Five Empowering Communication*
Workshops for Clergy and Religious Leaders
January 27 - February 28, 2025
Registration will be open by December 6, 2024
Join us for one or more workshops. Workshop five on MEDIATION/FACILITATED DIALOGUE and six on RESTORATIVE CIRCLES are NEW in 2025. Each workshop will offer skills to enliven and support your ministry. Each workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Participants who joined us for workshops 1 - 4 in 2021 are welcome to audit any of these workshops for free. We invite you to join us for Workshops 5 and 6!
SCROLL DOWN FOR WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS,
TO REQUEST CEUs, AND TO ADD WORKSHOPS YOUR CART
“We are excited to offer these workshops for clergy and religious leaders. Empowering Communication is, for us, a process to liberate the power of love in ourselves and others. It has supported our settled and interim ministries for 24 years. We believe the tools learned in our workshops support congregational vitality and help churches fulfill their mission. They help us clergy and religious leaders model and inspire healing the world.”
- Joel Westby and Leslie Ritter-Jenkins, Co-Facilitators (scroll down to learn more about us).
“Empowering Communication has helped me clarify what has been going on in sometimes complex and emotional interactions. By identifying . . .how I may be judging the other and myself, and what I need, I have been able to de-escalate and move to resolutions that affirm both parties.”
- Rev. Sally Iberg, former Senior Pastor, Pilgrim Congregational Church, UCC, Oak Park, IL
________________________________________________________________
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. - I John 4:18
Workshops build on the previous workshop(s), therefore, Workshop 1 & 2 (combined in 2025), is a PREREQUISITE for 3, Workshop 1 & 2, and 3 are PREREQUISITES for 4, etc.
Workshops 1 & 2 (are combined in 2025):
Workshop 1:
Empowering Communication:
Foundational Skills
Workshop 2:
Self Care that is Not Selfish: Five Steps to Healing, Renewal,
and Moving Forward with Clarity
And [Jesus] said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” Mark 6:31
Workshop 1
Divisions have widened, deepened, and multiplied. We see others according to dichotomies, diatribes, and demarcations. While society may see the church as irrelevant in dealing with these problems, pastors know that church can be the foundation that nurtures, inspires, and transforms. Pastors can model and teach how to build bridges across these chasms.
This foundational workshop will help you distinguish between habitual communication that can disconnect and Empowering Communication in which love is liberated in relationships. In this workshop you will:
Learn the basic components of Empowering Communication that are the building blocks for transforming simmering tensions and conflict into mutually beneficial conversations.
Discover how these skills transform anxiety and thus support you to be a non-anxious presence in your congregation.
Workshop 2
We pastors and religious leaders feel fatigue as we relate to parishioners, staff, colleagues and the wider church. We experience burnout in decreased morale and motivation, and feel isolation and imbalance. Our passion and compassion become diluted and depleted. How does Jesus’ life and teaching encourage us to care for ourselves?
In this workshop you will learn Empowering Communication’s unique five-step process to renew our hearts and minds. It is a prayerful process that we may access in the midst of a stressful meeting, a Sabbath day, or on an extended retreat.
In this workshop you will be invited to:
Deepen compassion for yourself and others even in the most difficult circumstances.
Become crystal clear about what is and is not your responsibility.
Transform feelings of regret and remorse into empathic understanding for yourself and others.
Choose strategies for reconciliation.
Discard the ‘good pastor’ or ‘good person’ persona and connect to your authentic self.
8:30-3:30 PT 9:30-4:30 MT 10:30-5:30 CT 11:30 - 6:30 ET
Workshops 1 & 2 are combined in 2025 into one 6-hour online workshop with a 45 minute midday break
NO PREREQUISITE
Workshop Fees: $35 - $70 sliding scale
At checkout enter one of these codes : $10-Off,
$20-Off, $30-Off, or $35-Off. If you wish to request more scholarship please email Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunication.net.
CEUs: 6 CEUs are available for your denomination. At checkout tell us if you need CEUs.
Format: The workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Registration Deadline: One week before the workshop begins.
