LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE TAKEAWAYS

When congregation leaders attend a DEVELOPING HEALTHY MESSIANIC CONGREGATIONS conference, they have many responses:

Encouraged. Hopeful. Ready, but not sure where to start. Wondering how to get their team on board with the biblical information they’re now grasping.

ON THE SAME PAGE

Lately, we’ve been urging leadership TEAMS to register for our online leadership conferences, and one Midwest congregation accepted the challenge. In addition to the leader and his wife, three couples and one single woman participated in our February 19-20 online conference. Because this group participated in the conference, they are already on the same page.

This particular leader gave us his “takeaway” at the end of the conference. “Our leadership decided to do this conference because we wanted to undertake some changes. What you’ve given to us is an awful lot for us to consider, but it’s exactly what we were hoping for—to have something to work with, so we can plan, go forward, and accomplish more for Messiah in our little community. [As a team] we will be formulating a few changes to the way we ‘do congregation’ because of the teachings we received from Sam. He led us through many good practices that should be in place in healthy congregations.”

DECENTLY AND IN ORDER

The Developing Healthy Messianic Congregations seminar is a biblical, logical, progressive program because of the scriptural admonition that “all things be done decently and in order.” (See 1 Corinthians 14:40.)

Another leader stated, “My big takeaway was the very structured, disciplined approach to discipleship. It was my ‘Aha! moment’ to realize it is strategic in spreading the Good News.” A leader from Texas had a similar response: “I see now that we need to be ‘biblically organized’ instead of just trying to bring in any kind of organization.”

“I appreciate your saying, ‘Don’t try to do too much.’” confessed one leader. “We have a lot of learning to do!” His wife described the process. “We become disciples so we can disciple others. All of it is based on prayer and our relationship with Yeshua.” Yes!

Sam reminded the group, “We’re in the people business… Yeshua died for people, not programs. So, we have to be careful that what we do is edifying.” He also urged everyone not to implement more than a couple of the concepts in a year. Too much change at once places an undue burden on leadership and congregation alike.

A couple in Florida is considering starting a Messianic congregation. They said, “If we plant a congregation, this is the only way we’re going to do it. And you’re the only one that is teaching howto do it.” This is foundational to why Word of Messiah exists—”to bring the Good News to the Jew first” through healthy Messianic congregations and be a continuing resource to the Messianic leaders in each area —and why Sam Nadler (a prolific author) has been “writing things down” as his wife, Miriam, urged him to do decades ago!

On one registration form, it appeared that we had someone attending in the Charlotte area. But we discovered that this man was “Zooming” with us from GHANA, West Africa! He got the biggest kudos for making time-zone adjustments. (More on this leader in the next issue.) His takeaway was, “This has been perfect for us. This is a great framework in our preparation for the ministry God has sent us to in Ghana. We needed a playbook. And we will follow it.” Sam promised him and the others that he would be cheering them on and available to further guide them.

A PRAYER GOD DELIGHTS TO ANSWER

Once again, we admired the “chutzpah” from “the guy from California” who had to adapt to Eastern Standard Time and get up in the dark on Sunday morning to attend. As he closed in prayer, he asked God for wisdom in knowing how and when to apply the knowledge they all had soaked in over the two days. They want to DO what they KNOW! (See John 13:17) This is a prayer God delights to answer.

Will you join them, and us, in praying for these leaders? Also, please pray for God to bring the leadership TEAMS and individuals to our next Leadership Conference on June 11-12. May He continue to use Word of Messiah and Sam Nadler to help develop even more healthy Messianic congregations!