(This post is purposely postdated to keep it first. Scroll down for current posts.)
MinistryTransformers is a blog written by me, Warren Lathem, to assist the church in its ministry of transformation. I believe the true measure of ministry effectiveness is transformed lives. I also believe this transformation is tangible, measurable and obvious. It is the transformation accomplished in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ as he or she grows in their relationship with Jesus, becoming more and more like him and reproducing his holiness in their heart and life.
The views and opinions and options offered here are mine (unless otherwise indicated) and are meant to start dialogue and provide resources helpful in ministry that transforms. Most of these ideas, resources and programs have been tested in the laboratory of the church and have proven helpful in many different situations. I hope my writing and any dialogue that may ensue will be of help to you.
Come back often as I will periodically update this site offering new ideas and products. Feel free to ask questions, discuss or cuss, as you are so inclined. My prayer is for those who have teachable spirits, the Holy Spirit will use even my stuff to assist the church of Jesus Christ in reaching the lost and making disciples and transforming lives.
"You armed me with strength for the battle (Ps 18:39)." We have learned in our work of ministry for nearly 40 years the enemy will attack when we start to "tear down the strongholds of the devil." Sometimes the attack is subtle, sometime vicious. But the "battle belongs to the Lord."
Many US Christians do not get this. Why? Because we have ceased to engage in spiritual warfare by so compromising the gospel that it has no power to transform or by simply failing to take on the bastions of evil in culture or individuals or even our own lives.
So we wander blissfully from Sunday to Sunday unmolested by the devil. Why does he not fight against us? Because we have already surrendered. This is one of the reasons church fights are usually about insignificant things. I have seen so called Cristian church leaders almost come to blows over the color of the carpet, the placement of the pulpit, the change in the bulletin, the mural on the wall of the nursery, the setting for the thermostat, the layout of the parking lot, the contract for the insurance, and the list is interinable. This is not spiritual warefare. This is just bickering in the family.
War is war! Bunker Buster Booms dropped into the middle of our lives and ministries make it clear this is not just a family squabble. An enemy has attacked and seeks to destroy us, our lives, our marriages, our children, or effectiveness, our witness and our ministries. The Bible speaks of this as the "shipwreck of faith."
We learned many years ago when we were about to embark on a new ministry that would transform lives through the power of the Gospel, we better get ready. Satan would turn from the pussy cat of most mainline church theology and practice, into the roaring lion seeking to devour us. Invariably the attack would come, and usually from the least likely source, but always at the most vulnerable place. We have literally been knocked off our feet from time to time with the spiritual or physical or emotional breath knocked out of us. But God has been faithful: "Greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world."
We have especially seen this vividly demonstrated in Venezuela. Sometimes it has been so obvious and other times so subtle, yet it has been clear the devil does not want us working there. He has the country and he wants to keep it. We claim it for Christ and the pastors we are training are reaching it for Christ. People's lives are being transformed. Homes are being healed. Marriages are taking place (instead of just procreation). Churches are being planted. Unbelievers are becoming Christ-followers. Addictions are being broken. Idolatry is being shattered. Children are being fed and taught the love of Jesus. Young people are stepping into leadership in the church in remarkable ways. God is raising up a group of mature leaders for the national church. The mission of Jesus Christ is advancing as they/we Make Disciples. And ol' Slew foot does not like it.
Well, he may bruise the foot of the Body of Christ, but we will bruise his head! The battle belongs to the Lord.
That is why Paul is so clear that we have to be prepared for WAR! "Put on the whole armor of God..." This is not an admonition to arm ourselves for the next church squabble about insignificant things. This is the warning, the gracious warning that if we are going to be serious in our pursuit of Christ, his holiness, his mission and his call upon our lives we better be prepared - not for an election, not for a committee, not for a minor setback, but for WAR!
So whether your battle today is one in ministry or personal relationships or physical or emotional, know the Lord God Jehovah reigns! As Jesus, said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." It is true. I've seen it. I am looking for that display of overcoming power in Venezuela and in the lives of those I love. I know I will see it.
