PresbyGrow

Welcome to PresbyGrow! Thanks for stopping by our site.

Presbygrow is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and our Church Growth Network. Our goal is to make the best resources available — across denominational lines — for New Church Development, Church Transformation and Church Growth in general.

If you have something — a resource, website, or idea that you would like to see here, email me. We will make sure it gets posted. This site is for you so help us make it the best it can be.

The Office of Church Growth would like to make our staff, field staff and NCD coaches available to come and work with your Presbytery or church. Click here if you would like to send a request for a visit from a member of the Church Growth Staff or a NCD Coach. Or if you prefer to talk to a live person, give us a call at 888-728-7228 ext 5247.

Have a great day and happy exploring!

Philip Lotspeich, Coordinator for the Office of Church Growth

New Church Development Team Training

November 2-4, 2009

San Clemente Presbyterian Church, San Clemente, CA

What will your new church grow into?

Will your new church be around 10 years from now?

Will your new church make an impact for the gospel?

The answers to these questions can be found by examining the end purpose of your discipleship training.  The “Can I Get a Witness?” New Church Development Team Training Conference will focus on discipleship that is intent on:

REACHING those outside the church community.

SOWING the gospel and seeing communities of believers grow.

TEACHING the church to be a witness in both word and deed to the world.

REPLICATING churches through the process of church planting.

LEARNING from our sisters and brothers in majority-world churches.

We are encouraging the leadership team of your new church to come and learn what God is doing in the world and wants to do in your church.

• Location: San Clemente Presbyterian Church, San Clemente, CA
• Cost: $200/per team. (Includes meals and lodging)
• Register: Register and pay online through the San Clemente Presbyterian Church website: www.scpres.org

Registration deadline is September 1, 2009

Registration Questions: Kelly King (kelly@scpres.org)

Conference Questions:Craig Williams (craigswilliams@mac.com)

Click here to download a flier (.pdf file)

NCD Training for Presbytery Teams

September 21-24, 2009

Riverside Presbyterian Church, Sterling, VA

Discern the core values and plans for ministry, outreach and leadership for starting a church today. The “New Church Development Training for Presbytery Teams” event at Riverside Presbyterian Church will focus on the third task of Starting New Churches: A Process of Discernment– Developing a Mission Plan.

Who Should Attend?

Presbytery and Church Teams working to start a new church.  We strongly encourage that the entire team attend this event.

Teams who have at least 3 people will receive the added benefit of working with a coach on your projects during all of the break-out sessions.

What Will We Learn?

This period of training and discernment will not present “the only way” to start new church but will rather explore the many possibilities for starting new churches for the people God has placed on your hearts.  Teams will go on area site visits and will hear from presenters with a wide variety of experiences and contexts.

Location: Riverside Presbyterian Church, Sterling, VA

Cost:

Double Occupancy:    $100/person

Single Occupancy:       $250/person

• Includes meals & lodging
• Lodging is for Monday-Wednesday night

Registration: You may register online by going to: www.riversidechurch.com.  The online registration will accept payments via credit card (Visa, MasterCard) or electronic check

** Registration Deadline is August 15, 2009 **

For more information, contact:

• Brian Clark, Pastor, Riverside Church, (703) 444-3528 or brian@riversidechurch.com
• Barb Haebler at Riverside Church: (703) 444-3528 or office@riversidechurch.com
• Philip Lotspeich, Coordinator, Church Growth, 1-888-728-7228, ext. 5266 or philip.lotspeich@pcusa.org

Click here to download a flier/event schedule.

New Church Development Pastor Discernment

October 15-17, 2009

Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, Pittsburgh, PA

Is God Calling You to New Church Development?

Experience three days of prayer, discernment, and conversation with NCD coaches as you contemplate if God is calling you to New Church Development ministry. There will also be the option of staying an extra day to visit and worship with several NCD’s in the Pittsburgh area.

Space is limited to 25 participants. Participants will be selected based on references and their essay.

If the participant is selected to attend the discernment event, all meals, lodging, and transportation (up to $250) will be covered by the Office of Church Growth of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Participants will be reimbursed at the discernment event.

How do I Apply?

Submit the following to the Office of Church Growth:

• 2 letters of reference

• Brief essay on “Why I Would Like to Attend this Discernment Event”

• Please include your contact information in the email.

Email all materials to Sherry Britton (sherry.britton@pcusa.org) or Meredith Kemp-Pappan (meredith.kemp-pappan@pcusa.org)

Deadline for application is September 1, 2009.

Questions?

Contact Philip Lotspeich (1-888-728-7228, ext. 5088), Sherry Britton (ext. 5247) or Meredith Kemp-Pappan (ext. 5088)

To download a flier, click here

[UPDATE: June 29, 2009

The webinar for July 21 is full.  Please register for the webinar on July 22.]

The response to our webinar series with George Bullard and the Columbia Partnership has been extremely enthusiastic–so much that the overwhelming number of webinar registrants for the June session caused some technical mishaps.

What a good problem to have!

In order to accommodate more people, we will be offering the next webinar on July 21 AND July 22. The webinar will take place at the usual time, 2:00 P.M. EDT.

Each session will be identical and will have a limited registration of 75 seats. Presenters will be Eddie Hammett and, tentatively Randy Pierce, who are co-authors of the forthcoming book Making Shifts without Making Waves: A Coach Approach to Soulful Leadership and also co-authors of the best selling Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60.

The Making Shifts without Making Waves webinar will offer a coach approach to introducing and managing change in your church that will minimize the destructive waves that often come when change is mentioned.

Moving to multiple days while allow the webinar approach to make several changes.

• First, registration will be limited so that more dialogue can take place with the presenters through questions submitted by those in attendance.

• Second, the telephone and VOIP system will be used to allow participants to call in by telephone or to use a VOIP system through their computer.

To accomplish this, registrants will no longer be automatically approved for attendance, but will be manually approved to guarantee that registration will not exceed the reasonable limits of the Internet system being used. Currently only 15 seats no seats remain for Tuesday, July 21st. Seventy-five seats have been opened for Wednesday, July 22nd. If Wednesday fills up then a third session will be opened for Thursday, July 23rd.

To register for Making Shifts without Making Waves use the following link:

Wednesday, July 22nd at 2:00 p.m. EDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/261794025

A wee bit ‘o news from our little corner of the world wide web…

• Our Next Webinar, hosted by the Columbia Partnership, is Tuesday, June 16, at 2:00 P.M. EDT.  Click here to register.

• Grant money is available from the Office of Financial Aid for Studies for the purposes of family ministry.  Click here for guidelines and more info.

• Take a moment to read a letter from Ray Jones, our new Coordinator for Evangelism.  Ray’s blog can be found here.

Upcoming Opportunities for Coaching Training

• Coaching Skills Training: Level 1 will be offered October 19-21, 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri

• The Living Into the New Church Coaches Training Program offers online training sessions, as well as residential workshops.