Entries Tagged 'Events' ↓

I say “surviving” rather than “survived” because, technically, we’re between sessions of Annual Conference this year. Last weekend, the Central Pennsylvania Conference held its 222nd and final session. This coming Saturday will be the first Annual Conference of the new Susquehanna Conference (with a special session to be held later in September).

Ethan was with us each of the last two years, but Sarah made it our first time with two children. Fortunately, we had a suite on campus with plenty of room, because we needed it!

We’ve been attending annual conferences for twelve years and how different they are with children! The kids kept us moving — getting up early to make sure we’re all ready in time for breakfast, then getting them to childcare. After the morning and afternoon sessions, we walked to another building on campus to pick up the kids before going to the cafeteria for lunch or dinner. Anyway, it’s a busy time!

Sarah didn’t sleep too well (especially Friday night). But our biggest concern, which I mentioned Thursday night, was how the kids would handle childcare in an unfamiliar place with people they didn’t know. But, actually, we were very proud of how well both Ethan and Sarah handled childcare both days we were there! The fact that they both did well was a huge relief for us!

Of course, writing for the Daily Link also adds to our busyness there (although, since we’ve had kid(s), we’ve been doing lighter duty). But it’s part of our annual conference experience — the only year we haven’t written for the conference publication, so far, was our first (1999)!

Cokesbury always sets up a bookstore at annual conference. Browsing bookstores is always a bittersweet experience for me — I see so many books I want to read but know I can’t read them all! But I did come away with 4 books (a gift card and a coupon made me do it!): The Future of the United Methodist Church: 7 Vision Pathways, Five Practices of Fruitful Living, Reading Scripture as Wesleyans, and This We Believe: The Core of Wesleyan Faith and Practice (I also added a few others to my Amazon Wish List which has well over 100 items on it already!).

The last two books on the list are in connection with the Wesley Study Bible. The only reason I haven’t picked up a copy of this study Bible is because we expect to receive copies when we are ordained (at least, that’s what those who were ordained last year received).

Speaking of ordination, the first ordination service of the new Susquehanna Conference will conclude this Saturday’s uniting conference. Afterward, Joleen and I (along with those in our ordination class) will be “on deck” (that is, we’re on track to be ordained next year!).

Till then, here are some photos from our final night at annual conference this past weekend …

Today, I caught bits and pieces of the free online leadership event from Leadership Network called, Sage. The event involved a number of brief videos from seasoned leaders, each dealing with the question of what they’d do differently if given a do-over. I tweeted some of my favorite quotes.

Since I only caught bits and pieces, these reflections are preliminary, but there were still some areas that particularly challenged me.

Michael Duduit talked about preaching. He said …

Clear is better than clever.

This certainly agrees with the one-point preaching approach.

Duduit also said …

Effective messages send people out not praising the speaker but the Savior.

I appreciate Walt Kallestad. We had the opportunity to hear him teach as part of our Asbury program a few years ago. Walt made several important memorable statements, including …

Keep it simple, like teaching people to love the Lord with all your heart, and that relationships are central to building community.

Walt hit on the importance of prayer and said now …

I pray more and work less.

One of the major themes was caring for yourself and your soul, including spending time with God. Joel Hunter challenged listeners to get into God’s Word. He said …

Read the word of God every day. I can‘t believe I get to learn and help others understand it.

But from what I could tell, by far the most common theme from these seasoned leaders, which many learned the hard way, was FAMILY.

I didn’t write down a lot of the statements, but a couple include Joel Hunter’s comment …

Enjoy your family.

I was more impacted by Hunter’s heart and authenticity than the actual words. (By the way, Hunter is one of the members of President Obama’s so-called “spiritual cabinet.”)

Gene Getz also highlighted the importance of family. Speaking of his regrets, he said …

You can’t make up for what you didn’t do!

I will need go back and watch the videos again, especially the ones I missed when they are posted on Leadership Network.

Finally, I really enjoyed Chip Ingram’s presentation, which unfortunately was cut short due to technical difficulties. But before the lights went out for several minutes, I loved what Ingram, who talked about lifelong learning, said …

God’s number one agenda is to work in you before he works through you.

Interestingly, I think this will shape my message this Sunday. I’ve been in a series on “Life in the Wilderness” (i.e., those times that are unplanned and unexpected and difficult!). This week, I’m talking about preparation and after today, may do so in the context of forgetting the past and preparing for the rest of our lives. What do we want to do differently? What do we need to do to make the most of the rest of our lives?

As I wrote in my last post, we attended a seminar at the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) in Washington, D.C. last week. Here are a few reflections on the seminar experience which took place on Capitol Hill.

