GUIDELINES



GUIDELINES

for Leading Your Congregation

Orientation Workshop

Purposes

This workshop is designed to help local church leaders and individual readers

1) become acquainted with the Guideline supporting their particular area of ministry and

2) understand the basic responsibility and interconnection of all the ministry areas.

Leadership

The workshop leader(s) may be a pastor or other church staff member, the church council chairperson, a Christian educator, or other facilitator with leadership experience who is familiar with the Guidelines series. Consider a team approach to provide variety and multiple perspectives.

Who Should Attend

At a minimum, your church leaders for whom the specific titles of the Guidelines series are intended should be encouraged to attend, including leaders in your church who are not named by the series. (If those leaders attend, have them use the Guideline that most applies to their ministry or ministry needs.) The members of their committees or work groups would also benefit from the workshop. Individuals can use this resource on their own.

Time, Date, Location

The workshop is planned for ninety minutes to two hours. Set a date as early in the year as possible so that new leaders can get a prompt start on their own ministry area after this orientation. The church fellowship hall or connecting classrooms should be adequate, provided they are free of distraction.

Advance Preparation

• Set the date and location and publicize it several different ways. Personally invite leaders who are youth (Responsibility of the Workshop Facilitator).

• Distribute Guidelines for All participants to read in advance. As facilitator (WF), read or skim all the Guidelines.

• Make arrangements for hospitality items, such as beverages, snacks, and nametags, if necessary (WF).

• Set up the room so that participants can work in small groups (WF).

• Review all the learning goals and activities. Choose at least one activity from each goal, selecting the ones that are best for the group. Each goal is an important part of the whole experience. (WF).

• Bring a Bible and a copy of the Guidelines (All).

• Pray for all participants and for the church and community in which they live out their ministry (All).

Supplies Needed

• Nametags

• Hymnals

• Bibles

• Paper, pens

• Topical concordances, Bible dictionaries

• Markers, poster paper

• Self-stick notes

Introduction

Each Guideline in the series is unique, yet each one has similar kinds of information: biblical grounding, a basic job description, tips for getting started and for leading, and ideas for working with the committee or ministry group. This workshop will help participants become acquainted with those basics from the Guideline that supports their ministry area. It will be important for you as the workshop leader or facilitator to be acquainted with this information; it is not included in this short resource. You may also choose to share the leadership of this workshop with at least one other person so that the whole group gets some variety in perspective and teaching style.

Have participants sit in small groups according to the type of their ministry area, such as administrative group leaders or age-level leaders. If committee members are also in attendance, have table groups of leader and committee members from the same committee.

The workshop model suggests a time for each activity and offers at least two activities for each learning goal. Modify the times and choose at least one activity from each of the learning goals for the most optimal experience for your group. Take breaks as needed (even though they are not specifically scheduled) and take time within the activities to answer questions.

The activity directions are (generally) written as you would instruct the participants. Be sure to take at least a few minutes to evaluate the workshop. Use that information during the year, perhaps at your council meetings, for continuous learning for your leaders.

Workshop

Begin With Introductions and Welcome

• Be sure that all participants know one another. Use nametags if needed. Review why you are together.

• Ask each person, in 14 seconds, to say his or her name and ministry area.

Continue With Devotions

• Sing or say together “Christ, from Whom All Blessings Flow” (550 in The United Methodist Hymnal).

• Read Ezra 1:1-11 (5400 vessels in service to the house of the Lord).

• Read Acts 6:1-7 (disciples set apart for specific services).

• Pray: Gracious God, thank you for the good gifts of leadership and the opportunity for service. We pray that we will be set apart and valuable in the service of the Lord—worthy vessels and disciples working in and for your Kingdom. Amen.

Goal 1: Knowing the Job

Activity 1A. Review the Job Description

(15 minutes)

• Turn to the pages near the front of your Guideline that cover the job description and review it.

• Mark passages that you find (a) especially descriptive or helpful, (b) unclear or confusing, and (c) surprising or intriguing. Jot down reasons why you find these passages to be so.

• If leader and committee members are together, discuss in that small group the job description of the leader and the focus of the ministry area.

• Summarize the main responsibilities of your job description as you see it in your own church context.

• Highlight any unexpected responsibilities and work on a tentative plan for how you will incorporate them into what you had already expected to do.

Activity 1B. Tailor Your Own Job

Description (15 minutes)

• Use the basic description of the job from the Guideline.

• Review your own church realities: size, active membership, and “audience” for your ministries. Identify unique circumstances that may influence your ministry area.

• Tailor your own job description based on the needs created by your unique circumstances and identity.

