SCD Ideas

Grand Rapids, MI, July 31, 2008–Worship attendance at the Living Water United Methodist Church, a new congregation in Pearland, Texas, peaked at 225 in the fall of 2006.

Then it dropped the next week to under 200, and kept dropping week by week until it reached 70.

That was not the way it was suppose to happen! The new church start on the south side of Houston had been widely publicized and praised in the Texas Annual (regional) Conference of the denomination.

“I felt like a failure,” the pastor, the Rev. Ed Jones, told the 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational Development, meeting at two sites, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Orlando, Florida, with satellite links for some plenary addresses and worship.

Mr. Jones, speaking from Grand Rapids, said: “We took six months to sort things out and now we are in a new day. I realized I was listening to words on church-growth charts but not listening daily to the word of God. We were too caught up in building the church and not enough in connecting the disconnected.”

“We were taking our values from charts when we needed to place our values in human hearts,” said Jones, an African American clergyman.

The United Methodist Church as a denomination in the United States is not unlike Living Water congregation in the fall of 2006: it is losing participants, and has been since its membership peaked in the 1960s at around 11 million.

Starting new congregations in the US is a current United Methodist priority. As a global denomination, however, its membership is growing in Africa and Asia.

The annual School of Congregational Development, focused on the US, is jointly sponsored by the General Boards of Discipleship and Global Ministries. Five of the ministry study tracks this year deal with starting new congregations.

Living Water Church developed what it calls GAUGE, which lists five values:

Grow spiritually.
Authentic relationships must be developed.
Use gifts for ministry.
Give cheerfully.
Extend a hand.

It also has a strategy taken from chapter 5 of the Gospel of Luke. The passage tells the story of how Jesus noticed two empty boats and fishermen washing their nets on the lakeshore of Gennesaret. Jesus boarded Simon’s boat and eventually asked him to put out into deeper water for a large catch of fish.

The Living Water strategy understands that we begin at the shoreline in our faith venture and gradually move out, until we are “living deep” in the Spirit, empowered “to serve living water to a thirsty world as we grow toward our full potential to share the love of Christ with others.”

Jones advised persons who want to start new churches to engage the disconnected, especially disconnected families, and to “preach Jesus.”

He said that Living Water Church uses cultural resources, including popular movies, to engage people, to get their attention, and move them out from the shoreline to deeper waters.

“If you trust God, God can trust you,” said the pastor, and that relationship with God makes it possible to share the love of God with the broken, wounded people of the world.
Jones, a former firefighter, did his theological studies at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He credits his wife, Sylvia, a dentist, and his three children, with providing a domestic connectedness that permits the stability needed for ministry.

http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/pr.cfm?articleid=5085

by Elliott Wright
Orlando, FL, July 31, 2008–The 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational Development opened with a challenge to Christian leaders to live and act like Jesus.

Bishop Minerva Carcaño of Phoenix gave the keynote address at the event this year held in two locations, Orlando, Florida, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Speaking from Florida, she was linked by satellite to the Michigan site. Her topic was “The Spiritual Life of the Christian Leader.”

“The spiritual life of a Christian leader is a life that thinks and acts like Jesus,” Bishop Carcaño said, bolstering her assertion with biblical citations, hymnody, and personal experience.

The six-day school is attended on a volunteer basis by United Methodist pastors, district superintendents, bishops, and other leaders, some of them lay persons. It is sponsored jointly by the General Boards of Discipleship and Global Ministries. Strong emphasis is put on developing new congregations, revitalizing existing ones, and strengthening church leadership.

Early in her presentation the bishop asked the 300 people in Orlando and the 150 in Grand Rapids to stand and sing the hymn that includes the phrase, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! There’s just something about that name.”

Bishop Carcaño, who leads the Desert Southwest Annual (regional) Conference, also explored the passage in the Letter to the Philippians in which the Apostle Paul challenges Christians to have “the mind of Christ,” who, while he was God, became a human being who suffered and was nailed to a cross.

