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Jim's Tool Box Archive
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2011
November: A Decade of Change in American Congregations In this article Jim shares findings from a ten year study released by Faith Communities Today. The study points out trends in American religious life in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Read the article to see you your church matches up with these trends.
October: Getting Ready for Christmas Christmas entails a lot of preparation for most of us. In this article Jim shares a link to a checklist developed by Bill and Kris Tenney-Brittian. The checklist includes many helpful suggestions around hospitality that most churches need to consider whether it is at Christmas or any time of the year.
September: How Are We Connecting People with God Through Worship? One of the common experiences that most believers share is the opportunity to share in worship (assuming that folks show up). For many clergy, the planning and execution of the weekly worship experience(s) takes a lot of time and energy. From preparing the message to planning the worship experience, pastors and others who help plan worship (lay servant leaders or paid staff) work to offer an experience that will help draw those who attend closer to God and to one another. In this article Jim shares some pointers offered by a Wesleyan pastor Lawrence Wilson.
July: Attendance Figures for 2010 -‐ What Do They Tell Us? Jim reports in this article about the attendance figures for the CAS District (as well as the top twenty churches of the West Ohio Conference). Then Jim talks about the implications of these attendance trends.
June: Has Your Church Asked Your Neighbors What They Are Looking For in A Church? In this article Jim discusses the importance of going into the community to ask folks what they are looking for in a church. Sometimes we think we know, and sometimes we are afraid to ask. But we have to begin building bridges some way. Why not go out and ask folks what they want and then shape ministry and mission around the answers you receive.
For many church leaders it is the situation that they dread. The leader in charge of a group encounters angry words, conflict between members, disagreement with the presentation of the group leader (to name a few). The conscious or unconscious process of slowing or blocking a group from making progress or a topic or issue is called “resistance.”
April: Listening: How Effective Are Your Listening Skills in Leading a Group? Most of us whether pastors or laity spend a fair amount of time in small group settings whether it is a Bible study, a sharing or accountability group, a committee or team meeting, or a staff meeting. Pastors and persons in lay leadership are often expected to lead these small group meeting. Most of us can do a more effective job of leading in these group settings. In this article Jim discusses some methods to help leaders be better listeners and to role model good listening skills when leading groups in the church.
March: Spiritual, But Not Religious -- A Challenge for the Church “Spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) has become the description for many persons in our society today who are seeking spiritual meaning in their lives, but they are not turning to the church or other traditional religious institutions to find that meaning. In this Tool Box article Jim discusses the implications of the rise of "Spiritual, But Not Religious" persons and the challenge and opportunity they bring to congregations and their ministries today.
February: Journey in the Wilderness, Part 2 In part 2 of Jim's examination of Gil Rendle's book Journey in the Wilderness New Life for Mainline Churches, Jim discusses Rendle's offering of a "fourth path" for church leaders. He summarizes the tools that Rendle describes in his book that help leaders get a different perspective on the work and mission of the church.
January: Journey in the Wilderness, Part 1 Jim takes a look at Gil Rendle's book Journey in the Wilderness New Life for Mainline Churches. In this book church consultant Gil Rendle discusses the wilderness journey of the last forty years that the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations have taken. He talks about the learning during that time in areas of church growth, congregational transformation, and clergy development.
2010
December: Review of A Door Set Open Jim reviews Peter Steinke's new book. Peter Steinke draws on family systems theory as way of showing leaders a way to address the challenging issues facing the church in the post Christendom era. The author uses helpful illustrations to highlight his teachings about the need for local congregations to recover their mission. Along with reminders about the challenges that change brings, this book offers hope to leaders who are seeking to transform local congregations.
November: Insights Into Congregational Growth Jim discusses findings on church growth in a report FACTS on Growth from the Hartford Seminary's Institute for Religious Research.
