At Engage the main session and seminar speakers will address the big challenges facing families in your community today
Rob Parsons
The need to engage
You’ll be inspired as Rob outlines lessons he’s learned in twenty-five years as an author and speaker on family life, and three decades in church leadership. His honest combination of warmth, wisdom and humour will encourage you as you engage with your community.
Rob Parsons is the Executive Chairman and founder of Care for the Family. He is also a best-selling author and speaker, who has addressed over half a million people worldwide in seminars on marriage and family life. His books include Loving Against the Odds, The ‘Sixty Minute’ series, The Heart of Success, Bringing Home the Prodigals and The Money Secret. His latest book, Teenagers! What Every Parent Has to Know was published in 2007. Rob was also part of the leadership team in Glenwood Church in Cardiff for over 15 years where he still attends with his wife Dianne.
Ian Coffey
Leading your church to engage
Ian will be drawing on his wealth of experience to the Engage agenda. He will be giving wise advice on inspiring and motivating churches to embrace an outward facing ethos, agenda and programme.
Ian Coffey is a prolific writer and international speaker and is a member of the Spring Harvest Leadership Team. A former pastor in England and France, Ian is the Director of Leadership Training at Moorlands College having spent over 30 years in Christian ministry. He brings a wealth of experience to the Engage agenda. His newly published book, Working it Out explores how discipleship works when we are not in church. When he is not busy, Ian loves being in a kitchen conjuring up delicious meals. His secret ambition is to work with a Michelin star chef for two weeks to pinch lots of ideas!
Richard Hardy
Why should we engage?
Sometimes the hardest people to convince are in our churches. Richard’s experience from his time in church leadership will help you envision your church to engage.
Richard Hardy is Care for the Family’s Head of Church Relations. He joined Care for the Family after 15 years as a Baptist Minister, and has a passion for seeing churches engaging with their community. In the past three years he has spoken at Care for the Family’s A Rough Guide for Dads evenings and also at It Takes Two for married couples. In addition he has spoken at national Christian conferences, including New Wine and Leading Edge. Richard is married to Rosemary and they have two teenage children, Joanna and David.
David Oliver
Engage at work
You will find one of the best ways to engage people is through their work, but how can you do that in a sensitive way? David’s authoritative grasp of faith at work, combined with his passion for people, will help you develop a powerful workplace ministry.
David Oliver is passionate about breaking down the ‘sacred/secular’ divide in the minds of Christians. He is an entrepreneurial dynamo – MD of international company Insight Marketing, and associate director of the UK’s Marketing Guild. He also works as a consultant for Care for the Family. He has spent over twenty years in local church leadership and has a passion for helping every church member find their place of service and ministry right where they work. He has toured the world speaking on the subject of faith in the workplace, and is the author of nine books, including Love Work, Live Life! - which exhorts every Christian to become a front line full-time servant of God. David is married to Gill; they have four grown-up children.
Transitioning your church to engage - Richard Hardy & Ian Coffey
You’ll hear a fast-paced rundown of how best to motivate your church to meet the needs of families – including several examples from Richard’s own 20-year tenure as a church leader. Richard will also address the barriers many churches struggle with – and offer ways to break through them!
Engaging in the workplace - David Oliver
Around the world right now God is speaking to His church about the world of work. This highly practical seminar will help church leaders support those in the workplace as they discover their calling, and engage with colleagues about work, life and faith. Includes ‘10 Top Tips for Church Leaders.’
Katharine Hill
Mark Molden
Gateways to engagement
An important seminar highlighting some significant opportunities for engagement in your community. Katharine will speak from personal experience of working with Register offices in offering marriage preparation, and will give practical examples of working with schools, local authorities and health services. Mark will address some key principles to consider in these areas. Come along and discover how these gateways can open a new door to community engagement
Katharine Hill is Care for the Family’s Head of Family Life. She was previously a family law solicitor and is now a JP. She joined Care for the Family in 2003 and has pioneered The National Couple Support Network. She co-presents It Takes Two events for married couples and is a regular speaker at New Wine with her husband Richard. Richard and Katharine head up the marriage work in their church and run marriage and preparation courses for church and community. Together they have also written Rules of Engagement, a book for newly engaged couples. They have four teenage children.
