We are launching a major new prayer emphasis in the New Year. We are calling it the Mission Mid-Atlantic Pastor's Prayer Network. Here are some of the details. Each month a brief email reminder will be sent to each pastor in the network asking for prayer requests.Their prayer requests will be kept in my prayer journal and I will diligently pray through the list each week. I will pray for everyone who shares their requests with me at jim@missionmid-atlantic.org. So, feel free to contact me at this email and I look forward to praying for you in the New Year. This is one way we at Mission Mid-Atlantic will make a difference for the Kingdom in 2010.
~ Jim
Showing posts with label Mission Mid-Atlantic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission Mid-Atlantic. Show all posts
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Mission Mid-Atlantic: A Covenant Community
Each year at our Annual Conference the pastors/leaders of our churches sign two documents: our statement of faith and our covenant. I believe we have a long way to go in understanding what it means to be living in a covenant community together, and I want to do my part of helping to move us along in that discussion. So, each week I would like to post some thoughts about how we live out our covenant in relationship.
To begin that discussion (and I welcome your thoughts along the way), I post our Covenant Statement below. Then, each week I will post some additional thoughts about how we live this out in our relationships.
By the way, if you are not already affiliated with us but want to learn how, feel free to email me or add a comment below.
-------------------------------
Mission Mid-Atlantic Covenant
As an association of Conservative Baptist Churches in the Mid-Atlantic region and in the presence of our Lord, we covenant to partner with our fellow Mission Mid-Atlantic churches in the following ways:
We will treat each other with love and grace as we seek to honor the many Biblical one-another’s of Christian fellowship.
We will minister to each other by sharing our strengths and resources so that each church and pastor can be strengthened for their kingdom purpose, so that individual weaknesses can be overcome, and so that healthy churches are encouraged to ever increasing levels of health, all for the goal of helping each other toward church health and the fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
We will work together to become an ethnically and culturally diverse association of churches which will honor, respect and include members from every ethnic and cultural background.
We will partner together to establish new churches, committed to maintaining good health, a kingdom focus and passionate about the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
We will embrace partnership and cooperation in ministry with an attitude that facilitates regional unity, shared vision, networking, church health and celebration.
We will prioritize the developing and empowering of Spiritual Leaders within our churches and our region.
We will empower Mission Mid-Atlantic to develop relationships with other evangelical ministries that will help our churches in fulfilling their God-given vision and mission.
We will support the ministry of Mission Mid-Atlantic with our prayers, finances, talents and time, understanding that Mission Mid-Atlantic is the primary avenue through which we fulfill our covenantal commitment to each other.
We will uphold the Mission Mid-Atlantic Statement of Faith to which we subscribe.
---------------------
Next week I will begin to post thoughts on how to live this out in covenant relationships. I also welcome your thoughts.
~ Jim
To begin that discussion (and I welcome your thoughts along the way), I post our Covenant Statement below. Then, each week I will post some additional thoughts about how we live this out in our relationships.
By the way, if you are not already affiliated with us but want to learn how, feel free to email me or add a comment below.
-------------------------------
Mission Mid-Atlantic Covenant
As an association of Conservative Baptist Churches in the Mid-Atlantic region and in the presence of our Lord, we covenant to partner with our fellow Mission Mid-Atlantic churches in the following ways:
We will treat each other with love and grace as we seek to honor the many Biblical one-another’s of Christian fellowship.
We will minister to each other by sharing our strengths and resources so that each church and pastor can be strengthened for their kingdom purpose, so that individual weaknesses can be overcome, and so that healthy churches are encouraged to ever increasing levels of health, all for the goal of helping each other toward church health and the fulfillment of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
We will work together to become an ethnically and culturally diverse association of churches which will honor, respect and include members from every ethnic and cultural background.
We will partner together to establish new churches, committed to maintaining good health, a kingdom focus and passionate about the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
We will embrace partnership and cooperation in ministry with an attitude that facilitates regional unity, shared vision, networking, church health and celebration.
