South District Offers Video Training
for Church Leadership
By Brant Mills
TAC Communications
The South District of the Texas Annual Conference is engaging new media to offer training to both clergy and lay leaders in their churches in a more efficient and convenient way. They have been working on this training project for over a year and are now offering both dvd's and online videos covering a variety of subjects.
For Rev. Fred Willis it all began when he was pulled over while driving. "I had gotten a ticket and had to take defensive driving online. I was sitting there and thought: Why can't pastors do continuing education this way? They don't have to spend $500 to fly or drive across the country."
Willis learned that his District Superintendent, Dr.
"It really started about 2 years ago after having a district training meeting – the last one in what was the Houston East District before restructuring took place." Waddleton added. "There were over 450 people at that event, but we were reaching only about one out of two people from the committees at the local churches. Trying to reach more people became the seed for the project which we estimate would take 4 years to complete."
GETTING STARTED
When the project first began, Willis met with Rev. Kay Alewine, an associate at League City First UMC who is acting as a producer on the project. "She was already doing this on a smaller scale," Willis noted. Alewine said that offering training this way can help people in local churches gain a better understanding of the work of the church. "There's a professional and spiritual way to go about the business of the church. These trainings can help see that the work of church gets done in an appropriate way. Trainings are wonderful, but with people getting busier many just can't take advantage. You can see this at home in your pj's at midnight," Alewine concluded.
NO COPYRIGHT
The material was intentionally not copyrighted so it can be made available for people to use as widely as possible. "We're not doing this to make money. The bottom line is what does it take… to get them into the proper understanding and professional understanding of what it means to lead and participate in individual work areas of the United Methodist Church? …And not just the professional business end, but spiritual as well. It's not to say do it this way or else – but to be a spring board so the local church, regardless of size, can develop accountability in their work area. The main thing is to show people that anyone can do this," Alewine continued.
They took bids and considered quality and price and ended up with the company who had the best of both as well as the most willingness to work with them. They chose to work with nEw eYesland mEdia who is shooting and editing their projects. It also happens to be owned by Rev. Alewine's son Ken Alewine who was willing to help out the church because he shared their enthusiasm in their mission.
WHAT'S INVOLVED
Ken Alewine who has been in the multimedia design business for 8 years says for those considering similar projects that it is important to have someone who can work with talent and technical issues that occur on set. He talks about how to begin. "There's a lot of pre-visualization at the start of the process. You have to come up with some sort of plan in that you have a goal you want to achieve. We'll meet with the person and see what resources are available and set up a time-frame." There are different roles to fill and Alewine says that usually, one person is not enough. "It takes a team… - not a big administrative board, but people fulfilling various producer roles." Alewine also emphasizes the need to remain focused on the outcome. "It is wonderful to get different ideas and bring those to the table but unity of vision is very important."
AN EYE ON THE FUTURE
"We live in a troubled, chaotic, disoriented, frightened, mobile world and the church must fulfill this role and these videos are designed to say we can do it and this is how. All we are doing is trying to [flesh] out the vision God gave [Waddleton]. We can't go into every home but we take what we've got and use 21st century outreach for the work of the church," Rev. Alewine said.
"It's our hope that using the technology of today will help us more efficiently train leaders in the local church. The plan is to offer video training for every committee in the local church. There will be 4 or 5 sessions for each committee and 20-30 minutes for each session," Waddleton said.
There are currently 14 videos available and more are on the way. They are available by DVD and progressive download on the South District's Website at http://www.southdistrict.org/training.html
CURRENT OFFERINGS INCLUDE:
ADMINISTRATION
Finance Committee – Rev. Sharon Sabom
Treasurer – Dr. Elijah Stansell
Stewardship – Melvin Amerson
SPR 1 - Staff Parish Relations: Structure and Function with Dr. Donald Waddleton
SPR 2 – Staff Parish Relations: Hiring and Firing with Dr. Donald Waddleton
Trustees – Emken Linton
WORSHIP
High-Church Worship – Dr. Jim Bankston
African American Worship – Rev. Lawrence Young
Contemporary Worship – Rev. Randy Hageman and Betsy Burke
Emerging Worship – Rev. John Stephenson Rev. Andy Thompson and Rev. Matt Neely
MINISTRY/EDUCATION
Evangelism – Rev. Steve Woody and Rev. Harold Travis
Church Education – Rev. Janice Gilbert-Williams
Adult Education – Dell Tamblyn
Children's Education – Diane Lacy
FUTURE PLANNED TOPICS INCLUDE:
Staff Parish Relations - part 3 Pastor
Stewardship - Apportionments
Stewardship - teaching the aspect of it to your people
Worship - Hispanic
Worship - Traditional
Youth Ministry
Children's Ministry
Singles Ministry
Education - small churches
Education - large churches
Education recruiting and training leaders
Restorative Justice in your Church
Missions
Prayer Ministry - how to create one in your church