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Onward: Fearless, Spirit-Led Churches challenges Conference leaders

FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA  -- Bishop Robert Schnase, Missouri Area of The United Methodist Church, told Dakotas Conference leaders in Fargo, North Dakota, “The United Methodist Church has created a giant hairball that is causing Conferences to move away from equipping the local church and being effective as organizations.”

Photo:  Bishop Robert Schnase, Missouri Area UMC, presents at "Onward: Fearless, Spirit-Led Churches in Fargo.  Photo by David Stucke, Dakotas Conference Communications.

 Conference leaders gathered at Fargo First United Methodist Church on September 26 for “Onward: Fearless, Spirit-Led Churches." The Dakotas Conference Common Table hosted the fall leadership event featuring worship, learning and discussion.

Worship and praise

Worship kicked off the event with music and prayer.  In the scripture reading from Mathew 14: 22-23, Jesus walks on water, through the wind and the waves of the sea, and encourages Peter to follow. Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?

Reverend Rebecca Trefz, Dakotas Conference Director of Ministries, preached at opening worship and inspired the 80 participants to become bold and fearless. “The reality is, any time we shift the status quo in our life and faith, there will be spiritual push-back. Think about it - the enemy doesn’t want us to make any bold moves towards Jesus.  He wants us to stay in the boat, stay gripped by fear, stay focused on OURSELVES and OUR comfort.”

Learning about the Seven Levers

Schnase, the author of Seven Levers: Missional Strategies for Conferences, led three teaching sessions. 

“The Book of Discipline has over 4,000 'shalls’ throughout the text.  It is hard to be an organization that responds to the needs of the local church with so many requirements,” noted Schnase.

Bishop Schnase describes levers as "a force that provides or assists in creating greater output."  The Seven Levers help Conferences rise to a level of greater effectiveness - leverage for greater and more effective output.

The Seven Levers described in the book are: The First Lever: A Strategy for Starting New Churches; The Second Lever: A Strategy for Clergy Peer Learning;  The Third Lever: A Strategy for Congregational Intervention; The Fourth Lever: A Strategy for Cultivating Clergy Excellence;  The Fifth Lever: A Strategy for Aligning Budgets and Resources; The Sixth Lever: A Strategy for Creating Technically Elegant Governance Systems; and The Seventh Lever: A Strategy for Reconfiguring Conference Sessions.

The levers are focus points for a complex organization like an Annual Conference.  The levers are strategies that help to make things that seem impossible doable.

Onward with the Seven Levers

Participants spent time discussing how the Seven Levers applied to the work of conference committees and agencies and local churches. Common threads to the discussion included: promoting and sustaining clergy effectiveness, starting new churches and strengthening existing churches.

Bishop Bruce R. Ough provided insight about how the Dakotas Conference is addressing each of the Seven Levers.  “We are working hard to address each of the Levers. In some, we are just beginning, and in others we have made some progress.”

UMC

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