Vitality Workshops
To schedule these workshops for your group or church, please contact the presenter listed below.
Church Development
1. Biblically Rooted Vision, Mission and Values for your Church (3-4 hours)
Every business can talk about their vision statement. Even the movie Jerry Maguire talked about it. But since the church is built on Christ and needs a Biblical Foundation, this workshop starts with the Seed Verse that God has placed on the heart of the leaders for this specific church.
Based on this seed verse, the workshop assists leaders in developing:
- Their Vision – a picture of the God-imagined future of the church 10+ years out.
- Their Mission – the key way that that church will move from where they are toward the vision.
- Their Core Values – 3-8 key components that act like DNA in the church that will replicate themselves over-and-over in the ministries and lives of the members of the church.
Presented by Dr. Larry Sherman: shermanldjjw@msn.com
2. Annual Thematic Goal (3-4 hours)
This model developed by Patrick Lencioni in Silos, Politics, and Turf Warswas also demonstrated at the Willow Creek Summit. During this workshop, the consultant serves as a facilitator to get the leaders of the church focused on finding:
- One Thematic Goal for the next year
- Three to Eight Defining Objectives that help the church make progress toward that Goal.
- Develop a process each month for the leaders to evaluate progress and make adjustments.
Contact the conference office 734-451-4670 or jody@greatlakes.cc
3. Fruitfulness Survey of Your Church (2-3 hours)
Jesus cares about fruitfulness, whether it’s a fig tree, a Christian’s life, or a church. How does one evaluate the fruit of a church? We need to look at the fruit and the roots. A farmer looks at the quantity and quality of the fruit – for unless the farmer has both, he’ll soon be out of business. The farmer also looks at the health of the tree – looking down to the roots, the soil, trunk, etc – to determine what can be done to make the tree even more fruitful.
“How can we evaluate Fruitfulness in a church?”
This tool is designed to help the pastor and key leaders to assess their health so they can be more fruitful. The pastor and each leader (or the entire congregation) are asked to fill it out honestly and confidentially and send their surveys to Dr. Larry Sherman, who will prepare a report based on your input and then come and lead a 2-3 hour workshop to help your people process the results.
Contact Dr. Larry Sherman: shermanldjjw@msn.com
4. Simple Church (3-4 hours)
This model identified by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger in their book by the same name, talks about the importance of how to streamline and organize your church for more effective ministry.
Their definition of the Simple Church is…
A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus).
The flow is simple – and can be described as following:
Clarity ⇒Movement ⇒Alignment ⇒Focus
Presented by Dr. Larry Sherman: shermanldjjw@msn.com
5. V.I.M. – Vision, Intention, Means (3 hours)
As a church considers taking steps toward vitality it is appropriate to look at its vision, intention, and means (V.I.M.). This workshop is designed to look at these three important aspects of church leadership.
VISION is the picture of God’s preferable future. It gives a target to aim at, a focus of energy and passion. Vision enables dreams to become bigger than memories.
Organizations without a view of reality may stumble along for a while but will never succeed. Organizations without vision may hit temporary targets but not moving toward potential.
INTENTION is the resolve to move forward. It looks at the will of a church to make appropriate change as it lives out its vision. It addressed the will of a people to count the cost and pay the price, and to ask the significant questions and take the significant steps.
Since vitality always takes longer than planned, is messier than expected, costs more than originally figured and requires greater determination than once thought, intention is a matter of significance in the journey to vitality.
MEANS looks at what resources are available for a church that wills to move toward its vision? How can our assets be leveraged to move us toward our vision?
Presented by Steve Armfield: swarmfield@gmail.com
6. Stewardship and Financial Procedures (1-2 hours)
An overview of
- Biblical Teaching of Stewardship
- Stewardship Policies
- Financial Officers
- Petty Cash
-
Building the budget
- From the Ministry Teams
- By the Budget committee
- Benevolence Policy
Presented by Dr. Larry Sherman: shermanldjjw@msn.com
Church Health
1. Conflict Transformation Skills for Churches (8 hours full; 3 hours mini)
- Nature of role of conflict
- Discovering your own style of conflict
- Dynamics of conflict in the church
- Managing conflict in the church
Presented by Dick Lucco: dick@greatlakes.cc
2. Restoring Hope: Strategy to Resolve Grief and Resentment (2-3 hours)
Creating a safe place for dialogue and restorative conversation
Presented by Dick Lucco: dick@greatlakes.cc
3. Veritas
i. Telling the Truth About Congregational Vitality (all-day workshop)
Veritas is a workshop designed for the whole church. It focuses on the marks of a healthy missional church and the four types of established churches in the Covenant. Veritas is appropriate for every type of established church. Many churches are finding Veritas to be a helpful tool for the church to look at the “next steps” it should take. The purpose of the workshop is to remind people that God brings life and newness to his church.
Presented by Steve Armfield: swarmfield@gmail.com
ii. Vitality Team Coaching
Congregational vitality teams are formed to encourage vitality step in a congregation. Coaching an encouragement is offered as churches follow up on their Veritas experience, do assessment studies (external and internal), establish a pervasive atmosphere of prayer, discover what from their history informs their future, write Behavioral Covenants, and find their Biblical story.
On-going with Steve Armfield: swarmfield@gmail.com
4. EPIC … Empowering People, Inspiring Change (all-day workshop)
Veritas provides the language, EPIC provides the how-to. EPIC provides tools by which congregations can implement appropriate change. As a follow-up workshop to Veritas, EPIC looks at the spirituality, chemistry, and strategy of leading healthy missional change.
EPIC also explores the inner life of the leader and how to be a non-anxious presence while leading through the turbulent waters of change. How to organize, structure and plan for change can be overwhelming. EPIC helps us to think through the process of change sequentially from beginning to end. It does not tell churches what to change, but how to change… and how to change in a way that is civil, compassionate, and Christ-honoring.
Presented by Steve Armfield: swarmfield@gmail.com
5. Behavioral Covenant (half-day or evening)
A Behavioral Covenant engages a congregation in “the conversation before the conversation.” Before a congregation agrees to enter the journey toward vitality, is commits to relate in a manner that is Christ-like and Christ-honoring. A behavioral covenant is a written document developed by a congregation and followed as a spiritual discipline. It is reviewed and appropriated on a regular basis by the church. The Behavioral Covenant answers the question, “How will we behave (how will we live together?) when we don’t understand each other and when we don’t agree?”
Presented by Steve Armfield: swarmfield@gmail.com
