"The downtown church has stood its ground on Dexter Avenue for nearly 120 years, witnessing decades of social change and racial upheaval and surviving various efforts at urban renewal and redevelopment. It will continue to stand as a hallmark of this historic street, but its identity will soon undergo a rebirth. In fact, the process of identifying a new spiritual focus, re-energizing the congregation and redefining its purpose has already begun. What was Dexter Avenue United Methodist Church celebrated its final service Sunday. Now, this United Methodist Church is known as "The New Church @ 301 Dexter," at least until its new identity is determined.
This process -- what the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church is calling a "restart" -- has been under way for more than a year, said the Rev. Tony McCullough, the pastor at Dexter Avenue.
It's a scary step, in some ways, but it's also a chance for Dexter to be a model for other congregations and to continue to make disciples and bring people to Christ...
...The conference has never before attempted a restart. Leaders brought in Spiritual Leadership Inc., out of Lexington, Ky., to lead the process of restructuring the church. SLI's consultants started working with a local spiritual leadership development team, made up of lay leaders who not only had leadership qualities, McCullough said, but who had both a passion for Christ and a heart for Dexter Avenue United Methodist. This team of about 10 is half members, half non-members "who are interested in what we're doing and want to see Dexter, in whatever new form it takes, to see it flourish," McCullough said. One of those members is Michael Respess, who has been a member at Dexter since Palm Sunday of this year but had visited the church many times before officially moving his membership.
Respess said the SLI team is teaching the lay leaders how to start this new church and make the transition. The local lay leaders go to seminars that last for several hours, and are then given assignments to teach them how to help their pastor make the new church a vibrant, self-sustaining house of worship. Being inclusive, Respess said, has been very important, and they've made every effort to get as much input as possible.
With a history as long as Dexter's, one might expect resistance from older members. But Respess and McCullough both say that isn't the case. "The older members are very open-minded," Respess said. "They know we have to do something, and they're behind it 100 percent..."
Read the rest of the article here. Go to the website for The New Church @ 301 Dexter
The Northwest Texas Conference began working with SLI several years ago. When we began the contract, I believed SLI would provide a helpful leadership development tool for the pastors in the Conference. SLI designed the process around elements that I considered vital for Church leaders--values, mission, vision and ministry action plans. They designed the process to include covenant relationships and strengthen the spiritual life of the participants. The process produced all of these desired results.
What I did not anticipate was the impact upon clergy relationships within the conference. Clergy persons began to genuinely love and care for one another. The process enabled clergy to overcome previous barriers to healthy relationships. Strong working teams evolved and the Annual Conference re-organized itself with small committed teams focused upon fulfilling the Conference's vision and mission. We are far from where we believe God intends us to be, but significantly closer than when the process began.
Annual Conferences seeking to create teams of leaders—clergy and laity—committed to fulfilling the Church's mission of making disciples for the transformation of the world, should examine whether the leadership at SLI could facilitate the reformation needed in the twenty-first century. I found the leadership at SLI to be flexible and determined to assist our conference in fulfilling our vision. I commend them to you.
D. Max Whitfield, Bishop
NWTX Conference UMC
"I am grateful for SLI's commitment to leadership development. Marrying the principles of spiritual formation with performance coaching, their ministry helps Christian leaders maximize their impact".
Adam Hamilton, Sr. Pastor
Church of the Resurrection
Overland Park KS
I found a place where I could share the pain of ministry and find support. I found the incubator to be a place where we were honest with each other about the difficulty of leading… and received support and encouragement. The incubator enabled me to have the strength and support to stay through the storm to see what might be on the other side. I'm not sure that we are on the other side of the storm yet but, facing the storm together is far better than going it alone.
Amy Shanholtzer
Director of Congregational Development
West Virginia Conference UMC
The ABIDE program has brought a renewed sense of excitement and hope to our church. We were already a maintaining church, but leaning towards a nostalgic downturn. ABIDE is refocusing our hearts and minds on the purpose of the church and helping us look once again to the future. Our group is deepening their life in Christ, and seeking God's will for themselves and our church. All of this after only 3 months in the program. I can hardly wait to see what God will do here by the time the program ends! Thanks SLI, for helping us ABIDE in Christ once again.
Rev. Debbie Arvelo
Alden United Methodist Church
Alden, Kansas.
Though entering into the ABIDE Process with some trepidation, we have found it to be life-changing for our five-member team. It is amazing the bond we have establish between us. We hope that we can spread this love and enthusiasm with others. We also have great optimism about the potential impact upon our small church and community as we head into the future of this ministry - with God's help.
ABIDE Team of Big Springs United Methodist Church, Kansas
ABIDE has had a wonderful impact on my life. It has brought me closer to Christ and through Him I have been able to use the knowledge learned in ABIDE to become a leader in areas where I never felt God could use me before, such as leading my church's ABIDE team and teaching women's groups. Thank you for this program.
In Christ,
Beth Murphy, Team member
Cedar Grove-Sunshine Charge, NC
"The incubator experience has helped me to become more defined as a leader. I am now more able to articulate who I am as a leader, as well as what God has called me to do in the church. I am more confident than before to firmly plant my feet and stand against the "giants" that emerge to challenge the vision.
"I am constantly telling my small group leaders that 'growing leaders produce growing Christians.' Because the incubator experience has been a source of spiritual growth for me, the leaders whom I lead have grown as well. Through the incubator, I have been able to model the importance of spiritual formation and accountability in the life of a spiritual leader."
Rene Wilt, Associate Pastor (Prior to becoming an SLI coach)
The Undiscovered Country
July 2, 2008 by leh668
I had the opportunity Monday night to visit with three churches considering ‘a restart’ in Huntington. They are working with Spiritual Leadership, Inc and coach Chuck Lord to discern exactly what they want to do. SLI’s definition of ‘restart’ is pretty bold:
A Restart is a church or churches who are committed to finding a new way to use their church(s) to do kingdom work and are willing to give up control in order to allow new leadership to form and grow. Restart churches literally leave behind their old paradigm and become a new church.
This is not a statement about worship style or culture; it is a statement of leadership and how a church listens. discerns, and responds to God’s direction.”
Chuck (pictured above) and the group, which included pastors and lay people from Faith, Highlawn, and Southside United Methodist churches in Huntington ate, shared stories about their lives, and worshiped together as their discernment process continued. I was a bystander, but it was easy to see the warmth and openness of this group.
One point that resonated with me from Chuck was that the church can learn from the secular world. To illustrate, he featured a slideshow set to Tim McGraw’s hit Live Like You Were Dyin’.
The point of the song isn’t new. For ages, the morality play has asked the same question: How differently would we act if we knew we were ‘short – timers’ in mortal life? If we knew specifically when we would be gone.
Most of us would say what the song does. We’d do the things we hadn’t been but always wanted to. We’d make amends and reflect. We’d reach out beyond our comfort zone because losing or winning would seem far less important than we’d been believing. When we are pressed, human beings are capable of taking risk, of opening up and innovating when ‘the way we have always done it’ doesn’t do it anymore.
Thank God for those gifts to humanity.
This group is utilizing those gifts, and it was inspiring to watch on Monday night.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Church Restart, Huntington, Spiritual Leadership, Tim McGraw, WV | 2 Comments
2 Responses
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These folks in Huntington are some of the most courageous, pioneers I have ever met. They are going where few have dared to go and are blazing a trail for the rest of us. Leonard Sweet calls this kind of thinking “rebooting”. I can’t wait to see where God leads on this fantastic journey!
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on October 6, 2008 at 12:05 pm | Reply Restart United Methodist Church « Living Stones: The journey of the West Virginia Annual Conference
[...] Back in July, I went to Huntington to report on three churches who were figuring out their future. Like many churches, growth and ministry were not where they had been ‘back in the day’. What to do? Continue as they were – which likely meant decline. Or die so that they might live? [...]
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