This morning I'm suited up ready and armed for the battle. How how I prepared? Listen to Paul:
Ephesians 6: 10"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
I would add to that what Paul next said: " 19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." (NIV)
Yesterday we worshiped with the congregation of the Ondas de Paz UMC in Cabudare, Venezuela. This congregation was started by our good friends, and now family members, Efrain and Bethsaida Morales. For several years it met in their modest home in Cabudare. When they moved to the US to be with their children Pastor Efrain appointed Alexander and Amaryllis to be the new pastors. This young couple had very little experience and almost no seminary or theological training.
However, Pastor Morales knew they were people of great faith and good character and would grow into the office. And how they have grown! That has been a sheer joy to observe. As they have grown the church has also grown. First they knocked out the interior walls of the Morales' old house. They added Sunday School rooms in the back. But the last time I worshiped there, in March of this year, the sanctuary was full and people were standing outside the doors and windows sharing as best they could in the dynamic service.
Yesterday we gathered in a large "Party Room" as a great crowd gathered for worship. The rented facility is on a main street, has off-street parking (rare in this area) and is sheltered by several very large trees, making it extremely pleasant in the tropical heat. This was great to see after being used to the overwhelmingly cramped facilities of the last 10 years.
Is the description above what is necessary before a church can be called an effective congregation: new people, new/expanded facilities, more money, more attendance? Well, maybe. These are not typical of ineffective churches.
However one factor I did not mention in my description of the church is the issue of transformed lives. Lives are being changed in this congregation. Just yesterday several adults were converted and made a profession of faith. Homes are being restored. Lives are being changed.
This is the measurement of effectiveness: Transformed lives. Not attendance, not buildings, not new members, not apportionments paid, not number in the choir or Sunday School Attendance, not cell groups or home groups, not mission teams and mission budgets, or any of the other ways we typically measure effectiveness.
My denomination has been content to have no or few professions of faith, little growth, or actually slow decline, aging congregations and dwindling constituencies and impact as long as the one vital sign was healthy: 100% apportionments paid.Other denominations have majored on other single focus issues such as theological integrity or Sunday School attendance or Baptisms, etc. The result: all mainline denominations in the US are in decline.
Effectiveness is measured by transformed lives, lives transformed, changed, redeemed by the power of the Gospel of Christ. When a church is effective it will impact its worship attendance and mission offering, its percentage of apportionments paid, its Sunday School attendance, its numbers of baptisms, etc. However those alone are not the signs of effectiveness. Our church will be judged by the Great Judge on whether we were engaged with Him in redeeming lost humanity.
Ondas de Paz is doing just that. Most churches in the US are not. There is so much we could learn from the church in Latin America! However, that would require at least the following:
1. The honest recognition that what the church in America is doing is failing miserably.
2. The burning desire to reach people with the Gospel of Christ and see lives transformed, the lost found.
3. A teachable spirit - a loss of the arrogance of the American church.
4. Humility. The Latin American church has so little of what the American Church values, but so much of what we need. Could the church in America change its core values enough to esteem what God is doing in Latin America?
When I started in ministry in the early 70's leadership recruitment in the UMC was basically the task of finding anyone who had some talents and putting them in a job in the church where they could serve. The "Nominating Committee (usually primarily the pastor)" had the unwelcome task of filling elected offices that neither functioned in the local church or had any use in the Kingdom. But our Charge Conference forms had a space for a name beside every job and we had to fill that space. If you were breathing you were a likely candidate for just about any job in the church. We just had to talk you into it either by saying, "I am asking you to take an office that really has no function/purpose, but it does put you on the Administrative Council." Or, conversely, "This is a big job, but I am sure you can do it. It will not require much time."
Either produced unsatisfactory results. The first left people, often gifted people, feeling guilty about not doing what the Job Description from the UMC said they ought to be doing and putting them in the decision-making/permission giving loop wothout sufficient "skin in the game." The other outcome was burned out church workers who disappeared every year around Charge Conference time. "I have already served my time. Get someone else to do it. I'm tired. I just can't take on anything else." This often resulted on recruiting second tier leadership instead of having the best players on the field.