We will prioritize the developing and empowering of Spiritual Leaders within our churches and our region.
We will empower Mission Mid-Atlantic to develop relationships with other evangelical ministries that will help our churches in fulfilling their God-given vision and mission.
We will support the ministry of Mission Mid-Atlantic with our prayers, finances, talents and time, understanding that Mission Mid-Atlantic is the primary avenue through which we fulfill our covenantal commitment to each other.
We will uphold the Mission Mid-Atlantic Statement of Faith to which we subscribe.
---------------------
Next week I will begin to post thoughts on how to live this out in covenant relationships. I also welcome your thoughts.
~ Jim
Monday, May 4, 2009
Mission Mid-Atlantic Vision and Update
Our 2009 Mission Mid-Atlantic Annual Conference begins Monday evening, May 4, at Sandy Cove in North East, Maryland. We anticipate a great time together as we are led in worship by Mark Green and Friends, and as Ken Sande, President of Peacemaker Ministries shares three challenging messages from the Word of God.
On Tuesday morning, Paul Mathewson, Ron Markloff and I will share an update regarding our Vision for Mission Mid-Atlantic. The following post is the text of my comments during that session. We welcome your input as we move forward to serve our churches:
------------------------------------------
Mission Mid-Atlantic Vision & Update
Dr. James E. Leary
2009
Overview
Mission Mid-Atlantic is a diverse fellowship of churches united by Biblical mission, and our diversity is ethnic, racial and geographical. Our roots are in the Conservative Baptist Movement (CBAmerica) of the 1940’s, and we share as a regional fellowship in a greater work that God is doing. As a regional fellowship, we value the coaching CBAmerica is offering us in the areas of church assessment, envisioning and pastors clusters and we thank Dr. Stephen LeBar, our General Director, for facilitating this training.
Mission Mid-Atlantic is creating a new paradigm that changes the way we work, and not just on paper. We envision becoming an agent of change that resources churches to identify, reach, attract, serve, assimilate and challenge their members to make disciples and fulfill the Great Commission. We see this becoming a reality through skilled church champions and catalysts who work with church leaders who want to make a difference for the Kingdom.
Covenant of Regions
We live in covenant relationships with one another in the Mid-Atlantic Region and we reflect who God is in these relationships and activities. Dr. Bruce A. Ware, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, observed the following:
“In our own relationships in the home and ministry, we should endeavor, by God’s grace, to model our work and worship in ways that reflect the Trinitarian unity expressed through harmony. This will mean, on the one hand, that we celebrate rather than begrudge many of the differences among us. When we insist that everyone be just like “me”, we have settled for the unity of unison and we have lost the vision of harmony. Rather than bemoan the fact that God gives various gifts in the body of Christ, and rather than look down on others whose interests in ministry and service vary from our own, we can see these as the harmonious display of various “voices” which , if they sing correctly, can create a beautiful common song. Our differences, so long as they are within the boundaries of the moral character of God and express the gifting of the Spirit, need to be embraced and employed in Christian service, both in the home and in the church.”
We believe these Trinitarian realities should influence fellowship within our churches as well as our inter-church relationships. We will also continue to celebrate our differences, as Dr. Ware observed, as long as those differences are within the framework of our Regional Covenant and within the bounds of Scripture.
In light of our national and regional history, and in an effort to more effectively resource our churches, the Mission Mid-Atlantic Board adopted the following recommendations at their March meeting.
Recommendations from the Board
The first recommendation is to do away with the two separate designations of Urban/Ethnic and Rural/Suburban. On May 31st, Bill Holmes and Paul Mathewson will complete their ministries as Urban/Ethnic and Rural Suburban Associates. We have appreciated the way they have served our churches, and we assure you we will continue to reach out to our Urban/Ethnic pastors and churches so that we realize our vision of increased diversity.
