Gear Up!: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church - Softcover

Kotan, Kay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501835513 ISBN 13: 9781501835513

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

In Gear Up!, Kay Kotan outlines nine areas of ministry wherecongregations must intentionally design a process. It is not enough todecide, “We are going to refocus in this direction.” Leaders must decidehow and what steps they will take. Who will do what, and when? Thisconcise and exceedingly practical new book can help. “Kay Kotanhas long enjoyed a well-deserved reputation among both laity and clergyas a passionate, positive change agent. In her new book, readers willfind a rich synthesis of her time-tested insights and hands-on work withlocal churches of all sizes and circumstances. If your church hasslipped into reverse or is stuck in neutral, Gear Up! can help get itdriving forward!” —Jim Ozier, Director of New Church Development, NorthTexas Conference, UMC; author of Clip In and The Changeover Zone fromAbingdon Press“Gear Up! is packed with practical information andchecklists designed to empower leaders and teams. This book should behanded to every church leader and board member so that they willunderstand the essential hows and whys of effective ministry in today’scomplex world.” —Blake Bradford, Assistant Director for ClergyDevelopment, Center for Vitality, Arkansas Conference, UMC“Thisis a tactical, practical, nitty-gritty, boots-on-the-ground,systems-oriented book. It gives you a series of diagnostics to run onyour church so that you can get on the road to faithful discipling.”—Cynthia Fierro Harvey, Bishop, Louisiana Conference, UMC“Healthysystems lead to healthy churches. Gear Up! is a systems manual to helpour churches be healthy so that we can fulfill our mission of makingdisciples who transform their community and the world.” —Kelly P. Brown,Director for Congregational Vitality, East Ohio Conference, UMC“KayKotan understands that sustained growth depends on healthy systems.Gear Up! provides helpful insights and checklists to diagnose the stateof your systems so that your church can ‘gear up’ for the long run.”—Phil Schroeder, Director of Congregational Development, North GeorgiaConference, UMC

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Kay Kotan is a credentialed coach, church consultant, speaker and author. She serves as the Director of the Center for Equipping Vital Congregations for the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Bob Farr is director of congregational excellence in the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church. Frequent speaker and seminar leader, he is also the author of Get Their Name and Renovate or Die: 10 Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, both co-authored with Kay Kotan, published by Abingdon Press.

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Gear Up!

Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church

By KAY KOTAN

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-3551-3

Contents

Foreword (by Bishop Robert Farr), 
Introduction, 
Gear One Relationship-Building Process, 
Gear Two Hospitality Process, 
Gear Three Connection Process, 
Gear Four Intentional Faith-Development Process, 
Gear Five Worship Design Process, 
Gear Six People Development Process, 
Gear Seven Simplification with Accountability Process, 
Gear Eight Strategic Planning and Evaluation Process, 
Gear Nine Congregational Care Process, 
Epilogue, 
Notes, 

CHAPTER 1

Gear One

Relationship-Building Process

This process is one of my favorite processes in which to train people. And here is why ... I believe this is the very foundation of what church is all about. We, disciples and churches, are to provide the bridge between those of us who know Christ and those who don't yet know Christ. Christians are to offer relationship to others with the love and grace of Christ, so that through the movement of the Holy Spirit, they will come to have a relationship with Christ too. When I am working with people on this concept, they eagerly agree this is what we are to do as churches and disciples. Yet, most churches do not have an intentional process to do this. Yes, it has to be intentional while also being authentic. This isn't about doing a "sales job" on people. This is about us as Christians having an ache in our hearts for those who don't yet know Jesus Christ. And it is the ache that compels us to go out into the world to build relationships with people we don't know. This really is the evangelism part of our church. However, we know that most people (including some pastors) are uncomfortable with not only the word evangelism but also the practice of it. So this process helps us think about and practice evangelism in a new way that is more comfortable for people, more natural, and likely to be much more effective in our non-church centric world of today.

Let's take a moment to think about our lives as Christians. I find that most often, the social lives of Christians encompass mostly other Christians. And there is nothing wrong with that. However, if all of our time is consumed with other Christians, we can't possibly be faithful in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Our focus, energy, and resources are many times consumed in our Christian bubble. If we Christians are going to have an effect on this unchurched world, we must break out of our Christian bubble and go into the world just as Jesus did. We can no longer wait for people to show up at church. The past several decades of church decline have proven that theory does not work. We must no longer sit in our pews and expect people to show up. The people in our mostly unchurched culture today have no intention of showing up in church just because they have been told they "should." Maybe "shoulds" as a motivation worked in decades past, but no longer. In fact, it is my belief that those who were forced or told they "should" go to church may very well be some of those in our de-churched culture today. My point is this — we have to become a people who go into our community and meet people where they are at. Experience life as they experience life. Build relationships over time. An authentic invitation comes from someone you know and have a relationship with that has been built on trust over an expanded period of time. An invitation without a relationship is empty and meaningless. Many would say it is also not authentic. Building new relationships with people in our mission fields must become the focus.

In our book Get Their Name, Bob Farr and I describe the following steps in relationship building.

• Get the person's name.

• Start a conversation.

• Build a relationship over time.

• Listen for their story.

• Build trust.

• Watch for an opportunity to share your faith story.

• Bring them back to the gathered community of faith with the help of the Holy Spirit.

For us to work this relationship-building process, we must have opportunities to put it into action. This action is the relationship-building gear. The cut teeth in a gear are called cogs. Different gears have a different number of cogs depending on their function and alignment with other gears. The relationship-building gear has three cogs for every Christian to practice as a part of practicing their discipleship and their responsibility as part of the church. When all three cogs are working well, it is a viable, effective gear. If one or more of the cogs are not in place, this gear will not function. We are more faithful and effective when we engage all three cogs in the relationship-building process to reach new people.

Cog One: One on One

The first cog is living a Christian lifestyle every day, looking for opportunities as we go about everyday life. We refer to this as having your radar engaged — really "seeing" people you encounter in everyday life rather than rushing from one place to the next. It is also engaging the people you "see" in your everyday pathway and taking the time for building relationships. This I know for sure — you will never have the opportunity to share your faith story and lead them back to the gathered community of faith if you don't first know their name, start a conversation, and build a relationship over time. When you intentionally and authentically interact in the world with the eyes to see people and engage in conversation, you will be amazed at all the opportunities you might have to get people's names and start conversations. Try it!

If you and/or your church need some help with Cog One, please pick up Get Their Name and its companion workbook. The book provides the information, stories, and lessons, while the workbook allows for reflection, conversation, and application. There is also a Get Their Name for Congregations available. This set includes a four-part sermon series with an accompanying small group study along with videos for worship and promotion. We have found these to be practical tools to help congregations understand a new approach to evangelism for the twenty-first century.

Cog Two: In a Group

The second cog is an approach to relationship building in a small group. In our church world, small groups might have a distinctive meaning. Many refer to a "small group" experience as a group gathered for a specific time period (weeks or months) around a specific study or activity. But in Cog Two of the relationship-building gear, "small group" is about gathering churched and unchurched people together socially for no other reason than hanging out and getting to know one another. Sometimes this is a great starting point for people to begin building relationships in the community. This prong is fun and quite easy to do, taking little to no planning. You are working in your comfort zone, doing things you already love to do. This approach is based on a few churched folks inviting a few unchurched folks to engage in some sort of activity.

The purpose of this approach is for unchurched folks to hang out with churched folks not doing "churchy" things. This removes as many church barriers as possible for a relationship to spark and build over time. Unchurched folks will have the opportunity to see churched folks in a secular...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1501835513
• ISBN 13: 9781501835513
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar