Transcript Welcome to the self-guided overview of the Virginia Annual Conference’s initiative, All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations. To view this overview and.

Welcome to the self-guided overview of
the Virginia Annual Conference’s initiative,
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations.
To view this overview and get more detail about the
initiative, simply advance through this PowerPoint
presentation at your own pace.
Each green slide is a narration for the slide that follows.
The Virginia Annual Conference
of
The United Methodist Church
All Things New – EQUIPPING Vital Congregations
Helping congregations faithfully respond to Jesus’ call to make disciples
by connecting and equipping church leaders.
The United Methodist Church’s Council of
Bishops has made a commitment to refocus
United Methodists on the mission of the
Church.
The United Methodist Church
The mission of the Church is to
make disciples of Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world
¶120, Book of Discipline
The Council of Bishops has affirmed that when
local congregations are vital, they fulfill the
Great Commission.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you.”
- Matthew 28:19-20a
The United Methodist Church
The mission of the Church is to
make disciples of Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world
Local churches provide the most
significant arena through which
disciple-making occurs.
¶120, Book of Discipline
The Council of Bishops issued a Call to Action
in 2011 in response to research that indicated a
lack of measures and accountability within
The United Methodist Church.
The ultimate goal of the Call to Action is to help
congregations faithfully respond to Jesus’ call to
make disciples.
The United Methodist Church
From The Council of Bishops
“The Call to Action report said that The United Methodist
Church is adverse to metrics. We do not like to set goals and
account for our progress toward the goals. The bishops and
other church leaders recognize that our primary concern is souls
not numbers. Metrics and numbers do not tell the whole story,
but numbers do represent souls. When our numbers are
declining, we are reaching fewer souls, and we are reducing our
capacity to reach new souls for Jesus Christ and transform the
world. When we do not set goals, we are susceptible to
continuing to do the same things that are not working. Goals
help us not only to measure outcomes but also to evaluate the
effectiveness of ministries and strategies.”
Following are the goals that are being prayerfully
implemented throughout The United Methodist Church
to hold us accountable for putting action plans into
place to meet those goals.
These goals collectively are considered to be the
hallmarks of “Vital Congregations” that equip and
empower people to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
They are appropriately called “Vital Signs.”
Discipline of Discipleship
Measurement
Disciples worship
Worship attendance
Disciples engage in growing their faith
Number of small groups
Disciples make new Disciples
Number of professions of faith
Disciples engage in mission
Number participating in outreach
Disciples give to mission
Amount of money given to mission
Set Goals and Measure Progress
Each Annual Conference is free to determine
the best approach for implementing
Vital Congregations in that specific conference.
The Virginia Annual Conference began
discerning best approach in 2011
Conference leadership had a choice
- implement ‘yet another program’
or find a new path that would lead to
transformational change and create a culture of
trust and collaboration.
Incremental change
Transformational change
Implement Vital Congregations as
“one more program”
Churches independently report Vital Signs data
Data becomes public
All else remains the same
Strategically create a systemic approach
for spirituality, collaboration and data
Spirituality is core focus
Culture of collaboration is enabled and expected
Data is automated and becomes information
can create a culture of
JUDGMENT
can create a culture of
IMPROVEMENT
In order to lead this movement,
Bishop Kammerer formed a steering team with
representation from Cabinet, Common Table and
Conference Staff.
This team was named The Bishop’s Steering
Team and a clear objective was assigned.
Bishop’s
Steering
Team
Bishop’s Steering Team
Members
Bishop Cho
Brenda Biler
Marc Brown
Shirley Cauffman
Larry Davies, Chair
Warren Harper
Tom Joyce
Mark Ogren
Brandon Robbins
Lydia Rodriguez Colon
Martha Stokes
Objective
Discern, organize, design and resource the
implementation of a systemic response to the
Vital Congregations initiative resulting in a
teaching and learning environment which
renews and dramatically increases the fruitfulness
of the churches in the Virginia Annual Conference.
The Bishop’s Steering Team first prayerfully
discerned the characteristics of a culture of
improvement.
In other words, if our clergy and lay leaders
across the conference worked together in these
ways, we would be even more effective at our
mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ of
the transformation of the world.
