{"id":6462,"date":"2013-05-03T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=6462"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:20:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:20:19","slug":"small-church-leaders-advised-to-know-yourself-know-your-church-take-part-in-god-s-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2013\/small-church-leaders-advised-to-know-yourself-know-your-church-take-part-in-god-s-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Church Leaders Advised to Know Yourself, Know Your Church, Take Part in God\u2019s Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Leaders of small churches gathered at the Strengthening Your Small Congregation event on April 13. The one-day event offered professional growth and training, as well as opportunities for mutual support and encouragement.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Throughout the Strengthening Your Small Congregation event, leaders of small churches received essentially the same guidance from various speakers and workshop leaders: know yourself, know your congregation, seek out God\u2019s purpose for you and your church.<\/p>\n

A brainchild of the pastors of two small congregations in Indiana–Kay Gaier of Wabash Church of the Brethren and Brenda Hostetler Meyer of Benton Mennonite Church–the one-day conference April 13 included worship, a keynote speech by Margaret Marcuson, a panel discussion with pastors and lay leaders of small churches, and several afternoon workshops.<\/p>\n

The conference was organized in large part by the Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren, with leadership from executive director Jonathan Shively and staff. Other contributing or endorsing partners included the Church of the Brethren\u2019s Northern Indiana District and South\/Central Indiana District, Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference and Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Bethany Theological Seminary, and the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership The day was hosted at Camp Alexander Mack near Milford, Ind.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The conference was the brainchild of two Indiana pastors–one Church of the Brethren and one Mennonite: Kay Gaier (left) of Wabash Church of the Brethren, and Brenda Hostetler Meyer of Benton Mennonite Church (right). Congregational Life Ministries staff provided much of the organization for the event, which was held at Camp Mack near Milford, Ind.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Professional growth and mutual support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Designed for pastors and lay leaders of churches numbering under 100, the event offered professional growth and training. It also was an opportunity for mutual support and encouragement–and even cheer leading–for small church leaders who often feel alone and isolated, and may become discouraged in a society that equates success with size.<\/p>\n

Gaier and Meyer focused worship on biblical texts that speak of God\u2019s mission and call to faith communities both large and small. A series of Bible readings opened with Deuteronomy 7:7-8a: \u201cIt was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you–for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you….\u201d<\/p>\n

Self, purpose, and people<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are three things a small church leader has to do, said keynote speaker Margaret Marcuson, a consultant and coach to small congregations and author of several books about ministry and leadership. \u201cKnow yourself, your purpose, and your people,\u201d she said. She proceeded to focus on these three concepts, taking time for small group discussion and direct feedback from participants as she talked about the challenges and opportunities for ministry in small congregations. Often she spoke out of personal experience, having herself served as pastor of a small church.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Keynote speaker Margaret Marcuson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis is a spiritual process that requires prayer,\u201d she told the group as she posed a number of questions aimed at helping participants reflect on their own lives and how they relate to their congregations and the people in their churches. Questions about self and purpose or calling, such as \u201cWhat was your role in your family?\u201d and \u201cWhat did God create you for?\u201d led into questions about leadership in the church, such as \u201cCan you love people and lead them without imposing your will?\u201d and \u201cWhat are the things in your church\u2019s history you really like to celebrate?\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcuson also led a workshop on money and ministry, and offered an open coaching session. Delegations from two churches volunteered to be coached by Marcuson, with others invited to sit in and learn how such coaching works and how the outcomes of such coaching may be helpful for small churches.<\/p>\n

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Congregational Life Ministries did much of the organization of Strengthening Your Small Congregation, and CLM staff offered leadership including workshops.\u00a0Executive director Jonathan Shively led a workshop on \u201cWorship in Your Own Voice.\u201d Deacon Ministry director Donna Kline\u00a0offered a workshop on the\u00a0pastoral care team.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Engage in discernment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Workshops gave more targeted training and guidance in a variety of areas of ministry for small churches. Congregational Life Ministries staff offered a workshop on \u201cThe Pastoral Care Team\u201d led by Deacon Ministry director Donna Kline, and a workshop on \u201cWorship in Your Own Voice\u201d led by executive director Jonathan Shively.<\/p>\n

Several workshops repeated guidance similar to the keynote address. David B. Miller, on the faculty of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in the area of missional leadership development, led a workshop on \u201cDiscerning Our Congregation\u2019s Future.\u201d He opened by advising church leaders to analyze habits congregations have learned in the past and seem to be in danger of carrying into the future even if those behaviors are no longer applicable to the social environment.<\/p>\n

Marcuson\u2019s workshop on how finances relate to small church ministry challenged leaders to work at discerning long-term goals for their churches–even setting decades-long budgets to meet dreams that may not come to fruition for many years. Ask yourself what you want for your church, then ask what others want, as you do your planning, she told her workshop.<\/p>\n

Charlene J. Smith, a minister of Evangelism and Vitality in the national office of the United Church of Christ (UCC), advised attendees at her workshop to understand their own mindsets in order to help their churches adapt to a rapidly changing world. Focusing on what evangelism looks like in a small church, she equated it with \u201ca mindset for mission\u201d and emphasized that success of evangelism has nothing to do with the size of a congregation. Her PowerPoint presentation proclaimed: \u201cThe greatness of your church is determined by the success and strength of your mission ministries NOT by the numbers of your members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith added another aspect of knowledge to the list that participants had already heard from others: know the specifics of the issues of the day in your community, she advised. Out of that, congregations must be empowered to discern and develop actions for themselves, in order to become \u201cin tune with today\u201d rather than the past. A pastor cannot tell people what to do, Smith said bluntly. Instead, leaders of small churches should \u201cbe positive police\u201d and emphasize the congregation\u2019s gifts. \u201cWe have got to have a mindset of abundance and blessings,\u201d she said. \u201cCelebrate who you are and what you are about to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, after you have celebrated, set a start date\u201d to pray about the ministry to which God is calling your church, Smith said. \u201cWe are going to pray that God will tell us and lead us on the journey…in the faith that Christ will go before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more about Congregational Life Ministries go to www.brethren.org\/congregationallife<\/a> . Find a link to a photo album from Strengthening Your Small Congregation at www.brethren.org\/album<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the Strengthening Your Small Congregation event, leaders of small churches received essentially the same guidance from various speakers and workshop leaders: know yourself, know your congregation, seek out God\u2019s purpose for you and your church. Organized in large part by the Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren, the event was the brainchild of the pastors of two small congregations in Indiana–Kay Gaier of Wabash Church of the Brethren and Brenda Hostetler Meyer of Benton Mennonite Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[806,1282,1304],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-6462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-congregational-life-ministries","tag-deacons","tag-training"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6466,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6462\/revisions\/6466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6462"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}