GBCS, which addresses social issues, began as The Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals. It is housed in the United Methodist Building, which was built in 1923. It is the only non-governmental building located on Capitol Hill (how cool is that?).

The focus of this seminar was economic justice with specific sessions devoted to connecting mercy and justice, biblical engagement on civil and human rights, biblical and theological reflections on health care, as well as racism.

A major focus of the program involved preparing participants for visits to the offices of the two Senators from Pennsylvania. Our group of 17 pastors visited Senator Casey’s office on Tuesday afternoon and Senator Specter’s office Wednesday morning. In each visit, we focused on advocating for the poor (on various issues), who many times, do not have a voice or advocate in places of power. It was a new experience for Joleen and me, but a very good one.

Going in to this seminar, I was particularly interested in what exactly GBCS does. Susan quoted one GBCS staff member who describes their purpose this way …

We are the ones responsible for making sure what General Conference decides doesn’t sit on shelves and collect dust.

I also like the description of the difference between lobbyists and advocates that Susan Burton, Director for Seminar Design, gave. Lobbyists may support politicians financially. Since GBCS is a non-profit organization, as part of the UMC, it cannot support specific candidates (financially or otherwise), so staff members of GBCS are not lobbyists. But they are advocates, advocating values more than specific political positions.

One of the things I appreciate most about this seminar is that it was not political in nature. It wasn’t about political parties or even specific legislative bills; it was more about the theological values that serve as a foundation for our opinions and actions.

Bill Mefford offered a question to ask ourselves when approaching social issues, especially ones that the Scriptures do not specifically address …

How do we as people of faith, shaped and formed by the entirety of Scripture, begin now to approach this issue?

I must say that I was extra-interested in this seminar in light of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s words of thanks to The United Methodist Church, during her closing arguments just before the House voted on the health care reform bill. But even though we had a session on health care there was hardly any discussion of what GBCS did to earn Pelosi’s gratitude. I appreciate the humility (but I still would’ve liked to have heard more about the events leading up to the vote! ).

So, it was a good experience. We were challenged to think about some issues. And I left with a heightened sense that I need to be a stronger voice for the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely!

Today, Joleen and I attended a seminar (a requirement of our ordination process) held at Wesley Forest, a United Methodist camp. The presenter for the seminar on “Planning and Leading Change” was Rev. Tom Berlin, senior pastor of Floris United Methodist Church (Herndon, VA).

During the day, I posted several quotes on my Twitter page. But here, I’ll offer a little further review and reflection.

It was a very good leadership event and there’s a lot we need to process and reflect on. For now, here are some of the highlights …

Berlin began the day talking about calling. He said that passion based on call is the difference between pastors who finish well and pastors who burn out. Pastors must be intentional in processing their own call. Berlin said …

No one is ever gonna tell you what you need to be about. Your calling is your business with God!

Berlin recommended Dick Wills’ book, Waking to God’s Dream.

Berlin also talked about the importance of clarity …

Clarity of calling will keep you in ministry when everything is telling you to get out.

Berlin recommended Marcus Buckingham’s book, The One Thing You Need to Know (we’ve read his earlier book, Now, Discover Your Strengths but still need to read the follow-up book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work).

I love the following statement …

Try things that only God can do. … Listen to the things that God is calling you to do that you don’t think you can do.

But Berlin made it clear that leading change is difficult. He said that while seminaries “didn’t give you a hazmat suit, they should have” because we deal with toxic stuff in ministry.

Ministry is a distance event. (Berlin)

The closing session of the day, “the change marathon,” focused on self-care in the midst of leading change. With input from his wife, a marathon runner, Berlin offered several steps change leaders need to take in order to finish well, in spite of the challenges of leadership (incidentally, I came across some scary statistics on clergy families yesterday that point to the challenges clergy families face).

Marathon runners often train with “training buddies” for mutual support. Berlin noted the importance of pastors having friends, both clergy and non-clergy (the stats in the link above support this point).

Runners take time to stretch before and after running. Similarly, pastors need spiritual, emotional, and physical “stretching activities” in order to stay healthy. Related to this, pastors need to “make time for recovery” through daily, weekly, monthly, and annual activities. These points remind me of Wayne Cordeiro’s tank-filling activities.

Well, there were other good points, but I’ll stop there for now. Again, it was a worthwhile event, and we need to process it further, especially since the parts dealing with self-care have implications for us *and* our family. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the day …

Last Saturday, four of us from Centre Grove went to a leadership seminar called, How to Reach Unchurched People in Your Community, presented by Dr. Charles Arn, held at Krislund Camp. The presentation, as well as the content and research behind it, were very good!

