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The overall strategy is to first pray for guidance at each step of the way, then develop a plan that is believed to be in line with God’s guidance. The plan is to be bathed in prayer at each meeting of any group that meets as part of the plan’s implementation, looking for any corrective guidance along the way. Much prayer has already gone into the initial development of this plan, and it is offered as a starting point in our journey towards a vibrant collection of ministries that show forth the majesty of God and bring men into the His Kingdom.

In each area of ministry, we start by organizing for implementation of the ministry. This step requires finding and selecting men with a heart for a particular type of ministry, then training and equipping them for leadership in the selected area. Generally, the idea will be to find men who are willing to lead in the ministry areas at the Conference level and in each of the 12 Districts of the North Georgia Conference (NGC). The Conference Lead in each ministry area will work with District Leads in each District form a core team that in accepts the responsibility to reach out in their respective ministries across the conference. The District Presidents will include in their respective District Leadership Committees the District leads in these ministry areas, in addition to their Zone Vice Presidents, the District Secretary, and the District Treasurer. This District Leadership Committee will meet on a regular basis to not only conduct the business issues within the district but to both gather information from and give information to the ministry leaders and receive reports from these ministry leaders as to the activities in each ministry area since the previous meeting. The Districts Leads in each of the ministry areas will be in regular contact, with each other, as well as with the Conference Lead in the appropriate ministry area for new information, ministry implementation guidance, encouragement, and communication of relevant activities in other Districts in the same area of ministry. The frequency of interactions and the communication method used for each ministry will be defined by the team consisting of the Conference Lead and the District Leads for that ministry, with primary responsibility for this communication assigned to the Conference Lead.

The second step is the development of specific goals, tasks required to achieve these goals, and expected costs to implement the tasks. Effective implementation of these tasks will lead to an expectation of increased goals as time progresses and the impact of the ministry in each area grows, with a corresponding increase in expected costs. A draft set of goals, steps, and costs for each ministry area is suggested in this plan. All these goals will surely change as the relative needs of each area are better understood by the ministry teams in each area, and, as this happens the plan will be updated. The third step is the development of revenue generation methods to fund the delineated tasks in each area of ministry. This revenue generation is expected to consist of six primary revenue streams:

  1.  regular monthly, quarterly, or annual gifts by individuals or local mens’ ministries in the churches in the conference, recognized at different levels, which are delineated in the chart at the end of the plan;
  2. special fund-raising events and activities;
  3. bequests from wills;
  4. endowments,
  5. grants,
  6. matching funds.

It is the responsibility of the Conference Leads in each ministry area to become actively involved in encouraging men in the conference, leading by example, and promoting the ministries both within and external to the conference to develop each of these revenue streams to fund the chosen ministries. It is expected that as the ministry teams are put in place and the goals and the costs of each area are communicated to the men of the North GA Conference, as well as external to the Conference, the needed revenue will flow.

Subcategories

  • Prayer Advocacy

    PRAYER ADVOCATE ACTIVITIES

     

     

    Prayer is the offering of the emotions and desires of the soul to God, in the name and through the mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is the communion of the heart with God through the aid of the Holy Spirit, and it is to the Christian, the very life of the soul. Without this relational spirit, no one can be a solid Christian.

    The following are suggestions to help you keep prayer in focus in your United Methodist Men’s District and Fellowship meetings and activities.

     

    • Have prayer walls at special events

    • Plan a National Day of Prayer - first Thursday in May

    • Plan a special prayer on Veteran’s Day, November 11

    • Host the Upper Room Prayer Line at least twice a year

    • Plan and Attend at least one prayer event per year

    • Pray with and for your pastor prior to each sermon.

    • Choose and pray with your prayer partner daily. YOUR

    DISTRICT or FELLOWSHIP can become a prayer

    COVENANT GROUP.

     

    If my people, who are call by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

    2 Chronicles 7:14

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  • Scouting Ministry

    The United Methodist Scouting Ministries Committee of the General Commission on United Methodist Men has created a volunteer position to help local churches establish and expand scouting ministry opportunities.