Go to Shopping Cart - Checkout
_______________________________________________________________________
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27
Workshop 3
Bridging Deep Divides: How Empowering Communication Builds Connection, Trust, and Community
How do Jesus’ life and teaching help us to love parishioners and colleagues that are challenging, let alone our enemies? Social and cultural divisions inhabit our churches. How do we build bridges across them?
In this workshop you will amplify your pastoral care skills. You will learn how to hear criticism and identify the life-serving message within it. You will discover a path to build trust with those that might be labeled demanding or obstructionist.
In this workshop you will learn how to:
Transform conflict into mutual understanding and opportunity.
Hear deeply the core of another’s complaint, without challenging or endorsing their words or actions.
Discover a healthy and unique alternative to wanting to fix, rescue or give up on others.
Take care of yourself in this process.
Enrich your pastoral care and build community.
Use empathy to get to the heart of what parishioners and staff are saying in committees, staff meetings, and educational forums.
8:30-3:30 PT 9:30-4:30 MT 10:30-5:30 CT 11:30 - 6:30 ET
A 6-hour online workshop with a 45 minute midday break
PREREQUISITE Workshops 1 & 2 combined
Workshop Fees: $35 - $70 sliding scale
At checkout enter one of these codes : $10-Off,
$20-Off, $30-Off, or $35-Off. If you wish to request more scholarship please email Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunication.net.
CEUs: 6 CEUs are available for your denomination. At checkout tell us if you need CEUs.
Format: The workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Registration Deadline: One week before the workshop begins.
Go to Shopping Cart - Checkout
_______________________________________________________________________
You are the light of the world. . . No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand . . .let your light shine before others. Matthew 5:13-15
Workshop 4
Lead from the Heart: Step into Your Authority without Becoming Authoritarian
How do Jesus’ life and teachings move us from walking on eggshells or taking sides to speaking authentically? How do we inspire parishioners and colleagues to help heal divisions in the world while remaining the trusted and effective spiritual leader of a congregation? How can we live into the roles of prophet and pastor?
Learn how to be respectful and sensitive with others without giving up your voice.
In this workshop you will:
Anticipate potential areas of conflict in the congregation and develop effective and heart-centered strategies.
Learn healthy and satisfying alternatives to making demands, guilting, shaming, or giving up to achieve a preferred outcome.
Learn three kinds of requests that increase chances of cooperation and collaboration.
Address boundaries. Differentiate how you will meet your needs in personal and professional roles, so you can be self-responsible in both.
Take away a process which supports healthy and collaborative staff evaluations.
8:30-3:30 PT 9:30-4:30 MT 10:30-5:30 CT 11:30 - 6:30 ET
A 6-hour online workshop with a 45 minute midday break
PREREQUISITE Workshop 1 & 2 combined, and 3.
Workshop Fees: $35 - $70 sliding scale
At checkout enter one of these codes : $10-Off,
$20-Off, $30-Off, or $35-Off. If you wish to request more scholarship please email Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunication.net.
CEUs: 6 CEUs are available for your denomination. At checkout tell us if you need CEUs.
Format: The workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Registration Deadline: One week before the workshop begins.
Go to Shopping Cart - Checkout
_______________________________________________________________________
Workshop 5
Embody the Gospel: Facilitate Dialogue, Mediate Conflict, Achieve Reconciliation
By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness. . . to guide our feet into the way of peace. - Luke 1:78-79
We pastors and religious leaders witness conflict between individuals, within groups, and between groups. We are caught between our intention to embody Jesus’ teachings and our imperfect ability to support and love our flock unconditionally. We long to address conflict and yet are stymied by the pitfalls of group process. We are torn between letting conflict go unaddressed and engaging in conflict. How can we facilitate so that every voice is respected and heard?
In this workshop pastors and religious leaders will learn skills that address conflicts large and small. Empowering Communication helps us facilitate dialogue and promote understanding. With self-preparation and insight we can make the gospel’s promise of peace come alive in our congregations, denominations, organizations, and communities.
In this workshop clergy will learn how to:
Nurture respect, care, and belonging in a congregation, denominational office, or community group with a plurality of religious and political views.
Facilitate dialogue effectively around a potential or current polarizing Issue in your congregation.
Transform conflict and heal divisions.
Create an environment where individuals feel comfortable, accepted, and valued sharing their truth, therefore maximizing the “wisdom of the group”.
