Reflections From Sunday Evening

Late next week I will be with a group of Missouri Methodist's interviewing Episcopal candidates. Every four years delegates meet to elect bishops. This summer will have added significance as our bishop, Robert Schnase, will complete his allowed years with us and be re-assigned. So among the people we interview will probably be our next bishop. We talk about the characteristics we seek in our leader. We look for a person with a significant spiritual life. We all have special interests. I am interested in how a potential bishop will relate to larger churches. We look for someone who has a great heart for the local church. We look for someone with a good knowledge of the appointive process. Frankly we end up with a composite that is impossible to meet. But off we go. We continue to pursue effective, fruitful leadership. Not only is this something we look for in a bishop but we seek to nurture leadership qualities in the local church. Our vision is a big one and not easy to do. When it comes to leadership at PWUMC we are looking for people who are able to Identify, Recruit and Equip leaders who will in turn Identify, Recruit and Equip people to engage in ministry. This is the avenue to an Equipping Church. I see us in an on-going transition. We are a large United Methodist congregation. However when you attend a worship service it does not feel all that big. Our multiple service model provides various worship settings that are small or mid-sized. But when we put everything together we have a large church. The difficult piece is leadership structure. In a mid-sized church we generally develop what is referred to as a "program church" model. The church identifies ministries or programs to develop and lead. They usually call for a staff person to lead the program. This will work up to a certain level. When a church reaches around 400 in worship the program model hits its ceiling. (That is my opinion but it is probably as right as anything!) If you study our church I believe you will find that although we have over 800 people in worship we continue to operate with a program church model. We must change. In comes the Equipping Church model. In April we will have Doug Anderson, our church coach, come in to work with staff and laity specifically on the issue of the Equipping Church. I look forward to learning new skills, finding people with more resolve and leading us into a new season of ministry with this Equipping model. When we do this we will multiply ministry and enter an exciting new phase in our life together. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. I like mid 60's in the dead of winter! blessings, steve