Thankfully someone taught me about gifts based ministry - spiritual gifts. What I discovered was if I could help a leader discover his or her spiritual gifts, discern their passion and calling and then help them find a way to serve in the Kingdom which fully exercised those gifts, passion and calling, they soared! Avoidance and burnout ceased to be a problem. They served joyfully and sacrificially. The complaint department almost closed (although in the church it is ALWAYS open).
This discovery and experience led me to coin this phrase to capture this great truth:
Church Work Kills
Ministry Thrills
What does that mean? How many good enthusiastic church members have been beaten to death by work in the church that does not fit their spiritual gifts nor passion nor calling? Just because one is a Certified Public Accountant does not mean that she should be on the Finance Committee. She may work in that field all week but her primary spiritual gift is the gift of teaching. Therefore if she can be helped to discover that gift and employ it in the Kingdom, she will serve in effective and sacrificial and joyful ways that would never be possible on Finance. Sure, she can do the work of the Finance Committee, but it is just that for her: work. It (Church Work) saps one's energy and diminishes one's joy.
Larry was a computer programmer and typical of the sterotype. But Larry discoverd he had the Spiritual Gift of Teaching. He began to teach Disciple Bible Study (a brutally long year-long process requiring a great amount of work and perserverance by the participants). Frankly, I was not optimistic. He was a computer programmer and more comfortable with bits and bytes than Scripture and people. Now over 15 years later he is still teaching and talks about it with excitement and joy in his face.
Glenn came to me one day to tell me she felt her spiritual gifts, passion and call were leading her into prison ministry. Being the sensitive and perceptive person I am, I thought, "This is crazy. They will eat you alive in the prisons of Georgia." Fortunately I did not say exactly that, but I am not sure how encouraging I was. However, she did not need my permission and just immersed herself in that ministry. She became a part of a team that developed a model program for the families of prisoners in Georgia and it has been duplicated in other states at the request of state governments.
Church Work Kills - Ministry Thrills. These are two examples of the thrill of serving in one's area of gifts, verses filling a job in the church. Unfortunately, in my work as a District Superintendent and a church consultant, I more often saw the old way I did leadership recruitment. And resentment, fatigue, "it will never work here." and "I'm not going to do it" attitudes are the result. Joyless duty and meaningless work is the description of most leaders in most ineffective churches.
Thankfully years ago my friend John Ed Mathison taught me that just because someone said we needed a job filled in the church did not mean God wanted that job filled. If no one with the right spiritual gift came forward to serve, the church was better off not doing the task and waiting until or if God did call someone. That was a freeing realization. Of course, being a pastor meant putting names on the charge conference forms (before the Discipline was changed), but we all knew in the local church that was just a show for the DS. We found ministry occurring when lay leaders discovered their spiritual gifts, passion and calling and were given permission to pursue that. Some things did not get done. But that made no difference to the Kingdom, just like forcing people into church work makes no difference to the Kingdom - except to take away from its power and resources.
An effective process for helping both lay and clergy leaders discover their spiritual gifts, passion and calling is time consuming, but well worth the effort. Death or joy is the the difference. Kingdom work is the difference. Transformed lives is the difference.
I just finished teaching for a day in a State-wide pastor's conference in Venezuela. I was asked to teach on the Mission Church. The invitation came from a pastor who was the Valedictorian of the first graduating class of the Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela (www.venezuelaforchrist.blogspot.com). Pastor Wilmer Perez had taken my course on the Mission of the Church and wanted to introduce his fellow pastors to both the concept and the seminary. He stated to them that going to the Seminary had changed his life and ministry, particularly the course on the Mission of the Church.
One of the primary differences between effective and ineffective churches is the primary direction of their focus. Ineffective churches are inwardly focused - almost exclusively. Effective churches are primarily outwardly focused. Ineffective churches consume all given to them (leadership resources, finances, location, facilities, etc.) with centripetal power. Effective churches multiply resources given through the release of centrifugal energy into the world. Effective churches are about "them," those outside the church. Ineffective churches are about "us." those inside the church.
This simple comparison and contrast is worth much more examination and something I do in the Seminary course. However, it is enough of a thumbnail sketch for one to begin to understand the basic difference between the Mission Church and the Traditional or "Chapel" Church.
