Your JBA Equip Team exists to make it easier to revitalize and replant churches in northeast Florida and harder to do it alone. Ministry leadership in this season requires a lot of adjustments and flexibility. 2021 has brought a clearer focus for the equip team on church renewal. We have been working hard to sharpen our strategies and create new resources and processes toward this focus.
As we gain greater clarity on how the Equip team can best serve our network, we are excited to see how God continues to work in our churches through The Pastor’s Advance Group, 904 PREP, ReFocus, Strategic Support Teams, and more.
The Pastor’s Advance Group, led by Albert Byrd, has continued to be a strong relational network for pastors to encourage and equip each other monthly. The Pastor’s Advance Group has monthly lunch discussions utilizing resources that challenge and help pastors grow in their leadership. We have just begun going through Future Church by Will Mancini and Cory Hartman and we would love for you to join us.
The Equip Team has developed a process for helping churches gain mission clarity on their next step for renewal called 904 PREP. This is a process where the Equip Team partners with the leadership team of a church in a series of 4 meetings over a period of 90 days. These meetings will include prayer, resourcing, exercises to survey the situation, and a process for discovering the best renewal pathway for the church. We have begun the process with several churches, and we are beginning to develop a regional cohort in Arlington. We would love to partner with you to help your church find its next step of renewal.
For more in-depth consultation and coaching we have pursued certification for some of our leadership in the ReFocus: A six-step process built on a biblical framework toward church renewal by Corpus Vitae. A 6-month process where a leader from the JBA will guide the church’s leadership team through six monthly trainings. This can be done with an individual church or through a cohort of several churches. ReFocus is a church renewal training process that provides pastors with tools to assess their church and to restore vibrancy, purpose, and health to their ministry. Participants will assess the current state of the ministry, consider how to position it for maximum impact, develop all of the directional aspects of ministry, create a custom plan for disciple-making, tailor a leadership development strategy, and build a custom plan for implementation.
With the needs of church revitalization increasing, we are constantly thinking through ways to make it easier to revitalize and replant churches and harder to do it alone. We are developing strategies for support teams to partner with churches in need of renewal. There are opportunities for churches to mentor, foster, adopt, merge, marry and more. We believe that Strategic Support Teams will be a crucial part of helping struggling churches see renewal. One of the greatest strengths of the JBA is the churches in our association display a spirit of cooperation not competition.
There are many other ways the Equip Team has seen great things over the last year. The Equip team will continue to provide great events to support making it easier to revitalize and replant churches and harder to do it alone. In Feb 2021 we hosted Mark Hallock for a powerful event with tons of great information on church revitalization and replanting. November 4-5 we will host Brian Croft for another special Equip team event. Emerging worship leaders continue to receive financial aid through the Walter L. Brown Music scholarship. The Equip Team has helped churches develop customized internships and residencies to aid in their leadership development. We have coached and consulted with countless pastors and leadership teams. The Equip Team also continues to offer micro-loan assistance to churches who have financial need to further their ministry.
If you have a passion to equip churches and leaders, we would love to have you serve with this team.