The second recommendation of the Board is to re-assign associate directors to begin to resource our four key action steps. This is how our paradigm will begin to develop. Since our desire is to see new churches planted throughout our region, Ron Markloff will begin to serve as the Associate assigned to this action step. He is uniquely gifted and experienced to provide leadership and direction in this area. Paul Mathewson will assume responsibility for building healthy churches. We have valued his contributions in the area of church planting, but more of his time has been spent in assessments and revisioning, and the Board’s recommendation confirms this new direction. We will also continue to develop our pastor’s clusters. This fall CBAmerica is offering coaching in this area, and we plan to send some of our area cluster group leaders to participate in this training. Another action step is to assist pastors and churches in crisis, and I have been approved to enroll in the Certification Program to become a Certified Christian Conciliator. I desire to improve my mediation ministry to our churches and look forward to beginning this process. I also plan to create a network of trained CB conciliators and mediators throughout our region.
Regional NASCAR Analogy
One of my roles as your Regional Executive Director is to build and foster an environment of encouragement, prayer, accountability, personal development and equipping others. Dr. Mark Hoeffner, CBNorthwest RED, uses the NASCAR analogy to illustrate how their region seeks to resource their churches and I have taken the liberty to borrow his analogy.
For Mission Mid-Atlantic (Our NASCAR) to run competitively, we need help. And for our churches to be successful at being competitive or reproducing, they also need help. When NASCAR needs good tires they put a Goodyear sticker on; when NASCAR needs good fuel, they put a BP or Shell sticker on, when they need good spark plugs they put NGC sticker on. For NASCAR to be successful, they need money so they put a sponsor sticker on their car. There are things that churches need to be successful. When churches in our region have needed help in training or assessments they have put a Church Health Ministries sticker on their car. When churches have needed help relationally they put a Peacemaker sticker on their car. When you think about NASCAR, the car is only as good as the people (mechanic, driver pit crew, etc.). Often times the stickers represent a team outside of the church who help the team inside the church be successful. On the regional level, this reflects one of our values that we want to continue to pursue, and the recommendation from the Board also reflects this value.
Mission Mid-Atlantic and Social Media
We continue to build relationships with pastors and churches within our region and I am learning how Facebook and Twitter can help us build our community. Some may view social media as a fad with little to offer our regional fellowship. However, the following anecdote by a writer from South Africa reminds us that the old ways are not always the best.
Gideon (www.1xtramile.com) grew up in a small town in Africa. When he was a boy they went to the river and used gourds to retrieve drinking water. This worked fine and everybody was happy. Then they started to use plastic 5 liter containers. The containers were not as fragile as the gourds and worked better. Still many people didn’t like them. They complained that the water tasted bad or didn’t like losing their traditional method. Over time, as the benefits were realized, most people started using the plastic containers. Years later a pipeline was installed. Water was processed and piped to people’s houses or central areas where people could access it. Again many people complained. Why should they pay to have pipes brought to their house when they could use their plastic containers to get water for free? (Quote from Lystra Pitt’s Blog)
Facebook now has over 200 million active users, with more than 100 million logging on every day. Over 2/3rds of Facebook users are out of college and the fastest demographic is 35 years of age. Many churches are discovering the awesome potential that exists with social media such as Facebook and Twitter to build communities. Mission Mid-Atlantic will also explore how to use these tools to continue to develop our fellowship.
Regional Support of the New Paradigm
Our recommendations will require a greater financial commitment. If you believe our four strategies (Developing, Cultivating, Building and Assisting) are worth resourcing, we urge you to pray with us that our financial base will grow stronger. We are taking a step of faith and trust God for the resources that will be needed to see our paradigm develop to help our churches.
This step of faith includes raising an additional $60,000.00. A portion of the $60,000 increase will be covered as our partnership with Church Health Ministries is realized. Part of the increase in this year’s budget includes shifting Paul Mathewson from the CPC budget to the General Fund Budget. The Board also recommends increasing Rickie Jones’ hours so that she can provide more administrative support. Janice Kulp, our Treasurer, will probably step down this year, and Rickie will also assume her responsibilities.
