In Hebrews, Paul (or whoever “the writer” is), commanded us to: “…run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ” To be able to “run with perseverance” we need to train. A 
runner trains his body through appropriate physical activity. But for Christians to run the race we need Spiritual Training. That comes mainly from the Bible, but it also comes from our fellowship with other Christians. We learn from each other and from each others experience and wisdom.
This summer, we’re going to do some training. No, it won’t involve any physical activity. In fact, you won’t even have to leave the comfort of your home. How can our church be more effective at sharing the love and grace of God? How can we “run further” with deeper commitment? How can we put this tool that we call the “Pitman United Methodist Church” to better use?
One resource that can help is the online training offered by the United Methodist Church. A large library of courses and other resources is always offered, but during this summer our church is going to focus on three of the courses offered by United Methodist Communications:
- “Welcoming Ministry”
- “Communicating Faith in the 21st Century”
- “Tools for Increasing Your Church’s Vitality”
Each of these courses focuses on the skills and knowledge on how to improve the ways we reach out to our community… of how we “create climates where spiritual growth can occur…” (see our church’s purpose statement on the bottom right hand corner of any of our site’s pages).
Each of these six week courses is being offered from July 6 through August 17. Yep… during the summer! But, the beauty of an online course is that it doesn’t commit you to a schedule. Log in and learn whenever you’re available.
A Summer of Learning
We’re going to take advantage of these summer courses by pulling together as a church and learning together. There are three courses to choose from, and each course is held during the same six week period. Sign up for one course (your choice) and study independently, but when the church schedule “returns to normal” after the summer, we’ll get together and share what we learned.
Each course consists of reading, videos, interactive online activities like fun quizzes, and discussion forums with others across the globe who are also taking the course. There’s a list of assignments and online activities, but there are no due dates! Step through the online activities and work at your own pace.
United Methodist Communications…
The global United Methodist Church works through its Annual Conferences and local churches to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the World. That’s every Christian’s commission, but the Church pulls together to help each of us do that.
One of the many ways the United Methodist Church supports its local congregations is by providing Training and Education. And part of that training is offered via online courses. The arm that offers these courses is called “United Methodist Communications.” You can learn about other resources by visiting: http://www.umc.org/.
To take advantage of the many courses offered by United Methodist Communications, visit their site, select a course and register. If you haven’t done this before, you’ll have to set up an account… but don’t let that scare you off! It’s pretty painless. Just give them your name, email address, make up a password, and skip most of the other optional information (up to you). You can come back at any time to log in with your email address and the password you made up for United Methodist Communications Training.
Click this button to log in to your existing account or to set a new one up for yourself: UM Communications Login
Course Details…
Here are the courses that we’re focusing on this summer (yeah, we did “borrow” these writeups from the UM Communications website)…
Welcoming Ministry 100
Welcome to the Welcoming Ministry 100 course for The United Methodist Church provided by
United Methodist Communications. We are glad you have chosen to begin or deepen your
commitment to welcoming ministry and radical hospitality. We worked with ministers and
leaders to design a course for you to expand your own understanding and lifestyle of welcoming:
“extending the radical hospitality of Christ to everyone, all the time, both inside and beyond the
walls of your church.”
You also will find additional resources to help you lead others in establishing and maintaining a dynamic welcoming ministry that transforms your congregation and engages your community.
We’re not a “closed club.” Our church is a group of people who want to give away the love of Christ. To do that, we can’t keep to ourselves and huddle inside our building. Even as we hold to our core values, we need to welcome “outsiders” and embrace their ideas as we share Christ’s love together.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Interpret what it means to be welcoming and hospitable, inside church walls and out Assess personal and congregational welcoming fitness levels.
- Identify what your church is known for and how it allows you to reach out to your community.
- Identify, enlist, and train with other members for the welcoming ministry of your congregation.
- Prepare to begin or renew your church’s Welcoming Certified Congregation process.
- Stay up-to-date with resources and tools from United Methodist Communications and other agencies of The United Methodist Church as well as non-United Methodist faithbased organizations focused on welcoming ministry and radical hospitality.
Communicating Faith in the 21st Century
Welcome to “Communicating Faith in the 21st Century.” This online course has evolved from the book, We Must Speak, by Rev. Larry Hollon and is based upon the key premise of the book, which states that the Church has lost its voice in the public media and must regain it in order to bring much needed moral, ethical and spiritual values to the culture via the communications tools of the 21st century.
We are glad you have chosen to begin or deepen your commitment to sharing your faith stories. We worked with pastors and leaders to design a course for you to expand your own understanding of the importance of telling stories as part of our individual and shared responsibility to be a voice of peace, justice, hope and wholeness in the public media.
It’s not enough to stick a paragraph in the Bulletin or Steeple Notes (our monthly newsletter) and “check it off.” There’s a wide audience for our message, and different people need different channels.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain the importance of telling stories of faith and sharing individual messages in the public sphere.
- Craft and share personal stories of faith.
- Identify people and organizations with whom to build relationships via social media and other 21st century communications tools.
- Use and participate in specific tools, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Flickr, and Blog.
- Articulate and implement best practices for using 21st century communications tools to communicate faith.
- Discover additional training opportunities to organize a local church small group study for Communicating Faith in the 21st Century that can empower the local church to tell its stories of faith in the public sphere.
- Access resources from United Methodist Communications, The United Methodist Church, United Methodist News Service, and other denomination and faith-based organizations.
Tools for Increasing Your Church’s Vitality
Welcome to “Tools for Increasing Your Church’s Vitality.” This course has evolved from the book, Vital, Churches Changing Communities and the World,” by Rev. Jorge Acevedo. It is based on the premise that The United Methodist Church is experiencing a lack of vitality in our congregations, but there is hope for our future. We are glad you have chosen to begin or deepen your commitment to becoming a congregation with increased vitality.
We worked with pastors and leaders to design a course for you to expand your own understanding of what it means to be vital. You also will find additional resources to help you lead others in establishing and maintaining a vital congregation that transforms your congregation and engages your community.
“Church Vitality” is a bit of a buzzword, and actual objective metrics have been set up to measure it. But bottom line: a Vital Church is one that makes a difference in the community.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Explain the importance of having a vital congregation.
- Examine your effectiveness in Pastoral Leadership, including sharing your vision with your congregation and setting goals for your congregation.
- Examine your effectiveness in Lay Leadership, including involving more laity as church leaders and ensure the development of laypeople in leadership roles.
- Examine the effectiveness of your worship experience, including how inspiring it is and the types of services offered in your congregation.
- Examine the effectiveness of your use of small groups, including how many small groups there are and the number of children and youth programs offered through your church.
- Examine how involved your congregation is in local and global missions and be able to explain the importance of outreach.
- Set goals for your church in the five following areas.
- Create a comprehensive vital plan that examines the 16 vital strategies.
Costs…
Alas- in this world, little of value comes without a cost. And, these courses aren’t exceptions. To register for the course, you’ll have to whip out your credit card… but the cost isn’t bad:
- Welcoming Ministry: $29.99
- Communicating Faith in the 21st Century: $29.99
- Tools for Increasing Your Church’s Vitality: $49.99
But: Stay tuned for possible scholarships to help with these enrollment fees.
AND, keep in touch for details for our gathering in the fall where we’ll share what we learned.
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