1/27/2011
GBOD's Romans 12 Newsletter had an excellent article this week. You can find it at: http://www.gbod.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=nhLRJ2PMKsG&b=5710179&ct=9074665 Here's the article: Over Sixty — Under Forty — All Welcome — Issue #74 by Richard H. Gentzler, Jr. Many churches are confronted by a number of significant social, cultural, technological, and generational forces that appear to block congregational attempts to achieve growth and health. It seems that in trying to satisfy the ...
11/15/2010
From Leading Ideas, a newsletter from Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Nov. 10, 2010. Find more at www.churchleadership.com. Ten Misconceptions about Church Vitality and Growth By Eugene A. Blair The Lewis Center’s reporting on American Congregations 2008 (a report about congregational vitality and growth based on the Faith Communities Today Project at Hartford Seminary) brought to mind ten myths that prevent congregations from moving forward. In each case, the research findings reveal a ...
9/14/2010
Pat Lencioni of The Table Group, an organization that helps companies function more effectively, wrote a blog on rethinking innovation recently. How do you think we can use his insights in the church? Pat's POV: Rethinking Innovation August 2010 Posted at: http://www.tablegroup.com/pat/povs/pov/?id=36 Perhaps the most popular — and misunderstood — term of the first decade of the new millennium is ‘innovation.’ A new stack of books and articles is produced every year asserting the critical ...
7/26/2010
Fantastic workshops and outstanding speakers - that's what you will find at the IN Conference at Dunwoody UMC, September 14-16, 2010. (That's only 7 short weeks away!) We have some of the finest experts in the country presenting workshops and keynote speeches. There will be 50 different workshops. Topics include Small Church Ministries, Large Church Ministries, Children, Youth, Involvement, Small Groups, Needs-based Evangelism, Worship Planning, Worship and the Arts, Emerging Church, Church ...
6/21/2010
Dan Reeves, a Georgia native, former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys, and coach for the Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons will be one of our keynote speakers at the IN Conference. While in Atlanta, Dan was named the 1998 NFL Coach of the Year. He is a deeply committed Christian and his testimony will be a great part of this conference. Other speakers providing great instruction and ideas for us at this conference include: Bishop Larry Goodpaster, Bishop ...
5/6/2010
Is your church welcoming a new pastor this summer? Dr. Robert Crossman wrote a great article titled Preparing to Receive a new Pastor for the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. He also includes a link to "50 Ways to Welcome Your New Senior or Associate Pastor. Preparing to Receive a New Pastor by Dr. Robert Crossman Welcoming a new pastor in genuine and effective ways lays the groundwork for a healthy and vital relationship and for the development of stable, long-term ministries together. The ...
4/23/2010
Bethlehem First has had excellent response to the Master Greeter program. In fact, they would like every person in the church to think of themselves as a Master Greeter. Check out the attached link or contact Parker Benson for more information. From Parker: The Master Greeter stuff is great and can be found at http://www.mastergreeter.com/index.html We have shown the DVD to two separate groups and are now showing it to all the Sunday School classes. The booklet is great reading also. I ...
3/3/2010
We had a great event at Reinhardt yesterday focusing on how to leverage Public Relations and Facebook for your congregation. Find PDFs of the Power Point presentations below. Documents: Making Social Media Work (pdf) Marketing Your Church (pdf)
9/3/2009
Calling all younger pastors (in their 20s, 30s, 40s) Companions in Ministry Two (CiM 2) Who couldn't benefit from a program of peer learning and spiritual guidance? "Companions in Ministry Two" (or CiM 2) welcomes 50 clergy from around the country to gather for five days to experience what peer support can be like and then return home to create the support systems they need. Application deadline is September 15, 2009. For more information and registration for this program which is partially ...
4/13/2009
Have you ever sent out a one paragraph informational e-mail, that literally took less than one minute to write, and then spent hours clarifying to recipients what you meant? So much for time-saving digital communications! The ease of quickly broadcasting information electronically, whether through e-mail, IM, chats, or any of the host of social networks that are open to the world these days, has brought us into a modern era of possibility that didn’t exist just a few years ago. We are more ...