Winter 2013
Veritas Workshop Brings Fresh Vision Mat-Su Covenant church recently hosted the denomination’s V eritas workshop as they began their pastoral search process. V eritas is the Latin word for truth, and the training helps congregations assess the truth about where they are in the journey toward becoming healthy and missional. “As the Mat-Su church found themselves in a critical moment of leadership transition and embarking on a pastoral search, I encouraged them to host the V eritas workshop to help them find a sense of encouragement for future growth together,” explained Curtis Ivanoff, field director. “I believe the time together did just that.” “The V eritas workshop gave us tools and provided us a common language for evaluating our church’s vitality and gave us hope for forging a new direction toward becoming a healthy, missional church,” explained Denise Koehrer, a 17-year member of Mat-Su Covenant after attending the oneday workshop led by John Wenrich, ECC director of congregational vitality. Veritas is one of three workshops offered by the department of congregational vitality that introduces the language of vitality, including the four types of churches and the ten healthy missional markers.
“It was stressed that for this process to be fruitful, those of us participating needed to be civil with each other and objective,” Denise explained. “We needed to be selfless, and
“The Veritas workshop gave us tools and provided us a common language for evaluating our church’s vitality and gave us hope for forging a new direction toward becoming a healthy, missional church.” contain our emotional responses for the common goal of discovering the truth of where our church really is in the pathway toward greater health.” The 20 participants were coached on four types of established churches: stable, critical moment, at-risk, and healthy, missional. They
each were asked to stand in a corner of the room that represented each of the four types, and they were each given one minute to share why they chose what they did. “It was fascinating to hear how other people from the church view our church.” Denise said. “It was great to be able to talk openly with people who were newer to the church as well as those who have been involved for a long time. It was especially helpful to use a common vocabulary that was clearly defined since one word can mean many things to different people.” “The people there were very eager to learn and they seemed open to holding up the mirror,“ Wenrich said. “The answers are not in the information I gave; the answers are in the conversations that the people have about the information as the Holy Spirit leads and guides them together.” “I’d recommend this workshop for any church, even if they aren’t in a pastoral search, to help them discern how to be more missional in their ministry together.” Denise said. If you are interested in learning more about congregational vitality or would like to see your church host a workshop, visit the website at www.covchurch.org/vitality or contact Curtis Ivanoff at the ECCAK office.
From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:16