by Cornelia Becker SeigneurOn behalf of the entire Faith & Culture Writers Conference Leadership Team, I want to welcome you to the Expanded 2015 Faith & Culture Writers Conference – Rough Draft: From Blank To Beautiful. Last year you spoke, saying you wanted more time for fellowship and legroom — in short, more breathing space — and we listened. We added our Friday Mini-Retreat experience; we also have Art Stations in McGuire, where you can reflect on the conference visually. In addition, we will have a prayer room available to ponder your creative God-given calling. We truly hope and pray that you find inspiration, courage, and community during your experience with us. We need in-person connection and we intentionally want to be a creative community where everyone belongs and feels as though their story matters. Because it does!
After my life-changing accident in January, this amazing team that I serve alongside continued to move this conference forward, and without them there would be no conference! I am incredibly and humbly grateful for their service and friendship. Bethany Jackson has been so faithful, keeping us on task as our Executive Administrator; Marc Schelske serves as our Scribe and (new!) Launch Coordinator and all-around get-things done guy; Taylor Smith returns as the warm and amazing Communications Coordinator of our speakers (as you all know!); and Brooke Nicole Perry is once again our expert matching attendees with their Agents|Editor|Mentor; a big nod goes to Tony Kriz, one of our visionaries and Advisory Board Members; Leah Abraham, is our awesome Website Administrator; Matthew O’Connell, organizes our Faith & Culture Writing Contest; and Jody Collins, is our Volunteer Coordinator|Administrative Assistant. And, Committee members include: Kim Hunt, social media coordinator, Cayla Pruett and Rachael Metzger, creative space coordinators; Faye Strudler our Prayer Team Coordinator; and Stephen Carter, Writing Contest|Social Media Assistant. And, a huge thank you goes to Bethany Sundstrom-Smith for re-designing our website this year. Be sure to see our “Acknowledgments” page in your folder for complete list of thank you’s. So many folks are making this conference possible. We are also thankful to Warner Pacific College for their hospitality as our sponsoring host. Grace Kim and Melody Burton have made us feel very welcome, as they have worked behind the scenes with logistics and details. Thank you to Mimi Fonseca for coordinating our bookstore and Joel Santana, our meals.
Once again, we are honored that Martin French created our beautiful WORDS logo shown at the top of this letter; and Aaron Esparza returns as our photographer; Brad Ediger is recording all talks and sessions for you to purchase. And, we give a shout-out to the judges of our Writing Contest as well as Scrivener and Bedlam Magazine.
I do have a couple of notes to make you aware of. We are sorry to say that due to a family situation, Amber Haines and Erika Morrison are no longer able to be with us. And Nish Weiseth has to leave early so she will not be leading the afternoon mini-retreat small groups. But, Micah J. Murray and Karen Zacharias Spear are stepping in to join the co-led groups of Seth Haines and Brooke Perry and Tony Kriz and Romal Tune
We serve a creative God who carved something beautiful out of nothing; and now He calls us to create, to fill the blank pages of our lives with our WORDS, our stories. We pray that you find a place of community and belonging here, and that you sense that you matter. May Christ be honored this weekend; may He give you the WORDS to share the stories that change lives.
Happy Writing and stay connected,
Cornelia Becker Seigneur
Faith & Culture Writers Conference Founding Director