Characteristics of Culture of Improvement








Ever increasing spiritual vitality
High trust levels
Connected lines of communication
Vast clergy-lay collaboration
Constant church to church collaboration
Free flow of data
Maximum accountability for results
Sense of accomplishment
An initial response for implementing
Vital Congregations was already underway.
This phase focused on educating churches
on how to participate in goal-setting and
data reporting.
INITIAL
Response
for
Vital
Congregations
Initial
Response
Information Sessions and
Work Groups
Goal Setting Training Events
Congregational Goals
Developed and Entered
Began Entering
Congregational Data
While churches were seeing the initial response,
the Bishop’s Steering Team was engaged in
discerning prayer and conversation.
Their purpose was to create a systemic response
to guide our conference toward a more biblical
and spiritual approach for equipping vital
congregations.
INITIAL
Response
for
Vital
Congregations
Initial
Response
Information Sessions and
Work Groups
Goal Setting Training Events
SYSTEMIC
Response
For
Vital
Congregations
Congregational Goals
Developed and Entered
Systemic
Response
Bishop’s Steering Team
established
Plan developed for
systemic response
Leadership Summit
Formed 7 work teams with
objectives for each
Began Entering
Congregational Data
Recruited work team
members and meetings began
For strategic guidance, the Bishop’s Steering
Team looked to All Things New.
As you may recall, there are several components
to All Things New.
“Invitation to Plant” – begin new faith communities
“Invitation to Harvest” – renew existing
congregations
through leadership development
Changing the culture of the Virginia Conference
Invitation to
Plant
Invitation to
Harvest
Leadership Development
The movement to implement
Vital Congregations in a transformational
way was named . . .
Changing the culture of the Virginia Conference
Invitation to
Plant
Invitation to
Harvest
Leadership Development
All Things New – EQUIPPING Vital Congregations
The Bishop’s Steering Team discerned that a
broad base of participation would be the best
way to design a truly transformational approach.
Seven work teams were formed to study and
formulate a transformational, systemic response.
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
Initiative Organization
Work Team
Prayer
Work Team
Discipleship Circle
Design
Work Team
Communications
Bishop’s
Steering
Team
Work Team
District
Processes
Work Team
Boards and
Agencies Heads
Work Team
Date Re-ordering
and Automation
Work Team
Discipleship Circle
Implementation
and Resourcing
Work team members were prayerfully discerned
and recruited.
They are both clergy and lay, from all size
churches and from across the conference.
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
Initiative Organization
More than 75 people involved . . .
. . . from across the Conference.
The Bishop’s Steering Team believes that in
order to equip our churches to more effectively
make disciples, we need something in place that
helps leaders (clergy and lay together) be more
effective leaders of their own churches and an
organized way for our churches to work more
effectively together.
Here is a ‘picture’ of this new approach.
The focus is on CONNECTION;
Connecting clergy and lay.
Connecting church to church.
Connecting ideas and data.
This is what the work teams have been asked to
design and implement.
Building and Leading a Culture of Improvement
Design, Organize and Implement
1
Discipleship Circles
Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world
Determine Discipleship Circle participation and disciplines
Establish class meeting-like approach
Focus on spiritual vitality, relationship, collaboration and accountability
Strengthens leadership skills. Fosters environment of trust.
Gets clergy and lay leaders working together.
2
Inventory, Re-Order and House
Data
Develop database to house data which is entered in real time
Eliminate unnecessary reporting
Establish automatic reporting from database
Discipleship Circles have fact-based discussions based on data
Members take learnings back to churches for continuous improvement
No more paper reports. No more unnecessary reports.
More accurate and relevant data.
3
Discipleship Circles
Database
Establish Ongoing Process
Leadership
District Superintendents own and lead processes
Conference staff facilitates processes
Boards and Agencies support and equip clergy and lay leadership
Roles of various entities are clear.
All can participate fully toward overall success. Churches become more fruitful.
VITAL
CONGREGATIONS
Each work team was given specific objectives to
get this approach designed and implemented.
The Prayer Team was first to be established.
They have continuously covered the entire
process in prayer.
Work Team
Prayer
Objective
Cover the
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
initiative with prayer. Establish a conferencewide intercession for God’s guidance, blessing
and will to be done.
