Ready Set Grow 3

The second day of Ready Set Grow training has its technical difficulties -- (OK-- just one real difficulty -- no reliable Internet access in the room) but it was still full of learning, great discussion and ideas. Here are a few things I wrote down and/or experienced:

• Vital churches know their strengths – and rehearse them and will tell you them.
• Non-Vital churches know their problems – and rehearse them and will tell you them.
• Never underestimate the power of an invitation – no matter how clumsy.
• Church development is community development. Community development is church development.
• I got to meet Kate Huey in person -- What a great person!
• Now more people are going to sing Phil Porter's "Let Loose the Spirit" in their churches! (I led the group in the song at the beginning of one of our training times.)
• Many people get really stressed when we talk about online ministry, blogging, i.ucc etc. We need to have training specifically for those things.

I want to use the ideas I discovered at Union Congregational Church, in the Prairie Association, In the Illinois Conference, with youth, at the Illinois Conference annual meeting in June . . . . This was a great training!