By Lindsey Williams
Writing Specialist
Both a blessing and a challenge are the variety of people, talents, and ministries that make up a church. To utilize these differences for unity, the Discipleship/Sunday School Department of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) offers Synchrony.
“Synchrony assists church leaders (staff and volunteers) to develop an integrated vision and strategy for preschool, children’s, youth, and college ministries,” said Dwayne Parker, Director of Discipleship/Sunday School. “These ministries often function independently of each other rather than under a shared vision. We believe these ministries can better meet the needs of preschool, children, youth, college students, parents, and leaders when they are all working toward the same goals.
“During Synchrony, we will share the why and how of developing a discipleship strategy for age-graded ministries (known as the Next Generation strategy) and guide your team through the ‘Leading from Your Strengths’ assessment tool.”
Greg Spencer, who has served as pastor of First Church, Ellisville, for four years, utilized Synchrony for staff development.
“Synchrony has helped me learn how my staff makes decisions,” said Spencer. “On the flip side, however, it has also allowed my staff to learn how I make decisions, and we better understand each other. It helped us reinforce the vision and values of First Church, Ellisville, together.”
“In the Next Generation strategy,” Spencer explained, “we were asked, ‘What would you like your next generation to look like, and how do you get there?’ Our staff talked through that and identified characteristics we would like to see in our church, and asked ourselves, ‘How do we get there? How do we reinforce the productive things we are doing, and turn from things that maybe are not as productive?’ So our staff is working to be cohesive between different age-graded ministries.”
“In coming to Synchrony, you do have to swallow your pride a little bit and be willing to learn about yourself, about others, and just be honest before the Lord about the areas that you need to grow in, and in the areas that you need to go, as the church,” Spencer affirmed. “So it was a great exercise to help us think on the same page. Dwayne Parker, Angie Boydstun, and Cindy Sansing — Children’s Minister at First Church, Flora — were well-organized and respected our time.”
Shane Freeman, who has served as pastor of Macedonia Church in Petal for 12 years, found Synchrony’s focus on next germination ministry to be particularly helpful to his staff.
“Going into Synchrony, I didn’t know what we would be discussing, but anything that the state Convention does in our area, I try to support and be a part of, because I’m very thankful for them,” said Freeman. “The Synchrony training focused on next generation ministry and how to apply what you discover. Every church needs to be thinking about the next generation and how they will sustain and reach them with the Gospel, to continue church growth, church mission, and church Kingdom work, and Synchrony helps ask, ‘Who on staff is best suited by their strengths to handle this or that?’
“Our staff worked together and asked ourselves questions regarding the next generation and how we wanted to accomplish our goals. Then we brought that back to our staff meeting and walked through those things together and developed some plans as a result of the Synchrony training.
“If a church has never used the ‘Leading from Your Strengths’ assessment tool, that’s a benefit in and of itself. It’s healthy to have a staff of different strengths,” Freeman stated. “It’s helpful to have a balance and unite for vision and purpose. The focus of the Synchrony training is how we apply these strengths of the staff to reach the next generation, and that’s a great benefit to a church.”
Upcoming dates and locations for Synchrony are as follows:
- Synchrony *for Smaller Churches*
- Feb. 19, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
- Auburn Baptist Church, Tupelo
- Register here: Synchrony for Smaller Churches – Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (mbcb.org)
- Synchrony
- Feb. 20, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- West Jackson Street Baptist Church, Tupelo
- Register here: Synchrony – Tupelo – Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (mbcb.org)
For more information on Discipleship/Sunday School opportunities, contact Ministry Assistant, Tasha Presson, at tpresson@mbcb.org or 601-292-3284, or visit Discipleship / Sunday School – Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (mbcb.org).
Synchrony is supported by the Cooperative Program. The Discipleship/Sunday School Department uses funds allocated for training to host Synchrony at no cost to the church. The local church benefits from the Cooperative Program through Discipleship/Sunday School consultations and training in Disciple-making, Sunday School, Student Ministry, and Preschool/Children’s Ministry.
