mid week update February 10, 2009

Please contact us for more information:

Iowa United Methodist Foundation

2301 Rittenhouse Street

Des Moines, IA 50321

515-974-8927

* Please note rates are reviewed every Monday and may change without notice

NEW RESOURCES AT IOWA RELIGIOUS MEDIA SERVICES

During the last several months, the IRMS Preview Committee has reviewed nearly 30 potential resources and added 24 into the collection. Among them are:

Confronting Death: A Christian Approach to the End of Life with Walter Wangerin, Jr. helps us consider that we are all going to experience dying, sooner or later, and Christians, as faithful people have the power and ability to look death straight in the eye and understand it. In this compelling new 57-minute DVD from Paraclete Press, Walter Wangerin speaks directly from his heart about his own experience of living with life-threatening cancer for the last two-plus years, how it has changed his life and how his faith has prepared him to meet death.

Confronting Death helps us learn how to look forward to the world to come without dismissing our responsibilities here and now. Excellent resource for adult Sunday School classes, study groups Stephen Ministry, and working with those who are grieving. Includes study guide.

The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People with Disabilities will guide your church to create the welcoming atmosphere in which everyone involved can communicate effectively with people with various disabilities. Through humor and solid information, this resource helps people overcome awkwardness and reservations about the "Disability factor." It is adapted from many sources as a public service by the United Cerebral Palsy Associations, Inc. The DVD includes a 22-minute presentation and 3 minutes of bloopers. Accompanying print materials can easily be copied. The program is suitable for high school age and up.

City Signals: Principles and Practices for Ministering in Today's Global Communities highlights urban themes in church history, then focuses on solid theology, principles and practices of global urban ministry. This overview discusses the state of the church in the 21st Century, including how cities challenge churches, an examination of Chicago's growth to a world-class city and the challenges of their multi-cultural neighborhoods, the Ghetto as a money sieve, and city transformations in Africa and North America. Discoveries by Brad Smith and Ray Bakke will open eyes to erroneous assumptions about social service delivery and ways to become more productive. Bakke says, "If the church can penetrate the city, the nation will hear the message."

Ten 25-minute sessions are included on 3 DVDs with an Interactive Workbook that includes a Leader's Guide. Suitable for adults.

Each participant will need a copy of the CITY SIGNALS study book, which available on line at a variety of sites for $7-$15.

Check the rest of the latest resources by clicking the "new resource" button on the IRMS web site www.irms.org. Then check out for preview or usage, either on line, with a phone call or by emailing questions@irms.org.

IRMS is committed to serving you by continually adding the best, most relevant new resources to our collection. Your nominal investment in an IRMS membership is the best stewardship of your resource dollars in this tight economy.

2009 Conference-Wide Leadership Development Focus

“Excellence and Fruitfulness in Ministry: Living the United Methodist Way”

In 2009 events will be held throughout the conference focusing on the topic of Excellence and Fruitfulness in Ministry. These events will be companion events to the 2008 Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. All churches are invited to participate. Whether or not you were involved in the Five Practice workshops in 2008, “Excellence and Fruitfulness in Ministry: Living the United Methodist Way” will have something to offer your congregation.

Events will be held on Sunday March 1, 2009 from 2:30-5:30 pm in the

Southwest District - Harlan UMC

South Central District - Albia UMC

Northeast District- New Hampton UMC

Events will be held on Sunday March 8, 2009 from 2:30-5:30 pm in the

North Central District - Webster City, Asbury UMC

East Central District - Cedar Rapids, St Paul’s UMC

Central District - Altoona UMC

An event will be held on Saturday, February 28, 2009, 1:00 - 4:00 pm for the

Northwest District- Cherokee, St Paul’s UMC

(This event will be in coordination with the Northwest District Leadership Event.)

The Southeast District will focus on the Five Practices in a series of workshops scheduled for:

February 21 - Columbus Junction: Radical Hospitality and Passionate Worship

May 2 - Fairfield: Intentional Faith Development and September 19 - Mediapolis: Risk-Taking Mission & Service and Extravagant Generosity

(The content of “Excellence and Fruitfulness in Ministry: Living the United Methodist Way” will be blended into these events.)

There will be NO COST for these events. The events are NOT district specific. You are welcome to attend an event outside your district if it is more convenient.

A Conference-wide Culmination Event is being planned for September 27, 2009. Time, Location and Registration details TBA. Watch Stirrings and the conference website for more information.

During 2008, over 400 Iowa conference churches and more than 1100 people were involved in one or more of the 3 “Five Practices” events. Comments heard in several different ways in the evaluations when the question was asked about suggestions of events or a focus for 2009 were “more of the same”, “cover the same topics with a deeper emphasis”, “let’s do these topics again, but take them to another level”.

The 2009 conference focus of “Excellence and Fruitfulness in Ministry: Living the United Methodist Way” is both a follow-up to the Five Practices events from 2008, but also allows a beginning point for churches that were not involved in any or all of the three “Five Practices” events.

The District Events in 2009 will have two primary components:

The first part of the afternoon will broadly focus on the topics of “Excellence and Fruitfulness.” Churches will be provided with resourcing to help them 1) identify at least one of the five” practices” that they want to invest time, energy and resources in during 2009 and, 2) define and outline what “excellence” and “fruitfulness” outcomes in their particular settings may look like and what possibilities may exist.

During the second part of the afternoon churches will self select into their area of emphasis on one of the five “practices”. They will meet in clusters that will create Ministry Action Plans for their group, decide on benchmarks for “excellence” and “fruitfulness” both in their particular congregations and as a whole and identify one person to serve as ‘coach’ as the cluster groups meet over the course of the following 6 months.

Churches that identified a desire to take a ‘next step’ in one of the 5 “practices” in 2008 will be given the resourcing and ongoing support to accomplish that task in 2009 and into the future. Churches that are committed to doing so can move beyond theory to the more practical living out of the 5 “practices” by creating their own benchmarks and expected outcomes that fit within their particular context of ministry.

At the Conference-wide Culmination Event on September 27, 2009, churches and cluster groups will be invited to share their experiences, celebrate their successes, and plan for ongoing ministry!

United Methodist and Other News

The Reshaping of Ministry: Trends and Mysteries
Tuesday, February 17, 7:30 PM - Bigelow Chapel

One needs only to glance at a recent Association of Theological Schools (ATS) publication to recognize the vast and rapid changes taking place within theological education. And yet, one factor remains constant: a primary purpose of all ATS schools is the formation of clergy for service in local congregations. In this workshop, we will take a look at recent studies that highlight several trends, opportunities, and challenges in theological education: issues related to gender trends in ATS schools and congregations, racial/ethnic disparity in leadership, changing demographics of student populations, and the competing internal missions of seminaries and divinity schools. We’ll conclude with an honest look at why we bother with theological education, turning towards God’s mysteries as opportunities to be lived as communities of faith rather than puzzles to be solved by Enlightenment academic models.

Trace Haythorn is president of The Fund for Theological Education (FTE), a leading ecumenical advocate for excellence and diversity in Christian ministry and theological scholarship. He joined FTE from his position as director of the Vocation and Values program at Hastings College, one of the national Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. He has served pastorates in Nashville, Tenn., and Melbourne, Australia.

This event is free and open to the public.

mid-week update is a ministry of the Communications Ministry Team

of the Iowa Annual Conference