Lay Servant Ministries

Exploración de una cultura del cuidado en la congregación

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 18:11:24 GMT

Esta guía completa para líderes contiene seis sesiones de enseñanza de 90 minutos, diseñadas para el curso de Ministerios de Líderes Laicos Exploración de una cultura del cuidado en la congregación. Basado en el libro The Caring Congregation (La congragación que cuida) de Karen Lampe, este recurso equipa a los ministros laicos con habilidades prácticas para el ministerio de cuidado pastoral. Los participantes aprenderán técnicas de escucha profunda para establecer conexiones significativas, cómo brindar cuidado durante tiempos de pérdida y crisis, cómo mantener límites saludables en las relaciones que implican el cuidado y cómo comprender las diferencias culturales en los enfoques del ministerio del cuidado.

Exploring a Culture of Care for a Caring Congregation: Leader’s Guide

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:26:48 GMT

This comprehensive leader's guide contains six 90-minute teaching sessions designed for the Lay Servant Ministries course "Exploring a Culture of Care for a Caring Congregation." Based on Karen Lampe's book The Caring Congregation, this resource equips lay servant ministers with practical skills for pastoral care ministry. Participants will learn deep listening techniques for meaningful connections, how to provide care during times of loss and crisis, how to maintain healthy boundaries in caring relationships, and how to understand cultural differences in care ministry approaches.

Loving People and Planet in God's Name

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 14:46:30 GMT

This PDF is the Leader's Guide for Loving People and Planet in God's Name. This Leader's Guide includes lesson plans for five two-hour sessions to help lay servant ministers learn more about climate justice, how to talk about climate justice using a biblical and theological framework, and how to work with their communities to do meaningful ministry around creation care. This advanced Lay Servant Ministries course is based on the book Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action.

La vida de devoción en la tradición wesleyana

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:39:40 GMT

Este libro describe los aspectos más importantes en la vida de devoción de Juan Wesley y cómo estos principios pueden ser aplicados a nuestras vidas. El libro está diseñado para tener un estudio semanal por siete semanas y sigue una estructura alrededor de lo que Wesley llama «medios de gracia». Por lo tanto, incluye estudios sobre la oración, la Escritura, la Santa Cena, el ayuno y otros temas. Los grupos y cada persona individual crecerán espiritualmente a medida que aprenden acerca de las enseñanzas de Wesley en relación a la gracia de Dios y la vida en Cristo.

Guía del líder: La formación espiritual a través de la disciplina diaria

Devotional Life In the Wesleyan Tradition (Korean Translation)

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:38:56 GMT

This workbook describes major features in John Wesley's devotional life, and it illustrates how you can apply his ministry to your own life.

Structured around Wesley's "Means of Grace," the 7-week study covers prayer, scripture, the Lord's Supper, fasting, Christian conferencing, and providential means of grace. Developed for individual or group study, the workbook also offers suggestions for organizing an initial group meeting and developing a successful group study.

For the Common Good

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:31:19 GMT

This PDF Leader's Guide is designed to be used with the participant's book, For the Common Good. It includes discussion guides and activities to help individuals discover their spiritual gifts, identify their abilities and skills, and find ways to use them for God’s glory. It also offers a model for implementing a system based on spiritual gifts to identify and call forth leaders in the congregation. The Leader's Guide offers plans for four 2½-hour sessions to fulfill the 10-hour requirement for an advanced Lay Servant Ministry course.

God's Mission, Our Journey

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:28:59 GMT

This course will provide participants with a better understanding of a holistic approach to participation in God's mission to the world and equip lay servants for more effective missional engagement in their own communities and beyond.

This is the Leader's Guide. The Participant's Book, A Mission Journey, can be found here.

Teaching Biblical Faith

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:27:34 GMT

This Leader's Guide is designed to be used as an advanced course in Lay Servant Ministry. Based on the book Teaching Biblical Faith, the Leader's Guide contains five two-hour sessions to provide church leaders with the tools for biblical study. In this course, participants will explore why scripture study is important, practice historical study of three scripture texts, experience praying the scriptures, and practice teaching with small groups of supportive colleagues.

Ministry with the Forgotten

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:27:26 GMT

This PDF is the Leader's Guide for Ministry with the Forgotten: Dementia Through a Spiritual Lens. This Leader's Guide provides five two-hour sessions of teaching plans to help lay servant ministers understand dementia from a spiritual standpoint and become more comfortable ministering with people affected by this condition. The advanced Lay Servant Ministries course based on the book Ministry with the Forgotten will equip lay servant ministers to lead their congregations in ministry with people with dementia and those who care for them. It will enable participants to learn about dementia, see people with dementia as disciples of Jesus, and discover how to relate to them in a helpful manner.

Opening Ourselves to Grace

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:27:12 GMT

This leader's guide explores the basic practices of Christian faith and life from a Wesleyan perspective by examining John Wesley's understanding of spiritual practice, Bible study, and other helpful resources. This guide is designed as a companion resource to the Opening Ourselves to Grace: Basic Christian Practices DVD/CD-ROM, which is available for separate purchase through Upper Room Books: https://upperroombooks.com/book/opening-ourselves-to-grace/. Together, these two resources expand the previous three-hour Lay Servant Ministries refresher course into a ten-hour advanced Lay Servant Ministries course.

Connectional Living and Connectional Giving

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:27:04 GMT

This PDF leader’s guide is a required resource for a Lay Servant Ministries (LSM) advanced course. It supplements the book Earn. Save. Give.: Wesley’s Simple Rules for Money (Abingdon Press; 2015) by James A. Harnish, as well as the free resource The United Methodist Church Handbook (2017–20), Therefore Go: Making Disciples for the Transformation of the World (available from UM Communications).

