Roots and Wings 2008
Get Ready!
- Saturday Sightseeing and Dinner Options
- MLK! Fish! Coke! Puppets!
- Email with final details coming soon!
- Web Registration
- Paper registration form and flyer at the bottom of this page
- Want a flyer postcard? Send us your mailing address and receive a free copy while supplies last.
- Early Registration: May 4 to May 31 ($80)
- Registration Deadline is June 23 ($100)
Dates: July 10 - 13 (recommend arriving Thursday by 7pm and leaving Sunday after 1pm)
Location: Holiday Inn Select Atlanta Airport South in Atlanta, GA (free shuttles from the airport 5AM to 1AM daily)
Theme: Do More (By Doing Less)
Keynote: Neal Presa
Workshops: Rev. David Chai, Brian Y. Chang, Ann Derkson
Who: Young adult leaders in emerging second-generation churches. Or people who love Thai food.
Roots & Wings 2008 takes place along side the National Taiwanese Presbyterian Council (NTPC) annual meeting.
The above costs include lodging attendees, non-lodging costs for locals are being finalized. Of course locals are always welcome to stay at the hotel and build additional solidarity. ^_^
Scholarships to defray airfare are available, contact us for application details. Scholarships are first come, first serve.
Neal Presa Biography
Neal D. Presa, 31, is pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Middlesex, NJ and previously served two Filipino-American and two Korean-American congregations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
An M.Div from San Francisco Theological Seminary, a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, Neal is a PhD candidate in Liturgical Studies and a Henry Luce Foundation Graduate Fellow with the Center for Christianities in Global Contexts at Drew University. His doctoral dissertation will be focused on a Reformed theology of presbyteral ordination using phenomenology and narrative theory.
Ecumenically, Neal represents the PC(USA) as the Convenor/Chair of the Caribbean and North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and on the WARC Executive Committee.
He has served at every level of the PC(USA) including the Committee on Theological Education (and its executive committee), Vice Chair of the General Assembly Council, and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly; in the Presbytery of Elizabeth, he has served or is presently serving on Presbytery Council, the Committee on Preparation for Ministry, and the Permanent Judicial Commission.
In racial-ethnic ministries, he co-founded the Filipino American Young Adult Council of the National Filipino Presbyterian Council; is a mentoring pastor with the AADVENT Project (Asian American Discipleship Vocational Empowerment Nurture and Training) at McCormick Theological Seminary, and is scheduled to provide pastoral leadership for the 31st Racial Ethnic Seminarians Conference later this year.
He is adjunct instructor at Somerset Christian College and was a teaching assistant for courses on worship and preaching at Drew University.
In May 2008, he is slated to be elected a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton Theological Seminary.
He has contributed articles for The Presbyterian Outlook, Homily Service Journal, Call to Worship, and Present Word. He is editor and contributing writer of Insights from the Underside: An Intergenerational Conversation of Ministers (Broadmind Press, 2008).
A Filipino-American married to a Korean-American, Neal and his wife, Grace Rhie, have two sons, Daniel & Andrew. They live in Middlesex, NJ.
David Chai Biography
David Chai is a staff associate for Asian American Leadership with the General Assembly Council, PC(USA). He has led many workshops and seminars on leadership in the church, especially in the area of church education and small group ministry. His education includes theological studies at Columbia Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary and graduate studies in education at the University of Maryland and Spalding University.
Anne Derksen Biography
Ann Derksen is a second-generation Taiwanese-American. She is a member of a multi-cultural Presbyterian church in Stone Mountain, GA. Ann was a campus staff worker with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for eight-and-a-half years. She worked with MIT, Georgia Tech and Georgia State University students: leading Bible studies, mentoring students, and developing leaders and vision. Since working with InterVarsity, Ann has had the opportunity to help with adult education and the nursery at her church. Ann and her husband, Tim, live in Tucker, GA with their energetic son and daughter. Ann enjoys politics, reading, and catching up with friends on Facebook.