e-connection: Mission-Minded Church

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July 31, 2023 | Becoming Mission-Minded

Moving from Maintenance to Mission:

Mission-Minded Church

Mission-Minded Church is a weekly blog, written by the Revs. Bill Brown and Lauren Harris, to empower your church with ideas and inspiration to grow in vitality and act in innovative ways to reach out to those who do not yet know Christ.

Bill, who has been a pastor for 31 years, is the Conference Director of Innovative Evangelism. Lauren, an itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is the BWC's Congregational Development Coordinator.

In August, the pair will welcome a guest blogger, the Rev. Tom Bandy.

Bandy is an internationally recognized consultant and coach who uses MissionInsite to teach leaders how to use demographic and lifestyle research for mission and ministry. You can view his books and resources at www.ThrivingChurch.com. Bandy has also made himself available for free one-on-one consultations for members of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences. If you are a member of either of these conferences, you can schedule a time to meet with him.

Read the Blog

The BWC's focus on becoming mission-minded is also the focus of two online classes available this fall:

The BWC's Fresh Expressions Academy, designed to equip clergy and laity to innovate and take risks to engage people not yet part of a faith community, launches on Nov. 4 and runs for 12 months. It combines presentations, coaching, peer-to-peer discussions, immersion experiences, and an online group to facilitate the cultivation of Fresh Expressions.

The experience has three key dates:

Gather: The opening training day provides an overview of Fresh Expressions and the blended ecology on Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Grow: The cohort of innovators will gather for a deep dive into practical guidance and shared learning while actively engaged in cultivating fresh expressions and other innovative forms of ministry in Florida on March 1-3, 2024.
Go: The closing gathering will be a day of “reverse mentorship” in which students will deliver a presentation about their new expression and share key learnings on Aug. 10, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Church Planter's Discernment Academy is a nine-week virtual academy beginning Oct. 9 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and ending the week of Dec. 4. Each class will last approximately 75-90 minutes. This academy is designed to inspire, evaluate, and equip clergy and laity to innovate and start new things.

Participants will discover their leadership style, strengths and weaknesses, intercultural competency and learning style, and then explore how to incorporate those discoveries into their leadership practices in a Post-Christendom context. They will also learn more about the fear of innovation, the kinds of new things that can be started within or outside of an existing appointment, the importance of guesting and hosting, and how to gather and equip the right team for the right ministry setting.

For more information and insight into how your church can grow in vitality,

contact Bill Brown or Lauren Harris.