Sermon: Making the Invisible Visible

Friends, here is the mp3 file for the sermon I delivered January 25th at Channing Church in Newport, RI. Channing is the congregation my wife, the Rev. Amy Freedman, serves.

Making the Invisible Visible sermon by Peter Bowden (mp3)

Sermon discusses:
My overcoming shyness
Realizing our inner potential and dreams
Welcoming Congregation (GLBT)
President Obama and the inauguration
Getting serious as UUs

Unitarian Universalist Small Group Ministry Facilitator Training with Peter Bowden

Saturday, January 10, 2008 PLANO, TX
Program 9:00 am - 3:00pm, doors open at 8am. Hosted
by the Community Unitarian Universalist Church of Plano

Download Flier & Registration Form

The Community UU Church of Plano, TX is proud to offer a day long facilitator training with Peter Bowden, UU Small Group Ministry Consultant and co-founder of the Unitarian Universalist Small Group Ministry Network.

This training has been designed for congregations launching or re-launching an intentional congregation-wide small group ministry with synchronized session-based groups. That is, a network of ministry groups coordinated by the minister(s) and a steering committee with all groups using the same session-based content.

The training will include:

• The vision and purpose of small group ministry
  
  
• Presentation of the congregation-wide session based model
  
  
• Essential skills and practices for small group facilitators
  
  
• Group dynamics and life cycle of small group ministries
  
  
• Approaches to common group challenges
  
  
• The role of ongoing coaching and training
  
  
• The transformational role of service and action in group life
  
  
• Question and answer sessions

Peter Bowden is a Unitarian Universalist consultant specializing in small group ministry and UU outreach and evangelism. Peter is one of the founders of the UU Small Group Ministry Network, a national organization and non-profit dedicated to supporting small group ministries within our movement.

Through this network and independently Peter has led workshops on small group ministry throughout New England, at General Assemblies, Ferry Beach and Star Island.

Cost: $ 30.00 per person, or $ 25.00 per person for congregational teams of three (3) or more. Lunch provided.

Registration: Registration limited to 60 participants.

Download Flier & Registration Form

Sheepwalkers, Tribes and Leaders for the 21st Century

UU Friends living and leading in the 21st Century, this ones for you.

My favorite marketing, leadership and change author, Seth Godin, has a new book coming out this week - Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. For ages humans lived in tribes. Now with the internet people are finding new ways to build tribes from the size of small groups to thousands and thousands of people. Learn the in's and out's of organizing and leading tribes in the 21st century.

Here's a bit from the product description:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.

And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

The Web can do amazing things, but it can’t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals— people just like you who have passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips.

If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma leads a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, runs her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. All they have in common is the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.

If you ignore this opportunity, you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”—someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days.

Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers. . . . It’s not easy, but it’s easier than you think.

100 largest and Fastest Growing Churches

Fellow church geeks,

If you are curious about what the largest and fastest growing churches in America are buy Outreach Magazine's special issue the OUTREACH 100. Just ordered mine.

Here's the description:

What can we learn from America's fastest-growing churches?

The Outreach 100 annual report is packed with practical ideas and encouraging words for any church, any size.

How do America's fastest-growing churches keep people coming and get them involved? What are the trends shaping church growth today? And what have Outreach 100 pastors learned along the way that they now want to pass on to you? Hint: It's not about the size of your church, it's all about faithfulness. Reserve your copy of The Outreach 100 today.

Updated SGM blog and Groupwise articles

Small Group Ministry Friends,

If you are looking for more of my work on small group ministry you can find it in two places.

#1 - My small group ministry blog can be found at http://www.smallgroupministry.org

#2- You can also subscribe to get periodic articles from me. Click here and subscribe to "GROUP WISE: On UU small group life and leadership." Note that I've been v-e-r-y busy with my tv production work. UU and SGM projects happen between seasons and random free days.