Day Two at School of Congregational Development

Living out the Wesleyan Way in the 21st Century was the theme of the day. My three favorite presentations were:
Plenary remarks by Rev. Dr Laceye Warner. She is an ordained elder in the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and serves as Associate Dean for Academic Formation and Programs and Associate Professor of the Practice of Evangelism and Methodist Studies at Duke University Divinity School. Rev. Dr. Laceye spoke with wit, humor, humility and truth-telling (she called it "meddling") about Wesleyan practices and modes of disciple-making and evangelism. The spiritual formation and the accountablity of the small groups, classes and bands, were central to making of disciples. The use of journals and sharing of journals within small groups were a way of tracking spiritual growth, service and accounting for use of time and money. She spoke about the difficulty of living out those same principles today in our frantic and wealthy society, and asked "How would it be if we share our checkbooks and our calenders with each other?"

General Board of Discipleship introduced two "Digital Diaries" featuring "Robby" and "Laura". "Exploration not Explanation" is the paradigm for "each open-ended short film that invites small groups to search, discuss and discover...pushing us to unwrap Jesus' teachings in a new way." I loved these 10-12 minutes film clips that felt much like the provocative "Joan of Arcadia" that I have found resonated with my entire family of four from the pre-schooler to the middle schooler and parents, too. It would work in small groups of young peoples as well as adults, or excerpts could be a leader into worship or bible study. The clips and study leader notes can be purchased as a download or hard copy from http://www.godfilms.com/ from $3.99 upto $9.99 for digital download options.

Growing Evangelism in our Disciples (Recovering our Wesleyan Roots) has my vote as the best, most practical presentations I've seen yet. Rev Doug Anderson, Executive Director of The Bishop Rueben Job Center for Leadership Development, Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota; http://www.bishopruebenjobcenter.org/ likened the process of growing a culture of outreach in the local church is a experiential, educational process, much like the education of a person from elementary school, to middle school, to high school, to college/tech school, to graduate school. His seminar and book called 'The Race to Reach Out' outlines the process to develop a culture of evangelism in congregations. Heres a brief synopsis of a section of his presentation.

Service Evangelism is elementary school for developing evangelism in your church. The best first step to get churches to reach out to others is through giving themselves, time and money, to others in service. It is important to start slowly, stretching people a little, but not 'up' folk out of their comfort zone too much. But, it isn't enough just to DO service, people need to hear from their leadership WHY they do service for spiritual formation to happen.

Faith Sharing in Small Groups is the middle school of evangelism. "How have you experienced God recently?" leads to group spiritual formation and peer-to-peer sharing and accountability. People develop understanding that God IS at work in their daily life, if they are just paying attention. And, they learn to feel comfortable thinking and talking about their own faith and understanding of God's presence in their lives. In a large group setting, having folks turn to their neighbor for one-to-one sharing will help make this sharing more comfortable at first.

Testimonies are equivalent to high school in evangelism process. A testimony is making the next step by publicly sharing your response to the question "How have you experienced God recently?" This is important to newcomers and to peers because it allows people to hear the word of God differently than they will hear it from the pastor.

Invitational Evanglism is college (or a good trade school, says Tim the Toolman Taylor). It is simply inviting someone you know to experience love, sharing, and maybe talk about God. And, this could be an invitation to a small group before extending an invitation to church. If you have taken your congregation from elementary school all the way to high school of evangelism than you may want to have a Invite a Friend to Church Day. (And, it doesn't count if you invite someone who already attends a church!! ) In the presentation, Doug outlined an intentional 7 week process to build support and participation in lay leadership and congregation through intentional prayer, intentional plan, and points of accountability and celebration. Discussion around questions about discomfort and push back and authenticity were lively and teaching moments in our groups. (I am looking forward to getting Doug's book 'The Race to Reach Out' to get more examples of practices used for outreach.)

Relational Evangelism is the graduate school of Evangelism. Yes, this is learning how to share my faith and experience of God with someone who isn't attending a church. This is done by 1) Listening to the person. Listening is best way to show someone you genuinely care about them; 2) Hearing each others stories and seeing how they connect; and, 3) Hearing and sharing how their story connects with God's story.

Top One Take-Home quote tonight....

" Events inspire; but processes transform. " - Rev. Doug Anderson