On Tuesday morning, Paul Mathewson, Ron Markloff and I will share an update regarding our Vision for Mission Mid-Atlantic. The following post is the text of my comments during that session. We welcome your input as we move forward to serve our churches:
------------------------------------------
Mission Mid-Atlantic Vision & Update
Dr. James E. Leary
2009
Overview
Mission Mid-Atlantic is a diverse fellowship of churches united by Biblical mission, and our diversity is ethnic, racial and geographical. Our roots are in the Conservative Baptist Movement (CBAmerica) of the 1940’s, and we share as a regional fellowship in a greater work that God is doing. As a regional fellowship, we value the coaching CBAmerica is offering us in the areas of church assessment, envisioning and pastors clusters and we thank Dr. Stephen LeBar, our General Director, for facilitating this training.
Mission Mid-Atlantic is creating a new paradigm that changes the way we work, and not just on paper. We envision becoming an agent of change that resources churches to identify, reach, attract, serve, assimilate and challenge their members to make disciples and fulfill the Great Commission. We see this becoming a reality through skilled church champions and catalysts who work with church leaders who want to make a difference for the Kingdom.
Covenant of Regions
We live in covenant relationships with one another in the Mid-Atlantic Region and we reflect who God is in these relationships and activities. Dr. Bruce A. Ware, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, observed the following:
“In our own relationships in the home and ministry, we should endeavor, by God’s grace, to model our work and worship in ways that reflect the Trinitarian unity expressed through harmony. This will mean, on the one hand, that we celebrate rather than begrudge many of the differences among us. When we insist that everyone be just like “me”, we have settled for the unity of unison and we have lost the vision of harmony. Rather than bemoan the fact that God gives various gifts in the body of Christ, and rather than look down on others whose interests in ministry and service vary from our own, we can see these as the harmonious display of various “voices” which , if they sing correctly, can create a beautiful common song. Our differences, so long as they are within the boundaries of the moral character of God and express the gifting of the Spirit, need to be embraced and employed in Christian service, both in the home and in the church.”
We believe these Trinitarian realities should influence fellowship within our churches as well as our inter-church relationships. We will also continue to celebrate our differences, as Dr. Ware observed, as long as those differences are within the framework of our Regional Covenant and within the bounds of Scripture.
In light of our national and regional history, and in an effort to more effectively resource our churches, the Mission Mid-Atlantic Board adopted the following recommendations at their March meeting.
Recommendations from the Board
The first recommendation is to do away with the two separate designations of Urban/Ethnic and Rural/Suburban. On May 31st, Bill Holmes and Paul Mathewson will complete their ministries as Urban/Ethnic and Rural Suburban Associates. We have appreciated the way they have served our churches, and we assure you we will continue to reach out to our Urban/Ethnic pastors and churches so that we realize our vision of increased diversity.
The second recommendation of the Board is to re-assign associate directors to begin to resource our four key action steps. This is how our paradigm will begin to develop. Since our desire is to see new churches planted throughout our region, Ron Markloff will begin to serve as the Associate assigned to this action step. He is uniquely gifted and experienced to provide leadership and direction in this area. Paul Mathewson will assume responsibility for building healthy churches. We have valued his contributions in the area of church planting, but more of his time has been spent in assessments and revisioning, and the Board’s recommendation confirms this new direction. We will also continue to develop our pastor’s clusters. This fall CBAmerica is offering coaching in this area, and we plan to send some of our area cluster group leaders to participate in this training. Another action step is to assist pastors and churches in crisis, and I have been approved to enroll in the Certification Program to become a Certified Christian Conciliator. I desire to improve my mediation ministry to our churches and look forward to beginning this process. I also plan to create a network of trained CB conciliators and mediators throughout our region.
