Heber Ticas, GCI's national coordinator of Church Multiplication Ministries, offers advice on using ministry (job) descriptions in developing the ministry leaders within your congregation.
[caption id="attachment_1960" align="alignright" width="150"] Heber and Xochilt Ticas[/caption]
As Greg mentions in his letter this month, a "best practice" in developing each ministry leader in your congregation is to utilize a "Ministry Description" (or call it a "Job Description") that outlines their responsibilities in a way that integrates what they are doing into the missional flow of your church.
As Greg recommends, you as lead pastor should sit down on a regular basis with each ministry leader and review the agreed-upon Ministry... Read the article
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Regional pastor Paul David (PD) Kurts tells the story of his experience in developing a new, young pastor.
Some of the most important things in life begin with a question, like, “Are we there yet?” “Who shot J.R.?” “How many licks to the center of a tootsie pop?” Kidding aside, questions do have great power, and asking them at the right time can lead to focused action. Jesus frequently moved people to action with questions. You'll remember when he asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” You know the story.
One of the most impactful questions I've ever asked came about several years ago while flying to a GCI conference in Chicago with a young man named Dennis who was serving in ministry in the church I was pastoring.... Read the article
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Regional pastor Michael Rasmussen draws from his personal experience to share an effective approach for developing young leaders.
[caption id="attachment_1958" align="alignright" width="150"] Mike and Juli Rasmussen[/caption]
I remember when I first started pastoring. I had a deep desire to help mentor the next generation of young leaders. Many people had invested in my life when I was young, and I wanted to do the same for other young people coming up.
So I sat down with the leaders of my congregation to discuss a plan. After laying out (from my perspective) a vision and strategy for mentoring, training and releasing young people into ministry within our congregation, I was shocked by some of the responses. Almost half of my... Read the article
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Lee Berger, pastor of GCI's Longview, TX, congregation, shares what he has learned about facilitating fellowship group discussions.
[caption id="attachment_1567" align="alignright" width="150"] Lee and Sue Berger[/caption]
We can all learn much by sharing in the experiences and thoughts of other people. When a group of folks gets together, we hope for a profitable, open, positive discussion—but this result does not automatically happen. I’ll bet we’ve all been involved in group interactions when feelings get hurt, arguments ensue, no one feels safe to speak up, the group leader or another person monopolizes the discussion, or there’s precious little accomplished due to lack of direction. Often, the key element for a... Read the article
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Equipper editor Ted Johnston shares a video that demonstrates a discussion-based Fellowship Group worship service. He then offers some observations.
[caption id="attachment_998" align="alignright" width="150"] Ted and Donna Johnston[/caption]
As Greg mentions in his cover letter, at the 2016 GCI-USA Regional Conferences we addressed the whys and hows of fellowship groups. In one workshop we held a foreshortened fellowship group worship service to show how fellowship group-sized congregations can conduct worship in a way that capitalizes on their small size.
Embedded below is a video with excerpts from the demonstration at the Orlando conference (on YouTube at http://youtu.be/PKOF2i6cD5I). Following the video I offer a few... Read the article
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This article is from GCI Pastor David Howe, an experienced life coach.
[caption id="attachment_1397" align="alignright" width="150"] David Howe[/caption]
What do you do when you come face-to-face with an obstacle you can’t get around? I don’t mean a rock in the road or something like that. What do you do when you’ve encountered something that causes you to keep falling or no solutions seem to work? It was because of this struggle that is common to all of us that life coaching was birthed. Yes, there are counselors, mentors and consultants, but having a life coach is different in some very powerful ways.
Let’s briefly examine some of the differences.
Mentors have successfully arrived where you are trying to go. They come... Read the article
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GCI provides its interns with a ministry coach. We asked three of them to comment on what they've experienced. If you have a testimony of your own about coaching, please share it using the "leave a reply" feature below.
Jillian Caranto
During the 2014 intern orientation, Anthony Mullins eagerly asked me to tell him my story. Though I was hesitant at first, looking back I’m grateful because after sharing a bit of my story, Anthony went out of his way to ask my permission to be my coach for the next two years. After seeing his humility and authenticity in listening to my story, I knew that God wanted this coaching relationship for me.
This was the first coaching relationship I had ever had so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But what I... Read the article
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by Pastor Tim Sitterley
[caption id="attachment_1222" align="alignright" width="150"] Linda and Tim Sitterley[/caption]
You've probably had occasions when you answered a knock on your front door to find standing there a couple of well-dressed people holding religious literature in their hands. Through experiences like those you've probably learned that cold-call evangelism doesn’t work too well. Perhaps you've had similar bad experiences with cold-call fundraisers. But don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater"---there are biblically sound, effective ways to raise funds to support your church or ministry. Let me share what I have learned about a key aspect of fundraising: networking.
Over the years I’ve had several business... Read the article
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by Pastor Sam Butler
[caption id="attachment_39" align="alignright" width="150"] Sam and Denise Butler[/caption]
Fundraising---it was the last thing I wanted to do! Asking people for money was, for me, like pulling teeth---painful and unpleasant.
That was how I felt until 12 years ago when the congregation I pastored in Michigan started a food pantry. We moved our meeting location with the intent of engaging a particular community. About six months after the move, we started the pantry in partnership with a large food bank in the area. They provided perishable items, and once a month we provided non-perishable personal care items.
We started slowly, serving only 25 families. We wanted to be able to
sustain what we had... Read the article
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This article is from Paul David (PD) Kurts, regional pastor of GCI's Mid-Atlantic Region. PD also serves in the North Carolina Air National Guard.
[caption id="attachment_1187" align="alignright" width="150"] Emma Lee and PD Kurts[/caption]
Some years ago I was watching a television program on the National Geographic channel, which depicted a pygmy tribesman trying to catch a monkey (you know, the other white meat) to feed his family. I sat in amazement watching the simple trap he set. He dug a hole in the ground about a foot deep but only a few inches wide. Then he dropped a bunch of peanuts into the hole and walked away.
Sure enough, an hour or so later, a monkey came out of nowhere and inquisitively approached the hole. What... Read the article
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