Enrich your pastoral counseling.
Learn how strategies emerge from this process that meet individual needs and fulfill the mission of the church, denominational office, or community group.
8:30-3:30 PT 9:30-4:30 MT 10:30-5:30 CT 11:30 - 6:30 ET
A 6-hour online workshop with a 45 minute midday break
PREREQUISITE - Workshops 1 & 2 combined, 3, and 4
Workshop Fees: $35 - $70 sliding scale
At checkout enter one of these codes : $10-Off,
$20-Off, $30-Off, or $35-Off. If you wish to request more scholarship please email Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunication.net.
CEUs: 6 CEUs are available for your denomination. At checkout tell us if you need CEUs.
Format: The workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Registration Deadline: One week before the workshop begins.
Go to Shopping Cart - Checkout
_______________________________________________________________________
“Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification.”
Romans 14:19
Workshop 6
Liberate the Power of Love: Facilitate Restorative Circles that Heal, Empower, and Strengthen Congregations
Christians are exhorted to find peace within, to live in peace, and to make peace. We pastors and religious leaders engage in spiritual practices and yet find this is not enough to bring peace to our homes, work, and the world. We lack resources to guide us in self-knowledge and in knowing how to speak and act when we encounter conflict. We long to embody Jesus’ love, wisdom, and courage to make peace, but are not as effective as we would like to be.
Restorative Circles (RCs) is a specific application of the practice of mediation as taught by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD, a process that lends itself to small and large groups. RCs work whether a group is experiencing conflict or needs to discern a new path. Restorative Circles build trust, invite all to be heard fully, and result in the participants collaboratively creating strategies for moving forward.
Facilitate Circles that restore care, trust and connection, and that yield forgiveness and reconciliation.
Address seemingly intractable problems and deep differences without partiality, and with confidence that solutions will meet the needs of individuals and the congregation.
Employ this process within a committee, council, or the whole congregation, or between groups that are at odds.
Make Restorative Circles the foundation for long-term planning.
Learn a process that generates creative solutions that benefit the congregation and extend outside of the church.
8:30-3:30 PT 9:30-4:30 MT 10:30-5:30 CT 11:30 - 6:30 ET
A 6-hour online workshop with a 45 minute midday break
PREREQUISITE - Workshops 1 & 2 combined, 3, 4, and 5
Workshop Fees: $35 - $70 sliding scale
At checkout enter one of these codes : $10-Off,
$20-Off, $30-Off, or $35-Off. If you wish to request more scholarship please email Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunication.net.
CEUs: 6 CEUs are available for your denomination. At checkout tell us if you need CEUs.
Format: The workshop will include instruction, individual and small group exercises, and role play.
Registration Deadline: One week before the workshop begins.
Go to Shopping Cart - Checkout
_______________________________________________________________________
About the Facilitators
Rev. Leslie Ritter-Jenkins has served United Church of Christ churches in positions of associate and lead pastor, in two settled and two interim positions. She is one of over 800 trainers worldwide with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication, (CNVC.org). Leslie is eager to share Empowering Communication because, for her, it is a spiritual practice that brings the gospel to life.
Rev. Joel Westby has a wide range of experience as settled pastor and intentional interim; as senior/lead, associate and solo; multiple point parishes and single points; rural and suburban; family, pastoral and program size congregations. His training and practice of Nonviolent Communication has enhanced his pastoral and interim ministry and in becoming more fully connected with self, God and others.
_______________________________________________________________
Scholarships
We value interdependence. We want to receive compensation to support ourselves and to continue this work. We also want to support all people interested in Empowering Communication regardless of their ability to pay. For this reason, we offer scholarships.
Please note that DISCOUNT CODES are available. They are listed above, after each workshop description, under Workshop Fees. $10-Off means your fee is $60, $20-Off means your fee is $50, etc.. The codes allow you to choose to contribute $60, $50, $40, or $35 per workshop respectively.
If you would like additional scholarship support please write to Leslie at leslie@empoweringcommunicationinc.net. No one is turned away for lack of financial means.
_______________________________________________________________
Cancellation Policy
We will provide a full refund minus a $10 administrative fee for cancellations.