Team Members
Kim Barker-Brugman
Dan Dietze
Paul Greer
Johnnie Morris
Bob Parks, Chair
Mary Jane Rawley
Larry Tubbs
Pray for the work teams.
Pray for the resources to make it happen.
Pray for an outcome aligned with God’s will.
Pray for our increased effectiveness at making
disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.
The Prayer Team meets monthly to pray for all of the
work teams. In addition, whenever the other work
teams meet, the Prayer Team offers prayer for those
meetings.
Prayer partners have been established between the
members of the Prayer Team and the chairs of other
work teams.
Two important guides were created by the Prayer Team.
1 Guide for 30 minutes of devotion and prayer to start every team meeting
Each team uses this as a guide at every meeting.
Click on this link to access the guide*.
http://www.vaumc.org/ncfilerepository/ATN/ATN-EVCWorkTeamPrayerGuide.pdf
Feel free to use this guide at your church meetings!
*Please note that you must be in ‘presentation mode’ for the links to be active
1 Guide for 30 minutes of devotion and prayer to start every team meeting
Each team uses this as a guide at every meeting.
Click on this link to access the guide*.
http://www.vaumc.org/ncfilerepository/ATN/ATN-EVCWorkTeamPrayerGuide.pdf
Feel free to use this guide at your church meetings!
2 31-Day Devotional
Recruited devotion writers from across the conference.
Includes prayers for the All Things New - Equipping Vital Congregations movement
Click on this link to access the Devotional*.
http://www.vaumc.org/ncfilerepository/ATN/EVCDevotional.pdf
Feel free to engage the Devotional on a personal basis and/or at your church!
*Please note that you must be in ‘presentation mode’ for the links to be active
The Prayer Team invites you and all
interested persons to join them in these
monthly prayer opportunities.
Join them in person or join them in spirit.
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
Time of Devotion, Prayer and Communion
Once each month (see dates below)
From 10:00 am until 11:30 am
At the Virginia Conference Center
10330 Staples Mill Road, Richmond
Dates
Tuesday, July 9
Tuesday, August 13
Tuesday, September 3
Tuesday, October 8
Tuesday, November 5
Tuesday, December 3
The Discipleship Circle Design Team
Work Team
Discipleship Circle Design
Objective
Develop a comprehensive, systemic
approach for church-to-church collaboration.
The planning will encompass overall design,
participant grouping, group covenants, group
disciplines and the usage of data.
Team Members
David Canada
Beth Christian
Alan Combs
Tammy Estep
Pat Inge
Ron Litten
Rachel May, Chair
Tom Nealley
Martha Reynolds
Martha Stokes
Larry Thompson
Ed Walker
Harold White
Clark Williams
Culture of collaboration, trust and continuous
improvement will be developed.
Churches in the conference will consistently
become more effective at making disciples of
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the
world.
The Discipleship Circle Design Team has
developed an approach for
Discipleship Circles that will make them a
place where . . .
Discipleship Circles
a place where . . .
Each participant is first attentive to his/her
relationship with God. Discipleship Circle
disciplines focus on personal spiritual
development and vitality
Participants are committed to developing
relationship with each other - resulting in
shared trust. Discipleship Circle disciplines
facilitate relationship development
Personal
Spiritual
Vitality
Participants utilize data to inform reality.
They work together and openly share
experiences to help each other become more
effective leaders in the church. Discipleship
Circle disciplines create mandate for true
collaboration.
The outcome of spiritual vitality, relationship
formation and collaboration is increased
fruitfulness of the WHOLE.
As with every team effort,
Discipleship Circles will focus first on
relationship –
relationship with God and
relationship with each other.
Once trust begins to develop, the members can
then focus on tasks –
effectively collaborating and sharing ideas.
Discipleship Circles
a place where . . .
Participants are committed to developing
relationship with each other - resulting in
shared trust. Discipleship Circle disciplines
facilitate relationship development
Participants utilize data to inform reality.
They work together and openly share
experiences to help each other become more
effective leaders in the church. Discipleship
Circle disciplines create mandate for true
collaboration.
OUTCOME
The outcome of spiritual vitality, relationship
formation and collaboration is increased
fruitfulness of the WHOLE.
