1. Shared Learning Experience

2. Beginning the Journey Session One Welcome!

3. Greeting from Bishop Coyner

4. Your Participant Manual The complete Participant Manual (introduction and seven sessions) is available for download from www.inumc.org/FCJ-Step1-2014. www.inumc.org/FCJ-Step1-2014 When you get to the website, click on “Enter Protected Area” and then enter the password: fcj2014 (lower case).

5. Step 1 Website All seven sessions and introduction Session PowerPoint presentations Video-taped teaching of each session Other resources, including a session schedule

6. Today’s Objectives Begin building relationships with other participants Understand the key concepts in the book, Renovate or Die Understand the Fruitful Congregation Journey process and how Step 1 fits in

7. Introductions (laity) 1.What are your main expectations of the Shared Learning Experience? 2.What is your church’s greatest challenge and greatest strength? Have one person from your church share one answer for each of the above. Also share your church’s name, location, and weekly worship attendance average.

8. Introductions (pastors) Name Church / location How long have you been there? How long in leadership? Family Biggest challenge in ministry Main expectation for this program

9. Spiritual Centering Deuteronomy 1:21-32 21 Look! The Lord your God has laid out the land before you. Go up and take it, just as the Lord, your ancestors’ God, has promised you. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be frightened! 22 Then all of you approached me, saying, “Let’s send spies ahead of us—they can check out the land for us. Then they can return with word about the route we should use and bring a report about the cities that we’ll be entering.”

10. Deuteronomy 1:21-32, continued 23 This idea seemed good to me [Moses], so I selected twelve men, one from each tribe. 24 These set out and went up into the hills, going as far as the Cluster ravine. They walked all around that area. 25 They took some of the land’s fruit and then came back down to us. They reported to us: “The land that the Lord our God is giving to us is wonderful!” 26 But you weren’t willing to go up. You rejected the Lord your God’s instruction. 27 You complained in your tents, saying things like, “The Lord hates us!

11. Deutoronomy 1:21-32, continued That’s why he brought us out of Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites, to destroy us! 28 What are we doing? Our brothers have made our hearts sick by saying, ‘People far stronger and much taller than we live there, and the cities are huge, with walls sky-high! Worse still, we saw the descendants of the Anakites there!’” 29 But I said to you: Don’t be terrified! Don’t be afraid of them!

12. Deutoronomy 1:21-32, continued 30 The Lord your God is going before you. He will fight for you just as he fought for you in Egypt while you watched, 31 and as you saw him do in the desert. Throughout your entire journey, until you reached this very place, the Lord your God has carried you just as a parent carries a child. 32 But you had no faith in the Lord your God about this matter, 33 even though he went ahead of you, scouting places where you should camp, in fire by night, so you could see the road you were taking, and in cloud during the daytime.

13. Reflection… 1.What was it about the Israelite’s journey that terrified them? Did they need to be afraid? 2.What might you and your church be afraid of as you begin this Fruitful Congregation Journey? 3.How might you and your FCJ team serve as your church’s scouts (“spies”) on this journey? What role do you play? What’s God’s role? 4.How might you alleviate your congregation’s fears?

14. Group Covenant 1.Pray regularly 2.Complete the reading 3.Be on time 4.Be engaged 5.Be curious 6.Be respectful

15. Group Covenant, continued 7. Understand that we may move quickly 8. Be flexible Others?

16. Renovate or Die Our business as United Methodist churches is… “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” So how’s business?

17. Our church in Indiana Indiana Conference: What do you see?

18. Indiana Conference: What do you see?

19. Indiana Conference: What do you see? State’s growth (same period)

20. U.S. Church Participation Participation is declining (peaked in 1980) American Grace, Robert Putnam, David Campbell, 2010 20% aren’t affiliated with any religion (the five years prior it was 15%) Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 2012 study 80% of churches are plateaued or in decline Advanced Strategic Planning, Aubrey Malphurs, 2005

21. Renovate or Die The truth is that if we don’t renovate we’re going to die. Many people would already say that we United Methodists are already an endangered species. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

22. Renovate or Die Redecoration does not call you to make any real structural changes, so it’s much easier than renovation. Renovation is often more expensive, risky, and is always extremely hard work. How would you differentiate between these? To what degree are you ready to renovate your church’s ministry rather than just redecorate?

23. Are you a renovator? We need missionaries not members. If the pastor and some key leaders do not possess a sense of urgency, they are doomed to fail. How high a degree of urgency does your church have? How might you raise the level of urgency?

24. Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor A church must be pastor-led rather than pastor-centered. In a pastor-centered congregation the role of the laity is to come a little, do a little, give a little, and say a whole lot. Laid-back laity, playing pastor-fetch!

25. Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor In the pastor-led model, a leader’s job is to provide vision, and it is the congregation’s job to confirm it. The pastor recruits, trains, equips, and aligns.

26. Ten Ways to Renovate: 1. Pastor The pastor and leaders’ focus should be on their church’s health not on keeping everyone happy. But most pastors and leaders are trained to shy away from conflict.

27. Reflection… Do you feel you have a pastor-centered or pastor-led church? Why? To what degree does your church allow your pastor to lead? Does your church tend to avoid conflict or address it? Can you think of an example?

