After attending a three-day training event led by Jill Hudson in January, the following women and men were commissioned on Saturday, February 10, to be consultants working with churches in the Presbytery of New Covenant.
Jim Bushong
Sharon Carey
Lynn Hargrove
John Hirling
Vicki McKay
David Northcutt
Tim Phillips
Rupert Turner
Bettie Jackson Varner
They are now ready to be deployed in pairs to congregations who are willing to work intentionally with them in developing and implementing plans for engaging community and making disciples. May God lead them to bring wisdom and leadership to the congregations to which they are called.
If your congregation would like to find out more about how you might work with one of these consultants, please email or call Wendy or Mary at the presbytery office.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Thursday, June 01, 2006
How to measure sucess?
Out of Ur, a blog for Christian leaders published by Christianity Today, has a post today on Beyond Bodies, Bucks and Bricks: Jom Collins on how churches should measure success.
Most of our conversations about the health of congregations has traditionally focused on those areas -- is the church growing in members and attendance? is it supporting it's budget and is the budget increasing? and how big, nice, new, etc. is the church building? What if we wanted to ask and measure whether a church was 1) engaging the community and 2) making disciples? What questions would we use to help measure and guage how well a congregation were living into our vision 2010?
Most of our conversations about the health of congregations has traditionally focused on those areas -- is the church growing in members and attendance? is it supporting it's budget and is the budget increasing? and how big, nice, new, etc. is the church building? What if we wanted to ask and measure whether a church was 1) engaging the community and 2) making disciples? What questions would we use to help measure and guage how well a congregation were living into our vision 2010?
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Leaders and organizations often fail because ...
Take a look at this quote from Alan J. Roxburgh in his most recent book, The Sky is Falling!?!: Leaders Lost in Transition:
This, to me, is exactly what's going on in the church ... and what we're trying to address in our Vision 2010. We need to, first of all, better understand our own changing culture. That means we need to address the "elephants in the livingroom." Take a look at the trends we're seeing within ourselves. For instance, more than half of our current members were not birthed in the Presbyterian Church; we were not birthed here, nor were we primarily nurtured in our faith here. That means we are no longer a denomination of "brand loyalists." We are more apt to "shop around" both for congregations and for programs, consultants, mission involvements, etc. Yet, we still operate as if we expect brand loyalty from our members. That's only one example of ways in which we have lost touch with the internal changes of our organization. What are some others?
Secondly, we've lost a sense of the mission that really empowered us at the start. Here are some questions: Are we more interested in preserving our local church than in making disciples (the great commission)? What do you think about the assertion that many of our pastors have lost touch with their initial zeal for Christ's Grace at work in their lives and have displaced it with a professional commitment to keep the business of the church running? Have our churches fallen into a rut, as Stan Ott says, merely running last year's program again? How can we regain a sense of the real mission that inspires us and encourages us?
And thirdly, we've lost our connection with our larger culture -- the people outside the walls of our church, but whom we were called to serve. So much of our "transformational church" material focuses on this point ... that the culture has changed and we haven't. We can argue over how much we need to change like the culture ... but the significant point is ... we've lost connection. We're not engaged with the communities in which we are a part. We separate ourselves instead of intentionally making friends with non-Christians. We compartmentalize our faith instead of allowing our Christ-following identity to make itself visible in passionate ways as we work, as we lead in the community, as we drive or shop.
What do you think of the Roxburgh quote and how it relates to the work of our congregations?
"Leaders and organizations often fail because they lose connection with the actual changes at work within their organization's culture. They lose their internal power of mission that shaped their initial formation and, therefore, they lose connection with the very groups in the external environment for which they came into being." (p. 151)
This, to me, is exactly what's going on in the church ... and what we're trying to address in our Vision 2010. We need to, first of all, better understand our own changing culture. That means we need to address the "elephants in the livingroom." Take a look at the trends we're seeing within ourselves. For instance, more than half of our current members were not birthed in the Presbyterian Church; we were not birthed here, nor were we primarily nurtured in our faith here. That means we are no longer a denomination of "brand loyalists." We are more apt to "shop around" both for congregations and for programs, consultants, mission involvements, etc. Yet, we still operate as if we expect brand loyalty from our members. That's only one example of ways in which we have lost touch with the internal changes of our organization. What are some others?
Secondly, we've lost a sense of the mission that really empowered us at the start. Here are some questions: Are we more interested in preserving our local church than in making disciples (the great commission)? What do you think about the assertion that many of our pastors have lost touch with their initial zeal for Christ's Grace at work in their lives and have displaced it with a professional commitment to keep the business of the church running? Have our churches fallen into a rut, as Stan Ott says, merely running last year's program again? How can we regain a sense of the real mission that inspires us and encourages us?
And thirdly, we've lost our connection with our larger culture -- the people outside the walls of our church, but whom we were called to serve. So much of our "transformational church" material focuses on this point ... that the culture has changed and we haven't. We can argue over how much we need to change like the culture ... but the significant point is ... we've lost connection. We're not engaged with the communities in which we are a part. We separate ourselves instead of intentionally making friends with non-Christians. We compartmentalize our faith instead of allowing our Christ-following identity to make itself visible in passionate ways as we work, as we lead in the community, as we drive or shop.
What do you think of the Roxburgh quote and how it relates to the work of our congregations?
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
King of the Hill -- Church shopping
Here's a funny video on church shopping that I think may generate some conversation regarding the vision 2010:
One of the tensions in the church growth/missional church conversations has to do with the consumer nature of our culture ... how to use it in order to meet people with the Gospel, but also how to transcend it.
Answer any or all of the following questions in a comment. Or just tell us what you think this video might be saying to us as we live into the vision of growing congregations.
What do you think the cartoon is saying about the intersection of church and our consumer culture?
What does the video show are the attractions and un-attractions of churches to visitors?
How does your church deal with the consumer implications of those who are first time visitors to your congregation?
If your church were to be even more faithful to Christ in its ministry to visitors, what, if anything, would be different?
One of the tensions in the church growth/missional church conversations has to do with the consumer nature of our culture ... how to use it in order to meet people with the Gospel, but also how to transcend it.
Answer any or all of the following questions in a comment. Or just tell us what you think this video might be saying to us as we live into the vision of growing congregations.
What do you think the cartoon is saying about the intersection of church and our consumer culture?
What does the video show are the attractions and un-attractions of churches to visitors?
How does your church deal with the consumer implications of those who are first time visitors to your congregation?
If your church were to be even more faithful to Christ in its ministry to visitors, what, if anything, would be different?
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Welcome to the Vision 2010 discussion!
The Presbytery of New Covenant has adopted a new vision for 2010: Growing congregations that passionately engage their community to make disciples.
This forum is a place to begin the conversation and learning that will help our pastors, church staff, and other congregational leaders understand the three major components to this vision:
If you have something you'd like to share, feel free to post it as a comment, or email it to Wendy Bailey at the Presbytery of New Covenant, and she will post it.
This forum is a place to begin the conversation and learning that will help our pastors, church staff, and other congregational leaders understand the three major components to this vision:
- congregational growth
- community engagement
- disciple-making
If you have something you'd like to share, feel free to post it as a comment, or email it to Wendy Bailey at the Presbytery of New Covenant, and she will post it.
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