Some notes I jotted down …

The church is in the business of relationships (with God, each other, and the community).

Keep the congregational focus outward!

Even though Arn is Presbyterian and the event was sponsored by the Northumberland Presbytery, there was a strong Wesleyan influence. Arn quoted Wesley as well as contemporary evangelism expert, Dr. George Hunter, including his seminal book, Church for the Unchurched. One of the highlights of our time at Asbury Theological Seminary was taking Hunter’s class, Church for the Unchurched.

Arn talked about the New Testament focus on one’s “household” (oikos), or social network, as we might call it today. When someone became a follower of Jesus in the first century, they influenced their entire social network for Christ.

The same is true today. The overwhelming reason why people first come to church is because of a friend or relative (75-90% while no other factor surpasses 5 or 6%). Research also shows that people who leave churches do so because they don’t feel needed/wanted (81%).

Interestingly, only 1-6% of people attend church because of the pastor. I’ve always known that that number is low, but what I didn’t know is that it’s even low at a place like the Crystal Cathedral, founded by Dr. Robert H. Schuller, where researchers discovered that about 7.5% of the people attend because of the (extremely high profile) pastor. Of course, pastors play an important role in shaping church culture which has an impact on how invitational people are.

Some other statistics that were especially interesting …

In the average church, 9% of first-time visitors become active members or regular attenders within a year. But in growing churches, 21% of first-time visitors become active attenders/participants — (only) 2 out of 10, instead of 1 out of 10.

About 1% of people attend a church event after receiving a well-written notice in the mail (yikes!). But 28% attend when invited by a friend! That’s an astronomical difference!

Arn suggested focusing on people who are receptive at any given time (people can fluctuate between receptivity and resistance). Based on the research above, often the people who are most receptive are friends, relatives, and neighbors of present members.

Arn presented an approach called Ministry-based Outreach, which he defined as …

an intentional commitment to build meaningful relationships between members and non-members based around shared interests.

Churches can form ministry-based outreach groups for people who share common concerns or common interests (see examples here).

In fact, on the hour-plus drive home, we developed an idea for our first ministry-based outreach ministry. The details will need to be worked out, but we anticipate putting our first group (made up of people from Centre Grove AND people who are not connected to the church) together sometime this summer.

Well, there was lots of other practical stuff, more than I can include here. But the event was well worth attending!

As I mentioned a few days ago, Leadership Network held a free online leadership event today called, Aha!, a 4-hour (plus) series of videos from around 40 different presenters talking about their aha! moments.

I had the event running on my computer (to the TV) the entire time, but I didn’t catch nearly all of it (other tasks and/or kids). But I think the quote that struck me most came from Pete Briscoe (Bent Tree Bible Fellowship), who shared his aha! moment …

I am no longer working for Jesus. I’m walking with him.

This was a great reminder that our call to serve and lead must always be grounded in a relationship with God. Nothing is more important than our relationship with God!

Dale Dawson talked about passion and stated …

And Jon Ferguson (Community Christian Church) offered six great questions for coaches/mentors to use with people they’re coaching/mentoring …

1. How are you?
2. What are you celebrating? Where are you winning?
3. What challenges are you experiencing?
4. What do you plan to do to solve these challenges?
5. How can I help you?
6. How can I pray for you?

I’m sure there were some other impacting statements as well, so I’ll try to catch some of the videos after they are posted in the near future. I’ll edit this post to add the link when it’s available.

Last fall, Leadership Network offered a free online leadership event called, The Nines (see my posts, The Nines Marathon and More on The Nines). Now, they are offering another online event called Aha!.

Aha!, which is expected to last about four hours, will focus on fresh ideas in the church coming from about 40 different presenters. The free event will take place Wednesday, March 3, 2010 beginning at noon Eastern.

According to the site, pre-registration is required. This time around, you can pay $20 for some extras, including full speaker notes (in advance).

It should be good.

At last week’s Bishop’s Retreat, Gilbert Rendle talked about the change that’s taking place in the world and in the church as well as the leadership that’s needed, as a result of the cultural change.

At the end of his presentation on Tuesday evening, Rendle challenged attendees to discover the “ten percent” (the amount of content most people can absorb from a seminar) that they needed to take home with them. After some reflection, here’s what I think I’m taking away from the retreat.

I thought the presentation on cultural change that’s going on both in the world and in the church was helpful, but I want to focus on the content from Rendle’s presentation on leadership, that is, how to lead change in the midst of a changing world.

Leadership vs. Management. Rendle talked about the difference between management and leadership. While both are necessary, most leaders were simply trained to be managers, to keep things running smoothly.

