Is your congregation seeking new avenues of community involvement and impact? Perhaps considering an after-school program, or a clothing closet, or opening a child care center, or some other kind of outreach to your community? Do you wonder how to get started or where to turn?

Whenever believers gather there is an expectation that God has something to say.

 The 2009 Annual Equipping Event featured a unique process known as the Conversation Café. The Conversation Café is an innovative yet simple method for hosting conversations about questions that matter. Since its inception barely ten years ago, it has been widely used by the business community, corporate executives and national leaders as a way to discover new strategies, unearth new ideas and uncover creative solutions to perplexing issues. It has recently been emerging within the faith community as an effective tool for discipleship and evangelism. Says the Rev. John Hopkins, Bishop of the United Methodist Church, “Hope for the church is dependent upon the quality of our conversations. Conversations build relationships and relationships build hope. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” The key to our future is as simple as welcoming Jesus in our midst; it is as complicated as tending to our conversations.

The most recent highlight in Friendship House’s long 80 year history took place October 16 as part of the Annual Equipping Meeting of the ABC-MI. After a lovely buffet dinner, the program began in the sanctuary of Covenant Baptist Church, West Bloomfield. Host Pastor Jon Good served as Master of Ceremonies, and invited all to read aloud a call to worship about honoring the needy and powerless.

Delegates gathered on Saturday, October 17 at Covenant Baptist Church, West Bloomfield for the joint Annual Business Meeting of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan (ABC-MI) and Michigan Baptist Convention (MBC).