Complete List of Lay Servant Ministry Courses

Lay Servant Ministries Basic Course

Pathways: All
This is an overview course that provides helpful background for all laypersons in service in the church and community. It is also required for all who pursue recognition in Lay Servant Ministries. The Lay Servant Ministries Basic Course is a foundational course designed to equip new church leaders and renew current leaders in The United Methodist Church. It explores

Leader’s Guide

LAY SPEAKER REQUIRED COURSES

(Also count as an Advanced Course for anyone not pursuing certification as a lay speaker)

Public Prayer (Lay Speaking Required Course)

Pathway: Prayer Teams
Anyone who is called upon to lead public prayer may feel anxious and possibly inadequate for such a task. This course offers help for novices as well as veteran leaders of prayer as they create and deliver appropriate prayers for those on whose behalf the prayer is offered.

Learners will:

• Consider what public prayer is and is not
• Acquire practical guidelines for avoiding common pitfalls
• Explore prayers as an integral part of worship
• Discuss the kind of language we need, and don’t need, to address God.

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Leading Worship (Lay Speaking Required Course)

Pathway: Worship Leader
This advanced course in Lay Servant Ministries focuses on the ministry of the Lay Servant who either regularly or occasionally leads a group, class, organization, or the congregation in worship. The course is grounded in the classic patterns of Christian worship and the practices of leading worship.

Learners will:

• Be able to name the four elements of the Basic Pattern of Worship and describe the history of this pattern
• Practice leadership through the four elements of the Basic Pattern; receive and offer supportive feedback on planning and leading them
• Explore and practice leading worship in a variety of settings, other patterns of worship, and multiple forms of prayer

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Life Together in the United Methodist Connection (United Methodist Polity – Lay Speaking Required Course)

Pathway: Administrative Committees
Why does The United Methodist Church do things the way it does? And what does any of this have to do with trying to be a place and a people that embody the Kingdom of God? This course will help participants get their bearings and consider the specific structural challenges The United Methodist Church faces in the 21st century.

NOTE:  Participants will also need a Book of Discipline.

Participants will be able to:

• State and describe the uniqueness, purpose, and overall structure of The United Methodist Church, its connectional system and its order of missionary preachers
• Describe the uniqueness and purpose of the episcopacy, the itinerant ministry and appointment processes, the ordering of ministry, and annual conference
• Explain the many ways our connection works together to fulfill its mission from the local church to the global general agencies
• Identify elements of the connection beyond the borders of the annual conference: jurisdictions, General Conference, Judicial Council, and central conferences, as well as other international affiliated churches
• Use new tools for discernment in making decisions in the local church

Leader’s Guide – PDF file

For the Common Good: Discovering and Using Your Spiritual Gifts  (Lay Speaking Required Course)

Pathways: All

This course reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives each Christian one or more spiritual gifts to be used for the common good. It guides readers to discover their own particular gifts and learn to use their gifts to serve others.

Participants will:

• Discover the nature of spiritual gifts through bible study and reflection
• Relate spiritual gifts to the overall life of the church and to the means of grace
• Discover one’s own spiritual gifts and examine their definitions
• Develop a plan to implement the use of spiritual gifts as an element of leader development and deployment in the local church including suggestions for how to build a ministry team or assign people to committees based on the gifts of each individual.

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Living Our United Methodist Beliefs (Lay Speaking Required Course in UM History)

Faithful Christian discipleship requires a foundation in the core belief and practices of the Christian tradition. This course offers a basic explanation of the beliefs and practices of The United Methodist Church.

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of the distinctive traditions and emphases of The United Methodist Church
• Become informed about the journey of the people historically known as Methodists and Evangelical United Brethren, who united in 1968 to form The United Methodist Church
• Become informed about the contributions of the early leaders of these churches – Wesley, Otterbein, Boehm, Albright, and many others
• Develop skills in interpreting United Methodist heritage and emphases to the local church and its members

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Called to Preach  (Lay Speaking Required Course)

This course offers practical tips for persons who are called on to preach occasionally but are not formally trained as pastors. Uses text: “From Pew to Pulpit”

Learners will:

• Examine the role of the sermon in the Service of Worship and see it as a proclamation of the Good News
• Work through the stages in sermon preparation from message topic to final manuscript
• Learn how to assess the congregation’s profile as it impacts sermon creation and delivery
• Examine technical issues of grammar, language, word selection, and humor and their impact on delivering the sermon

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 ADVANCED COURSES

(Lay Speaking courses above are also available as an Advanced Course.)

