Transcript Shared Learning Experience

Shared Learning Experience
Welcome!
Session One
Beginning the
Journey
Greeting from Bishop Coyner
Your Participant Manual
• The complete Participant Manual
(introduction and seven sessions) is
available for download from
www.inumc.org/FCJ-Step1-2014.
• When you get to the website, click on
“Enter Protected Area” and then enter the
password: fcj2014 (lower case).
Step 1 Website
•
•
•
•
All seven sessions and introduction
Session PowerPoint presentations
Video-taped teaching of each session
Other resources, including a session
schedule
Today’s Objectives
• Begin building relationships with other
participants
• Understand the key concepts in the book,
Renovate or Die
• Understand the Fruitful Congregation
Journey process and how Step 1 fits in
Introductions (laity)
1. What are your main expectations of the
Shared Learning Experience?
2. What is your church’s greatest challenge
and greatest strength?
Have one person from your church share
one answer for each of the above. Also
share your church’s name, location, and
weekly worship attendance average.
Introductions (pastors)
• Name
• Church / location
• How long have you
been there?
• How long in leadership?
• Family
• Biggest challenge in ministry
• Main expectation for this program
Spiritual Centering
Deuteronomy 1:21-32
21 Look! The Lord your God has laid out the land
before you. Go up and take it, just as the Lord, your
ancestors’ God, has promised you. Don’t be afraid!
Don’t be frightened!
22 Then all of you approached me, saying, “Let’s send
spies ahead of us—they can check out the land for us.
Then they can return with word about the route we
should use and bring a report about the cities that we’ll
be entering.”
Deuteronomy 1:21-32, continued
23 This idea seemed good to me [Moses], so I
selected twelve men, one from each tribe. 24 These
set out and went up into the hills, going as far as the
Cluster ravine. They walked all around that area.
25 They took some of the land’s fruit and then came
back down to us. They reported to us: “The land that
the Lord our God is giving to us is wonderful!” 26 But
you weren’t willing to go up. You rejected the Lord
your God’s instruction. 27 You complained in your
tents, saying things like, “The Lord hates us!
Deutoronomy 1:21-32, continued
That’s why he brought us out of Egypt—to hand us
over to the Amorites, to destroy us! 28 What are we
doing? Our brothers have made our hearts sick by
saying, ‘People far stronger and much taller than we
live there, and the cities are huge, with walls sky-high!
Worse still, we saw the descendants of the Anakites
there!’”
29 But I said to you: Don’t be terrified! Don’t be afraid
of them!
Deutoronomy 1:21-32, continued
30 The Lord your God is going before you. He will
fight for you just as he fought for you in Egypt while
you watched, 31 and as you saw him do in the desert.
Throughout your entire journey, until you reached this
very place, the Lord your God has carried you just as
a parent carries a child. 32 But you had no faith in the
Lord your God about this matter, 33 even though he
went ahead of you, scouting places where you should
camp, in fire by night, so you could see the road you
were taking, and in cloud during the daytime.
Reflection…
1. What was it about the Israelite’s journey that terrified
them? Did they need to be afraid?
2. What might you and your church be afraid of as you
begin this Fruitful Congregation Journey?
3. How might you and your FCJ team serve as your
church’s scouts (“spies”) on this journey? What role
do you play? What’s God’s role?
4. How might you alleviate your congregation’s fears?
Group Covenant
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pray regularly
Complete the reading
Be on time
Be engaged
Be curious
Be respectful
Group Covenant, continued
7. Understand that we
may move quickly
8. Be flexible
Others?
Renovate or Die
Our business as United Methodist churches
is…
“To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world”
So how’s business?
Indiana Conference:
Our church in Indiana
What do you see?
Indiana Conference:
What do you see?
Indiana Conference:
State’s growth
(same period)
What do you see?
U.S. Church Participation
• Participation is declining (peaked in 1980)
American Grace, Robert Putnam, David Campbell, 2010
• 20% aren’t affiliated with any religion
five years prior it was 15%)
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 2012 study
• 80% of churches are plateaued or in
decline
Advanced Strategic Planning, Aubrey Malphurs, 2005
(the
Renovate or Die
The truth is that if we don’t renovate we’re
going to die.
Many people would already say
that we United Methodists are
already an endangered species.
•Do you agree with this?
•Why or why not?
Renovate or Die
Redecoration does not call you to make any
real structural changes, so it’s much easier
than renovation.
Renovation is often more expensive, risky,
and is always extremely hard work.
•How would you differentiate between these?
• To what degree are you ready to renovate your
church’s ministry rather than just redecorate?
Are you a renovator?
We need missionaries not members.
If the pastor and some key leaders do not
possess a sense of urgency, they are
doomed to fail.
• How high a degree of urgency does your church
have?
• How might you raise the level of urgency?
Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor
A church must be pastor-led rather than
pastor-centered.
In a pastor-centered congregation the role of
the laity is to come a little, do a little, give a
little, and say a whole lot.
Laid-back laity, playing pastor-fetch!
Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor
In the pastor-led model, a leader’s job is to
provide vision, and it is the congregation’s
job to confirm it.
The pastor recruits, trains, equips, and aligns.
Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor
The pastor and leaders’ focus should be on
their church’s health not on keeping
everyone happy.
But most pastors and leaders are trained to
shy away from conflict.
Reflection…
• Do you feel you have a pastor-centered or
pastor-led church? Why?
• To what degree does your church allow
your pastor to lead?
• Does your church tend to avoid conflict or
address it? Can you think of an example?
Ten Ways to Renovate:
2. Understand Your Present Reality
Understand your community. (#3 & 6)
•Know its demographics
•Know its history and stories
•Gather “walk-around” information
Understand where on the church life cycle
you are—from birth to death—realizing that
the cycles are becoming shorter and shorter.