The pastors in the conference in Venezuela demonstrated this simple, but profound truth in an exercise depicted in the following pictures. I asked for volunteers and 10-12 people quickly stepped to the front. Then I asked them to form a circle and join hands. They did what I have seen in every case where I have scores of times asked this to be done.
Then I asked them if they could still hold hands and form a different kind of circle. After some discomfort and confusion they eventually moved to the form of a circle pictured here in which they were facing outward. These contrasting ways to be in community (holding hands) are powerfully demonstrative of the difference between the inward focus or outward focus of ineffective and effective churches.
There are many ways illustrate this and/or examine objectively which one best describes our church. However, simply asking this question is a great beginning: "Are we primarily an inwardly or outwardly focused church?" The answers may help us change the focus and move from ineffective, irrelevant church life to transformational ministry in a lost and broken world.
Today I am teaching a statewide Pastor's Conference in the Yaracuy State of Venezuela. One of the issues we will examine is the power of vision and how to make a vision of God's Preferred Future become a reality instead of just a dream.
A key concept in this process is the development of a Vision Map, a strategic plan for the major milestones that must be achieved to move from Current Reality to God's Preferred Future.
Most people who write on this subject say the same things because so much of the reality of Vision and Planning is universally true. I simply want to bring two more items into the discussion of how leaders move the church from Current Reality to God's Preferred future.
The first item is the concept of the "Lazy S Curve." This is depicted by the curvy line in the image above. Churches or organizations do not grow in straight-line or linear progression. There is no straight-line growth in the real world. For example, hunters who spend a great deal of time in the woods know if they see something in their binoculars which is perfectly straight, it is not natural, but man-made. Life does not grow in a straight time. There are times of great growth and times of rest or plateau in every church or organization.
For example, a new congregation begins meeting in the school cafeteria. Their growth is recorded and displayed on a graph. There may be a time of rapid upward movement of the growth indicator. Then something happens. It could be a lot of things. But one thing is clear, the growth rate has slowed or even stopped and the congregation does not experience the exponential growth they had known in the past. What happened?
For the sake of this discussion we will assume the thing that happened is they hit the 80% seating capacity in their worship area. A careful look at their attendance figures reveal that occasionally they exceed that 80% full statistic, but invariably their attendance drops back to the limit set by the space and comfortable seating in that space. (Note: some cultures will experience this at 90% instead of 80% because of their cultural definition of personal space requirements. 80% is generally true in Anglo cultures).
So the leaders are faced with a problem: the growth has stopped and the congregation is not yet strong enough to purchase or lease a larger facility. After much "weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth," they make a decision to add an additional worship service in the same space each Sunday morning. They add the service, doing all things well, and attendance begins to grow again and the graph of that attendance takes a significant up swing.
The plateaus and the changes in the rate of growth are called "Inflection Points" An Inflection Point is when there is a change in direction (growth of attendance, number of discipleship groups, giving, missional involvement, any aspect of church life). These inflection points may arise from within the congregation or may come from the environment around it.
An example of an inflection point within the congregation is the change in pastoral leadership. This often changes the direction of the growth of the attendance - either up or down. But the organizational decision to change pastoral leadership will be an inflection point that will change the direction of the graph of the growth of the church.
An external or environmental inflection point is something that occurs outside the congregation that changes the direction of the growth. An environmental inflection point with which most leaders are currently dealing is the economic stagnation and recession in the US and around the world. The graph of the church's giving may have been showing growth for several years, perhaps even remarkable growth. But for many churches that direction changed and the "Lazy S Curve" graph reflects it as a plateau or even a decline.
When there is change of direction (growth) that is an Inflection Point and may be internally or externally generated. The task of effective leadership is to either respond to those changes in direction with proactive and transformational decision making and actions or anticipate those changes in direction and take peremptory actions to change the direction again to a positive growth rate.
For example, the new congregation meetng in the school does not have to languish for years asking why their growth has practically stopped and pointing fingers of blame at any number of characters, especially the pastor and worship leaders.. A proactive leader would look at the rate of growth, project that into the future and determine that in 18 months we will be out of worship space in our one service and will have to do something to avoid stagnation. That effective leader will then engage his/her fellow leaders in exploring the options and making the decisions which will proactively change the direction of the growth of the church. This pro-activity is one of the marks of effective leadership - anticipating the Inflection Points and making preparations for them in advance.
