This past fall and winter, I had the opportunity to take part in the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities program through the Kansas Leadership Center with the Missions team at Resurrection West. I want to share my reflections and learnings from that time in light of the General Conference 2012 of The United Methodist Church. Everyone […]
Category: renewing the church
Whether you are a delegate or onlooker at General Conference, there is the opportunity to take action to make progress in The United Methodist Church. Voting, taking leadership in a legislative committee, providing hospitality, monitoring, listening in – there are all kinds of opportunities to take action that might in some small way affect the […]
This past fall and winter, I had the opportunity to take part in the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities program through the Kansas Leadership Center with the Missions team at Resurrection West. I want to share my reflections and learnings from that time in light of the General Conference 2012 of The United Methodist Church. There […]
This past fall and winter, I had the opportunity to take part in the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities program through the Kansas Leadership Center with the Missions team at Resurrection West. I want to share my reflections and learnings from that time in light of the General Conference 2012 of The United Methodist Church. The […]
I have been appointed to serve as the lead pastor at First United Methodist Church in El Dorado, KS beginning July 1. This is a series of posts about this transition. When I have the chance to talk with someone more than briefly about the move one of the most common questions that comes up is about how pastors […]
I have been appointed to serve as the lead pastor at First United Methodist Church in El Dorado, KS beginning July 1. I am writing a series of posts about this transition. One of the more common questions that I have received is: What is Nicole going to do? My wife, Nicole, is an ordained elder in the United […]
I have been appointed to serve as the lead pastor at First United Methodist Church in El Dorado, KS beginning July 1. The news was announced at El Dorado and Resurrection West on Sunday. El Dorado is a city with a population of about 13,000. It is located just off I-35 about 30 minutes east of Wichita. […]
At one of my favorite coffee shops, I overheard a group of students say to the barista, “We’re going to work here when we get old enough.” I was struck by the power of this statement. The environment and culture is so enjoyable that someone would want to work there in the future. Not just […]
Last week, someone shared with me an insight that they had gained serving as a volunteer at Resurrection. You can’t lead beyond the leader. If you are not ultimately responsible for a ministry area, worship service, congregation, or nearly any other grouping of people there is always some limit on what you can implement. The […]
One of my favorite podcasts is the HBR IdeaCast. Episode 283, The Right Mindset for Success, focuses on the distinctions between a fixed and growth mindset. One of the most helpful portions was about supervision and management. This list, from Carol Dweck, describes the methods and message that a manager or leader could give to […]
At our last district clergy meeting our District Superintendent was speaking about metrics and vital churches and wanted to make one thing clear: Numbers are not vitality. Numbers are contextual. This is so true. Numbers give us insight but they are not vitality. I found a similar thought expressed on Twitter recently Growth ≠ The […]
Clearly numbers do not tell the whole story of a local church, annual conference or denomination. There are stories of life change that are more important than raw data. One of the challenges of collecting stories is how to report them. It is far easier to look at a graph of worship attendance at our […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 