28. Ten Ways to Renovate: 2. Understand Your Present Reality Understand your community. (#3 & 6) Know its demographics Know its history and stories Gather “walk-around” information Understand where on the church life cycle you are—from birth to death—realizing that the cycles are becoming shorter and shorter. (#4)

29. Ten Ways to Renovate: 3. Get the Basics Right Five practices of fruitful congregations (#8) : 1.Radical hospitality 2.Passionate worship 3.Intentional faith development 4.Risk-taking mission and service 5.Extravagant generosity Sundays do the following with excellence: children’s ministry, passionate worship, and radical hospitality.

30. Ten Ways to Renovate: 4. Create Momentum If you want to catch momentum, you must: Change something Get a quick win Do certain practices well, over and over Lead by example; the church won’t go where the leaders have not already gone Preach change to get change

31. Ten Ways to Renovate: 5. Inspire Through Worship Think in eight-minute time frames Think multisensory Use series, so that people anticipate Think visual Leonard Sweet’s EPIC worship… Experiential Participatory Image driven Connected

32. Ten Ways to Renovate: 6. Think Strategies, Not Programs The mission is your plumb line Your vision is how your church will carry out the mission Your strategies carry out your mission and vision, and they need to change depending upon their effectiveness You should set 2 or 3 yearly goals

33. Ten Ways to Renovate: 7. Staffing for Leadership “[Get] the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats— and then [figure] out where to drive it.” -- Jim Collins, Good to Great You only grow at the rate that you are expanding the leadership capacity Needs to be a third of a leader’s time

34. Ten Ways to Renovate: 8. Disciple with Clear Steps A process for intentional faith development answers… (#5) How does one grow in his or her faith here? How do I know what my next step is? Is someone inviting me to take that step? Three key elements besides worship: hands-on missions, small-group experiences, and ministry-task service.

35. Ten Ways to Renovate: 9. Relate to Outsiders We have to move from being a “come-to” church to a “sent out” church. (#6) We don’t need more evangelism, rather more people who view where they live, work and play as possibilities to reach people, help them connect, and bridge the gap between themselves and God. (#7)

36. Ten Ways to Renovate: 10. Simplify the Structure A simpler organizational structure can help move more of our members from attending committees to doing ministry. The structure should provide leaders with the authority to take action with accountability. The board governs, pastor leads, staff (paid & unpaid) manage, laity minister.

37. Reflection… Which one of these ten do you feel your church is already strong in? Why? Which of these do you feel your church should give special attention to? Why? What steps could your church take in response? (Share this with your pastor.)

38. Renovate or Die God doesn’t care whether your congregation thrives or declines, lives or dies. God does care, however, about your church making disciples of Jesus Christ and transforming your community and the world. -- Bob Farr FCJ will help you do just that!

39. FCJ Overview The Fruitful Congregation Journey is a process not a program. Its purpose is to help churches more effectively carry out their mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It will unpack many of the ideas from Renovate or Die and help your church apply them.

40. FCJ Overview, Three Steps Step 1: Shared Learning Experience Step 2: Consultation Culminates in a weekend assessment that helps a church identify its greatest strengths and concerns, and provides a Ministry Action Plan (MAP) to address these concerns. Step 3: Implementation of MAP, with the help of a coach.

41. FCJ Overview, Three Steps For the greatest results, churches should go through all three steps. Churches that only do Step 1 will still benefit. In order to go on to Step 2, a church must have good attendance at the Shared Learning Experience sessions.

42. Step 1: Session Reading Guide

43. Session Reading Guide, cont.

44. FCJ Team Responsibilities Attend the sessions Read the books prior to each session Do a personal Action Plan Attend a team meeting between sessions Pray for your church—its leaders, FCJ team, and the FCJ process Share the session information with other leaders in your church

45. FCJ Additional Information Spend some time reviewing… How you can share what you’re learning back home Explaining FCJ to your church “Nuts & Bolts” section. What questions do you have about the Fruitful Congregation Journey process?

46. FCJ Dates & Refreshments Is everyone clear about our session dates? Do we want a snack each session?

47. Action Plan Each session you’ll be asked to set a personal goal for yourself that is linked to the material in the session At the beginning of future sessions you’ll be given time to report how you did with your team The purpose of this monthly practice is to help you grow as a leader

48. Action Plan examples… You might decide to not just read the next book but write down the key ideas Or, you might set a goal to share one key insight you received today with someone (or a group) in your church Or, you might go to the Church Development blog website and read some of the past articles Or, you might commit to pray for 10 minutes a day for your team & church

49. Action Plan Go ahead and set your Action Plan goal for the coming month.

50. Next Step Assignments 1.Hold your first team meeting back home with your pastor 2.Choose a layperson on your team to serve as your team’s convener-leader 3.Plan a fun activity for your team to do together 4.Come up with a way to introduce your team at our next session

51. Team Meetings Back Home Between sessions, your team will need to meet with your pastor Share your personal Action Plans and encourage each other to fulfill them Discuss key learnings from the session Do you “Next Step Assignments” Pray for your church and this process

52. Key Learnings & Prayer Concerns

53. Wrap-Up & Closing Next book: Bearing Fruit, by Lovette Weems Evaluations

54. Continue the conversation! Visit the Indiana Conference Church Development Facebook page & blog site. Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/makingdisciples transformingcommunities Blog Site http://churchdevinumc.wordpress.com/

55. Have a great month!