Rethink Church Training

The Communications Ministry Training Program will bring training in seven areas to the local church.

Here is a brief introduction to Rethink Church:

You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

Isaiah 58:12, The Message

The purpose of Rethink Church training is to enable every United Methodist church to develop or expand its ministries to reach seekers in their communities, and thereby fulfill the church’s mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Lay and clergy members involved will identify, strategize and plan at least one new or expanded outbound ministry designed specifically to reach seekers in their communities within two months of receiving training.

Main points to be covered will include taking the Igniting Ministry promise of “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” to the next level, by challenging every member and congregation to change “open” from an adjective (a description word) to “open” as a verb (something we DO!).  United Methodists hope to introduce Rethink Church as a movement --not just an advertising campaign. Our target audiences will be those of 18-34 year-old seekers, and 35+seekers.

United Methodist Communications and the Northwest Texas Conference will also be working together to bring a variety of training opportunities including Rethink Church to the churches within NWTX Conference.

The overall Communications Ministry Training Program is a partnership of United Methodist Communications and the many Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church.

Together, we will bring training to local church leaders in seven areas: Local Church Communications, Web Ministry, Our United Methodist Connection and Promotion of Giving, Rethink Church, Media Spokesperson and Crisis Communications, Welcoming, and Local Church Marketing.  This will enable the training of even more people in the individual Districts to carry the training forward!

The Conference Communications Office will be working to put together a training team that will be available to conduct trainings throughout the Conference. We will be seeking requests for the various trainings and will work with districts to determine where and when to conduct trainings.