God is a generous God who gifts us with so much. People come to our churches offering the gifts of their time, talent, and treasure to God through the church. They trust us with their faith relying upon us to help them draw near to Christ and help them live Christ-like lives. As church pastors and leaders, God entrusts so much to our care. In Luke 12:43-44, Jesus says, “Happy are the servants whom the master finds fulfilling their responsibilities when he comes. I assure you that the master will put them in charge of all his possessions.” Stewardship comes in many forms. The management of the varied resources and trust given to the church is stewardship. The ministry of management and administration may not seem as important as outreach and education, but these resources are the springboard of all the other ministries. Committed trained leaders on these committees make decisions that affect the ability of the church to do all the other programing ministries.
The Desert Southwest Conference recognizes the importance of the resourcing committees of Trustees, Finance, Staff Parish Relations, and the Leadership Team or Church Council. This fall, conference staff and volunteer leaders are creating a series of webinars to train leaders in these ministries. We have also obtained permission to use webinars created in another conference. Through our DSC University webpage, Conference treasurer, Randy Bowman, is offering a series of five webinars on best practices for Finance Committees. The first segment is available on the Conference website now https://dscumc.org/initiative/itraining/ and the remainder will be released over the next couple of months. These webinars are divided into segments so they can be shown at Finance meetings or watched by individuals at their convenience. A detailed guide to Financial Best Practices is also available for download at https://dscumc.org/initiative/itraining/.
Many churches have moved to Single Board Governance also known as a simplified structure. Kay Kotan, the Director of the Center for Vitality at the Arkansas Conference, has an excellent webinar on Simplified Structure and Accountable Leadership. This webinar helps leaders know the purpose and Best Practices for Single Board Governance. There are also downloadable resources from her book with Blake Bradford titled Mission Possible: A Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. This webinar is available now through DSC University at https://dscumc.org/initiative/itraining/.
After the first of the year, a series of webinars on Trustee Best Practices by Rev. Steve Ziegler, vice president of the Conference Board of Trustees, will be posted. And later a series of webinars for Staff Parish Relations Committees. Videos on Storytelling and Social Media and Marketing is also available at https://dscumc.org/initiative/itraining/.
These training resources will allow churches the flexibility to train new leaders any time during the year and in different settings. Please let us know if you find these new training resources helpful and what other topics would help your church be good stewards of the many resources God entrusts to us.