Accountable Discipleship

Pathways: Teacher, Worship Leader, Personal Faith Formation, Discipleship Leaders
This class is for anyone involved in Accountable Discipleship ministries. It explores a systematic approach for growing as disciples of Jesus Christ and will help Class Leaders, members and leaders of Covenant Discipleship groups as well as clergy.

Note: This is the prerequisite for the Class Leaders course.

By the end of this course, learners will have:

• Learned about Wesleyan spirituality and accountable discipleship, including the concept of God’s household
• Become familiar with the Wesleyan concept of grace
• Examined how the early Methodists created community and considered ways their own faith community can be a reflection of genuine Christian community
• Learned about the role of class leaders in the development of the Methodist movement
• Gained a biblical, theological, and practical understanding of lay ministry
• Become familiar with Covenant Discipleship groups

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Class Leaders

Pathway: Worship Leader, Discipleship Leaders
Class leaders and class meetings were the hallmark of early Methodism and an effective means of providing nurture and oversight of the members of the Methodist societies. Recovery of this tradition can deepen discipleship in a congregation and this course offers some guidelines for the revitalized office of class leader.

NOTE: This class is intended for participants whose churches have been engaged in Covenant Discipleship groups for at least 2 years.

The course will:

• Explore the origins of the office of class leader in the Wesleyan Methodist tradition
• Examine the need for recovering the lay pastoral ministry of the class leader for the twenty-first century church
• Describe how the ministry of the certified lay servant intersects with that of the class leader
• Examine the role of Covenant Discipleship groups in the formation of Class Leaders.
• Explore the work of the class leader and the leader’s primary purpose of encouraging members of their class to grow in discipleship guided by the General Rule of Discipleship.

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Connectional Living and Connectional Giving

Pathway:

This course will help lay servants understand and share the world-transforming power of connectional giving rooted in the biblical/Wesleyan tradition.

Learners will:

• Develop an understanding of John Wesley’s admonitions—to earn, save, and give all you can;
• Study various scriptures and how they relate to our connectional living, which leads to connectional giving and connecting to Wesley’s teachings;
• Examine the ways in which an understanding of why we give and where we invest our resources is imperative to living our faith through the United Methodist connectional system;
• Be able to describe the apportionment structure through the general church, jurisdictions, annual conferences, and districts, and how that relates to the local church and decisions made in the local church;
• Create a presentation on how living in connection as part of God’s creation leads us to giving in support of mission/ministry in that connection.

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Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition (Daily Disciplines)

Pathway: Personal Faith Formation, Discipleship Leaders
This course guides participants in discerning God’s direction for their lives, practicing daily disciplines, and reaching out in love.

Learners will:

• Become acquainted with the devotional life as practiced by John Wesley and his personal habits for maintaining that life
• Study a variety of spiritual disciplines and begin their practice
• Come to understand the role of spiritual disciplines in coming to know God
• Develop skills for leading other people to grow spiritually through daily disciplines
• Come to affirm the church as a community of believers in which people are loved and nurtured to grow in faith

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Embracing Personal Prayer

Pathways: Prayer Teams, Personal Faith Formation, Lay Pastoral Caregiving Teams
Prayer is a relationship with God that grows and matures over time. Burger’s study combines scriptural teaching and personal testimony that will help you overcome obstacles to intimacy with God. Appropriate for individuals and small groups, this resource features practical suggestions and honest testimony from a pilgrim who desires to walk with God.

Learners will:

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Transforming Evangelism

Pathways: Discipleship Leaders, Lay Pastoral Caregiving Teams

Reaching out to non-believers and searching people is mistakenly felt to be solely left up to the clergy of the church. John Wesley’s approach was to relate to other persons in love, compassion, and gratitude for God’s divine grace. This course explores Wesley’s view and what it means for all laypersons.

