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Melissa MorkFeatured Workshop - Grief, Humor, and PurposeFriday & Saturday - Workshop D
Knight Performance Hall | Totino Fine Arts Center In the course of our lives, we will experience significant losses that cause us to grieve: death, divorce, broken relationships, failed friendships, impoverished childhoods, and even the death of a dream. This session will explore the tasks of grief work. We will discuss patterns, processes, and obstacles to grief and look at the value of humor in the process. Finally, we will explore a way to find purpose in our pain.
Dr. Melissa Baartman Mork, a Psychology professor at University of Northwestern, studied grief after her parents died when she was in college. Her master’s thesis was, “The Mourning After: Patterns, processes, and obstacles of grief.” After she realized studying grief wasn’t a barrel of laughs, she changed her research to applied and therapeutic humor. When her husband died in 2017, it all came together as she and her kids used humor to navigate their grief.
Visit Melissa's website at melissamork.com |
Stephanie O'BrienFeatured Workshop - Stay Curious - How Questions and Doubts Can Save Your FaithFriday & Saturday - Workshop A
Knight Performance Hall | Totino Fine Arts Center Most of us are going through the motions when it comes to faith, either believing we've found all the relevant answers to life's questions or believing none can be found. We shy away from our deepest questions about God because we fear the uncertainty on the other side. But when we make certainty and correct belief the end goal of faith, we miss out on the chance to know God more deeply and to participate in God's work in the world.
Pastor Steph shows us how to lean into our questions and embrace a life of curiosity. Taking Jesus's life as a model, we can confront our fears, be set free from our anxiety, ask new questions, and live into an adventurous life of curiosity. After all, Jesus was a question man, not an answer man. Our questions, and even our doubts, can push us closer to a God we can actually believe in--rather than further from a God we think we can contain. In Stay Curious, Pastor Steph walks readers through common obstacles and road blocks to curiosity, and offers practical strategies for embracing even the most intimidating questions. Stephanie is a church planter and lead pastor of Mill City Church in Northeast Minneapolis. She is also a professor of ministry at Bethel University and Seminary in St. Paul, MN. Stephanie has opportunities to coach leaders around the country through speaking, coaching and her podcast Lead Stories with her friend Jo Saxton. She is passionate about communities and individuals participating in the mission of God to the world. In the fall of 2019 her first book will be published – Stay Curious: How Questions and Doubts Can Save Your Faith.
Stay curious with Pastor Steph at: www.pastorsteph.com. |