October: A Great Discovery Tool in MissionInsite In the last of a series of articles on the features and tools of MissionInsite (the new demographic program available to congregational leaders in the West Ohio Conference), Jim describes a powerful discovery tool in the Theme Maps tool. This tool has great possibilities for exploring ministry opportunities in the community/neighborhood around a congregation or in a target ministry area.
September: Hello, MissionInsite (Part 2) As a follow up to last month's article, Jim revisits MissionInsite. This time he details a free Congregational Life Survey that MissionInsite offers on the homepage of the site. He compares the responses to one question in the survey when the pastors of three congregations took the survey. He also offers ways that the survey could be used in the local church setting.
August: Good Bye, Percept, Hello, MissionInsite In this issue of the Tool Box, Jim takes a look at many of the features of the new demographic program that the West Ohio Conference is offering to leaders in local churches in better assessing the demographic needs around their church and community. Jim likes the flexibility offered by the new program as well as several features that are offered.
July: Stewardship Help for Your Church In this article Jim looks at stewardship issues in the local church. He reviews and summarizes Clif Christopher's book Not Your Father's Offering Plate A New for Financial Stewardship. On the one hand, Christopher offers a stewardship 101 course for pastors and lay leadership of local congregations. On the other hand, he challenges many long held notions about local church finances. For instance he says that is clergy malpractice for the pastor not to konw the giving records of the church members.
June: CAS Congregations Feature Innovative/New Ministries Part 2 Jim continues a topic that he began in May detailing and highlighting a variety of innovative ministries that congregations in the CAS District have started during the last year. This article features ministries that reach out to the community and ministries that are helping to grow congregations or extend them by adding new worship services or satellite locations.
May: CAS Congregations Feature Innovative/New Ministries For this month's Tool Box, Jim decided to ask the pastors of the district, "What are some new and innovative ministries, programs, worship services that your congregation has started during the past year?". Jim recevied several replies that he will share this month and in June.
April: Out of Death Comes Resurrection Jim writes this month about ways that congregations can find new life when they are facing decline and death. Jim's article is based on an Associated Baptist Press article that describes how Baptist churches are facing these issues.
March: In Some of Our Churches It Seems Like 1959 Jim reminisces about a small corner grocery in his hometown that is like a step back in time. Jim compares his experience in that store to his experience when it comes to worship in some congregations in the district.
February: Mainline Churches Can Grow In the last two Tool Box articles, Jim discussed the life cycle of congregations. In this issue Jim shares (with permission) an article by the Rev. Dick Hamm, church consultant with the Columbia Partnership). Dick writes about the characteristics of growing mainline congregations.
January: Turning Around the Cycle of Decline In this article Jim discusses what is necessary to turn around a congregation depending on where it is located on the life cycle curve.
2009
November: By the Numbers In this article Jim takes a look at historical attendance data for congregations in the Capitol Area South District. See which congregations ranked in the top ten in attendance in 1995 and which congregations rank in the top ten in 2008. What are the trends for attendance in the churches of the district and what are the implications for our ministry?
October: Coaching: A Ministry for You? In this article Jim explores Christian coaching. Jim recently participated in a basic level coaching course. Jim talks about what coaching is and what it is not and how coaching can benefit you.
September: Rethinking Church with Reggie McNeal's Missional Renaissance When it comes to “Rethinking Church,” I have been reading a book this summer that has caused me to “rethink church.” It is Reggie McNeal’s book Missional Renaissance(Jossey-Bass, 2009). Whatever you have come to understand about what “church” is, you can toss it out the window when you read this book. Basically, McNeal challenges the church today by talking about three shifts that are needed if the church is really going to be missional:
· From internal to external in terms of ministry focus
· From program development to people development in terms of core activity
· From church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda
August: The Four Areas of Focus in the CAS District Dr. Hank Stringer, District Superintendent of the Capitol Area South District (CAS) has worked with the Leadership and Visioning Team (LVT) to reorganize the work of this team around the Four Areas of Focus. As the group that develops strategy for the ministry work of the district, the team has augmented its membership by recruiting additional persons to staff four teams – one for each focus area.