(#4)
Ten Ways to Renovate:
3. Get the Basics Right
Five practices of fruitful congregations (#8):
1. Radical hospitality
2. Passionate worship
3. Intentional faith development
4. Risk-taking mission and service
5. Extravagant generosity
Sundays do the following with excellence:
children’s ministry, passionate worship, and
radical hospitality.
Ten Ways to Renovate:
4. Create Momentum
If you want to catch momentum, you must:
•Change something
•Get a quick win
•Do certain practices well,
over and over
•Lead by example; the church won’t go
where the leaders have not already gone
•Preach change to get change
Ten Ways to Renovate:
5. Inspire Through Worship
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•
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Think in eight-minute time frames
Think multisensory
Use series, so that people anticipate
Think visual
Leonard Sweet’s EPIC worship…
Experiential
Participatory
Image driven
Connected
Ten Ways to Renovate:
6. Think Strategies, Not Programs
• The mission is your plumb line
• Your vision is how your church will carry
out the mission
• Your strategies carry out your mission and
vision, and they need to change
depending upon their effectiveness
• You should set 2 or 3 yearly goals
Ten Ways to Renovate:
7. Staffing for Leadership
“[Get] the right people on the bus,
the wrong people off the bus, and
the right people in the right seats—
and then [figure] out where to drive it.”
-- Jim Collins, Good to Great
•You only grow at the rate that you are
expanding the leadership capacity
•Needs to be a third of a leader’s time
Ten Ways to Renovate:
8. Disciple with Clear Steps
A process for intentional faith development
answers… (#5)
•How does one grow in his or her faith here?
•How do I know what my next step is?
•Is someone inviting me to take that step?
Three key elements besides worship:
hands-on missions, small-group
experiences, and ministry-task service.
Ten Ways to Renovate:
9. Relate to Outsiders
We have to move from being a “come-to”
church to a “sent out” church. (#6)
We don’t need more evangelism, rather
more people who view where they live, work
and play as possibilities to reach people,
help them connect, and bridge the gap
between themselves and God. (#7)
Ten Ways to Renovate:
10. Simplify the Structure
A simpler organizational structure can help
move more of our members from attending
committees to doing ministry.
The structure should provide leaders with
the authority to take action with
accountability.
The board governs, pastor leads, staff (paid
& unpaid) manage, laity minister.
Reflection…
• Which one of these ten do you feel your
church is already strong in? Why?
• Which of these do you feel your church
should give special attention to? Why?
• What steps could your church take in
response? (Share this with your pastor.)
Renovate or Die
God doesn’t care whether your
congregation thrives or declines, lives or
dies.
God does care, however, about your
church making disciples of Jesus Christ and
transforming your community and the world.
-- Bob Farr
FCJ will help you do just that!
FCJ Overview
The Fruitful Congregation Journey is a
process not a program.
Its purpose is to help churches more effectively
carry out their mission to make disciples of
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the
world.
It will unpack many of the ideas from Renovate
or Die and help your church apply them.
FCJ Overview, Three Steps
Step 1: Shared Learning Experience
Step 2: Consultation
Culminates in a weekend assessment that helps
a church identify its greatest strengths and
concerns, and provides a Ministry Action Plan
(MAP) to address these concerns.
Step 3: Implementation of MAP, with the
help of a coach.
FCJ Overview, Three Steps
• For the greatest results, churches should go
through all three steps.
• Churches that only do Step 1 will still
benefit.
• In order to go on to Step 2, a church must
have good attendance at the Shared
Learning Experience sessions.
Step 1: Session Reading Guide
Session Reading Guide, cont.
FCJ Team Responsibilities
• Attend the sessions
• Read the books prior to each session
• Do a personal Action Plan
• Attend a team meeting between sessions
• Pray for your church—its leaders, FCJ
team, and the FCJ process
• Share the session information with other
leaders in your church
FCJ Additional Information
Spend some time reviewing…
•How you can share what you’re learning
back home
•Explaining FCJ to your church
•“Nuts & Bolts” section.
What questions do you have about the
Fruitful Congregation Journey process?
FCJ Dates & Refreshments
• Is everyone clear about our session
dates?
• Do we want a snack each session?
Action Plan
• Each session you’ll be asked to set a
personal goal for yourself that is linked to
the material in the session
• At the beginning of future sessions you’ll
be given time to report how you did with
your team
• The purpose of this monthly practice is to
help you grow as a leader
Action Plan examples…
• You might decide to not just read the next
book but write down the key ideas
• Or, you might set a goal to share one key
insight you received today with someone (or
a group) in your church
• Or, you might go to the Church Development
blog website and read some of the past
articles
• Or, you might commit to pray for 10 minutes
a day for your team & church
Action Plan
Go ahead and set your
Action Plan goal for the
coming month.
Next Step Assignments
1. Hold your first team meeting back home with
your pastor
2. Choose a layperson on your team to serve as
your team’s convener-leader
3. Plan a fun activity for your team to do
together
4. Come up with a way to introduce your
team at our next session
Team Meetings Back Home
• Between sessions, your team will need to
meet with your pastor
• Share your personal Action Plans and
encourage each other to fulfill them
• Discuss key learnings from the session
• Do you “Next Step Assignments”
• Pray for your church and this process
Key Learnings & Prayer
Concerns
Wrap-Up & Closing
Next book:
• Bearing Fruit, by Lovette Weems
• Evaluations
Continue the conversation!
Visit the Indiana Conference Church
Development Facebook page & blog site.
• Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/makingdisciples
transformingcommunities
• Blog Site
http://churchdevinumc.wordpress.com/
Have a great
month!