Regional NASCAR Analogy
One of my roles as your Regional Executive Director is to build and foster an environment of encouragement, prayer, accountability, personal development and equipping others. Dr. Mark Hoeffner, CBNorthwest RED, uses the NASCAR analogy to illustrate how their region seeks to resource their churches and I have taken the liberty to borrow his analogy.
For Mission Mid-Atlantic (Our NASCAR) to run competitively, we need help. And for our churches to be successful at being competitive or reproducing, they also need help. When NASCAR needs good tires they put a Goodyear sticker on; when NASCAR needs good fuel, they put a BP or Shell sticker on, when they need good spark plugs they put NGC sticker on. For NASCAR to be successful, they need money so they put a sponsor sticker on their car. There are things that churches need to be successful. When churches in our region have needed help in training or assessments they have put a Church Health Ministries sticker on their car. When churches have needed help relationally they put a Peacemaker sticker on their car. When you think about NASCAR, the car is only as good as the people (mechanic, driver pit crew, etc.). Often times the stickers represent a team outside of the church who help the team inside the church be successful. On the regional level, this reflects one of our values that we want to continue to pursue, and the recommendation from the Board also reflects this value.
Mission Mid-Atlantic and Social Media
We continue to build relationships with pastors and churches within our region and I am learning how Facebook and Twitter can help us build our community. Some may view social media as a fad with little to offer our regional fellowship. However, the following anecdote by a writer from South Africa reminds us that the old ways are not always the best.
Gideon (www.1xtramile.com) grew up in a small town in Africa. When he was a boy they went to the river and used gourds to retrieve drinking water. This worked fine and everybody was happy. Then they started to use plastic 5 liter containers. The containers were not as fragile as the gourds and worked better. Still many people didn’t like them. They complained that the water tasted bad or didn’t like losing their traditional method. Over time, as the benefits were realized, most people started using the plastic containers. Years later a pipeline was installed. Water was processed and piped to people’s houses or central areas where people could access it. Again many people complained. Why should they pay to have pipes brought to their house when they could use their plastic containers to get water for free? (Quote from Lystra Pitt’s Blog)
Facebook now has over 200 million active users, with more than 100 million logging on every day. Over 2/3rds of Facebook users are out of college and the fastest demographic is 35 years of age. Many churches are discovering the awesome potential that exists with social media such as Facebook and Twitter to build communities. Mission Mid-Atlantic will also explore how to use these tools to continue to develop our fellowship.
Regional Support of the New Paradigm
Our recommendations will require a greater financial commitment. If you believe our four strategies (Developing, Cultivating, Building and Assisting) are worth resourcing, we urge you to pray with us that our financial base will grow stronger. We are taking a step of faith and trust God for the resources that will be needed to see our paradigm develop to help our churches.
This step of faith includes raising an additional $60,000.00. A portion of the $60,000 increase will be covered as our partnership with Church Health Ministries is realized. Part of the increase in this year’s budget includes shifting Paul Mathewson from the CPC budget to the General Fund Budget. The Board also recommends increasing Rickie Jones’ hours so that she can provide more administrative support. Janice Kulp, our Treasurer, will probably step down this year, and Rickie will also assume her responsibilities.
Financial support to meet these needs will come from sources that we did not expect, and we embrace this challenge as an exciting faith walk with God! We can meet this financial need by seeing one hundred people or churches commit $50 per month to Mission Mid-Atlantic. Will you be one of those people? Will you also invite others to join in this challenge? If you want to join us in meeting this challenge, fill out one of the commitment cards and mail it to the office: Mission Mid-Atlantic, PO Box 345, Clayton, NJ 08312.
~ Jim
Friday, August 1, 2008
Cape Town Missions Project
I would like to share some exciting news! I have been invited to visit Cape Town, South Africa on October 17 - 27, 2008 to provide marriage and family training. During my visit I will also have the opportunity to preach in several churches.
I will work with John Doyle, Executive Director of Cape Town Ministries. John asked me to design a series of modules to meet the unique needs of marriages and families in the Cape Town region. You can his website to learn more about Cape Town Ministries. (http://www.capemissionsint.co.za/).