Several years ago the Consulting Group I worked with was invited by a large growing church in another state to work with them and help them evaluate their ministry and make plans for the future. The "pain" or Inflection Point that prompted the call and later action was the fact they had just built a much larger worship facility but attendance had not significantly increased. A quick look at their facilities determined they were at capacity in their parking lot. The preaching and worship service was so strong the parking lot was filled to capacity most Sundays and every Sunday people wold drive onto the lot, look for a non-existent parking space and drive away in frustration. This should have been anticipated and addressed in the planing and building stages but had simply been missed. Therefore, their growth graph reflected by the "Lazy S Curve" above was in a flat cycle. It took time to get the money and create new and additional convenient parking., However, when it was completed, the growth graph immediately took a significant upswing. The inflection point that slowed the growth was the reality of inadequate and overfilled parking. The inflection point that allowed the growth to increase again was the addition of parking.
Effective leaders respond to environmental inflection point with faith and creative decision making. Hence some churches have not experienced a decline in giving during the current recession. Rate of growth in giving has declined, but they have at least avoided a giving/funding crisis.
Effective leaders also anticipate internal inflection points and take corrective faithful action to address them before they occur. An example is the pastor of the congregation meeting in the school sees that in 18 months they will be out of space and invites his/er leadership to find a solution, an inflection point, to change that direction on the growth graph.
Sadly, most churches neither respond proactively to environmental inflection points nor anticipate internal inflection points and they live in a several year spiral of decline and ultimate death. It does not have to be so. However, for this to be avoided effective, faithful, courageous leaders must come forth to make the hard decisions necessary to change the direction of the decline using those critical inflection points to do so.
Today I am teaching in the International Leadership Institute National Conference in Venezuela. It is being held on the campus of Seminario Wesleyano de Venezuela, an institution I was privileged to co-found and now serve as President. The sessions I am teaching are all about Mentoring.
As I reflected on the material this morning again, I remembered and listed some of the critical mentors in my life throughout my life. I will limit this review to those related to my walk with Christ and ministry in the church. There are critical personal mentors who brought me to the faith, who taught me how to be a husband and father, who encouraged me in seeking an education, who taught me how to handle grief and much more. Perhaps that is the subject for a later article. However, today I reflect on the following mentors - special people in my life at special times of my life.
Evangelism: Carl Smithwick. Carl was a member of my home "chapel" church and was distantly related to us. He was also the Chief Jailer of the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. He had a passion for lost people and gave me my first "Sou-winner's New Testament." It was similar in design to Eddie Fox and George Morris' helpful work. He led our church in its meager work of evangelism. But daily he carried on the work of lay ministry and evangelism in his work at the Jail. I was privileged to spend a day with him as he made his rounds to the various wards and cells. Often he would stop to talk to a prisoner and have a prayer. I knelt with him when I was about 12 years old and he led a death-row inmate in the sinner's prayer. I expect to meet that forgiven murderer in Heaven. Carl taught and showed me what it meant to do personal evangelism. There would be many others to come after him: Jimmy Sowder, Ford Philpot, Charles Davis, Grider Denney, Robert Coleman and others, but they all built on the foundation of personal evangelism started by Carl Smithwick.
Preaching: John Ozley. John was my pastor for 14 years - and a lifetime. He came to our church when I was 7 and was there to celebrate my conversion and baptism at 8. He was one of the Campmeeting preachers when I was called to preach at 10. He secured my first invitation to preach a revival. He buried most of my family including my father and son. John was the best evangelical preacher, "Sunday in and Sunday out," I ever heard. He taught me how to preach. He was also the finest Christian I have ever known. He lived the faith with integrity and passion. When I see and hear my son preach I see glimpses of John Ozley whose influence on my preaching has been unintentionally passed on to my son. Any gifts I have for preaching have been greatly enhanced by the mentoring of John Ozley, one of the unsung heroes of the faith.
