So often small membership churches get caught up in thinking that they are too small to do ministry. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Small membership churches are actually able to do effective ministry better than larger churches in some situations. We are going to focus on the positives and look at what we CAN do rather than what we can’t do..

Are you looking for children’s Sunday school curriculum? Are you overwhelmed with too many choices—but, yet not something that seems to meet your needs? This design will help you identify the priorities you have for your church in the selection of curriculum. It will introduce you to curriculum publishing partners who have a variety of curriculum options for you to choose from which will open up a lot of new ministry possibilities.

If discipleship is helping people mature in the Christian faith, how do we get them there? This design asks and answers what discipleship is and what its purpose is, then leads the group to explore the context, content, participants and process for creating a plan to help church folk learn and grow.

Safe Sanctuary deals with the need to create a safe environment for all people who walk through the doors of your church and participate in the activities and events associated with your church. Would your congregation or presbytery be prepared if a tornado hit during an event or if someone suffered a life threatening injury during an event? Helpful resources and policy checklists will be shared to assist you and your congregation in establishing a Safe Sanctuary policy for your church

This design will explore the call to serve as an elder, take a look at particular leadership styles and gifts, examine and embrace the responsibilities of being a session and how a session can expand its creativity while focusing on a vision for session meetings that will enhance spiritual development.

Many older adults are frustrated because they can no longer do what they used to do. That frustration also applies to their involvement in the work and ministry of the church. Together we will explore ways older adults can continue to be active
participants in the life of the church.

With the story of Jesus calming the storm as a guide this design leads groups through sharing the “storm stories” of lack luster enthusiasm and low attendance Sunday school. A time of discernment follows which helps groups identify the good and faithful aspects of Sunday school and begin finding ways to reinvent those things and/or embrace them with renewed
appreciation and energy.

Are you interested in learning more about Social Media (Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat) and New Media (Tumblr, WordPress, YouTube, Google Plus) and how best to use these for ministry? This design will take you through some of the most known and unknown social media and new media available and how to best use these tools for your ministry.

This design works well for a family retreat setting as it focuses first on all areas of stewardship through learning centers, moves to various forms of prayer, and then onto a discussion of spiritual gifts and helping participants identify their spiritual gifts.

Young people are feeling more and more disconnected from the words of the Bible in their daily lives. This design will focus on creating Bible studies that help young people become interpreters or translators of the Bible for their generation. We will learn some of the reasons for this discon-nection and hear several practical methods that invite young people into a deeper con-nection with the words of the Bible.

Whether you are the eighth generation of your family in the same church or a brand new Christian you are a piece in the great puzzle of a faith narrative. By exploring research methods in family, church, and local history this design introduces the tools and methods necessary to develop and share that narrative. By exploring our own roots we are better able to gain perspective from which to understand the significance of places, events, and people.

This design explores adventures in creating the “perfect” English language Bible from Shakespeare to Jefferson to Source Q. It also reviews major (and some minor) streams of thought in Bible creation.