Quilt Presentation Celebrates Diversity and Creativity
At the 2025 Northern Illinois Annual Conference, the NIC Anti-Racism Task Force unveiled the Arts & Culture Quilt—a powerful symbol of unity, justice, and cultural pride.…
Location: Sycamore UMC, 160 Johnson Ave., Sycamore, IL
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Join laity and clergy from around the conference for this year’s Laity Convocation on Saturday, February 17th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Sycamore UMC. Our keynote speaker will be Rev. Dr. Junius Dotson. Rev. Dr. Junius Dotson currently serves as the General Secretary of Discipleship Ministries. In this capacity, he leads the agency in connecting Methodist leaders with needed resourcing, training, consulting and networking to support their ministries.
Dr. Dotson has spearheaded and will be speaking about “See All the People.” “See All the People’ is not a program,” said the Rev. Junius Dotson. “It really is an attempt to spur and ignite and inspire the spirit and movement of disciple-making across our denomination.”
Join us to also learn strategies for transforming ministry plans into action. Breakout sessions will include:
- How Do We Share Our Faith? Led by District Lay Leaders Greg Chapman and Larry Newton this will be an interactive session on how to share faith with your neighbors and people you meet every day.
- How Do We Meet Our Neighbors? Led by Rev. Mike Jones and Rev. Adonna Reid along with laity teams from their churches. These two churches, one rural and one urban, have put elements of “See All the People” into action. Find out how they have done it.
- How Do We Use Data to Help Our Neighbors? Led by Rev. Martin Lee, NIC Director of Congregational Development & Redevelopment, and a laity team who have used data available from the conference to better understand and know their neighbors.
- How Do We Talk About the Way Forward? Led by Co-Conference Lay Leader and chair of the General Conference delegation.
- How Do We “See All The People”? More from Rev. Dr. Junius Dotson on “See All the People.” (Learn about #SeeAllThePeople and how to be a part of this growing discipleship movement. You can download the free booklet, Developing an Intentional Discipleship System: A Guide for Congregations, and see the video that started the conversation at www.SeeAllthePeople.org.)
Rev. Dr. Junius Dotson
Childcare will be available, but parents must sign up their children in advance so the church will be prepared. In recognition of your response to last year’s evaluation, we have kept Laity Convocation to a half day event. For those who want to stay afterward for lunch to catch up with friends from around the conference, a box lunch will be offered for an additional cost. Orders for lunch must be made by February 9. DeKalb district lay leaders Karen Bonnell and Tom Weber have created a list of local restaurants for lunch for those who would rather eat on their own outside of the church.
The cost per person is $10. Churches may register a group for $40. After February 3, registration costs increase to $15 per person and $50 per church group.