District Transformation Process training draws
175 clergy, laity from 33 churches

 

District transformation


What a great day! The energy was high Jan. 3 at the first day of the District Transformation Process training with Dr. Don Nations. Some 175 people, both clergy and laity, were present, representing 33 participating churches.
We are grateful to Oak Hill UMC, Austin, for hosting the all-day and evening event.
During the day, Nations outlined the three-year process. It includes every church becoming a welcoming congregation; completing the Church Transformation Survey, onsite visits and church ministry assessment; implementing specific recommendations from that assessment; and attending training events and intentional adult spiritual formation.
In the afternoon Nations introduced the DISC profile, which is a tool that helps us understand our leadership behavior. The DISC profile is widely used by Fortune 500 companies to help people understand their leadership behavior and how they interact positively or negatively with the leadership behavior of others. It was a very helpful tool that will be e-mailed to participating churches. I can see how this could be used in church staff settings to improve teamwork as well as in administrative boards and in the nominations process.
In the evening Nations led a training session on hospitality and guest follow-up, which was both informative and convicting.
Some 220 people came to the districtwide meeting earlier in October at Oak Hill UMC to hear Nations speak about the District Transformation Process. The process assumes that laypeople are key partners with the clergy in shaping the present
and future ministry of our churches.
One of the best unforeseen benefits is the amount of sharing and dialogue generated among the participants. Pastors and their key leaders spent time exploring how best to implement the ideas presented in their congregations.
Nations has the gift of making us laugh at ourselves while still taking the call of Christ very seriously. His PowerPoint presentations will also be available online so that they may be shared widely in administrative boards or in small groups. The hospitality piece will be available for use in training greeters, ushers, evangelism committees, worship committees, etc.
We have declared war on complacency. Nations made it clear that there are no magic bullets or easy solutions that will solve all our problems. Hard work; committed, competent leadership of both laity and clergy; and willingness to risk new strategies to reach new people are all facets of the transformation process. The Transformation Survey gives us a common benchmark to describe where we are. It is simply an objective mirror to help us see more clearly how effective we are in certain areas and gives us specific guidance to help us improve our performance.
I am very proud of these pastors and lay leaders willing to risk leading in new directions, willing to try new strategies to reach new people for Christ. Maybe our conference vision should be: Offer Christ to someone new.
One other celebration: Our district youth lock-in was a wonderful event, attended by almost 600 people. Praise God, and thank our district youth professionals! Amy Howell is our Austin District youth coordinator, in addition to her position as youth director at First UMC, Pflugerville. Thanks, Amy!
2007 is off to a great start, and I look forward to working with you.