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California-Pacific Annual Conference

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 CONGREGATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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© 2003 California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
110 South Euclid
Pasadena, CA
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Links

Find here internet links to examples of ministry and resource material

Examples of Ministries

Below are links to various conferences, churches, and ministries that may give you inspiration to start your own ministry.

www.nicumc.org/mi/2010 North Indiana Conference’s plan for growth. Informative site. Look at the “2010 Plan Updates” for dozens of examples of new church starts/revitalizations. Look further at their site by visiting nicumc.spinweb.net/cd/. Check out their "Church Development" home page with links to all sorts of material on ethnic ministries, interesting articles, and additional resources.

www.congregationallife.org Baltimore-Washington Conference’s site for church starts/revitalizations. They focus on leadership development. Look at the “Initiatives” page (link at bottom of Home Page) for examples of ministries, many of which are ethnic/multicultural.

www.flumc.org Florida Conference’s site. Click on “Congregational Transformation” on the right side of the home page (“Congregational Transformation” here refers to church starts/revitalization). This site continues to be in development, and offers articles on leading change, characteristics of a healthy church, and a Power-Point presentation.

www.theharbourumc.com The Harbour. A United Methodist Church in Huntsville Alabama. A themed church in a storefront. Offering a breakfast before service, contemporary music, round tables, and a short sermon by Pastor Tony Johnson.

www.catumc.org Catalina United Methodist Church in Tucson, Arizona. An example of a church that has a traditional and contemporary worship service running concurrently on Sunday mornings. Using the “shared facilities” model for expanding new ministries.

www.crossingonline.com A true Gen-X church in Costa Mesa, California (but attracts people of all ages). Worship using multimedia, drama, contemporary music. Well worth a visit on Saturday evening at 5:30 for one of the 4 weekend services. Founded in 1988, this church has grown into a new location with a parking structure, education facility, and huge temporary worship center. Not UMC but featured by the UMC Academy for Congregational Growth.

Resources

Below are links to various boards, agencies, groups, or companies that provide resources to help guide you in creating and maintaining your new ministry.

www.gbod.org/evangelism/resources United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, resource site. Many books and other resources on church growth and outreach. This site links to Discipleship Resources publishing.

The United Methodist Joint Committee for Congregational Development works with annual conferences and congregations to form new faith communities and revitalize existing churches. It is made up of staff from the General Board of Discipleship and the General Board of Global Ministries. Great resources and training opportunities.

www.perceptnet.com This is the Percept demographics site with a contract with the Cal-Pac Conference. Use this site to find out about the area and people your ministry will serve. This is free for most churches in the cal-pac conference. Go to the demographics page for detailed instructions.

www.One Spirit.org Cal-Pac’s guidelines and suggestions for those ministries that will be sharing facilities with another church. It is required that ministries seeking funding from The Board of Congregational Development and will be sharing facilities, follow the procedures developed by the One Spirit program

www.Alban Institute An ecumenical, interfaith organization founded in 1974, which supports congregations through consulting services, research, book publishing, and educational seminars.

www.barna.org Barna Research Group provides information and analysis regarding cultural trends and the Christian Church. This is a fee for service company but the web site has large amounts of free research material that is very helpful in gaining insights and trends about our culture. Check both the “Barna Updates” and “Research Archives” for informative articles.

www.congregationallife.org/bibliography Reading Material This is a link to the Baltimore-Washington Conference web site “Congregational Life” and their recommended reading resources. Great resources for the ethnic community. We thank the Baltimore-Washington Conference for their extensive list and summaries of books.

www.teamresources.com/PDI_Broch.pdf.  The "DISC Profile System" is a leadership profile system highly recommended by Dr. Ed DeLong, Director of Congregational Life for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.  As a matter of fact, all the participants at Cal-Pac's 1st Leadership Academy took the profile and found it very helpful. It is a simple yet very useful tool for identifying leadership styles. Having a leadership team that complements one another rather than being in conflict, goes along way in helping to achieve your ministry goals.  An online version is available for about $18 per person at  www.pdiprofile.com  Click one of the "Learn More" links near the bottom of their home page for more information.

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