Mountain Sky Conference: Where You Belong
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Mountain Sky Conference: Where You Belong
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The Mountain Sky Conference strives to equip local congregations for vital ministry in their communities. The opportunities for each congregation are unique, as are the challenges. We aim to provide tools that offer local congregations the insights they need to move forward.
Below are some resources available for any local church or ministry, circuit, or district to use.
Planting any new ministry is a creative, entrepreneurial endeavor needing the investment of many. Every Fall, with the help of the Ministry Incubators team, we provide a “2.5-day accelerator experience” called the Hatchathon to move a project from idea to launch. Following the Hatchathon, we supply each project with 12 months of monthly coaching and four innovator cohort meetings. Because every project should plan that not everything will go according to plan, we invite the Fall Hatchathon participants are invited back to a Spring 2-day Pivot Retreat to tune-up projects and focus on sustainability.
We invite 12 teams (of 2 to 4 people) each year to attend generally free of charge (except for some incidental costs) to the Hatchathon in August and the Pivot Retreat in April. Teams planting emerging faith communities receive priority, but the Hatchathon is open to any group interested in starting a fresh expression or another new ministry within their established congregation. If we have interest in more than 12 teams interested, other teams may participate at a significantly reduced cost.
If you have a team interested in participating in the Hatchathon, please go to this form to sign up. Superintendent Jeff Rainwater will contact you about a meeting to discuss your team’s idea.
What began as a resource targeting small and rural congregations – who were often at a disadvantage in providing quality worship compared to larger, more urban churches – has become a tool used literally by churches of all sizes. Multiple factors, not the least of which was the Covid-10 Pandemic, has made Anywhere Church a resource for churches of all sizes (yes, including those big-city downtown churches) to navigate new ways of doing worship.
Anywhere Church provides churches within the Mountain Sky Conference with high-quality digital worship content for little to no additional investment. This is an exciting way Mountain Sky Conference is leading how we equip our local churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Congregations of the Mountain Sky Conference that participate in Anywhere Church have instant access to:
The encouragement to get creative with your worship services, taking them “on-site” such as in a bar, a park, anyone’s home … the list is almost endless.
Local churches that are part of the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church can go to https://anywherechurch.org and register your local church as a user. You will receive a Confirmation Email containing a link you will need to click to confirm your account.
If you have any questions or for more information about Anywhere Church, contact Dave Merkel at dmerkel@mtnskyumc.org
As anyone who has gotten lost knows, you can’t get where you want to go without knowing where you are. If you wish to start a new worship service, a new ministry site or even revitalize an established faith community, you must know your starting point to create the plan to get you where you want to go.
The Readiness 360 report helps congregations gain shared, unprecedented insight into where they are so that any new vision, goal, or ministry becomes more achievable. With its ability to gain input from everyone in the congregation and then synthesize it into a helpful report, the Readiness 360 is a valuable tool for gaining broad agreement on where to start and providing ideas for the next steps. Learn more online at www.readiness360.org or email Dawn Lemons in the Denver Office to get started.
MissionInsite provides cost-effective “location intelligence” resources to assist your church in developing dynamic ministries. Demographic resources from MissionInsite, powered by the exclusive PeopleView™ System, comprise a mix of tools available to assist in ministry development.
To get started with Mission Insite, visit maps.missioninsite.com/Registration.aspx and use Agency Account Number: 9dff4
For the past several years, The Whole Church Initiative (WCI) has been a valuable tool in building vital churches as it provides an active process of discernment for local congregations. WCI resources are now available for any local church, circuit, or district to use. They include Booklets and WCI Sessions that address specific topics. These are available on the WCI Resources page.