About Sharon Dickens
Sharon Dickens is the Director of Women’s Ministry for 20schemes and a member of the Ministry Team at Niddrie Community Church. She has over 20 years of experience working in the community primarily with families and people who have experienced or are at risk of homelessness. She is also the author of Unexceptional: Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things Through God (Ten of Those).
At Urban Hope
The Urban Hope Conference is designed to be both theologically rich, and "on the street" practical. A conference for theologically-minded practitioners. So our workshops will not be mini plenary sessions. Rather, they will be full of gospel-informed practices to help you grow a church ministry in the neighborhoods (or in the suburbs for that matter). Here's an excerpt from an article from Sharon Dickens that does this:
"At the centre of our women’s ministry at Niddrie we have something called a ‘Care Team’—nine women who work together, sharing the everyday responsibilities and practical care for the women in our congregation, all in complete submission to our elders. These women are at the heart of what we do—they are amazing. When we first started our care team over a decade ago, some of the main thoughts that consumed my brain were: How would I train them? What resources would I use? How could I help them build their confidence, encourage them to step out of their comfort zone and trust God? I spent ages looking for a helpful resource to train our care team. I needed something that was biblical, practical, interactive, and relevant to our context. Frustratingly—even though there’s tonnes written about women’s ministry out there—not much of it was practical, and even less was relevant to ministry in the schemes. In the end, I decided I would have to combine a few things to get what we needed. I chose CCEF’s How People Change video course, combined with a mixture of case studies, topical studies, and practice."
Read the rest of Sharon's article here. And then join us at the Urban Hope Conference, Feb 5-6 Online.
How to Register and Attend
You can register by going to our event page here: Urban Hope: How Gospel Churches Bring New Hope to Forgotten Neighborhoods. February 5-6, 2021. The conference will be held entirely online.