John visited our CBAmerica National Summit last summer in Minneapolis where he introduced his ministry and expressed his desire to work with CBAmerica because of our sound doctrinal roots.
Your prayer support is vital to the success of this project. Will you pray with me that this trip will encourage couples and families in this needy part of the world?
Along with your prayer support, I would like to invite you to share in the financial needs of this project. The total cost of the trip including plane fare and expenses on the ground is $3,000. If you are led to contribute financially, please make your check out to Mission Mid-Atlantic and designate it for the Cape Town Missions Project. Checks for support should be sent to Janice Kulp, our Mission Mid-Atlantic Treasurer, at PO Box 692, Hatboro, PA. 19040.
I will provide regular updates about the upcoming Cape Town Missions Project on my blog.
Thank you for your support.
~ Jim
I will work with John Doyle, Executive Director of Cape Town Ministries. John asked me to design a series of modules to meet the unique needs of marriages and families in the Cape Town region. You can his website to learn more about Cape Town Ministries. (http://www.capemissionsint.co.za/).
John visited our CBAmerica National Summit last summer in Minneapolis where he introduced his ministry and expressed his desire to work with CBAmerica because of our sound doctrinal roots.
Your prayer support is vital to the success of this project. Will you pray with me that this trip will encourage couples and families in this needy part of the world?
Along with your prayer support, I would like to invite you to share in the financial needs of this project. The total cost of the trip including plane fare and expenses on the ground is $3,000. If you are led to contribute financially, please make your check out to Mission Mid-Atlantic and designate it for the Cape Town Missions Project. Checks for support should be sent to Janice Kulp, our Mission Mid-Atlantic Treasurer, at PO Box 692, Hatboro, PA. 19040.
I will provide regular updates about the upcoming Cape Town Missions Project on my blog.
Thank you for your support.
~ Jim
Friday, July 11, 2008
Turnaround Resources
I met with a pastor yesterday who passionately desires to see his church turnaround. We talked about how to do that, and about churches that have been successful in turning around. We agreed that Mission Mid-Atlantic exists to help churches move from merely existing to passionately winning others to Christ and making disciples.
In future blogs, I want to share some exciting news about what churches are doing to turn around. If you have stories of what has worked at your church, please send them to me at rimfire1@verizon.net. Please also pass along anything you might be aware of that other churches are doing related to turnaround churches, and I will incude that information in future blogs.
Let's pray together that God will do a great work in our region as we see new churches planted and turnaround churches that have a renewed passion to make disciples.
A resource that has been recommended to me is Christianity Explored. Their website is http://www.christianityexplored.org/. We hope to use this resource in our community to introduce the Gospel to our neighbors.
~ Jim
In future blogs, I want to share some exciting news about what churches are doing to turn around. If you have stories of what has worked at your church, please send them to me at rimfire1@verizon.net. Please also pass along anything you might be aware of that other churches are doing related to turnaround churches, and I will incude that information in future blogs.
Let's pray together that God will do a great work in our region as we see new churches planted and turnaround churches that have a renewed passion to make disciples.
A resource that has been recommended to me is Christianity Explored. Their website is http://www.christianityexplored.org/. We hope to use this resource in our community to introduce the Gospel to our neighbors.
~ Jim
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Value of Assessment
One of our churches just completed the Natural Church Development (NCD) Survey. Our office scored the results and the report has been returned to the church. I pray that the report will serve as a catalyst for change and increased effectiveness in ministry, and I look forward to coaching the church through the process of addressing their minimum factor. The NCD Survey provides valuable insights into ways churches can improve their quality of ministry.
The NCD Survey is one tool Mission Mid-Atlantic offers as a means of church assessment. In addition, we are sending five men from our region to Colorado in late July to be trained in church assessment. CBAmerica has secured the services of Bill Hoyt, a church consultant, to train CB leaders from throughout the US in this area.
