PARTNER PROGRAM   One of my struggles and frustrations as a pastor was to find people (staff and lay) who had both the skills and knowledge to do what the congregation needed. Often the right person was present but that person didn’t have all the knowledge or skills needed.  This lead to a scramble to find ways to encourage and provide training so that they could shine in the position. Unfortunately, most of this training fell on the shoulders of congregation staff members who already had their hands full with other demands. When outside training was considered it was found to be expensive and often not conveniently located or timed.   Four years ago I started building a program to provide training for congregation members and their leaders to deal with this frustrating need.  My dream was to provide relevant, tangible and solid information and tools for those serving Christ’s church; whether in staff or lay positions, at a near free cost.  Great and exciting progress has been made:   We already provide over 60 hours of relevant training and we are adding more courses and more teachers.    We are now offering recordings on topics that are helpful for training boards, department leaders and committees and other ministry leader’s use.  For instance, how about having the department chairs listen to the recording of the “Goal Setting and Evaluation” session and then have a discussion on how evaluations or goal setting is being done in the congregation?  How about presenting the session on “Making Hospital/Home Visits” for the elders, visitation teams, or a membership committee?  How about having teachers experience the “Learning Methods” session and be stimulated to expand their methods of teaching?  These tools are already available for watching with audio presentation and PowerPoint visuals plus we are constantly adding to our offerings for church leaders.   We also offer seminars on topics such as Spiritual Maturity, Stewardship, Visioning, Conflict and more.   We offer free resources such as: *worship service outlines for Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy-Thursday, Good Friday, *devotional books on topics for Lent, Advent, Repentance/Forgiveness, prayer, and more, *children’s curriculum, *online giving, *outreach ideas, *spiritual maturity self-evaluation tool and growth and much more!   It is clear that many of the individuals needing this training are hindered by cost, timing, and limited access. Many want to pursue service in the church but don’t have the funds or time to sink into pursuing this tugging on their heart. Likewise we often just don’t do training for our laity because we don’t have the time to put something together.  Yet Christ’s work would be so much more effective if we could offer these kinds of aids.   That is why we want to partner with congregations in order to make the cost barrier, time difficulty and location issue disappear.  Our resources and format can help congregation function more effectively and can encourage present staff by providing resources and a strong foundation.  We need partners who help underwrite our ministry so that it can be offered for free or for only a “motivation fee” (e.g. to encourage participants to actually do the work for the sessions). Would you be willing to be a partner in this mission effort?  You can and would make a huge difference in more ways than you can imagine.  You can help underwrite training for congregations and leaders around the country by being a:   Partners who will give $250 annually. These partners, besides knowing that they are helping nurture leaders for congregations all over the country, are offered access to 2 online recorded sessions for leader training on topics such as visitation, learning methods, goal setting/evaluating, stewardship and more.   Silver Partners who will give $500 annually. Members of these partner congregations are offered 10% off live online or in person courses/seminars in addition to access to 4 online recorded sessions for leader training.   Gold Partners who will give $1,000 annually. These partners make an even larger impact in the nurturing of church leaders around the country and all members of the congregation are offered 20% off any live online or in person courses/seminars.  In addition the congregation gains access to 6 online recorded sessions for leader training.   Platinum Partners who will give $2,500 annually.  Members of these partner congregations are offered 30% off any live online or in person courses/seminars.  In addition the congregation gains access to 8 online recorded sessions for leader training.   Diamond Partners who will give $5,000 annually.  Members of these partner congregations make an immeasurable difference in the training of church leaders nationwide.  Members of the congregation are offered 50% off any live online or in person courses/seminars.  The congregation also is given access to 10 online recorded sessions for leader training   Crown Partners who will give $10,000 annually.  These congregations are offered a free live event (seminar or 2 days of tailored consultation), and 50% off any live online course in addition they have access to all of the recorded sessions for leader training (13 presently).   Every week there are people looking for ways to better serve Christ through the Church. Please partner with us to make their way easier and more effective.                           God Bless,                         Steve Wallace                         Rev. Stephen Wallace                                                   Available Online Recordings for Training These are recordings, typically 1 to 1.25 hours in length on various topics related to church issues.  The recordings include a PowerPoint presentation with audio lecture and in some cases discussion.   Board:             *Administration: is a session that talks about Vision setting as well as the “life stages” of a church                         and how to go about revitalizing an aging congregation (e.g. aging in terms of congregation life and not in average member age).  Leadership development programs are also discussed and various methods/focuses for development are presented.             *Conflict: is a session that looks at the various levels of conflict found in churches and suggestions for what and what not to do at each level.  It gives a brief overview of an important topic.             *Goal Setting & Evaluating: is a session that looks at how to set out a direction for the congregation and the importance of knowing what is most important in the journey.  It also looks at various types of evaluations and which one should be used when.   Education:             *Group Dynamics: is a session particularly helpful for small group leaders.  It goes over how to handle various problems that come up in groups, skills to develop and more.             *Learning Methods and Theories: is a presentation on various ways presentations can be done (e.g.                         4 ways lecture can be done and other ways to teach) and includes some learning theory.  It                         contains lecture but also experiential sections.   Evangelism:             *Connecting People to God #1: is a session that looks at various ways people connect to God and                         the strengths and temptations with each.  It includes devotional experiences of several.             *Connecting People to God #2: is a session which looks at generational and cultural characteristics as well as 6 perspectives that many young Americans hold about Christians as reported in the book “UnChristian”.   Membership:             *Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): is a session that looks at the key figures in the start of                         the denomination (e.g. Alexander and Thomas Campbell, Barton Stone, Walter Scott)                         as well as the key documents (e.g. Declaration and Address, Last Will and Testament of                         the Springfield Presbytery).  Finally it looks at beliefs of the denomination and the                         structure.  This could be used for a visitor orientation to the Christian Church.  *Pastoral Care and Visitation: is a session that seeks to expand those who provide support and care to congregational members.  Several potential programs are presented through which care can be provided.  Numerous scripture passages are also presented in order to set the stage for what kind of care we are to be offering.  Finally, some issues to keep in mind when visiting in the hospital, retirement facility, or home are offered.   Personnel and Pastoral Relations Committee:             *Ethics: is a session that reviews the Ministerial Code of Ethics which any personnel committee                         needs to understand in order to be supportive and protective of staff members. Stewardship:             *Administration:  is a session that talks about the benefit of expense reimbursement accounts vs. allowances, points to keep in mind in handling finances and more.  If the stewardship department sees part of its calling as helping to develop the leadership potential of the congregation, the end of the session will be helpful as it looks at ways to develop leaders. *Stewardship: is a session that looks at the purpose of stewardship and budget campaigns (these two events have very different purposes!), ways to build each, as well as some key things to put in place in the handling of the congregation’s finances.    Worship:             *Connecting People to God #1: is a session that looks at various ways people connect to God and                         the strengths and temptations with each.  It includes devotional experiences of several. If                         you have ever wondered how to build a more diverse ministry that’s reaches a wider group                         of people this session will give you insight into how that can be done.             *Special Services:  this session looks at issues and possibilities enhancements in several special services such as house blessings, baptisms, weddings, funeral and more.             *Worship: this session looks at issues involved in worship and various tools that can be used to                         create powerful worship experiences.  It also presents two styles of putting together services and a variety of ways that people (ie. teams) can be involved in the development of  worship experiences.