    Requirements of a Scouting Ministry Specialist (SMS)

    1. Be 21 years of age or older.

    2. Provide proof of youth protection training and/or take an online sexual ethics and safe sanctuaries course.

    3. Show a record of scouting/youth ministry experience.

    4. Read Scouting Guidelines.

    5. Submit $10 to become enrolled as a scouting ministry specialist.

     

    Responsibilities of a Scouting Ministry Specialist (SMS)

    1. Provide information about national awards

    2. Introduce churches to the God and Country series.

    3. Encourage church leaders to attend regional and national training opportunities. (See below for upcoming training events.)

    4. Assist with bishop’s dinners and other district and conference events.

    5. Cultivate relationships with conference and district leaders.

     

    Scouting Ministry Specialist in North Georgia

    Walt Stephens (E-mail) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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  • Spiritual Growth

    Even though Ministry Area 1, Evangelism, is a subset of this ministry area, achieving its objective requires different tasks to be implemented. When a man has accepted Christ, it is extremely important for that man to be immersed in good biblical teaching about Christian life basics, such as spiritual disciplines which are needed in spiritual warfare. Once again, the purpose of this ministry area is to support the church in its mission to accomplish this objective. As in Evangelism, the overall method to be followed is to engage individual churches to determine if there are any ways in which the United Methodist Men of the North Georgia Conference could assist the local church in this area of ministry. Some examples might be: 1) teaching specialized courses on spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, fruit of the spirit, G. Ross Freeman’s A Spiritual Journey for Men or A Transforming Journey for Men; 2) offering Certified Lay Speakers to speak when the pastor will be absent (or not) specifically on the topic of spiritual growth; or 3) offer the church a spiritual retreat focused on spiritual growth. Measurement of success in this ministry area does not come easily. One approach is to ask the pastor of each church engaged to rate on some scale (say 1 to 100) the spiritual maturity of his/her men on average, based on their intentional engagement in the church’s ministry. Get that rating before the church is engaged by us and some time (say 6 months) after our engagement. Our measure would then be the shift in the average of the ratings obtained within a given FY. Using some type of shift measurement like this one, our goals could be as follows. (Note that on this scale the goal would be to get to a point where most men in the congregation exhibited a significant spiritual growth in their lives, so a steady state goal would be a shift only due to new Christian men added to the congregation in the last year or so. For the purpose of the chart, that number is assumed to be 10%.)

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  • Missions

    Following the “Jerusalem, Judea, and to the uttermost parts of the world” model Jesus used in a portion of the Great Commission, our “Jerusalem” for Missions is the North Georgia Conference. Our utter most parts of the world is exactly that. Even in this land that considered by most of the world as inhabited by the “haves”, as opposed to the “have nots”, there is plenteous need for mission work right here in North Georgia, as well as internationally. If we think of the teaching that undergirds spiritual growth as the “talk”, missions is the “walk”. The gospel will not spread without both of these components. The goal of the Missions ministry area is simple: meet the mission needs within the North Georgia Conference and internationally. Our mission outreach to other conferences in the nation is usually in response to disaster striking, and that need is met in Ministry Area 6, Disaster Response. Here in North Georgia, however, we are it. Any need is great for the person who needs it, however small it looks to those on the outside. Mission projects as small as clearing out an elderly persons yard to projects as big as building a cottage for the United Methodist Children’s Home are within the purview of Missions. Many churches in the Conference are mission minded and do a great job of seeing to mission needs they know about in the local area around the individual churches. However, many more churches are not mission minded, leaving large areas within our Conference where people don’t have a place to turn. Also, some mission efforts are just too big to be achieved within the resources of even a big church. The job of Missions ministry area is to organize our churches to work together to meet ALL the mission needs in the Conference and as many internationally as possible. Missions ministry success can be measured clearly by the number of needs met on time within an FY.

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