School of Congregational Development Day 1

Thursday was the first day of the School of Congregational Development. After persons who were not already here made their way here the School started in the afternoon with a time of worship and welcome.



Kirbyjon Caldwell from Windsor Village was up first and spoke about vision and call. This was the first time I have heard and see (because no one just "hears" Kirbyjon you also "see" this guy preach/speak). Kirbyjon shared some ways to either enhance or kill your vision and call. He used Genesis 13 as his text. He said all must ask- who are you following, God or people? You have to have a compass. You have to have capital. You have to have consecration- have your plans been to the altar? And then there is capacity- have you run out of space? Conflict- how will you manage people's perception of your increase? And then composure- since you are called why are you trippin'?



We then broke out into ministry tracks. I am here to learn more not only about being effective in starting New Season but also in the capacity of being a member of the Task Force 250 of our Annual Conference as we seek to develop a plan to begin 250 new faith communities in the next 30 years. Therefore, my track is called "Developing an Annual Conference Strategy." While I am a little out of my league among the others present in this track (District Superintendents, Conference Church Developers and Bishops who are in the track) the track has been interesting.



Bishop Scott Jones of the Kansas area shared about the need for a systems approach in developing a Conference strategy. Craig Miller then shared what some of the elements are of an Annual Conference strategy. One really good part of each session in the ministry tracks is that we then have time to process with other people from our Annual Conference where we are in/ where we need to be in light if what we have heard.



In the evening we returned and began with worship and heard a message from Andrew Conrad pastor of Congregational Care at COR. He talked about new beginnings. Andrew is also a blogger and you can read his blog here. For Plenary #2 where we heard from Tom Butcher from the Executive Office of New Church Development of the General Board of Discipleship. Tom shared about the work of the Path 1 team and the denomination wide plan for beginning new churches.

Following Tom was church planter Steven Blair who shared how his church, FirstLight, was ministering in a postmodern/ postchristendom world. Steven has a heart for his generation and a passion to be engaged in ministry that is relevant and reaching people.