Mission Centered Ministry- United Methodist Center
Are you looking for ways to develop a purpose centered spiritual life to stay focused?
Do you need help in creating a step by step process for congregations to share their faith?
If either of those topics spark your interest, this seminar is for you!
Both clergy and laity are encouraged to attend.
Staying focused on the mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” is essential for being a fruitful congregation. The afternoon session of this seminar will explore with participants a variety of issues around the mission. Included are the factors that cause congregations to make decisions and plan ministries that are more reflective of personal preference and comfort than the mission of Jesus Christ. The seminar will then center on the importance and process of developing spiritual leaders that can help a congregation stay centered on the mission.
The specific process that will be discussed and detailed is out of our Wesleyan heritage that was at the core of the Methodist movement when laity were dynamically involved in the living out of the mission. And that process is the class meeting, where a model of a 21st century class meeting with its key factors will be experienced and clarified. This seminar will also give practical tools for aligning ministry consistently with the mission, especially at the times of planning and reporting – including results based ministry descriptions for the sake of the mission.
In the evening, this session will focus attention on developing a congregation’s ability to do the work of evangelism. The process shared is a model of developing in stages the competencies and confidence for persons to share their faith in Jesus Christ – using the educational system as an analogy. The model starts with “elementary school” evangelism, which is service evangelism – using service as a means of evangelism. Then, participants will explore “middle school” evangelism of faith sharing in their small groups. After that comes the “high school” evangelism of testimonies in worship. Next is “college level” evangelism of invitational evangelism and proven strategies to engage the congregation in inviting others. And finally, then comes “graduate school” evangelism – sharing our faith with someone not of faith in order to help them come to faith. And by following this simple process one step at a time, a congregation can be developed to do the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world consistently and well!
- $25 for afternoon and evening sessions, all materials, dinner and snacks (0.6 CEUs)
- $15.00 for afternoon only, all material and snacks (0.4 CEUs)
- $10.00 for evening only, all material and snacks (0.2 CEUs)
- Afternoon Session: 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm
- Dinner
- Evening Session: 6:00 pm- 9: 00 pm.
- September 20th at Armagh United Methodist Church
- September 21th at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church
- September 22nd at the United Methodist Conference Center