July: Rethink Church (Part 2) Find out how the 10thousand Doors website and the UM Find a Church site can help persons find your church. You can raise your relevancy rating on the 10thousand Doors website (a public portal aimed at young adults) by filling out information on the Find a Church website.
June: What If...We Rethink Church? Rethink Church is designed to help us in the church to think about church in different ways. It takes the idea of the slogan we have used in the last four years, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” and instead of using “Open” as an adjective to use “Open” as a verb. What are the implications for your church if you understand “open” in that way.
May: New Features in Percept (Part 2) Now the twenty-nine demographic profile known as the "Ministry Area Profile" is available at no cost through the district office. This feature arrives as a link that downloads a pdf version of this extensive demographic report. Contact Jim Waugh at the disrict office to receive this report for your community and congregation.
April: New Features on Link 2 Lead and Percept (Part 1) "MemberView" Feature Added to Link2Lead site. Percept has added some new features in the demographic and mapping information available to leaders in congregations. Read in this article how you can easily map where all the members/attenders of your congregation live. The mapping program could also be used in a variety of other creative ways, too.
March: How Are We Doing? Where Are We Going? (Part 2) Jim describes a church renewal process called "reFocus." Using this article you can begin to determine if this program might be what your congregation needs to get your ministry "unstuck" and on track.
February: How Are We Doing? Where Are We Going? (Part 1) Jim shares four tools that congregations can use for the purpose of evaluating their ministries and developing a strategic plan for the congregation's work.
January: Are You Ready for Change? In this article Jim reflects on change to the newsletter and the importance of a congregation preparing for the dreaded "change" word. It is important to care for both the organizational issues around change and the "inner" work that the congregation must do.
2008
November: Financial Fears and People of Faith -- These are times of challenge and opportunity for ministry in the midst of financial uncertainty. Learn some keys to helping persons to get on the right track toward financial freedom.
September: What's Happening With Youth Ministry? -- Is your congregation focusing on ministry with students and youth? In this article Jim shares some thoughts from Micki McCorkle about ways for congregations to make a priority of youth ministry.
August: What's The World Coming To? -- At the July 2008 North Central Jurisdictional Conference, Bishop John Hopkins of the East Ohio Conference addressed the conference concerning demographic and economic changes occurring in the region of the jurisdictional conference (including Ohio). How can we as the church help our communities and wider society to adapt to these changes? How can the church adapt to what is happening around us in our communities?
July: Apologize for What? -- Here's a four step process in offering apologies. At one time or another -- in our churches and in our families and other relationships -- we find that we need to apologize.
June: Is the Church "UnChristian"? -- Jim reviewed David Kinnaman's book UnChristian and reflected on what it would mean for United Methodist Christians to take seriously the lessons of Kinnaman's research about young adults and their attitudes about the church and faith.
May: Ideas on How Your Congregation Can Reconnect with Its Community -- George Bullard offers "low threshold community cultivation events" as a way for congregations to reconnect with their communities. Basically this means that these are low threat events in which persons from the community can "try out" your church.
April: How a Consultant Can Help Your Church -- Jim discusses the consultant training that he participated in during March 2008. He offers insights into ways that a consultant can assist your church in long range planning or in working through a conflict situation.
February: Pastors Behaving Badly, Part 2 -- Jim concludes this series by discussing other "bad behavior" exhibited by pastors: boundary issues: 1. sexual misconduct and 2. continuing to be involved in activities and relationships in places of previous appointments. Jim also identifies use of time (or the lack there of) as another issue for badly behaving pastors.
January: Pastors Behaving Badly, Part 1 -- Jim now turns his attention to the behavior of pastors. In this article he takes a look at the conduct of pastors in the areas of control issues and confidentiality.
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