This LSM advanced course focuses on the following:

an understanding of John Wesley’s admonitions—to earn, save, and give all you can;
various scriptures and how they relate to our connectional living, which leads to connectional giving and connecting to Wesley’s teachings;
the ways in which an understanding of why we give and where we invest our resources is imperative to living our faith through the United Methodist connectional system;
an understanding of the apportionment structure through the general church, jurisdictions, annual conferences, and districts, and how that relates to the local church and decisions made in the local church;
understanding and being able to make a presentation on how living in connection as part of God’s creation leads us to giving in support of mission/ministry in that connection; and
training for Lay Servants to present the connectional giving story to groups in their congregation and other congregations in support of district superintendents.

Leading Public Prayer

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:26:57 GMT

This leader guide was written as a companion to the book Shaping the Prayers of the People, by Samuel Wells and Abigail Kocher (Eerdmans, 2014). This text offers a model of profound and accessible congregational prayer. At once inspirational and practical, it will empower and equip laypeople and clergy alike to offer heartfelt, informed, thoughtful, and appropriate prayers on behalf of the people of God. It leads persons to consider what public prayer is and offers practical guidelines for avoiding common pitfalls. It explores prayers as an integral part of worship and discusses the kind of language we need to address God.

This course will replace the current/existing "Leading in Prayer" course, which was said to be too long. The Lay Servant Ministries Education Committee decided to divide the subject matter into two parts: personal prayer and public prayer. The personal prayer portion has now been published as the PDF leader guide Embracing Personal Prayer—A Leader's Guide (DRPDF898) utilizing the text Lord, Teach Us to Pray, by Margie Burger. This product fulfills the public prayer portion of the prayer course. NOTE: This course is required by The Book of Discipline to become a certified lay speaker.

Embracing Personal Prayer

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:26:42 GMT

At the end of this course, you will be able to establish a daily practice for communicating with God and listening for God's answers. You will find ways to come to the Lord in prayer (singing, fasting, praying the Scriptures, praying for others, and using intercessory prayer). You will explore the many names of Jesus and God you can use for adoration in your prayer. You will identify your need to overcome the barriers you may now be experiencing in your prayer life. Finally, you will be provided useful tools for structuring your prayer life and focusing on the Lord.

The participant's text for this course is Lord, Teach us to Pray by Margie Burger.

Lay Servants as Christian Transformational Leaders

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:26:34 GMT

This Leader's Guide is the accompanying piece to DR 881 Lay Servants as Christian Transformational Leaders – Participant's Book. It is a PDF that can be downloaded and used to support the course outlined below.

Building on the previous Lay Servant course "Does Your Church Have a Prayer?", this Participant's Book will guide Lay Servants seeking to be more empowered to lead their congregations toward vitality. Written with two distinct purposes, Lay Servants as Christian Transformational Leaders will first define the three types of Christian transformational leadership and the four qualities of Christian transformational leaders. Then the course will focus on congregational vitality, organizational life cycles, assessing current realities, and leading transformational change. The Participant's Book is available for purchase here.

Called To Preach Study Guide

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:26:20 GMT

The Leader's Guide for the course following From Pew to Pulpit. (Downloadable PDF only)

This title has replaced DR387 You Can Preach!

Click here for the Participant's Book.

Leading Missional Small Groups

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:26:12 GMT

This course teaches the Wesleyan way to form missional communities and congregations. It is based on the conviction that just as holiness of heart leads to holiness of life, it is communities of holy love that participate in God’s mission to the world.

This is the Leader's Guide for the book Transforming Community.

Lay Servants Lead In Conflict Resolution

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:25:50 GMT

This Leader's Guide for the Lay Servant Book The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation by Thomas Porter, explores different ways of dealing with constructive ways of resolving conflict. This Guide will help leaders coach the participants through their work as they learn to resolve conflicts and grow through the experience.

Leading Bible Study

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:25:43 GMT

This course opens a new world for many lay servants who have not had professional training in biblical interpretation. It reminds us as United Methodists that Bible study and biblical interpretation are a core part of our spiritual journey.

The Participant's Book, Biblical Interpretation: A Roadmap, is available through Cokebury.

Concepts in Leadership I

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:25:29 GMT

This short course (available only as a download) is designed to prepare church leaders to focus on their role as spiritual leaders and to function as role models or examples for others in the congregation. Although this course was designed as a refresher course for local church lay speakers, it may be used for leadership development in any setting.

At the end of this course the participant will be able to:

Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of prayer in the life of a spiritual leader
Formulate a prayer appropriate for a group and lead prayer in a group
Understand and be aware of small-group dynamics, including use of conflict transformation principles
Learn about the Wesleyan understanding of Christian conferencing and prepare a meeting agenda to ensure time for Christian conferencing

Participants will use two of the What Every Leader Needs to Know series (WELNTK) texts with this PDF-formatted course. Below are the links for the revised WELNTK series booklets now available for purchase in PDF format:

Connection for Ministry

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:25:07 GMT

The purpose of this module is:

to provide the certified lay minister with a basic review of United Methodist history, doctrine, and polity
to familiarize him/her with the connection between the local church, district, conference, and general agencies of the denomination
to support him/her in developing plans for ongoing education

This course ends with a commitment service.

PDF size: 200.46KB 22 pages

Notes:

Permission is granted to the purchaser to photocopy for educational purposes.
Sorry, this item is not eligible for special promotional and bulk discounts.
This is a nonreturnable, nonrefundable product.

Other modules also available:

**This Module was updated August 2016