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Prairie North Lay Academy Spring 2025

Location: Harmony UMC, 2600 W Pearl City Road, Freeport

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2 Days
Sat., March 22 (8 a.m - 5 p.m.)
Sun., March 23 (1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

All class times must be attended to receive course credit.

Freeport: Harmony UMC, 2600 W Pearl City Road, Freeport

Online registration

Cost:
Includes lunch (Sat. only), snacks, water and coffee.  Each student will need to purchase their own book.

  • $20 - before or on Feb. 3
  • $25 - before or on March 17

Download the Flyer


Class Options: (one course per academy)

  • United Methodist Heritage (Living Our United Methodist Beliefs) This course will explore the special gifts of theology, witness, and organization that The United Methodist Church brings to the church universal, how we got where we are today, and how our distinctive emphases are still needed in the 21st-century church.
    Participant’s Book: Living Our United Methodist Beliefs by Kenneth L. Carder

  • Ministry with the Forgotten: Dementia Through a Spiritual Lens This course is designed to help laity and clergy deepen their understanding of persons living with dementia and help all maintain their identity and worth as beloved children of God. Confronting the deep personal and theological questions created by loving people with dementia, Carder calls the church to a deeper discipleship defined by the quality of our caring and receiving relationships. Participants will discover what it means to carry each other’s memories, joys, and diminishments together in community. Through loving practices that nurture and incorporate persons with Alzheimer’s and dementia into the church’s life and ministry, we experience a spiritual wholeness rooted in God’s grace beyond our own strengths and capacities.
    Participant’s Book Ministry with the Forgotten: Dementia through a Spiritual Lens by Kenneth L Carder

  • Called to Preach  Called to Preach is designed to those who have not completed formal preaching training, for pastors seeking a basic refresher course and for other who are called upon to preach in a pastor’s absence.
    Participant’s Book: From Pew To Pulpit by Clifton F Gurthrie

  • Loving People and Planet in God’s Name Canceled due to low attendance

  • Exploring a Culture of Care for a Caring Congregation This new advanced course, based on The Caring Congregation: Implementation Guide, equips participants with tools for deep listening and grows their capacity to care in difficult situations of loss – all within healthy boundaries and a thoughtful awareness of the varying cultural contexts of caring ministry 
    Participant’s Book: The Caring Congregation Ministry: Implementation Guide by Karen Lampe & Melissa Gepford


QUESTIONS? Contact Kim Emery

News & Announcements

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In Sympathy: James Wilson

Rev. James M. Wilson, a member of the Northern Illinois Conference, passed away on Monday, October 6, 2025.

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In Sympathy: Fernando Siaba

Rev. Fernando Siaba, a member of the Northern Illinois Conference, died on October 6, 2025.

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