TASK
Personal
Spiritual
Vitality
RELATIONSHIP
Each participant is first attentive to his/her
relationship with God. Discipleship Circle
disciplines focus on personal spiritual
development and vitality
What are Discipleship Circles?
Discipleship Circles
For church leaders (clergy and lay) who want to
collaborate with peers for
spiritual growth
relationship and
learning
so they can grow as disciples and become better
equipped to lead the church in making disciples.
The purpose of Discipleship Circles is to
connect and equip the leaders of our
conference (clergy and lay) so that they are
energized and empowered to lead our churches into a
new future of effective disciple-making.
The focus is on the strategic imperative advanced by
All Things New –
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.
The following graphic illustrates this concept.
Discipleship Circles
Individual
Spiritual
Vitality
Commitment to personal
spiritual development
Spiritual support
Mutual Accountability
Data and
Information
Trust and
Collaboration
Equipped and
Interdependent
Clergy and Lay
Leadership
Supportive Relationships Easy access to accurate data
Earnest Prayer
Fact-Based Discussions
Spiritual Renewal
Accountability for Effectiveness
Trust and True Collaboration
Disciples
worship
Disciples
engage in growing
their faith
Disciples make new
Disciples
Disciples
engage in mission
Disciples
give to mission
(Vital Signs)
Making
Disciples
for the
Transformation
of the
World
Vital
Congregations
Vital
CHRISTIANS
Discipleship Circles are a new movement with a new
purpose.
They are not meant to replace existing efforts.
Rather, their goal is to encourage clergy and
lay leaders to more fully participate in other relevant
leadership opportunities.
Equipping Church Leaders
Board of Ordained
Ministry
Seminars for Small,
Mid-Sized and Large
Church Pastors
Discipleship Circles
Spiritual and
Leadership
Development and
Accountability
The 5 Talent
Academy
Goal Setting,
Focused Action, and
Large Teaching
Events
Conference Boards
& Agencies
Resourcing Local
Congregations
The Discipleship Circle Design Team
is currently designing several pilot
Discipleship Circles for the fall.
The Data Team
Work Team
Data Re-Ordering and Automation
Team Members
Karen Albro
David Bailey
Denise Bates
Bryan Compton
Sherry Daniels
David Dommisse
Melissa Dunlap, Chair
Sandra Fulcher
Steve Jones
Carl Moravitz
Jessie Squires Colwell
Jon Woodburn
Cathryn Wooton
Objective
Inventory all reporting requirements of our local
churches. Recommend elimination of reports
that do not add value. Streamline value-added
and Discipline-required reporting by
synchronizing, automating and housing in central
database. Build capability for reporting to be
submitted electronically.
Reporting will be simple and automated.
Data will be shared in various ways to facilitate
increased effectiveness at making disciples of
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The way we collect and report data
is behind the times.
We have an exciting opportunity to rethink,
automate and begin more effectively utilizing
information.
The new data approach is important to us as
United Methodists.
Why is the Virginia Annual Conference’s
new data approach important
in The United Methodist Church?
Witnesses to two realities of our Wesleyan heritage
1) The importance of shared ministry - serves as a point of
connection so churches throughout the Virginia Conference
may share the stories of their ministry together in Christ.
2) Recording ways God is blessing the Church - It records
tangible ways that God continues to bless the ministry of the
Church.
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they
partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the
people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those were being saved.”
Acts 2:46-47
The Data Team is working to automate
Charge Conference reporting
by August 1, 2013.
All other reporting is planned to be automated
by January 1, 2014.
Deliverable Dates
Deliverable
Beta by
In place by
Charge
Conference
NA
8/1/13
Year End and
Vital Signs
10/1/13
1/1/14*
*Training for all end users will take place during Beta
Following is a demonstration of the new data
approach.
The idea is to make it easy for churches to
get data into the system on a real-time basis.
Then the information is easy to access
and very easy to report.
The data site will be on the Conference
website.
There are three main functions;
Enter data
Browse information
Generate reports
Advance through the next two slides for an
example of how data will be entered for
worship attendance.
As you view the next slide, please note that
each congregation will configure worship
attendance data according to their own
worship times.
