and we hope to wrap up by 1 pm.

To learn more about Free to Care, visit www.freetocare.ca