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ministry renewing the church united methodist church

Reading John Wesley’s Sermons in Community on Twitter

In response to one of the questions from the #dreamUMC conversation on Twitter, I shared this update. Q3: Reread Wesley's Sermons and share the teaching contained therein with the congregation where I serve. #dreamUMC — Andrew Conard (@andrewconard) May 15, 2012 My Twitter friend and fellow UMCer Matt Lipan (@mattlipan and check out his blog here.) responded. […]

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annual conference leadership renewing the church united methodist church

I Speak in Favor of One Conference in Nebraska and Kansas #kwc12 #gpgp

Today was my first time to speak on the floor of annual conference. While it was not exactly what came out, this is what I prepared: My name is Andrew Conard. I am a clergy member of the annual conference. I am currently serving at Church of the Resurrection in the Kansas City area and will […]

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annual conference communications ministry renewing the church

2012 Twitter Hashtags and Live Streaming for #UMC Conferences

At the end of the #dreamUMC chat last night, I volunteered to collect hashtags for United Methodist conferences this year. I hope you will find it helpful to stay connected across the denomination. Will you please help me complete this list? Please send me an @reply on Twitter @andrewconard or leave a comment on this […]

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leadership united methodist church

Why I Support #PlanUMC at #gc2012

There has been much discussion about the reorganization of The United Methodist Church at General Conference 2012 with plans from various constituencies. I believe that Plan UMC is the best starting point for a way forward for the denomination. You can find out more about this restructuring plan at http://www.planumc.org Plan UMC: is the only restructure […]

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communications united methodist church

The #gc2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project

The #GC2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project Twitter was a powerful tool of engagement during General Conference 2012. I thought it would be fascinating to archive and analyze the updates tagged with #gc2012. On Tuesday morning, I set up an Archive of the #gc2012 hashtag through a HootSuite Pro account. Every day I downloaded the data […]

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leadership renewing the church united methodist church

@HarvardBiz and the UMC: The Right Mindset for Success

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 […]

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ministry renewing the church

Metrics for the UMC: A Question of Counting (1 of 3)

Several weeks ago, I wrote a series about Why Numbers Matter in the UMC and I wanted to follow that up with some thoughts that I have been percolating on since then. Statistically, for metrics to be any good they need to be measuring the same thing across time and among different locations. I don’t […]

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church leadership

Strategic Pruning: Senior Staff Retreat (2 of 4)

The conversation around the  Call to Action: Reordering the Life of the UMC and the subsequent UMC Leadership Summit, as well as the conversation in Kansas and Nebraska about Great Plans for the Great Plains: A Vision (PDF Link), I have been reflecting on the time that I spent on the spring senior staff retreat at Resurrection in which […]

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Uncategorized

You Are Invited: Young Adult Meetup at Leadership Institute 2010

One of the best parts of Leadership Institute is the opportunity to make and continue friendships near and far, to that end I invite you to a young adult meetup at Leadership Institute next week. Who: Young adult (35 and under) leader What: Meetup at Leadership Institute 2010 When: Thursday, October 7 from 8:00 AM […]

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church leadership

Church Growth = Increased Pastor Salary?

An interesting article at Slate.com, The Almighty Dollar: Are preachers motivated by the desire to save souls or to make cold, hard cash? raises the question of clergy compensation. By researching data from the Oklahoma Annual Conference researchers found: “It turns out United Methodist congregations gave their leaders a $15 boost (in 2008 dollars) on average […]

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renewing the church united methodist church

2010 State of the Church Report for the UMC

I appreciate the work to produce the State of the Church Report for The United Methodist Church. You can find it online here or use this link to download a PDF of the entire report. Here are a few tidbits that I found to be of interest: The median age of the population in the […]

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annual conference church ministry renewing the church

What to Do with Unhealthy United Methodist Congregations

I recognize there is debate about how to determine what makes a congregation healthy. What to do with an unhealthy United Methodist congregation is more difficult to determine than what to do with inffective United Methodist clergy. Kick them out of the denomination? In some cases, this might allow the congregation to become healthier. It […]