Vital Church Strategies for Growth and Engagement

2. Pure in Heart Left to right: Mark Akridge, Taccoa First UMC Elaine Latore, Wesley Chapel UMC Marlena Salters, Impact UMC Donna Alexander, Hogansville First UMC Jamie Weaver, Epworth UMC Back row: Ben Green, Acworth UMC Pete Fleming, Five Springs UMC

3. Key Vital Congregation Ministry Strategies Key Ministry Strategy Number 9: Vital pastors use their influence to increase participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church. Key Ministry Strategy Number 10: Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership. Key Ministry Strategy Number 16: Vital churches use more multi-media in contemporary worship.

4. Group Process Steps • Study the Vital Signs initiative through the Call to Action Steering Committee Report, the Conference website and the umc.org website. • Develop additional questions to better define each of our three key ministry strategies, twelve questions in all. • Conduct interviews with our pastors to determine their responses to our questions. • Develop a composite video and a written summary of their responses. • Prepare our report.

5. Toccoa First UMC Pastor John Brown

6. Vital Sign #9: Vital Pastors use their influence to increase the participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church. • Toccoa First changed the order of worship in the traditional service to make it more in line with the order of worship in the Book of Worship and the hymnal • Ministries and programs have been effective – rather than change, Toccoa First has explored ways to make sure these programs are efficient and effective as possible • Changes being made to the physical building

7. Vital Sign #10: Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership. • The pastor has to be a visionary and lay out a clear vision for what God has in store for the church • The pastor can help people be the best servant of Jesus Christ that they can be • What difference would it make to the community if our church was not here anymore? • If leaders articulate a clear vision then the congregation can connect the dots – it gives meaning to all that we do and gives people passion for ministry

8. Vital Sign #16: Vital Churches use more multi-media in contemporary worship. • Toccoa First has a full multi-media presentation at one service and it’s our most well attended service • Multimedia is important but if there’s no message then it’s irrelevant

9. Five Springs UMC Pastor Ann Fleming

10. Vital Sign #9: Vital Pastors use their influence to increase the participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church. • I conduct a congregation-wide planning session every six months. • I try to be open to and to encourage ideas from the congregation. • I always involve the congregation in implementation of changes.

11. Vital Sign #10: Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership. In order to set realistic goals, I always inform the congregation of conference and denominational matters, such as the Vital Church initiative. The pastor must build trust through her or his actions. At Five Springs we jointly set clear goals. The pastor must involve the people in the pews. They are in the community. Follow Paul’s example.

12. Vital Sign #16: Vital Churches use more multi-media in contemporary worship. • This small (50 members) rural church does not routinely use multi-media in worship. • We do provide visual aids when possible. • We have established a good audio system. • We use various media (videos, Internet) in small groups. • We use social media for outreach.

13. Acworth UMC Pastor James Gwin

14. #9 Vital pastors use their influence to increase the participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church by: • Adapting to the unique period of growth and challenges for the church. • Taking periods of transitions (staff changes ex. youth director) and turning into a positive • Recognizing the need to handle transition periods differently than in the past. • Ex. For interim period bring in persons outside the youth group to direct so that vital leadership would not get “burned out” and be fresh to help during the transition after the arrival of the new youth director. • “A wise pastor will identify key “influencers” in the congregation and start a dialogue regarding the need to recognize and initiate change. • Don’t wait on congregational leadership to respond for pastor’s guidance • Use “education and motivation as tools”, in an open, transparent, respectful way.” • Avoid “manipulating and trying to “out-flank” the other side leads to long-term distrust and less than ideal results.

15. #10: Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership by: • Open effective communication as important leadership quality • to educate, motivate, persuade, equip, and empower others to “own” goals and work toward achieving them. • done one-on-one through a personal connection based on trust. • Recognizing that helping to achieve a goal is a critical step in vitality. • Reaching or progressing toward a goal builds momentum, trust in leadership, and ownership by all. • Achieving one goal makes the congregational “self-esteem” go up and there is an overall improvement in confidence in achieving future goals. • Likewise churches will decline if they are not motivated to keep moving toward a goal. • You cannot be a vital congregation without achieve a goal – or many goals. It is the desire to do better that breathes life into a congregation. • Recognizing that good leaders can and will help a group • Focus on what is important, negotiate the unexpected, and organize in a way to make clear progress toward a goal • A great leader, can do this while rising up other leaders.

16. #16 Vital churches use more multi-media in contemporary worship by: • Increased use of “home made” videos and “social media” for communication • Has had a direct, positive impact that builds excitement and resonates with worshippers under forty years old. • And some would never see or experience can become a part of worship whether it is going on an Africa Mission or seeing children laughing at VBS. • Using visual aspects of video and or photography such as nature scenes to convey a liturgical season of or segue into a sermon theme. • Using videos posted at the church web-site “Welcome to AUMC”, post announcements, and present testimonies. • Using pictures “photos of faces” are powerful as well as videos • activity comes alive to convey the sights, sounds, energy, enthusiasm, and spirit of a church event and the participants in a way that cannot be by just saying “we had a great VBS last week”. • Using less PowerPoint (Media Shout) slide show – useful but limited in impact. • Continue to look ahead and improve by upgrading and improving multi-media capability and technology.

17. Wesley Chapel UMC Pastor William Bert Neal, Jr.

18. PASTOR NEAL’S REVIEW VITAL CONGREGATION • START UP CHURCH - LONG EXISTING CHURCH • CHURCH INVOLVEMENT/INPUT • EVANGELISM • ATTRACT YOUTH/ YOUNG ADULT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

19. Impact UMC Pastor Olu Brown

20. ALL THREE KEY MINISTRY STRATEGIES • We must make sure that the right people are in the right position • One of the most significant leadership qualities is vision • Great leaders know how to delegate

21. Lay people are essential to the vitality of the church and must be committed to change • Leaders must be instrumental in connecting the dots to facilitate change • At Impact, ideas are filtered through the Leadership Team first to assess the possible need for adjustment before implementation • There must be a renewal process, one should constantly set new goals

22. Epworth UMC Pastor Lisa Dempsey

23. Location, location, location Leadership is vital A small church can be vital

24. Hogansville UMC Pastor John Alexander

25. #9 Vital pastors use their influence to increase the participation of others in order to accomplish changes in the church by: First – make sure your approach does no harm. Second – always use the congregation where ever possible to help bring about change. Third – consistently and methodically use scripture, experience, and reason to initiate the needed change with the help of the congregation.

26. #10: Vital pastors motivate the congregation to set and achieve significant goals through effective leadership by: The ability to form relationships. Through servant hood because the better you serve, the more God raises you up to leadership. It is the role of the leadership to help others to “connect the dots”.

27. #16 Vital churches use more multi-media in contemporary worship by: Using social media to attract potential youth and younger members