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Jeff Glass is the Coordinator for Area 5. He is a graduate of Bethany Seminary and has over 18 years of pastoral experience in a variety of settings including a small, rural congregation, a large congregation, and an urban congregation. Christian Education, strategic planning, and evangelism are some of his favorite areas of ministry. He resides in San Diego.

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There are a variety of ways we can assist your congregation and leaders. Here is a list of topics of some of the ways we can help. Please click on the topic below for more information. If you don’t see a topic that you are interested in, please contact us! The list below is only a partial listing of how we might serve you.

Congregational Structure Issues
Creating Curiosity for a Climate of Change
Decision-making in Congregations
Demographics and Ministry Discovery
Engaging the Heart and Senses
Multimedia Ministry
Natural Church Development
Planning for Evangelism
Small Church Worship without a Pastor
Spiritual Gifts and Strengths for Ministry
Transforming Church Boards
Understanding Culture in Your Neighborhood and Community
Understanding Generational Issues in Worship
Web Page Design and Ministry
Worship Planning

Congregational Structure Issues
Each church is unique, both in the issues they face and how they are organized to address these issues. “One-size fits all” structure models are not always helpful. To help your congregation discover it's own possibilities, participants will explore different models and can be networked with a congregation that uses it.

Creating curiosity for a climate of change
“Change” is a difficult topic for many congregations to squarely and honestly face. Most new things a congregation attempts will induce dynamics of change. Without recognizing change dynamics, your new ideas can get blocked or undermined before they have a chance to make a difference. We have a variety of ways to help you consider “Change” and suggestions to help you be successful through it.

New Decision-Making Tool for Congregations
Deciding actions, making proclamations, and agreeing on issues is an important on-going process to our church. The real business of the church, however, is discerning the Call of God, the mind of Christ. What has been called consensus has helped a number of churches determine the leading of Jesus rather than deciding by voting and leaving them with winners and losers. It is a process that is efficient and brings unity to the body.

Demographics and Ministry Discovery
Who are those people beyond our church lot, what are their life conditions, what kind of businesses or services share our neighborhood? What do they think of our church... if they do at all? What kind of ministries would really show we care about them? A thoughtful demographics study could bring some surprising but helpful information to your ministry teams to reach out where you live.

Natural Church Development:
Natural Church Development (NCD) helps a congregation develop God’s full potential for health, vitality and growth. What qualities does your congregation need to be a healthy and effective community for Christ? Through extensive research, Christian Schwartz has identified "Eight Quality Characteristics" that are essential for vital churches.

• Empowering Leadership
  
  
• Gift-oriented Ministry
  
  
• Passionate Spirituality
  
  
• Effective Structures
  
  
• Inspiring Worship Service
  
  
• Holistic Small Groups
  
  
• Need-Oriented Evangelism
  
  
• Loving Relationships

A survey measures these eight quality characteristics for your congregations, regardless of location, size or ethnicity. Survey results can help a congregation work towards new health. Through an action plan each congregation’s plan is individualized to its strengths, primary issues, and focus area(s). Key to implementation is learning a new model of scripturally-based thinking.

ACTION STEPS IN NCD

If you have any questions about the above offerings or the possibility of combining them for an event, please call! Other areas of ministry can also be addressed according to the needs of your congregation. We will work with you to find answers that fit your setting. If you think our Area Team might be helpful in your congregational life and ministry, please contact us!

Planning for Evangelism
Evangelism does not require doing anything embarrassing or memorizing the right words, going door to door, being argumentative or any number of things that we avoid. It is as easy as being the caring, listening, sharing and hospitable people we already are. Let’s get together and share our stories about enjoyable conversations we have had with people Jesus misses most.

Small Church Worship without a Pastor
Some times a guitar, autoharp or in home piano will do.... sometimes we are inspired by a scripture we didn’t notice before.... We all have joys, delights, pain and sorrows we can share in prayer or in silence. A small group can pass around leading worship. Worship doesn’t need to be formal or in a particular order. All worship needs is sincere people sharing out of the joy of their faith.

Developing Your Spiritual Gifts and Strengths for Ministry
How passionate are people when serving in your church? Do they exhibit joy in serving or serve out of obligation? We can help your members understand their how they are gifted and find their passion for service. Whether you desire to know your spiritual gifts or Gallup Strengths, we have resources to help your members serve in more fulfilling ways. Find out how to be “the right person, in the right place, for the right reasons.”

Transforming Church Boards
We work with many church boards in a variety of ways. The goal is to help church boards function in spiritual ways to help transform not only themselves, but also their congregation. Our work with you may focus on structure issues, dealing with change, developing discernment and other decision-making models, along with many other possibilities. One very popular workshop has been viewing a video by Patrick Lencioni called, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and discussing how these things are visible in your board. Other possibilities are available and will be developed according to your needs.

Understanding Culture in Your Neighborhood and Community
We often think of people in various cultures as those different from ours. It is helpful to understand the culture in which we live to then better understand the other cultural groups physically near us but separated by world view, group values or language.

Web Page Design and Ministry
Many congregations are developing websites to help get their message out to their communities. What does it take to have a good website? What attracts or repels people from coming back to your site? In this workshop, you will learn some of the basics of good website design and understand how this is a ministry for your church, not unlike Sunday School, Choir, or Worship prep. Examples of good church websites are displayed. If you like, we can also help network you with professional Christian web designers.

Worship Planning
How do we inspire our congregation through worship? How do we help each other to connect with God more intimately in worship? These are on-going issues for all congregations. There are several ways CLT’s might assist with these concerns. Some of the ways we might help include: