The Guidelines booklets, one for each ministry area, are tools that enable you to help get new lay leaders off to a good start. Each booklet includes the basic ""job description"" for the leader as well as practical ""how-to"" information important to implementing ministry effectively. Brief and to the point for the busy, but spirit-led leader, these Guidelines take some of the unknown out of leading these ministry areas. One booklet for each title makes up this set of 26 Guidelines, perfect for making them available to all church members. The twenty-six Guidelines, one for each ministry are.

The pastoral leader is the primary spiritual leader of the congregation. The pastor carries the responsibility for a number of different ministry tasks, which are condensed into seven categories. Effective pastors will also take intentional time for their own spiritual growth and restoration to maintain a vital ministry. The guideline helps each pastor navigate their role a pastoral leader. This is one of the twenty-six Guidelines that cover church leadership areas including Church Council and Small Membership Church; the administrative areas of Finance and Trustees; and ministry areas focused on nurture, outreach, and witness including Worship, Evangelism, Stewardship, and Christian Education, age-level ministries, Communications, and more. To see a full list of Guidelines, search by typing keywords: “Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation 2013-2016,” and click “search”.

You have answered the call to serve as a minister to children. Calls come in a variety of ways, yet here you are. Whether your ministry touches three children in a small congregation, three hundred children in a large congregation, or the children who live in the community where you serve, you have been invited to gather dedicated adults and scripturally sound resources to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. This booklet concentrates of the basics of ministry that help children grow in faith. It is the beginning point for organizing for ministry and is designed to help congregations use their own gifts to respond to God’s call to care for the children, on Sunday morning, through the week and for special events. This is one of the twenty-six Guidelines that cover church leadership areas including Church Council and Small Membership Church; the administrative areas of Finance and Trustees; and ministry areas focused on nurture, outreach, and witness including Worship, Evangelism, Stewardship, Christian Education, age-level ministries, Communications, and more. To see a full list of Guidelines, search by typing keywords: “Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation 2013-2016,” and click “search”.

All small groups in the local church are, or could be, places of faith formation and disciple making. By offering a more intimate setting, small groups of every kind are uniquely able to welcome and nurture people in the church and in the faith. This guideline is designed to help implement and guide the work of the ministry area. This is one of the twenty-six Guidelines that cover church leadership areas including Church Council and Small Membership Church; the administrative areas of Finance and Trustees; and ministry areas focused on nurture, outreach, and witness including Worship, Evangelism, Stewardship, and Christian Education, age-level ministries, Communications, and more. To see a full list of Guidelines, search by typing keywords: “Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation 2013-2016,” and click “search”.

The Lay Leader and Lay Member to Annual Conference are key roles in linking the vision and plan of the congregation with the ministry of the Annual conference and in nurturing cooperation and coordination of the pastor and congregation in leadership. These two roles are complementary, yet there are responsibilities unique to each role. The greatest distinction is the connections they forge with and on behalf of the congregation. The lay leader has a primary focus in linking the local church and community. The lay member of annual conference has a primary focus in linking the local church to the connectional United Methodist Church and God’s worldwide church. This is one of the twenty-six Guidelines that cover church leadership areas including Church Council and Small Membership Church; the administrative areas of Finance and Trustees; and ministry areas focused on nurture, outreach, and witness including Worship, Evangelism, Stewardship, Christian Education, age-level ministries, Communications, and more. To see a full list of Guidelines, search by typing keywords: “Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation 2013-2016,” and click “search”.

By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God's plan, What's Best Next gives you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do. There are a lot of myths about productivity--what it means to get things done and how to accomplish work that really matters. In our current era of innovation and information overload, it may feel harder than ever to understand the meaning of work or to have a sense of vocation or calling. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? Matt Perman has spent his career helping people learn how to do work in a gospel-centered and effective way. What's Best Next explains his approach to unlocking productivity and fulfillment in work by showing how faith relates to work, even in our everyday grind. What's Best Next is packed with biblical and theological insight and practical counsel that you can put into practice today, such as: How to create a mission statement for your life that's actually practicable. How to delegate to people in a way that really empowers them. How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you. How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day. How to have peace of mind without needing to have everything under control. How generosity is actually the key to unlocking productivity. This expanded edition includes: a new chapter on productivity in a fallen world a new appendix on being more productive with work that requires creative thinking. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done--the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. You can learn how to do work that matters and how to do it well.

Christianity regards teaching as one of the most foundational and critically sustaining ministries of the Church. As a result, Christian education remains one of the largest and oldest continuously functioning educational systems in the world, comprising both formal day schools and higher education institutions as well as informal church study groups and parachurch ministries in more than 140 countries. In The Encyclopedia of Christian Education, contributors explore the many facets of Christian education in terms of its impact on curriculum, literacy, teacher training, outcomes, and professional standards. This encyclopedia is the first reference work devoted exclusively to chronicling the unique history of Christian education across the globe, illustrating how Christian educators pioneered such educational institutions and reforms as universal literacy, home schooling, Sunday schools, women’s education, graded schools, compulsory education of the deaf and blind, and kindergarten. With an editorial advisory board of more than 30 distinguished scholars and five consulting editors, TheEncyclopedia of Christian Education contains more than 1,200 entries by 400 contributors from 75 countries. These volumes covers a vast range of topics from Christian education: History spanning from the church’s founding through the Middle Ages to the modern day Denominational and institutional profiles Intellectual traditions in Christian education Biblical and theological frameworks, curricula, missions, adolescent and higher education, theological training, and Christian pedagogy Biographies of distinguished Christian educators This work is ideal for scholars of both the history of Christianity and education, as well as researchers and students of contemporary Christianity and modern religious education.