“‘Go for it,’ says Paul. Aspire to think and act like Jesus.”

The joy that comes from making Jesus the model of leadership, the bishop warned, may put Christian leaders in conflict with the world.

She also stressed that Christian leaders, those who think and act like Jesus, are not always in prominent positions in the church. Among those she cited as models of Jesus Christ were her grandmother Sophie; a young pastor she met in the mountains of the Philippines three years ago; and a woman ministering at the Mexican border to persons deported from the US–notably by washing the feet of weary travelers.

Bishop Carcaño stressed the important symbolism and reality of Christians washing the feet of those in need and one another’s feet. She said:

Jesus himself showed us his mind and heart when on the eve of his crucifixion he took a basin and towel and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples. Jesus’ own action on that night became the lens through which we can see the mind of Christ and thus the spiritual life to which we are called. Because he loved his disciples from beginning to end, Jesus washed their feet.

Jesus’ love for his disciples is expressed all through his ministry, but particularly and most importantly, in his death. It is only from the standpoint of Jesus’ death that …

It is all about relationships; relationships with God, with Jesus, and with each other. How different the world could be if we consistently served out of spiritual lives grounded in God’s own love; a love that we know through Christ Jesus and that we best understand through the very mind of Christ, Christ who invited us into relationship with him and with each other, to serve each other in Christ’s own love.

 Bishop Carcaño expressed the hope that Christian leaders would not get too caught up in what she described as the current “self-care” movement that reflects the priorities of a narcissistic society. “Self-care,” she said, “is pretty common sense … take care of your life for it is a gift from God … sleep, exercise, eat right, and spend time with your loved ones.” She said:

The importance of our lives is found in our relationship with God who created us for holy purposes. We find the significance of our lives … through relationships of love with others. In knowing that we belong to Christ Jesus who has redeemed and reconciled us with God and with each other, we are enabled to respond to both the joy and the demands of love.

Participants in the School of Congregational Development engage in ministry tracks, seminars, worship, and visits to area “teaching churches.”

The school sites in Orlando and Grand Rapids were linked for several plenary addresses and services of worship, some originating in Florida and some in Michigan.

*Elliott Wright is the information officer of the General Board of Global Ministries.

http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/pr.cfm?articleid=5084
 

For those of you who will participating in this year’s School of Congregational Development, you are asked to bring information with you about the community where your church is located.  Using www.zillow.com, the real estate site that tells you an estimated value of homes in your area, you can easily find information about your community.  Use the instructions below and fill in the template to paint a quick picture of your community.  This is only a starting point.  Through the Research Office of GBGM  (http://new.gbgm-umc.org/about/us/ecg/research/profiles/) and other companies that provide demographic information you can get more detailed information about your church and your community.  So using this as a starting point, fill in the data below and bring the information with you.  This is material you will be able to use as you develop a Ministry Plan for your church.  You also can go to the Page button on the sidebar of this site, and get the chart as well.

Your Community Profile

1.  Go to www.zillow.com
2.  Type in your address or an address of a house in your
target area
3.  When you see the street address on the map, click on the address to see a
report on the value of the house
4.  Scroll to bottom where it says, “The main types of people are.”
Click on See  more   _________ data.
5.  On the left-hand side you will see a box.  Click on People and fill in the data  below:

Relationship Status:          Homes with Kids:
Married   _________       With Kids    _______
Single       _________     Without Kids _______
Widowed _________
Divorced  _________

Age Distribution        Commute Time
-10 _______            10 min or less    _______
10s _______            10-20 min.         _______
20s _______            20-30 min.        _______
30s _______            30-45 min.        _______
40s _______            45-60 min.        _______
50s _______            60 min or more _______
60s _______
>70 _______

                                                      Your Town    National
People Data
Median Household Income:____________/__________
Single Males:_______________________/__________
Single Females:_____________________/__________
Median Age:_______________________/__________
Homes With Kids:___________________/__________
Average Household Size:_____________/__________
Average Commute Time:_____________/__________

