National Ministries' Workshops for Church Life and Leadership
(Formerly Training Time Workshops)

These workshops are provided in the PDF format. If you need to use parts of the text in these files for promotion, to create Power Point presentations, or for other purposes, you can use the text selection tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader to copy and paste text to other applications.

  NM 101 - THE IDENTIFICATION AND USE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN THE DISCIPLE-MAKING CHURCH(216 KB PDF): The purpose of this workshop is to engage participants in a process of discernment and use of spiritual gifts in the church. This process includes understanding that all Christians are uniquely gifted by God for service in the church and in the world; that gifts and call go together; and that when individuals are encouraged to serve in the area of their giftedness, it can contribute significantly to the growth of healthy churches and healthy, growing disciples of Christ.

NM 107 - AMERICAN BAPTIST HERITAGE (170 KB PDF): This workshop introduces participants to dimensions of American Baptist heritage: history, key figures, and emphases; and invites groups to consider ways in which this heritage can shape contemporary church life and ministry.

The following handouts are integral to this workshop. We are providing them as seperate downloadable files because of their large size.

Louise Fleming (2.3 MB JPG)
Helen Barrett Montgomery (1.8 MB JPG)
Isabel Crawford (1.7 MB JPG)
John Clarke (2.1 MB JPG)
John Smyth and Thomas Helwys (2.0 MB JPG)
Adoniram Judson (1.6 MB JPG)

NM 107E - LA HERENCIA DE LOS BAUTISTAS AMERICANOS (161 KB PDF): Este taller puede ser usado regionalmente o en grupos, involucrando a participantes de diferentes iglesias. Este taller también podría ser usado por la congregación local que quiera explorar las dimensiones de nuestra Herencia Bautista Americana.

Los siguientes folletos son esenciales para este taller. Los estamos proporcionando en un folder separado para descargar debido al tamaño del archivo.

Louise Fleming (2.1 MB JPG)
Helen Barrett Montgomery (2.0 MB JPG)
Isabel Crawford (1.7 MB JPG)
John Clarke (2.1 MB JPG)
John Smyth and Thomas Helwys (1.8 MB JPG)
Adoniram Judson (1.7 MB JPG)

NM 302 - BASICS OF TEACHING AND RELATING WITH CHILDREN (114 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to help participants explore general characteristics of children and qualities of good teaching, and to do hands-on work developing age-appropriate learning activities. It will work best with a minimum of six participants and can be used as part of teacher-training, an extended meeting of the board of Christian education, or a part of an all‑church or regional leader training event or retreat. Not for teachers only, this workshop will be valuable for anyone who works with children from preschoolers through grade 5.

NM 303 - TEACHING THE BIBLE TO CHILDREN (100 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to help people understand and apply two crucial factors in Bible education for children: 1. Children develop from young listeners, to budding readers, to new owners, and finally to investigators; and 2. Children learn biblical truths primarily through relationships.

NM 503 - MAXIMIZING DISCUSSION IN ADULT SMALL GROUPS (272 KB PDF): This workshop introduces the dialogical learning approach to group study as presented in How to Be the Best Christian Study Group Leader (Judson Press, 2006). Leaders will need a copy of the book and may want to purchase some additional copies for sale to participants who are interested. Call (800)4JUDSON, ISBN 978-0-8170-1500-8, ($16.00), or order online for a 20% discount ($12.80) at http://www.judsonpress.com. Participants will learn the basic concepts of dialogical learning in small groups through presentation of material and by participating in a group dialogical learning experience.

NM 602 - MINISTRIES WITH FAMILIES OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES (179 KB PDF): Families that live with disability have a deep need to be welcomed and accepted, as well as a need for practical assistance from their church families. This workshop, designed to be used in conjunction with the handbook A Place Called Acceptance: Ministry with Families of Children with Disabilities, will raise participants’ awareness of the impact of disability on the family system and will provide practical suggestions for welcoming children with disabilities—and their families—into the life of the church. Workshop leaders will need to have a copy of A Place Called Acceptance (available from Louisville: Bridge Resources, (800)524-2612 or online at http://www.pcusa.org/phewa/resources/resources-pdc.htm; item 095652; $7.95).

NM 702 - TEACHING WITH RESPECT FOR DIVERSE LEARNING STYLES (209 KB PDF): This workshop has four primary aims: to address common misconceptions and misuse of the concept of "multiple intelligences," to introduce participants to several methods of categorizing learning styles, to help participants identify and mitigate two risk factors in their teaching ministries, and to help participants apply learning styles to their teaching ministries.

NM 702E - ENSEÑAR RESPETANDO LOS DIVERSOS ESTILOS DE APRENDIZAJE (169 KB PDF): Este taller tiene cuatro objetivos primarios: identificar las falsas ideas que existen comúnmente y los usos erróneos del concepto de "inteligencias múltiples" introducir a los participantes en los varios métodos de categorizar estilos de aprendizaje; ayudarles a identificar y atenuar dos factores de riesgo en sus ministerios de enseñanza y ayudarles a aplicar estilos de aprendizaje en ellos.

  NM 802 - THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE (52 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to walk Nominating Committees through their work by engendering ownership of the role of Nominating Committee member, introducing participants to the functions of a nominating committee, providing guidelines for recruiting leaders, and outlining factors that motivate persons for leadership roles.

NM 804 - THE DEACON AS SERVANT-LEADER (181 KB PDF): This workshop will encourage deacons to replace managerial models with a servant-leadership understanding of the diaconate. The workshop begins with an exploration of the biblical background, giving particular attention to the service-oriented occurrences of "deacon" and cognate words terms. The workshop also offers opportunities for contextualization, inviting participants to explore avenues through which they can exercise their servant-leadership ministries.

NM 808 - STRATEGIES TO MOVE THE SMALL CHURCH FORWARD (195 KB PDF): This workshop explores characteristics of the small church, uses mini case studies to identify levers for change in the small church and guides participants in the development of strategies for ministry in their churches

NM 809 - HOSPITALITY - EXPRESSING AND EXPERIENCING GRACE (194 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to engage participants in the issues around the biblical practice of hospitality. While the workshop will focus primarily on the expression of hospitality in a local congregation, it also has implications for and direct application to participants’ personal lives as they give expression to faith at home, work, or wherever they might be with unchurched people.

NM 811 - DEALING WITH CONFLICT IN GROUP MEETINGS (158 KB PDF): Too often conflict takes away the positive feelings and even threatens results.  This workshop is  designed to help church leaders accept that conflict is inevitable in church groups and to discover ways of managing conflicts for positive results.

NM 812 - LEADERSHIP AS ENABLING (167 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to move church leaders toward an understanding of the leadership role as one of using one’s gifts and position to enable others to discover their places of ministry.

  NM 813 - CHURCH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT (128 KB PDF): This workshop is designed to help people understand the three primary functions of leadership in the church: (1) to continually communicate a clear and compelling vision; (2) to define the mission and invite people to get involved, and (3) to repeat functions 1 and 2 over and over again.