Whether you are a volunteer or a paid worker, anyone who
gets involved in ministry is “co-laboring”
with God.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the
growth… For we are God’s fellow workers. You are
God’s field, God's building.”
1 Corinthians 3:6 & 9 ESV
“And they went out and preached everywhere, while
the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by
accompanying signs.”
Mark 16:20 ESV
In the Bible, God gives critical information about Who
He is and how He works. This Conference will address
issues that impact how we are to work as
“God’s junior partner.” Since we are
always dealing with people and working in some kind of
organization, the conference will also look at
foundational issues that impact how we work Biblically
and intelligently with individuals and organizations.
About the How Church Works Conference Series
How Church Works conferences deal with ministry
leadership at a higher level than most other
conferences. How Church Works focuses on the principles
that shape ministry strategy.
Many other conferences present helpful ministry
"how-to's." Leaders attend in order to learn a method
for doing the ministry: how to teach their people to
evangelize, how to take people through discipleship
training, how to train worship teams to produce
uplifting worship services, or how to produce a kids
ministry program that is engaging and educational, etc.
The how-to's seminars meet a real ministry need.
However, as ministries grow larger and more complex,
leaders often face challenging situations that demand a
deeper understanding of the ministry. How Church Works
conferences are designed help these leaders grasp the
principles behind the "how-to's."
An individual HCW conference will focus on an arena of
ministry. The conference will lay out the principles and
concerns that should shape ministry strategy and guide
decision making in that arena.
The goal for each conference is to provide insights that
will enable leaders to:
Build ministries that sustain effectiveness in a
given arena (such as evangelism, discipleship, etc.)
Intelligently solve problems in that arena before
they spill over to create problems in other areas of
church life.
For example, all ministries have to operate in such a
way that the various parts of the ministry (such as,
outreach, administration, and training) work together in
harmony A how-to seminar on administration might show a
leader how to make the different parts of the
organization function systemically.
However, the organizational system is only one of
several "layers" of systems. So, the How Church Works
conference, Systems Thinking: Decisions Without
Disasters, identified the different layers of systems,
looked at how they interact to create problems in the
organization, and gave guidelines for wisely making
decisions in a manner that does not stir up problems in
the different layers.
