Attending Leadership Institute at Church of the Resurrection

Last week eight of us attended Leadership Institute in Kansas City. Leadership Institute is put on by Church of the Resurrection (COR). This is a leadership conference aimed for mainline pastors and lay leaders. Through lectures by well-known church leaders & smaller workshops led by staff and volunteers of COR, participants can learn about what has worked there. Participants can then consider how those ideas might work in their particular context.  

Church of the Resurrection is the largest Methodist Church in the United States. Started from virtually scratch in 1990 by Adam Hamilton, the congregation has over 20,000 members and nine campuses. Despite its size the congregation has a beautiful sense of humility. They are willing to share all that they are doing for virtually FREE with people who are interested. And they are willing to share what hasn’t worked. It’s amazing what has been accomplished at Church of the Resurrection, but pride and ego are not part of their DNA.

I’ve attended Leadership Institute many times—probably close to twenty. I started attending at the last congregation I served. When I came to Chain of Lakes I made a commitment that I would always attend with other lay leaders. When I attended by myself I would come back very excited about some new ideas that I learned; but because others hadn’t gone to the conference they were sometimes reluctant to implement the new ideas. Going with others has been a much better strategy of implementing what I’ve learn at Leadership Institute.

This year we had eight from Chain of Lakes attend—the highest number our congregation has ever had.

This year instead of staying at a hotel our group rented an AirBnb near downtown Kansas City. This was a terrific way for the eight of us to share with each other what we learned during the day.

One of my favorite workshops was called, “Digital Ministry on a Budget” led by Matt Williams, who is Director of the Digital Engagement Team at CIR. In this workshop he shared the basic principles and checklists that COR uses for their web sites, Social Media, email, and Artificial Intelligence. He also shared how the church uses email and shared that “email is not dead.” He said that ninety percent of people look at their email daily and across age groups people actively use email. He cited a statistic that said email is forty percent more effective than social media. At the end of the workshop he shared how Artificial Intelligence can be used. I admittedly don’t know a lot about AI, but after this workshop I’m very intrigued about taking next steps.  

 Chain of Lakes has spent much of 2024 looking at our own digital ministry. A Task Force recently completed a report on digital ministry. As I’ve worked with the task force this year, I’ve come to believe that digital ministry will be another determination of whether congregations are successful or not. The ones who do well with digital ministry will be successful; the ones who do not do well with digital ministry will not.

 

I very much enjoyed hearing Kara Powell speak. She is Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute. In her talk she made the case for the importance of youth ministry. In their research they discovered that size, location of the church, having a church app, and denomination do not make a significant difference in whether a church is vital. However a vibrant youth ministry almost always ensures that a congregation will be vital. A successful youth ministry is most important for congregational vibrancy.

IN her talk she talked about the importance of intergenerational ministry. She encouraged congregations to have five adults connected to every youth. This connection can come through serving together, talking at worship, doing fellowship activities together, or something else. She encouraged congregations not to silo away their youth ministry from the congregation. She came back to the idea of purposeful mentoring. Congregations that go out of their way to encourage adults and youth to be in relationship will be successful. 

On Thursday night, participants had the opportunity to watch the movie, “Holy Frit.” This is the story of the creation of the stained glass window in the sanctuary of Resurrection's Leawood campus. The storyline had one compelling question that drove the plot. Would Judson studio be able to complete the stained glass window by the church's deadline. The movie shared the story and even drama of the artists at Judson Studio and in particular Tim Carey to finish the project on time.  The movie is being shown as one of the movies offered on Delta airline flights.

Adam Hamilton gave two talks during Leadership Institute—the opening and closing presentation. They were both excellent. I especially appreciated that he highlighted other Methodist congregations who have experienced growth during the year. 

Kayla Flanagan saw Adam between session and was able to get a picture.

It’s my experience of being at Leadership Institute many times that the leaders of COR are very passionate about the development of the Methodist movement. I think this is wonderful. And sometimes as a Presbyterian I wish that this focus was not as apparent. I would love for the leaders of COR to identity more with the development of Protestant churches—Methodists, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, Lutheran and other mainline denominations. The more unity between mainline denominations the better. 

Even though I’ve attended Leadership Institute for close to two decades, I still enjoy the experience. I love learning from a vital, mainline congregation on what is working. I highly recommend this conference.