The next European Member Care Consultation will take place in Cervia, Italy in April 2026. Our theme will be Swimming Upstream: providing member care to navigate the complex currents, obstacles and storms throughout life’s journey.

As we gather, we will be looking at the life of Simon Peter. Our backdrop of the Adriatic Sea in Cervia will give us an illustration of the environment that Peter was familiar with. As a fisherman, he knew about how and where to fish. He knew about the sudden storms which could come out of nowhere. He witnessed Jesus turn a poor day of fishing into such a haul from the nets that the boat was overloaded. Later he walked (briefly!) on the very water that he had sailed upon for years. There’s so much more in his story and we look forward to unpacking this further with our devotional speakers.

Our plenary sessions, led for the first time by a married couple, will look at what it looks like to live, minister, lead and provide member care in a complex world. Complexity theory has not been applied to member care… until now. As Christians, we’re already swimming upstream against the flow. The people we care for are living in a world fraught with obstacles and challenges. And we live in that world too. We’ll look at ways in which we can improve our own resilience and capacity whilst walking alongside others. We will consider what postures and practices we can utilise, such as sensemaking and tentative certainty, to strengthen our own resilience and skills, which can then influence the care that we provide. We’ll also consider what this could mean for our member care provision and strategy.

Our workshop sessions will look at how we can help people swim upstream in different contexts and against different obstacles and challenges. We are very excited to have some gifted and experienced speakers who will look at issues such as how we can support people during seasons of emotional and physical exhaustion. How do we as practitioners navigate through conflict, isolation, trauma and grief? What does a theology of risk look like, how do we begin to think about making decisions during risk, and how can we help others manage fear and display courage?

We are also excited to offer a workshop track specifically for professional counsellors, psychologists and mental health workers, considering how to provide psychological assistance to broken relationships between adult TCKs and their mission parents.