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Discipleship Adventure: Develop


Below are the most recent resources to help you Develop in the Adventure.

Certified Lay Ministers launch into new calling
Certified Lay Ministry, a new order within the denomination, launched its training programs for people who will be working in local churches in partnership with ordained clergy.

Academy aims to create 'great leadership'
The Discipleship Academy premiered Sept. 27 as a learning opportunity for people to expand their spiritual leadership skills.

Where two or more are gathered

Picturing a new future: School of Congregational Development envisions new possibilities for church.
The School of Congregation Development, which met in early August, envisioned new possibilities for church growth.

Study Bible creates new visions for discipleship
The Rev. Bruce Birch of Wesley Theological Seminary recently led a team in the creation of a new Study Bible designed to make the Scripture relevant in people’s lives.

Adventure: Digging into learning
Sometimes growth means being willing to take the next step, to venture into new territory and see horizons in new ways. A conversation with a church planter, a challenge to be audacious in ministry and resources to grow leaders and churches are featured in this section of the Adventure.

Discipler Groups respond to clergy feedback
A survey of clergy revealed a general satisfaction with Discipler Groups, unique ministry that combines elements of spiritual covenant groups with corporate coaching. Based on the survey results, several changes are proposed.

School of Christian Mission offers worship and study
“Living Sacred” is the theme of this year’s mission school, which will feature studies on spiritual growth, Native Americans and Israel and Palestine

Fire, Faith, Fruits
Do we dare to have the mind of Christ? Have our own hearts been "strangely warmed?" Three bishops at annual conference challenge United Methodists to take the temperature of their own hearts this Aldersgate Day.

Wesley's rules provide a road map to living
"Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God." These rules can provide a foundation for God-fashioned living, said Bishop Jane Allen Middleton.

Adventure: Serving up Growth

Society gives God's Word to thousands
When 5,500 young people and their counselors gathered at Ocean City for ROCK 2008 in January, they each received an Extreme Faith Bible, a gift from the Maryland Bible Society in partnership with the American Bible Society and the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Resource: Spiritual Disciplines
The aim of the church is to help children, youth and adults mature in their faith. The following traits are from a study about the nature of a mature faith done by the Search Institute that suggests that a person with a mature faith

Great expectations: clergy set apart, but how?
Each Sunday in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, approximately 635 pastors climb into 681 pulpits to bring the message of God's love to 71,000 people sitting in pews.

Retreat and Camping Ministry
My good friend Dorothy Ordwein is 93. She often reminds me that camping isn't the same as it was 60 years ago when she and Clara Dixon lugged water and supplies onto the Utterback farm for an "experiment" in outdoor Christian education.

Be Adventurous - grow smaller
JAs a continuation of the UMConnection's presentation examining the four areas of focus for the 2008 General Conference we look at the third initiative of the Connectional Table: Partnering With the Poor.