Pastoring: Clyde Lancaster. My first appointment out of seminary (my third appointment) was to a couple of small churches in Toccoa, Georgia. The pastor of the large county seat Toccoa First UMC was Clyde Lancaster. He was to serve his last years of active ministry at that church. He embraced me as a colleague and friend and mentored me in so many ways. I have often said I learned how to be a pastor from Clyde. That is, he taught me how to do intentional, effective, systematic pastoral care within the congregation and greater community. He was a master dealing with all kinds of people in a variety of circumstances. What made that so meaningful to me is how he brought me into his world of great wisdom, experience, knowledge and influence and freely and lovingly invested himself in me. Not long before he died, I drove to South Georgia where he and Myrtis lived in retirement. I wanted to thank him for his influence in my life. As was typical, he was so humble he acted as if he did not even know what he had done for me. He needed to know and I hope it was a comfort to him in his last days.
Leadership/Vision: Kennon Callahan. I first met Ken Callahan when I entered Candler School of Theology and was enrolled in the Teaching Parish program that he had instituted. It had a major role in my development as a minister of the Gospel. However, I avoided Ken and took none of his courses because I found him to be arrogant and over confident and in my arrogance and over-confidence, I avoided him. But God was at work. A few years after graduating from Seminary I was asked to be a Teaching Parish Supervisor serving as adjunct faculty at Emory University. Dr. Callahan still directed the program and I was thrown into his presence. At first I still found him arrogant and over-confident, and sometimes still do. However, I also found him to be one of the wisest and most trusted advisers in my life. I have often said, "John Ozley taught me to preach, Clyde Lancaster taught me to be a pastor and Ken Callahan taught me to dream - to seek God's vision for my life and ministry." I am eternally grateful for his careful and insightful mentoring in my life and his consistent Christian witness and passion.
Accounting: Keith Utterback. When I moved to Mount Pisgah UMC in 1983, just 6 years out of seminary, I discovered an accounting nightmare in a very small church. The church had 8 checking accounts and the pastor was the primary signatory on 7 of them. The only account handled by the treasurer was the modest payroll account. Additionally, the former pastor destroyed all financial records from the 7 accounts so I had no accounting system in place and the treasurer was not ready or willing to assume more responsibility in addition to the payroll account. I was in a quandary as to what to do. I had never had an accounting course and knew nothing of the subject. Then one Sunday Keith Utterback and his mother "just happened" to visit the church. They were members of another UMC in Atlanta, but had moved into our community. As I got to know Kieth, he made it clear they would continue to attend the other church and visit with us on occasion. That soon changed. But before it did, after his second visit, I asked him if he would help me. He was a retired Certified Public Accountant with vast commercial and church accounting experience. He agreed to come talk to me and look at what we had. He was appalled and embarrassed for the church. However, he was also appalled and embarrassed for me when he realized how little I knew about accounting. He found it incredulous that a UMC pastor could earn a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree and never have a course in basic accounting. So he said, "I will set up your books and help get your records in order on one condition: You give me one hour a week to teach you basic accounting." I agreed and he invested himself in me and the church in ways that proved invaluable in that and every subsequent ministry experience.
Giving Development: Speed Scoates. We needed to raise money to bild anew sanctuary. It was 1985 and I had never been exposed to how to raise money, neither in my home church nor the seminary. So as God directed, we asked a retired pastor DS and former Giving Consultant to work with our church. While I had not known Speed previsously, he became an invaluable and trusted mentor and friend. He also taught me most of what I know about giving development, at least the essential foundations of giving development. One of the imporant things he taught me was the importance of Pastoral Leadership in developing giving in the local church. While Jane and I had been tithers since our marriage (and before) he helped us learn how to give significantly above the tithe and to share that in helpful ways with the congregation. He helped me understand one cannot lead where one is unwilling to go or has gone. I hope in heaven he is retired from his fund raising responsibilities, but I assure you, there are many people there and will be there because of what he taught me.
Next article:
Planning: Don Smith
Little Steps: Bill Groce
Financial Adminitration: Earl McKenzie
Theological Education: Wes Griffin
Singing: Bill Gould.
Prayer: Essie Turner