Mark Molden is the Chief Executive of Care for the Family. He joined the charity at the beginning of 2007. Mark is a trustee of the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners which is a UK government initiative seeking to raise standards in parenting practice and evidence based resources. He worked for several years in a variety of roles within a multi-national financial services group. In recent years he has held senior positions within a UK children’s charity, and in local government in England. He is a church leader in his home church in Chepstow, Wales. Mark is married to Tessa and has five children.
Katharine & Mark will also be hosting the conference.
Christine Tufnell
Katharine Hill
Engaging through Marriage
9 out of 10 teenagers want to marry and 85% of UK couples are married. Marriage provides a great opportunity for us as a church to build bridges into community and meet genuine need. From helping engaged couples just starting out, to supporting existing marriages and helping those in crisis Katharine and Christine will be sharing tried and tested practical examples from their personal experience of how we can make a difference in our community.
Christine Tufnell is Care for the Family’s Programme Manager responsible for stepfamilies, and she is also a qualified counsellor. She became a single parent when her husband left her pregnant and with two boys aged 6 and 9. She later married Tony, a single parent with three teenage sons. Now she is a ‘stepgranny’ too. She has recently written From This Step Forward, a marriage preparation course addressing specific issues faced when forming a stepfamily. She has also co-authored, with Tony, the book Every Step Counts.
Trisha Anderson
Ivor Forrest
Engaging with Drug Prevention
No child says, “When I grow up I want to be a drug addict.” This session will show you how our popular DPYK course helps families make healthy lifestyle choices and avoid the pain of substance misuse. Presented by Trisha Anderson and Ivor Forrest from Care for the Family.
Trisha Anderson is Care for the Family’s Community Trainer. She trains presenters across the UK to engage their communities with How To Drug Proof Your Kids®, Quidz In and other community learning materials. Trisha draws on her own experience of delivering community courses herself to effectively equip the presenters she trains. Trisha is married to Paul and has 4 children. She is a member of a lively inner city church with an emphasis on outreach.
Ivor Forrest and his wife Denise have been involved with Care for the Family’s How to Drug Proof Your Kids® (DPYK) programme since almost the very beginning and have been a part of the success story for the course in Scotland. He had trained 1000s of trainers in delivery of the course as well as being involved in delivering the course regularly throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK
Paula Pridham
Money matters
Money is one of the main concerns families face today. This session will introduce you to a range of ways your church can engage with the wider community on this issue, including how Care for the Family is addressing this issue – with our brand new Quidz In course for parents and other resources. Presented by Paula Pridham from Care for the Family.
Paula is the Community Learning Manager for Care for the Family. She has personally trained approximately 1,000 presenters of How to Drug Proof your Kids®, and in the past two years has worked on the development and launch of our latest parenting course, Quidz In®. She recently became an approved trainer of Parent Educators under the new National Academy for Parenting Practitioners (NAPP). A lively and authoritative speaker, she is married to Tom who leads a small church seeking to engage with a rural village community.
Liz Gardner
Engaging through Parenting
‘The problem with parenthood, is just about the time you’re experienced, you’re redundant’. Liz will explore the many opportunities to connect with parents in the community through the different seasons of family life. She will share practical examples and also from her own experience as a single parent. The seminar will include insights into the Every Child Matters agenda, Extended Schools Programme and National Occupation Standards for working with parents. Come along and find out how you can make a difference to families in your community.
Liz is Care for the Family's Programme Manager responsible for single parent families. Having been through the experience Liz understand the issues facing single parent families, she has a passion to see churches include single parents families and offers strategic advice to churches seeking to do this. Liz is married to Andy and together they combine their life in a stepfamily with membership of a local church.
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As carriers of God’s message of hope and transformation our Churches can in turn transform the lives and communities of our nation. I welcome the ‘Engage’ Conference and its equipping to better serve our communities.
The Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr John T M Sentamu, Archbishop of York
Engage is a Care for the Family initiative - a Christian response to a world of need.
A Registered Charity (England and Wales: 1066905; Scotland: SCO38497)