I am looking forward to General Conference 2019 and an opportunity to be a part of our bishops’ initiative to equip the local church. I will be presenting Church Next Steps along with Mike McAvoy, the head pastor of Open Arms Church in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Mike and I have served as coaches for the denomination’s Recalibrate Initiative for the past two years providing training for pastors across the United States. We are currently leading coaching networks for our individual conferences, and we have a passion for passing to others what we have learned from our coaches. Our goal is to provide information and inspiration that will help pastors and churches take the next step in reaching those far from God.
My first call out of seminary was to plant a new church. I took one church planting course in seminary and no leadership courses, and I quickly realized I wasn’t equipped for the job. How many of you felt that way when you began ministry? Our desire is to pass on what we have learned and equip pastors or churches to develop a roadmap to take them from where they are to where they want to be.
Here’s what you can expect in our breakouts:
Day 1: Revisioning
Every church goes through life cycles. In this breakout, we will identify the stages of a church’s life cycles and the next steps to begin to grow again or continue to grow
We will also discuss how to develop repeatable purpose, vision, mission and values (PVMV). Everything we do as a church has to be traced back to PVMV.
Day 2: Leading Change
Change is inevitable in the local church. There will be early, mid and late adapters to any recommended change in our churches. There are some key steps we will touch on to help you lead through change.
If we recommend change, there will be some who resist. Notion causes friction. Churches grow to their ability to resolve conflict, and if we have issues we don’t solve, the church will level off or decline.
Day 3: Healthy Systems
In learning to create healthy systems, we will define what a system is and why we need to systematize. We will give an overview of eight systems every church has, and we will detail the top three systems and how to implement them into the local church.
We believe what we share will be scalable regardless of the size of your church. There will be time for questions and answers at each breakout.
As we prepare, please join us in praying that God will take what we present and help us together reach more people in our communities who are far from God.
We send a survey to first-time guests to get feedback on their experience in our Sunday morning worship time. This response is what I am hoping for everyone who attends any of our churches:
Question: What did you like best?
Answer: Everything! I never felt like an outsider, and it was the best experience I have ever had in a church.
Join us in Orlando as we explore how to hit that target.