Feel free to contact our office if you would like to learn more about the NCD Survey or other ways to assess your church's effectiveness.
~ Jim
The NCD Survey is one tool Mission Mid-Atlantic offers as a means of church assessment. In addition, we are sending five men from our region to Colorado in late July to be trained in church assessment. CBAmerica has secured the services of Bill Hoyt, a church consultant, to train CB leaders from throughout the US in this area.
Feel free to contact our office if you would like to learn more about the NCD Survey or other ways to assess your church's effectiveness.
~ Jim
Friday, June 20, 2008
Building A Culture Of Peace
Lou Ann and I had the privilege of hosting Rick Friesen last night in our home. Rick is the Director of Ministry Relations for Peacemaker Ministries and we talked about how their ministry might help Mission Mid-Atlantic build a culture of peace in the churches throughout our region. The process of creating this culture includes assisting conflicted churches, scheduling training for mediators as well as identifying people to lead peacemaking efforts in their local churches. We are glad that Peacemaker Ministries desires to assist churches in this manner, and we will keep you informed as this strategic relationship is developed. Visit http://www.peacemaker.net/ to learn more about Peacemaker Ministries.Monday, June 9, 2008
New Identity Work Continues
As our churches move into the summer mode, with VBS and other special programs launched, we at Mission Mid-Atlantic continue to work on the infrastructure needed to support our churches as related to our new identity.
For example, later in July, several of us will travel to the CBAmerica Summer Summit in Fort Collins, CO, to receive Assessment Training. This training is being offered by CBAmerica to our REDS and other pastors who desire to offer assessments to churches in our regions. This training helps us in our region to fulfill one of the four action steps we outlined at our Annual Conference at Sandy Cove.
Here are the four action steps we outlined at Sandy Cove:
1. Develop new churches.
2. Cultivate church leaders.
3. Build healthy churches.
4. Assist pastors and churches in crisis.
We are excited that CBAmerica is offering this training so that we can be better equipped to meet with churches who desire an extensive assessment accompanied by suggestions and guidance to improve their quality of ministry.
I will continue to reflect on the steps we are taking as we move in this new direction and appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, so feel free to add comments to the blogs. I look forward to interacting with you.
By the way, you can visit the CBAmerica website at www.cbamerica.org to learn more about the Summer Summit and assessment training.
~ Jim
For example, later in July, several of us will travel to the CBAmerica Summer Summit in Fort Collins, CO, to receive Assessment Training. This training is being offered by CBAmerica to our REDS and other pastors who desire to offer assessments to churches in our regions. This training helps us in our region to fulfill one of the four action steps we outlined at our Annual Conference at Sandy Cove.
Here are the four action steps we outlined at Sandy Cove:
1. Develop new churches.
2. Cultivate church leaders.
3. Build healthy churches.
4. Assist pastors and churches in crisis.
We are excited that CBAmerica is offering this training so that we can be better equipped to meet with churches who desire an extensive assessment accompanied by suggestions and guidance to improve their quality of ministry.
I will continue to reflect on the steps we are taking as we move in this new direction and appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, so feel free to add comments to the blogs. I look forward to interacting with you.
By the way, you can visit the CBAmerica website at www.cbamerica.org to learn more about the Summer Summit and assessment training.
~ Jim
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Peacemaker Ministries Trip Review
I had a great time at the Peacemaker Ministries Focus Group last week. Three focus group panelists, including me, arrived a day early and several guys from the PM office who are great fly fishermen took time off from work to float down the Bighorn River with us. After a great day of fly fishing the Bighorn, we spent two days in the Focus Group. Peacemaker Ministries has a wonderful team that really desires to create resources to assist church leadership in the ministry of reconciliation. I left Montana with a deep sense of gratitude for their ministry and look forward to finding ways for Mission Mid-Atlantic to use their resources. By the way, here is a picture of the first of three fish I caught on the Bighorn!
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