Who Lives Here? The Main types of people are:

In this neighborhood, a larger number of people have these
characteristics than in surrounding neighborhoods:

www.scdumc.org

In preparation for this year’s School of Congregational Development here is a list of books from some of our leaders that you might want to read:

7 Myths of the United Methodist Church

Written by Craig Kennet Miller and with contributions from leading edge pastors 7 Myths talks about the things we say to ourselves that keeps us from growing.  This is a must read for anyone who wants to get a fresh look at the current state of the United Methodist Church or who wants to lead a study in his or her local church to see their church in a whole new light.

Go to www.gbod.org\7myths for more information.  You also can download presentations to share with your congregation.

http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/description.asp?item_id=541308

Deeping Your Effectiveness

Dan Glover and Claudia Lavey

This is has been a best seller at the School of Congregational Development since it came out.  It gives great insights of how to develop a discipleship system for your local church in a way that allows you to impliment its principles in your congregational setting.

http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/description.asp?item_id=343629 

Touch

Rudy Rasmus

Touch tells the story of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Houston, a once dying church that is now one of the largest churches in the country.  As Rudy tells his story of redemption you can’t help but be encouraged to take a new look at your ministry and to view the people in your community as God’s gift to your church.

http://www.amazon.com/TOUCH-Pressing-Against-Wounds-Broken/dp/0849919851/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215114547&sr=8-1

Dirty Word: The Vulgar, Offensive Language of the Kingdom of God

Jim Walker

Dirty Word is an honest and sometime raw theological story of church mission and ministry with people who are turned off by the practices and appearances of the traditional church.

http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/description.asp?item_id=564487

The newest results of the Pew’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey show an American populace that professes belief in God without having to pay the price of discipleship.  While 92% of people say they believe in God and 58% pray once a day, when it comes to living it out with others the numbers drop dramatically.  

While worship attendance tells one part of the story (see links to survey results below), the amount of influence religious belief has on daily living seems to be in decline.  For example, while 78% of Americans say there are “absolute standards of right and wrong” only 29% rely on their religion to determine these standards.  Only 14% say religion is the “main influence on political thinking.” Other questions in the survey talk about heaven and hell, preserving religious tradition, and salvation.

When seen as a whole, the answers point to a population who embraces the concept of spirituality without absolutes.  Belief is a good thing, but what you believe is up to the individual.  The final arbiter of what is right is not the church or the religious institution, but what seems to work in the moment. 

While this may appear to be a minefield for the leaders of Churches, this also gives the leader of a local church a unique opportunity to shape the spiritual life of people who participate in the life of his or her congregation.  Rather than coming with preconceived notions of what it means to be a Christian, people who participate in the life of the local faith community are open to learn what you have to offer.   The church finds itself in the teaching mode rather than the caretaking mode. 

Fifty years ago the assumption was that everyone was a Christian and all you had to do was to remind people to do the right things and to remember the creeds and prayers of the historic church.  Today it is normative for people in church to be surprised to learn about different kinds of prayer, or about the Trinity, or how a daily devotion can shape the spiritual life of their family.  The life of John Wesley and his brother Charles becomes a witness to those who have never heard the story.  The Book of Acts is a eye-opening account of the power of the Holy Spirit as the church was born.

What becomes attractive is a congregation who strangely enough is living what they are teaching.  It’s no mistake that many of our largest congregations have a well thought out strategy for teaching the basics of the Christian faith, for helping people experience many different types of worship, small groups, and prayer, and offer multiple opportunities to be in service to their communities and in mission to the world. While the results of the survey may appear to be discouraging it challenges the local church to step up its efforts to communicate the gospel message in a way that connects with people so that they may know the joy of Christian fellowship and following Jesus as part of a community of faith.

Go to these links to find some great interactive tools relating to the survey: 

http://usatoday.com/news/graphics/2008_pew_religion/flash.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-06-23-pew-religions_N.htm