Management is primarily responsible for the present moment, for doing things right. Leadership is responsible for the future and change, for doing right things. While there’s been a growing amount of emphasis on the importance of leadership in recent years/decades, Rendle noted that …

We are asked for leadership at a time when we are rewarded for management. But you cannot do leadership without disrupting management.

So, while I certainly want things to run smoothly, I also realize that part of my job is to “stir the pot” (see my 2006 sermon for more on Stirring the Pot).

The Leadership Challenge. There is a disruptive component to leadership that makes leadership especially challenging. Rendle stated …

One of our tasks is to make people appropriately uncomfortable.

Of course, not everyone will go along for the journey, so Rendle offered a warning …

If you have a ‘no person left behind’ policy, you have already determined that you’re not going to do anything!

Leaders and churches must be willing to do the right things even when there’s resistance, because the alternative is simply to do nothing, or at least nothing worthwhile or life-changing.

Rendle also offered four leadership skills in his final session. But before I reflect on those, I need to review the video of the sessions, which are expected to be posted to the conference website this week.

We are at the halfway point at the 2010 Bishop’s Retreat of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church.

We arrived at the retreat, which is taking place at the Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster, PA. Last year, our first time to attend the annual retreat, we came a day early to get settled in and to relax (we also posted some learnings from the retreat).

This year, we chose not to come a day early because we were concerned about how well Sarah would sleep here. We figured two nights would be better than three, at this point (although next year, I think we’ll come early; it’s more relaxing). We did arrive in town a few hours early to shop at the outlets before checking into our room just in time for the opening meal (followed by the evening session).

Ethan was with us last year, too, and this year, it’s a first for Sarah. Ethan hasn’t always handled being dropped off at child care in these kinds of “strange” gatherings very well, but we were hoping that having Sarah (a familiar face) with him would make things easier this time. Such was not the case. Last night, as we arrived at the door to the child care room, we experienced his worst ever response (too bad I didn’t have the video camera ready ). I had to chase him (while he cried loudly) down the hallway. I caught up to him at one of the exits. Of course, he continued to cry until shortly after we left. He was fine then and had a good time. This morning, we experienced a much less eventful drop-off, leaving two more drop-offs to go (this evening and tomorrow morning).

Since this is a “retreat,” we get Tuesday afternoons off. For us, that means trying to get the kids to take a nap. We gave up with Ethan and Joleen took him to the pool (which caught up to him later; see photo below). Fortunately, Sarah, who did not get much sleep last night (she went to sleep very late and woke up very early), had a good (up to) hour-and-a-half nap.

Last year, Ethan’s favorite spot was the fountain (which Ethan calls “mountain”). That’s still true this year. This morning, on the way to dropping him off at child care, we stopped at the fountain for a quick look. When we got to the child care room, he immediately started telling the child care workers, and everyone else, about the fountain (and how the water goes “up the pipes,” something I had explained to him yesterday).

Well, I’ll say more about what we’re learning from Gil Rendle, the speaker at this retreat, a little later. For now, I’ll simply say, there’s a lot of good stuff on leading change to chew on. Both the communication and the content are very good.

Here are some images from today …

Last week, Bishop Robert Schnase (Bishop in Residence of the Missouri Area of The United Methodist Church) came to teach on the Five Practices in our conference.

Since we’re working our way through the Five Practices at Centre Grove, the event was partly review for me, but it was also good to hear Bishop Schnase teach on the practices live and in person.

Bishop Schnase divided the day into three sections: (1) discussion of the five practices, (2) congregational systems, and (3) personal systems.

Bishop Schnase began with a summary/overview of the practices, then discussed how systems within the church are conducive (or not) to fruitfulness. The day concluded with a discussion on individual responsibility, from leaders modeling the practices to the members living as authentic followers of Jesus in the world.

I won’t say much about the summary/overview since I’m blogging the five practices elsewhere, but here are a few statements (which may or may not be exact quotes) that especially challenged me:

Mission happens at the margin. Where does my life intersect with people at the margins?

Imagine if one-fourth of your congregation had a spiritual conversation once a month. We can’t make those conversations happen; we just have to be receptive. When we become attentive to God’s calling (what God wants us to do), doors open.

Doing these things doesn’t guarantee that growth will happen, but it won’t happen without them!

Good stuff. Bishop Schnase noted that the Five Practices are not a church growth strategy. Rather, it’s about living out our theology. It’s who we’re called to become.

Centre Grove began discussing the Five Practices in January 2009, and it’ll probably take us most of 2010 to get through all the practices. In 2010, I plan to devote an entire sermon series to the Five Practices. By then, a lot of the practices will actually already be in place or well under way, and the series will (hopefully) help to shape the spiritual/missional DNA of the congregation.