Context Reflection

“[The church] lost sight of its true mission and purpose to simply make more and better followers of Jesus Christ. [x]” Stetzer and Dodson agree that “churches desiring a comeback will need to make changes in order to start growing again. [27]” Grounded in scripture, each section intends to illuminate the actions necessary to facilitate a turnaround, determining the status, preparation, and change management.

The consultant spoke of visiting churches like ours and found that people many times didn’t want change because “that’s the way we have always done it”!

With the knowledge that I have acquired at Walden, it is my responsibility to do something with the knowledge that I’ve received. As one of the youth leaders at my church, we have planning meetings to assess our progress within our ministry. Since I have being attending Walden, I have learned a lot about the importance of setting measurable goals, having realistic objectives to achieve a mission. Now, in our meetings I bring awareness to these key components and ignite the group to incorporate these effective strategies to track our development. Some members appreciate my input and others probably wish I would remain silent. But I realize that I have a duty to share and implement what I have learned in a practical non-threatening

Victory Baptist Church is a case study of revitalization. It serves to show that it is possible that younger churches can become complacent very quickly when they experience growth at such an awesome rate. Victory Baptist Church seems to have a promising future in sight. One of the main goals of the associate pastor is to keep a sense of urgency and change occurring. Most of all, he know that this work cannot be done without the help of the Holy

There are many challenges to ministry in today’s world and having a vital and relevant ministry is even harder. Churches across all denominations face drastic declines in both attendees and financial giving. With this as the background, it is imperative that vital ministries seek out opportunities to grow and engage groups and communities that have previously been overlooked, missed or not involved for other reasons including some theological reasons. With this idea and goal in mind, this essay sets out to examine and design a process by which the Churches of Cherokee, Oklahoma can successfully connect with and minster to the new Hispanic community in Cherokee. Using the pastoral cycle method, a process will be designed in this essay to

Often, pastors think within the four walls of the church, and rightfully so, when they look at their ministry. However, getting involved in community events, i.e., city commission meetings, business leaders, local stores, and business, etc., are important to change the culture around the church. Trull and Carter

I was appointed to Coalbush beginning July 1, 2016. I have been observing and serving as I attempt to discover the unique context and setting for this local church in this season of their very long history. The church mission and passion has been stalled for the last few years. The Coalbush United Methodist Church entered a program about five years ago to help them evaluate their fruitfulness and effectiveness of the church. It was determined that too much time was spent in meetings and not enough time actually doing ministry. The church went through a three-year process of attempting to restructure and lessen the many other committees of the church. Missions, Outreach, Assimilation,

The book renewed hope and excitement for a pastor coming to the end of transitioning a local church from one chapter into a new one. This hope is not because the process is almost complete, but because of MacDonald’s focus on people being greater than the process. This reviewer was renewed in his heart for the real people he is pastoring. Those that are still on the team and in the family have weathered the storm as well, and are ready to be lead to wherever God might take

Complacency and comfort are attitudes that characterize and threaten even the most outwardly successful church, including this example. Factoring into the attitudes are facts that bear witness that few churches of such success and stability exist within the immediate geographic region. As McIntosh states, “Long term excellence is always the result of continual improvements over time.” Among the critical issues facing Hillcrest are the clarification of vision, leadership development among the new or younger members, and the intentional celebration of ministry wins within the context of minor changes.

Some of the opportunity and challenges pastor’s facNorth American pastors are challenge in a variety ways, one of the questions that helps a pastor to define his true intentions is figuring out some of the following ideas and awareness.

Reflection is considered as a vital element of professional practice as it precedes to insight and then subsequent change in practice. The hypothesis of reflection is not new as it can be tracked as far back in the 5th century by the influential Greek philosopher, Socrates and to the 1930s primarily focusing on John Dewey’s work. Dewey is one of the founders of learning from experience. He theorised reflection as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration’ (Dewey, 1933) initiated by a specific situation which was opposing, perplexing or uncertain. One of its most common use today is coming up with a thought, an idea, or opinion made or an observation made as a result of concentration, suggesting in essence a way of thinking in which one looks back and meditate upon (Agnes, 2004).

The counselee is asked what brought him into the office today; in which he is expected to thoroughly present his concerns. One would at this time, introduce the counselee with spiritual formation strategies, as means to spiritually challenge the maturity and intimacy the counselee has with God (131) in a manner that is gently, compassionately, and with a humble spirit presentation.

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

Let’s see what a spiritual leader can do and how Kotter’s theory of change can be applied at the Church Organization level. One important starting point in dealing with a

Looking back at Dr. Jamal H. Bryant 's presentation entitled "Obstacles of Radical Transformation," Dr. Bryant stated that although he had served as a pastor for 15 years, he had only been pastoring his church for one year. He went on to state that his own failures were rooted in