Activity 1C. Do a “Reverse Interview”

(20-25 minutes)

• Form pairs, preferably by separating persons with similar ministry areas. This activity will allow each leader to see the impressions and understandings of his or her ministry area and its leadership needs from an entirely different perspective. (If there is an odd number of people, add a third person to one group. They will do a three-way shift instead of a role-for-role swap.)

• Conduct a mock interview with a role reversal. That is, the person conducting the interview (Moneypenny, the Finance chairperson, for example) will interview his partner (Lerner, the Education chairperson, for example) as if Lerner is to be the Finance chair.

• Take 6-8 minutes, then reverse. (Lerner interviews Moneypenny as if he is to be the Education chairperson.)

• Then take another several minutes to debrief the interviews. What different understandings emerged about a ministry area? What new insights? What misconceptions? What previously undescribed needs emerged? What new thoughts do you have about how to lead your own ministry area? About how your ministry area aligns with another area?

Goal 2: Seeing the Biblical/Theological Context

Activity 2A. Review the Context

(12 minutes)

• Search the Guideline text for the biblical / theological context of the ministry area.

• Look up any Bible passages mentioned. Read the passage and enough of the surrounding Scripture to understand its context. Note the meaning of the Scripture, to whom the Scripture passage is attributed, the context in which the Scripture was provided, who its initial audience was.

• Discuss: How does the original passage describe your current context in the local church? How does this Scripture apply to you and your partners in this ministry? What does it charge you to do and be? How does it inspire and uplift as you begin (or continue) in this ministry area? What emphasis does the Scripture bring to the ministry that you had not considered before?

Activity 2B. Locate the Scriptures

(15 minutes)

• Using a topical concordance or Bible dictionary, locate Scriptures that have relevance to your ministry context or task. Think beyond your specific title to your general function. Trustees, for example, can look for passages that have to do with keeping the Temple or Tabernacle.

• Discuss the meaning of the passages and their implication for your particular ministry area.

• Either paraphrase a passage or use it as a basis to create a slogan or statement of your “marching orders.” Share that slogan with the others on your ministry committee.

Activity 2C. Examine the Theological

Basis Through Hymnody (20 minutes)

• Distribute copies of The United Methodist Hymnal and The Faith We Sing. Include others that you use regularly.

• Have each person (or the committees, if they are together), find one or more hymns that 1) address you ministry “marching orders” or 2) describe the desired result of your effective ministry area.

• AND/OR have your musical learners self-select and then write a new lyric for 1) or 2).

• Take 15 minutes to find or create the hymn and the remaining time to discuss and sing.

Goal 3: Getting Started

Activity 3A. Review the Start-up

Suggestions (15 minutes)

• Review the Guidelines text for the various suggestions for getting started. Review what you know of how your ministry area currently functions and how effective it has been over the last year. If yours is a new ministry effort, what were you told about the goals of this ministry for your church?

• Consider now what else you might need to do to get organized or to move forward. List these ideas. Compare tips with other leaders of the same type of ministry group. What have others done that could be helpful for you?

Activity 3B. Review Your Ministry

History (8 minutes)

• Using markers and poster paper, draw a simple timeline beginning with the earliest period you know about in your congregation’s history. Mark on it the date or time when your ministry area started and times of other significant accomplishments.

• Note the early workers in this ministry area. Why was it begun? What was their “grand future” (the vision of the best possible outcome of God’s desires for this ministry)? How have the ministry goals shifted or changed to what they are now? What tasks, philosophies, or values have been lost or unnecessarily retained? (If you don’t know this information, whom could you ask?)

• Keep a log of your discoveries and the questions that need further exploration and work on them during the year.

Activity 3C. Brainstorm Goals

(12 minutes)

• Think about the Scripture that undergirds your ministry and what you perceive God calling you to do and to be. If your church and particular ministry area were completely aligned with God’s will as you understand it, what would you be doing? How would you see yourselves in God’s desired future for your ministry?

• What elements of this godly future, with faithful work and leadership, might you achieve? What would have to happen or change to bring it about? Describe or draw or list the details, but do not discuss them.

Goal 4: Leading the Ministry or Task Group

Activity 4A. Review “Marching Orders”

(10 minutes)

• Skim the main sections of the Guideline. What are the major headings, and what do they tell you about leading this ministry area? What suggestions for leadership seem incomplete to you? Whom can you ask for more clarification? (See the list of contacts on the inside back cover of the Guideline and the Resource list for more sources of help.)

• Search for every leadership tip you can find and jot them down on self adhesive notes, one tip per note. Arrange the leadership helps in categories (which you can identify), such as “leading meetings,” “dealing with conflict,” “managing a budget,” “working with volunteers,” and so on.

• Compare the information from “Knowing the Job” (Goal 1) with the leadership helps you have highlighted. What responsibilities seem the most “do-able” with these helps? For which responsibilities do you think you need more help? Which are the most necessary or urgent, based on your own church’s needs? Look also at the Resource list on the last few pages of the Guideline for more sources of help.

Activity 4B. Examine the Goals

(12 minutes)

• Review the goals that you suggested in Goal 3. Spend a few minutes deciding how to organize or prioritize them, recognizing that a linear approach is not necessarily the best one.

• What is one suggestion that taps into your image of your “grand future,” or what one thing must be done that defines this ministry?

• Brainstorm possible ways to reach that “grand future.” Keep a detailed list of the ideas for use with the ministry area during the year.

Activity 4C. Set Priorities (15 minutes)

This activity takes 4.B a step further.

• If you already have clear goals and/or have inherited a number of ministry action plans, spend a few minutes of strategic thinking about what needs to happen first, most, later, or not at all.

• Draw a chart with four quadrants on a piece of paper. Label the quadrants (upper left) URGENT and IMPORTANT; (upper right) NOT URGENT and IMPORTANT; (lower left) URGENT and NOT IMPORTANT; (lower right) (NOT URGENT and NOT IMPORTANT.

• With what you know of those ministry plans now, jot down in which quadrant they seem to fall. Ideally, you will work toward organizing and planning so that the important things are done on time and without creating undue urgency or emergency.

• Next write a few notes about how to tackle the urgent/important things and how to look ahead to prevent planning/implementing crises.

Note

Exercise 4C can be done by individual ministry areas, but if the whole ministry picture is charted, you have a better idea of how to organize over all, how various plans intersect (or not), and how you want to employ your gifts and energies. You may want to make this exercise a part of a different planning / reflection time after new leaders are better acquainted with their ministry areas.

Goal 5: Viewing the Big Picture

Activity 5A. Embrace the Call

(12 minutes)

• Read “Our Identity, Call, and Mission” on pages 4-5 of the Guidelines.

• In small groups, discuss what it means to you to understand yourself as a spiritual leader. Recall your discussion and exploration of the Scriptures that form the basis for your ministry area. What does it mean to you that your ministry or task group, regardless of its function, is a place for spiritual formation and disciple making? How have you thought about the mission of the church and the fundamental way the church fulfills that mission? Do you see your role in any different light because of these reflections?

• Review the four leadership emphases (spiritual leadership, vision and mission, and so on). What will it mean to the life of your ministry group if you take very seriously these leadership functions?

Activity 5B. “Connect the Dots”

(15 minutes)

• Invite a spokesperson from each ministry area to write on posted newsprint a phrase that summarizes that area.

• Discuss in small groups what the life of the church will be like if each ministry group not only embraces each of the leadership functions for its own operation but also works with each of the other ministry groups to fulfill the mission of the church to make disciples.

• Recall your discussion and exploration of the Scriptures that form the basis for your ministry area. What new understanding, if any, do you have of your ministry responsibility now? What, if anything, might you do, or do differently, in your leadership position? What, do you think, could the church do with a more coordinated approach that it can’t or isn’t doing now? List these ideas and share them at the church council meetings during the year.

Activity 5C. Tell Stories (25 minutes)

• Invite long-time and more current church and committee members to tell why the church and a specific ministry have had both a personal and a wider influence.

• Reflect on those stories to isolate the success factors inherent in them. That is, rather than assume that a whole activity or event must be duplicated to elicit the success of the past, determine how the various elements contributed to its success. For example, in a church that now has far fewer families with children, the family fair of the past may no longer be feasible, but the attention to age-level concerns, hospitality, and follow up contacts (the success factors) can be done in other ways for the current context.

Closing Devotions (10 minutes)

• Take one or two minutes of silent reflection to center on the implications of leadership in the life of your church.

• Sing or say together “Forth in Thy Name, O Lord” (438, Hymnal) or another hymn on service and discipleship. (See hymns 356, 399, 537, 581, 670, for example.)

• Invite short bidding prayers for 1) clear vision for your ministry; 2) the gifts needed for that ministry; and 3) the persons who will lead your ministries. After each segment, invite the group response, “Lord, hear our prayer.”

• Close with a benediction.

Evaluation

The evaluation can be copied for individuals or used together as a whole group.

1. What went well?

Advance preparation

Devotional times

Explanation of purpose

Working through the goals

Comments:

2. What could have been improved?

Advance preparation

Devotional times

Explanation of purpose

Working through the goals

Comments:

3. What will help you most to get started with or to continue this ministry?

8 Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation

9 ISBN 0-687-05610-1 780687 056101 90000

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