Category: Church Growth & Vitality

Posted in Buildings and Property, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, External Relations, Healing / Grief Work, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Mission and Vision Tagged with

15 min 33 s

Rev. Dr. Todd Grant Yonkman

  • An inspiring story of a church that sold its building and joined the community;
  • Shift from, “The church is falling apart,” to, “The church is falling open;”
  • Wisdom about the twists and turns of a building sale;
  • The shift from a downsizing to a restart;
  • Selling a building is highly context dependent;
  • Renovating the building without reconnecting with the community is futile;
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Posted in Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, External Relations, Faith Formation, Healing / Grief Work, Managing Expectations, Self-Care Tagged with

10 min 59 s

Rev. Dr. Rochelle (Shelly) Stackhouse

  • Is the church over?
  • Is this great experiment that was started by Jesus – this experiment that the Holy Spirit exploded on Pentecost – is it really over?
  • Perhaps we’re asking the wrong question….
  • If our role isn’t to preserve the Church, what is it?
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Posted in Change Management, Church Growth & Vitality, Conflict Management, Healing / Grief Work, Leadership Development, Pastoral Care, Self-Care Tagged with

10 min 50 s

Rev. Pegi Ridout

  • The difficulty with conflict isn’t that we have it, it’s that we don’t know how to do it well.
  • How do we treat conflict as gift? How do we get there?
  • Respectful communication guidelines developed by Eric Law at the Kaleidoscope Institute
  • trust, respect, listen, then speak.
  • Conflict skills/muscles are built through practice;
  • Pegi’s 3 types of practice for building our conflict muscles;
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Posted in Boundaries, Church Growth & Vitality, Conflict Management, Healing / Grief Work, Leadership Development, Pastoral Care, Self-Care Tagged with

11 min 59 s

Rev. Pegi Ridout

  • Why understanding and managing bullying behavior effectively is so critical to the health of a congregation;
  • Pegi’s 3 types of church bullies (Canaries, Porcupines, Skunks)
  • Strategies for dealing with each type of bully;
  • Some bullies have an important message for the congregation;
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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Faith Formation, Is Interim Ministry for Me?, Mission and Vision, Preaching, Spiritual Formation, Worship Tagged with

11 min 26 s

Rev. Holly MillerShank

  • Prayerful and playful!
  • What to do if a playful style doesn’t come naturally to you?
  • How a posture of giving permission can unlock new possibilities for a congregation;
  • Tips for getting out of our heads and into our hearts in our role as interim minister;
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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Contracting and Negotiating Before Beginning, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Leadership Development, Preaching, Worship Tagged with

13 min 23s

Rev. Quentin Chin

  • Bringing 1 Corinthians 12 to life;
  • How clergy and congregation can make space for each other to shine!;
  • Collaborative ministry requires clergy and congregation to share with each other their respective strengths and weaker areas – especially important for part-time pastorates;
  • Some of the things I’m doing to prepare the congregation for a potentially indefinite period of part-time pastorates;
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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Conflict Management, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Governance, Healing / Grief Work Tagged with

24 min 13 s

Rev. Doug Bixby

The trust vs. mistrust stage of pastoral ministry

A new pastor arrives in the middle of the “movie” of a congregation’s life

Avoid triangulation, not conflict;

Interim time can allow the congregation to catch its breath;

During the interim time does the congregation primarily need healing or helping?

Giving authority without responsibility invites the church monster to rear its head;

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Posted in Boundaries, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, External Relations, Faith Formation, Mission and Vision, Spiritual Formation Tagged with

19 min 18 s

Rev. Dawn Adams

From a 20-hour/week pastorate to a 30-hour/week one and more – how we’re doing it

Boundaries: balancing clergy self-care with the practical realities of renewal;

Success metrics, and a rhythm of communication about critical topics…

A practical step-by-step story revealing what did work and what didn’t (and why);

Instilling a spirit of experimentation into a congregation;

Helping the small congregation know that there is a larger congregation that exists that may never ever sit in a pew in our building;

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Posted in Boundaries, Church Growth & Vitality, External Relations, Preaching, Self-Care Tagged with

12 min 58 s

Rev. Dawn Adams

Tips for making innovation and experimentation work for a small church;

Responding innovatively to the different church participation behaviors of younger generations;

Balancing it all: engaging the congregation while also maintaining healthy boundaries;

Examples of successful collaboration with other clergy for worship, Advent, Lent, that lessen one’s work load; Collaboration should make things easier not harder;

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Posted in Church Growth & Vitality, Faith Formation, Governance, Leadership Development, Self-Care, Team Building, Volunteers Tagged with

10 min 07 s

Rev. Dawn Adams

Innovative adaptions of governance to help engage younger generations;

Ways to make it easier for people to say, Yes, to serving;

Innovative ways to helps parishioners feel connected to the congregation and serve with joy;

The Spirit can often work through, No, not just through, Yes.

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