Events

A Holy Conversation: Focusing the Way Forward

Registration no longer available

Purpose:

To provide a unique opportunity for United Methodist churches to become a more missionally focused, disciple making communities of faith through a prayerful, spirit directed community building process of visioning and strategic planning. 

This process is based on answering the "holy conversations" questions and beginning to develop a strategic plan of "holy actions" that is responsive to those answers.  The "holy conversations" questions are the three fundamental questions of congregational formation that rest at the heart of congregational planning. 

  1. Who are we?
  2. What has God called us to do or be?
  3. Who is our neighbor?

Participants:

Senior pastors of churches selected by the TMF Institute staff will be invited to select up to fifteen laity from their congregations to participate in a Friday evening-Saturday retreat held on-site at each participating church.

Facilitator:

The retreat for each church will be facilitated by Dr. Eric McKinney, who is a retired elder and member of the Central Texas Conference.  Eric enjoyed a very successful ministry for more than 30 years serving the Central Texas Conference churches in a variety of settings including, most recently, as senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Georgetown until his retirement in December 2006.  He also served as a District Superintendent, and led the conference delegation to the 2004 General Conference as the conference's episcopal candidate.  Eric is a gifted pastor with a sense of calling to resource pastors and congregations and he will bring great wisdom, experience, anda  passion for ministry in the local church to this retreat experience. 

The Retreat:

At the retreat the facilitator will lead the participants through a conversational and dialogical process--the focus of which will be as follows:

Friday Evening 6-8 PM:

  • Meal (45 minutes)
  • Introductions and sharing of participants history with the church
  • Sharing of participants dreams and fears for the church
  • Planning for tomorrow's work
  • Evening devotion and closing

Saturday Morning (9am-Noon with a break)

  • Morning devotion
  • A Holy Conversation-discussing the question "Who are we?"

Lunch (noon-1pm)

Saturday Afternoon (1-4pm)

  • A Holy Conversation discussing the questions: "Who are our neighbors?" and " What is God calling us to do?"
  • Developing a plan for the next year as a covenant leadership team
  • Setting the date for a 3-4 hour follow up session in 3-4 month

Resources:

Dr. Gil Rendle's and Alice Mann's Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations book will be provided to each participant as a resource for the retreat and for developing "a holy conversations" plan for the church.

Participation Fee:

Each participating Church will pay a $300 participation fee to cover the cost of the Holy Conversations book.