Leadership UMC Small Group Presentation The Peacemakers Key Questions: #4 = Amy Astin & Mark O’Riley #8 = Virginia Smith, Kim Gabrels, Janet Silgar # 14 = Terry hale, John Doughten 1

Reflections of a retired Methodist Minister Rev. Michael Holt Reflections of a retired Methodist Minister’s Wife Mrs. Inez Fears Reflections of an active Methodist Minister Rev. Beth Sanders 2 #4 Vital churches focus on increasing the effectiveness of lay leaders.

 This leader represents lay people through collaboration with church staff and in meetings.  Spiritual gifts: servanthood, faith, compassion, apostleship 3 Lay Leader: What's my job? Who is qualified for this job?

 Works with the pastor in leading. This leader represents the lay people in the congregation.  This leader is a role model of Christian discipleship.  This leader Continuously looks for ways to connect Christian discipleship with daily life.  The Lay Leader collaborates with other church leaders to find ways within the community of faith to recognize the ministries of laity in worship.  This leader meets regularly with the pastor to discuss the state of the church and opportunities for ministry.  In some congregations, the lay leader partners worship. 4 What does the lay leader do?

1.Started regular Sunday school 2.Keep in place once a month men’s breakfast 3.Neighborhood & out of Neighbor visitation. 4.Started Evening services 5.Small/Cell groups 6.Suggest study material 7.Visitation/Flyer Distribution 8.District Connectional Group 5 8. Vital pastors give attention to developing, coaching, and mentoring lay leadership to enable laity to increase their ability to carry out ministry.

 Rev. Steve Wood was my pastor for many years at Sugar Hill United Methodist Church prior to becoming the senior minister of Mt. Pisgah UMC. Both very large and thriving churches.  My second choice for a vital pastor to interview was Dr. Jeff Ross who is senior pastor of Cumming First UMC. He leads a large church and the church seems to be thriving under his leadership. 6 Vital Pastor Interviews

Somewhere along the way we, the laity turned over the vision and direction of our churches to the pastors, “after all that’s what we pay them for.” One of pastors’ main jobs is to be on the lookout for potential leaders for ministry. It is essential for our seminaries to teach our pastors how to recognize gifts and graces and nurture them within the body of the church. 7 Vital Pastors Coaching & mentoring lay leadership

Where do you get ideas for the series? How do you promote the series? How do you use the laity in the series? Give a few examples of a popular series What do you see as advantages to using sermon series? What advice would you give to a minister starting a topical sermon series? What are some practical resources? Vital churches have preachers who tend to use more topical sermon series in traditional services.

Partnership Relationship Leadership 9 To be a vital church we need more topical sermons, so when life gets rough and it feels like the world is crashing all around there is a calming of the sea and the soul. !