Learners will:

• Explore the context of evangelism, the role of the congregation and the relationship of hospitality to evangelism
• Explore the biblical models of evangelism
• Identify and reflect on faith stories
• Discuss theological principles related to the ways people come to faith
• Explore ways in which the church can support families as centers of faith development

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

From Your Heart to Theirs: Delivering an Effective Sermon

This course will expand upon basic public speaking and the foundations necessary for preparing an engaging sermon. Included are various types of sermons – from exegetical to topical to children’s sermons – as well as how to find a story, use the hymnal, and how to move from communication on paper to beyond the paper.

NOTE: Though not a prerequisite, it is highly recommended that the “You Can Preach!” course be taken first.

Learners will:

• Prepare for different kinds of sermons (exegetical, topical, personal testimony, and children’s sermon)
• Hone their preaching skills through practice in front of a group
• Provide oral feedback and written evaluation for other class members
• Receive feedback and evaluation of one’s own sermon delivery

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God’s Mission…Our Journey

Pathway: Missions
This course will provide participants with a better understanding of a holistic approach to participation in God’s mission to the world and equip lay servants for more effective missional engagement in their communities and beyond.

Learners will:

• Gain a better understanding of the biblical foundation for
  mission and why God calls us to engage in mission as an answer to God’s call
• Learn ways to live out their faith in mission through serving and loving.
• Expand their cultural awareness of the relationship between gospel and culture, and the challenges of Christian mission in
  a time of globalization.

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Justice in Everyday Life

Pathway: Personal Faith Formation
This course takes an in-depth look at the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church — the church’s attempt to speak on contemporary issues with which it is confronted today. The course covers topics such as the following: Natural World, Social Community, Economic Community, Political Community, Biblical Foundations of the Social Principles, and Teaching the Social Principles. It is not only for Lay Servants but is for anyone interested in studying the Social Principles in greater detail.

Learners will be able to:

• Explain the relationship of the Social Principles to the Bible and their roots in the Wesleyan tradition as expressed through The United Methodist Church as a “means of grace”
• Describe key positions of the Social Principles addressing The Natural World, The Nurturing Community, The Social Community, The Economic Community, The Political Community, and The World Community and correlate their statements with the lived out practice of ministry for individuals and local churches
• Create a hospitable climate for teaching and practicing the Social Principles

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Lay Pastoral Care Giving

Pathway: Prayer Teams, Lay Pastoral Caregiving Teams
This course will offer a systemic path for pastoral care using the gifts of the laity in the church. Unique to this course is the ongoing training and accountability meetings outlined for those in this valuable ministry.

Participants will be able to:

• Describe and discuss the concepts of Lay Pastoral Care
• Demonstrate appropriate interactions in a caregiving situation
• Describe life and faith passages
• Discuss the relevancy of sensitivity and supportive environments
• Describe and discuss various situations and conditions they may encounter

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Lay Servants as Christian Transformational Leaders

Pathway: Worship Leader
This course will guide lay servants seeking to be more empowered to lead their congregations toward vitality.

Learners will:

• Examine the scriptural foundation for Christian transformational leader and the role for individuals
• Encounter and experience practices for empowerment:
  • Enduring encouragement
  • Seeing beyond self-focused concerns
  • Asking right questions
  • Leading by having the mind of Christ

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Participant book – Kindle version

Participant book – EPub version

Lay Servants Lead in Conflict Resolution

Pathways: Missions, Administrative Committees, Lay Pastoral Caregiving Teams
Every church deals with conflict, both healthy and unhealthy, and lay servants can be equipped and empowered to help lead through those times of conflict as a time of transformation.

Learners will:

• Encounter conflict as a positive force and spiritual pursuit that is grounded in biblical principles, love of God, neighbor, and self
• Experience preparation steps for the work of engaging conflict
• Consider how to engage others in conflict transformation, outlining specific processes

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Leading Missional Small Groups

Pathway: Missions
This course teaches the Wesleyan way to form missional communities and congregations. It is based on the conviction that just as holiness of heart leads to holiness of life, it is communities of holy love that participate in God’s mission in the world.

