Sunday, October 6, has been designated as EFCA Church Multiplication Sunday. A high quality video highlighting church planting in EFCA, digital media for your webpage, a bulletin insert and prayer points specific to EFCA West will be available. Click here for more information and to view a 2-minute video highlighting this opportunity to emphasize church multiplication in your church. "New Churches to Reach New People " is this year's theme. If you are unable to set aside October 6, simply pick another Sunday before the end of 2019.

If you want to be credentialed in EFCA or simply want to understand better this family of which you are a part, join us at Talbot Seminary in La Mirada, CA, on Friday, November 1, from 1pm-5pm and Saturday, November 2, from 8am-5pm. Once again Greg Strand , EFCA executive director of theology and credentialing, will be teaching the class. The registration deadline is Friday, October 25. To register or for more information, click here.

In an article on the International Mission Board (Southern Baptist) website, Shirley Ralston shares the three C's of staying connected with missionaries who serve outside the geographic region where a church is located. The article has a number of very helpful suggestions for staying in touch so that prayer is more specific, the missionary more cared for, and the church more connected with those whom they support. Read the article here a nd share it with your church leadership or mission team.

How can a sabbatical help you finish well? First, many pastors have never had a sabbatical and are feeling the stress as a result. Second, as the Spurgeon quote highlighted last month, taking a break is part of every person's work if they are to continue doing well. Third, this article does an excellent job of highlighting three things that can be done on a sabbatical that will help refresh and restore a weary pastor (and his family). Read How a Healthy Sabbatical Can Help You Finish Well in Your Ministry by Dan Knuff.

All of us who are privileged to serve in ministry, whether paid or volunteer, know that we are, in fact, new creations in Christ. Yet we also know that neither we nor the people we serve are instantly transformed into perfect people as we live out our identity in Jesus. Jeffrey Tacklind who pastors Church by the Sea in Laguna Beach, CA, (EFCA) has written a very personal book, The Winding Path of Transformation , about how we grow in our relationship with Christ and in our leadership through paradox. "This book is about transformation...about doing deep heart work."

" No one likes rules, but without them, life descends into chaos. No one likes to be told what to do either, but without submission to authority, we experience confusion, and misalignment. A better approach to the necessity of authority is mutual voluntary submission, the essence of a great team... The best policies help make life and leadership better, make subjective issues clear, and thereby save time from repeating the same conversation over and over, and they reflect common sense." In his article, Three Big Mistakes in Making Church Policies , Dan Reiland has identified the three most common and potentially problematic mistakes churches make when they establish policy.

"Authority has been given to me, like a hand-me-down coat that is two sizes too large. It isn't so big that it falls off, but the sleeves extend over my hands. This coat of authority that I wear reveals to me just how much growing I need to do." --Jeffrey Tacklind in The Winding Path of Transformation