PACE Integration Summits

PACE Integration Summits are one way we're sharing the lessons we learned from young adults and intergenerational communities as we've walked alongside PNW congregations for the past 5 years.

Integration Summits can involve a team of PACE NW leaders providing a workshop at your denominational or network gathering. We are also happy to host your community at Seattle Pacific University for a meal and workshop.

Integration Summits foster open, growing, intergenerational communities and create a sense of accountability among church leaders seeking to be hospitable to young adults.
Request info about attending a Summit

Where to Start. What to Expect.

We imagine two ways of bringing you our presentation and collaboration-oriented content so that you can come away from our time with concrete, actionable steps to create a culture of young adult hospitality and centering.

1.

Convene at SPU

Gather a group of like-minded congregational leaders in your network or denomination and come to SPU where we will host you.
  • We provide the space.
  • We provide all the content and materials.
  • We can serve 1-2 meals, depending on the summit length.
  • This works well for a group that is large yet intimate. A good size to aim for is about 2-3 dozen folks from 4-8 congregations.

2.

Invite us to a denominational gathering  or regional meeting

Invite us to visit you at a pre-scheduled gathering, such as an denominational annual meeting.
  • We come to your gathering and take a 2-3 hour block of time during which we can properly introduce PACE NW concepts and help congregational leaders internalize them for use in their churches.
  • We are happy to provide refreshments and/or book space, if this would help to overcome barriers for your group.
  • If you do not have a formal denominational or network gathering or are not part of a network of churches, we can help you create your own summit by connecting you with other churches who are in a similar situation and assisting with event-planning logistics.

Q.

What can we expect to come away with?
Our goals are pretty simple:
  • Send a group of churches away with a sense of mission, hope, and belief that you can positively affect the lives of young adults in your sphere of influence. 
  • Instill a renewed sense of excitement in your own faith, mission, and ministry.
  • Provide achievable and actionable short-term and long-term plans that will gradually adjust your church's culture to be more hospitable toward young adults.
  • Instill the belief that your tradition can be friendly to young adults without giving up your core values (our research affirms that it is not necessarily doctrine that turns off young adults but rather how it is lived out).

Q.

Convening a group sounds difficult. Can you come to just our church and present your findings so that we might learn them on our own?
In our experience, this work is best done in community. For one thing, communal effort is a value young adults hold. If this is too much work for your network or denomination, we can invite you to join us with another group of congregations to form new relationships based around this work. Centering young adults in the church is not easy nor quick. To sustain this effort, churches must either have a community with a young-adult critical mass or a network of churches all committed to centering the mission, providing accountability and support for one another.
Integration Summit Preparation work (coming soon)
Leadership Identification