Learners will:

• Recover the early days of the Methodist movement and what it means to be missional and why that is our call
• Reframe their understanding of how the means of grace shape us to serve ‘missionally’
• Be able to define a missional community, how to organize for it and what it means

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Participant book – Kindle version

Leading Bible Study

This course opens a new world for many lay servants who have not had professional training in biblical interpretation.

Learners will:

• Explore a working knowledge of biblical interpretation
• Study both the Scripture texts and the reading of context and how that changes the way we examine Scripture
• Encounter the wide range of biblical interpretation with historical, social, and cultural issues and diversity

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Aging and Ministry in the 21st Century

This course will help you learn much about the aging process and the developmental stage of older adulthood. It will also offer new ways of helping your congregation develop an intentional and comprehensive ministry by, with, and for older adults.

Learners will:

• Gain an understanding of the issues and concerns of midlife and older adults including myths and realities of aging and the physiological changes that occur in later years
• Become informed about intentional ministries with midlife and older adults including caregiving and the role of work and retirement in aging
• Acquire skills for developing a comprehensive ministry by, with, and for midlife and older adults addressing faith needs as well as end-of-life issues

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Planning Worship

This advanced course in Lay Servant Ministries builds on the course Leading Worship, and it is grounded in the principles and practices of worship planning.

Participants will learn how to:

• Form an effective worship planning team and to develop key practices for planning worship with vitality and integrity
• Work with the Basic Pattern of Worship to demonstrate a cohesive design
• Design effective transitions between the movements of the Basic Pattern

Evaluate worship planning for services using a variety of analysis tools

Leader’s Guide – Print book

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Afire with God (Stewardship)

Pathway: Administrative Committees
Stewardship is about more than meeting the budget and this course examines how stewardship is an expression of how disciples live out the gospel and all God has entrusted to us.

Participants will:

• Describe their faith journey as a steward for God
• Evaluate their local church’s system of operation and stewardship response
• Describe ‘repairing the world’ as a central issue of stewardship
• Explore the “means of grace” as a concept of stewardship and how one’s personal practice of stewardship is a sign of one’s discipleship
• Examine concepts of corporate stewardship planning and determine ways their congregations can renew their sense of stewardship

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Teach Adults

Pathway: Teacher
This course addresses skills for anyone who leads adults in Sunday School or small group ministries. It is also an excellent course for persons planning to teach Lay Servant Ministry courses.

Learners will:

• Become acquainted with a variety of teaching/learning skills and techniques
• Examine adult age level characteristics and ways to work with a diverse group of people that honor them and God
• Practice teaching in a safe environment and try new methods that incorporate a variety of learning styles
• Notice and evaluate the varieties of ways persons learn and how many teaching techniques or ideas can be successfully incorporated in an exciting and engaging session
• Increase personal effectiveness by also attending to pre-class responsibilities and preparation

Leader’s Guide – PDF download

Dancing with Words (Storytelling)

Pathway: Teacher
This course will help all church leaders, lay and clergy, to explore the history and importance of storytelling in faith development and to acquire basic storytelling skills. Especially helpful for teachers.

Participants will:

• Examine storytelling in the Bible and the history and value of telling stories
• Be able to describe what makes a good story
• Examine storytelling as preaching and testimony as storytelling
• Claim the process of learning a story and begin preparing a story
• Acquire and demonstrate tools and techniques for storytelling that engages the audience

Leader’s Guide – Print book

Campus Ministry: Empowering Congregations to Support Students at Colleges and Universities

This course helps lay servants understand and communicate the key role played by local churches in nourishing the spiritual lives of college students through campus ministries.

Participants will:

• Develop a general understanding of the developmental needs of the 18- to 26-year-old demographic in the United States
• Become familiar with general categories of institutions of higher learning
• Examine basic structures for campus ministries and offices of spiritual and religious life on college or university campuses
• Analyze a framework to discern how United Methodist congregations may be called to serve students in their local context
• Acquire tools to begin bridging the administrative structures at the institution of higher learning in question to gain appropriate access to students.

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