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. Yesterday, I shared a bit about how pastors are appointed in The United Methodist Church. I mentioned a form that clergy fill out each year regarding their appointment […]
Tag: united methodist church
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 […]
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 […]
As far as congregations go: Vital > Viable > Inviable I would much rather lead and be part of a vital congregation than one that is simply viable. I would much rather lead and be part of a viable congregation than one that is inviable and has not yet closed. I believe that one of […]
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 […]
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 […]
Here are some posts from Thoughts of Resurrection one year ago, that I think you might find interesting. Take a look… Will.i.am makes me smile – and he still does! Nothing to Do but Save Souls in the UMC – What else is there? Groundbreaking at Resurrection West – I had no idea that I would be at […]
Vitality seems to be the talk of The United Methodist Church. From the invitation to be a Vital Congregation to tracking metrics through Vital Signs, there has been a wide variety of response to the movement to increasing the level of reporting of involvement across several areas of local churches. Let me be clear about where I stand – […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 