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Aligning Church Ministries with Mission and Vision

Once you have a solid understanding on your church’s mission and vision, it’s time to make sure your ministries and departments are actually working together to help you realize that vision. On this Whiteboard Wednesday, Mike Gafa provides us with a quick tool to do just that – it’s called the “Keep-Alter-Stop-Add” tool. First, consider one of your existing ministries. …

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An Out of the Box Partnership: Luminex and Lanio

Over the past few years, as we (Luminex) have worked to more effectively realize our mission to Develop Leaders to Start and Strengthen Churches, one of the questions we are often asked is, “How did a middle judicatory in the Reformed Church in America become a recognized thought leader for leadership development, and for starting and strengthening churches, in the RCA …

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Whiteboard Wednesday: Reaching the Next Generation – Create, Connect, Commit

When we look at recent research on the number of young people who are leaving the church, solutions can seem pretty bleak. It’s tempting to think that if your church hired just the right person or constructed the most attractive structure, younger generations would flock back through the sanctuary doors. But we know that young people aren’t looking for hyper-relevant …

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Reaching The Next Generation Part 1: Podcast Episode 5

Episode 5: Reaching The Next Generation Part 1. There has been a steady decline of engagement in emerging adults within churches. Why is this happening? What are the concerns? What is the best way of engaging the next generation of disciples? On part 1 of this episode- Tanner Smith, pastor of Harbor Life Church in Granville, and Rick Zomer, Director …

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What Makes for a Successful Ministry – Part Two

In part one of this Whiteboard discussion, Andy Bossardet and Eliza Bast talked about defining your ministry’s current reality. This week’s episode will continue to show you how to reorient your inputs and outcomes to not only achieve your calling, but also to reflect your reality by entering into three levels of conversation. As you do the work of discerning …

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Urban Church Planting: Podcast Episode 4

As more and more people around the world move from the countryside and suburbs back into the cities, how should the Church respond? On this week’s podcast, Pete Pinkowski and Michael Hooker, pastors of urban congregations in Cleveland, Ohio and Hammond, Indiana, take us into their communities to show us how they “seek the shalom of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7) …

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Three Things Churches Love that Kill Outreach

Too often, the fire that goes out most quickly in the life of a church is the fire for outreach. On this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Art Wiers, Church Health Catalyst for Luminex, draws wisdom from Ed Stetzer to show how churches can reorder their priorities in order to grow and serve people well within their contexts. Stetzer says there are …

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West Michigan Deaf Fellowship Gathering

Please join us on Friday, July 7th for an introduction to Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) and get access to God’s word in American Sign Language! Presenter: Mark Sorenson who is the Deaf International Program Coordinator for DOOR International DOOR International’s mission is to bring God’s Word and reproducing Christian fellowships to the Deaf of the world. Their vision is “Deaf …

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A Letter from our President

A Note from Luminex: The following is a letter from Branson Parler, President of the Synod of the Great Lakes (Reformed Church in America). A Pastoral Letter to the churches of the Great Lakes Regional Synod, RCA. Friends, In the last few weeks, informal trackers and tabulators of the RCA amendment votes are reporting that the two amendments (one addressing the …

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Vision Convergence

On today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Mike Gafa, Church Leadership Development Catalyst for Luminex, describes the vision convergence exercise, which helps churches and church leaders discern vision. The vision convergence exercise is inspired by, and adapted from, Dr. Thom Rainer’s book, Breakout Churches. In the book, Rainer introduced what he called the vision-intersection-profile, a similar yet slightly different tool from the vision …