Now advance through the next four slides to
see an example of how simple it will be to
generate a Charge Conference form.
It will also be possible to generate an entire
Charge Conference packet in a matter of
seconds.
The “Browse information” option will be
truly transformational as it allows churches
to quickly see the impact of their own plans
and actions.
Click through the next three slides to see
how this information could be viewed in
only a few seconds.
Another important feature of the
“Browse information” functionality will be
to facilitate connection.
Advance through the next two slides to see
an example of how to find churches that are
excelling in a particular area and how easy
this makes it to get in touch with them.
The Discipleship Circle Implementation Team
Work Team
Discipleship Circle Implementation and
Resourcing
Objective
Plan ahead for the needs of the Discipleship
Circles by thinking through the logistics,
resourcing, training and leadership.
Team Members
Martha Stokes
Larry Thompson
(more to be added upon team kick-off)
Assure that all Discipleship Circle participants
understand their role and have the tools they
need to successfully participate.
Once the Discipleship Circle Design
Team has the basics in place,
the Implementation Team will manage the
logistics of implementation and resourcing.
The Boards and Agencies Team
Work Team
Boards and Agencies Heads
Objective
Understand All Things New – Equipping Vital
Congregations and determine how each
Board/Agency can align its goals and actions.
Team Members
Chris Andress
Bill McClung
Sallye Bowen
Brad Phillips
Clarence Brown
Lori Roberts
Beth Christian
Shan Sixbey
John Fair
Iris Smith
Kristin Holbrook
Wayne Snead
Doug Hollenbeck
James Sprouse
Larry Jent
Ed Walker
The work of our Boards and Agencies will be
optimally aligned with each other and the
overall commitment to fact-based,
collaborative continuous improvement so that
all the work of the Conference is contributing
to making disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.
The leaders of our Boards and Agencies
met together to hear about
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
and to begin forming relationships with each
other. Since then, they are meeting regularly to
stay in touch and continue to align their ministries
with the mission of the conference.
The District Processes Team
Work Team
District Processes
Objective
Rethink, redesign and optimize the processes and
rhythms of our Districts to enhance relationship
building, communication, and resource alignment.
Processes that add no value will be rethought,
improved or eliminated.
Processes that add value will be streamlined.
Team Members
Joe Carson
Tommy Herndon
Janine Howard
Ken Jackson
Ted Smith
Relationships at the District level will be enhanced.
Across the Conference, our clergy, lay leaders and
churches will be more effective at making disciples
of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
With Discipleship Circles and automated
data in place, there are likely opportunities
to think through other District-level
processes for simplicity and improvement.
This team will have those discussions.
The District Processes Team met in the spring
before the details of Discipleship Circles and
data automation were developed.
They discussed working on the following issues.
- DSs becoming the inspired leaders we are called to be
(and that our clergy need us to be)
- Developing a ‘road map’ for Discipleship
The team is being reconstituted with new DSs
and will pick this work up in the fall.
and finally,
The Communications Team
Work Team
Communications
Objective
Continually communicate the story of All Things
New – Equipping Vital Congregations throughout
the conference to explain the mission, goals,
plans, actions and impacts.
Team Members
John Briggs
Reason Chandler
Betsey Davis
Kim Johnson, Chair
Shawn Kiger
Keri Marston
Linda Rhodes
Viviam Utz
John Vest
People know and understand the story of All
Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations.
and how these efforts are helping build a culture
that is extremely effective at making disciples of
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
The Communications Team has been developing
materials to inform various audiences about
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations.
Here are some examples.
February Advocate Issue
explaining
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
Annual Conference Presentation
regarding
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
and the connecting activity
This self-guided overview
giving detail of the initiative
A DVD for DS use as they explain and lead
All Things New – Equipping Vital Congregations
The Communications Team will continue to
develop materials as needed to keep all
constituencies informed.
The Virginia Annual Conference
of
The United Methodist Church
All Things New – EQUIPPING Vital Congregations
Helping congregations faithfully respond to Jesus’ call to make disciples
by connecting and equipping church leaders.
For more information . . .
Contact
Marc Brown
Director of Connectional Ministries
[email protected]
Larry Davies
Lynchburg District Superintendent
[email protected]