Videos and Podcasts

Pastors are doing too much, the congregation is doing too little, and the work of the local church feels unsustainable. Some of this has become more apparent because of the global pandemic and the tumultuous events of the past year. Some of this has been a problem for much longer.

How do we invite congregants to more fully engage in the local church?

Join author, professor, and executive coach Courtney Davis as she addresses the problems of declining service to the church on behalf of congregants, how to build volunteer teams within your church, and how to retain those volunteers for the long haul. She will share models of leadership development for congregants that are necessary and sustainable for our local churches.

# Downloads
– https://fmcsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Courtney-Davis-Engaging-Your-Congregation-Slides.pdf
– https://fmcsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Courtney-Davis-Engaging-Your-Congregation-Slides.pdf

# About Courtney Davis
Courtney Wong Davis, PhD, coaches executives and organizational leaders to explore creative solutions to complex challenges, clarifying individual values, understanding organizational culture, and facilitating confidence in moving in a new direction. She is also associate professor of communication management at Azusa Pacific University, where she teaches organizational, small group, and professional communication, while currently pursuing her coaching certification from the International Coach Federation.

Her first book, Leading Small Groups that Thrive: Five Shifts to Take Your Group to the Next Level (Zondervan, 2020), is grounded in social science research and translated to make a practical contribution to equip small group leaders to facilitate individual spiritual growth.

We are honored to announce that Cheri Coleman has been awarded the Free Methodist Chaplain Association Distinguished Service Medallion for her outstanding ministry representing the Free Methodist Church, highlighting over 20 years of service through chaplaincy and education. The award was presented to her on August 25, 2021.

Cheri currently serves as a chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Education Educator at Loma Linda Veterans Affairs Hospital, where she supervises chaplain residents, co-supervises the Holistic Mental Health specialty interdisciplinary training program, leads several support groups for veterans focused on well-being and spirituality, and serves on the Ethics Committee, the Whole Health team, and Patient Centered Care team. Her work includes educating and caring for patients, their families, staff and trainees.

Exhausting, Lonely, Chaotic. These are some of the words our ministry leaders have used to describe the stress of pastoring through a pandemic. If you have experienced fatigue or burnout in your ministry this past year, Trisha Welstad has hope for you.

Trisha’s heart is for pastors and ministry leaders to grow and thrive in congregational leadership, because when our church leaders are healthy, they can enrich and sustain the vitality of our congregations. Through support from colleagues, mentoring, and creating safe space to relax, pray, and rest, it’s time to find practical and purposeful ways to meet your own spiritual and personal needs to better help those you serve.

# Downloads and Resources
https://fmcsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/FMCSC-August-Training-Takeaway-Resources.pdf

# About Trisha Welstad, DMin

Trisha Welstad is passionate about investing in leaders to see them become all God has created them to be. As an ordained Free Methodist elder, Trisha has served with churches in Los Angeles and Oregon, leading as a pastor of youth, leadership development, a church planter, and as a co-pastor of a church restart. She is a loving and whole-hearted leader whose vision for the world is for all people to own their unique identity and welcome one another to work together in mutually honorable ways that create healthy and sustainable relationships with God, self, others, and the planet.

Trisha serves as the executive director of The Leadership Center, directs The Institute for Pastoral and Congregational Thriving at Portland Seminary, and teaches apprenticeship courses for Portland Seminary. She has her doctorate in Leadership and Global Perspectives.

Do you sometimes feel like the conversation in the church about sexuality isn’t really much of a conversation?

It’s time for the church to have an honest dialog about sexuality – one that’s less focused on fear and talking points and is instead focused on seeing people the way God sees them. Join us Thursday July 15th at 12pm for a candid conversation with Preston Sprinkle as he shares his thoughts on sexuality from a Biblical perspective.

# About Preston Sprinkle
Preston Sprinkle is a professor, speaker, and a New York Times bestselling author. He earned a Ph.D. in New Testament from Aberdeen University in Scotland (2007), and he’s been a professor of theology at Cedarville University (OH), has taught at Nottingham University (England), and Eternity Bible College (CA and ID). Preston is currently a full-time author, speaker, and teacher.

Preston loves communicating Christian truths with thoughtfulness, honesty, and grace. He is passionate about approaching topics that everyone wants to know about, but no one wants to talk about. Topics like sexuality, violence, alcohol, hell, and what it means to follow a Jewish prophet-king who was executed for treason. He works hard to write, speak, and teach the truth of Scripture and hopes to challenge others to read the Bible while holding their predetermined beliefs loosely.

When Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their community with a radically countercultural perspective.

The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices.

– About Dr. Soong-Chan Rah
Dr. Rah holds a ThD from Duke Divinity School, with a primary field of study in theology and ethics and a secondary field of study in American evangelical history. He also holds an MDiv and a DMin, with a concentration in urban ministry leadership, from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, as well as a ThM from Harvard University, with a thesis on the immigrant church.

He is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, and a member of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, American Academy of Religion, and American Society of Missiology. He has spoken widely on the topics of the witness of the church, cross-cultural ministry, and social justice at academic conferences, seminaries, Christian colleges, local churches, denominational gatherings, and ministry conferences on both the domestic and global level.

Upon completing the Ministerial Candidate process and undergoing extensive discernment with mentors and the Ministerial Education & Guidance Board, the Free Methodist Church consecrates this process through ordination – the recognition of God’s calling in their lives for His work in the church. We welcome these incoming ordained Elders and pray for God’s blessing in their ministries.

– Annual Conference 2021

What is Annual Conference? It’s a time for all of us to celebrate what God has done throughout our churches, remember those who have gone before us, and consecrate God’s calling on the lives of new church leaders across Southern California. It’s our opportunity to remember that “It’s good to belong.”

Find out more at https://ac21.fmcsc.org

On Saturday, May 8, 2021, amazing musicians from across the Free Methodist Church in Southern California came together to celebrate, create, and remember God’s goodness. These songs are the story of that day and a reminder to always seek God together.

# What is Annual Conference?
It’s a time for all of us to celebrate what God has done throughout our churches, remember those who have gone before us, and consecrate God’s calling on the lives of new church leaders across Southern California. It’s our opportunity to remember that “It’s good to belong.”

https://ac21.fmcsc.org

# Singers
Candyce Chenier
Norma De La Cruz
Lechell Hall
Nyla Houston
Darrel Sims

# Band
Elias Camara – Acoustic Guitar / Vocals / Audio Engineer
Aaron De La Cruz – Musical Director / Keys
Andrew Murguia – Electric Guitar
Elijah Nunez – Acoustic Guitar / Vocals / Audio Engineer
Dave Snow – Drums
Curtis Thompson – Bass Guitar

# Filming and Production
Amy Frazier – Production Assistant / Catering
Christopher Frazier – Producer / Director
Steve Guiles – Technical Director

Upon completing the Ministerial Candidate process and undergoing extensive discernment with mentors and the Ministerial Education & Guidance Board, the Free Methodist Church consecrates this process through ordination – the recognition of God’s calling in their lives for His work in the church. We welcome these incoming ordained Elders and pray for God’s blessing in their ministries.

– Annual Conference 2021

What is Annual Conference? It’s a time for all of us to celebrate what God has done throughout our churches, remember those who have gone before us, and consecrate God’s calling on the lives of new church leaders across Southern California. It’s our opportunity to remember that “It’s good to belong.”

Find out more at https://ac21.fmcsc.org

Upon completing the Ministerial Candidate process and undergoing extensive discernment with mentors and the Ministerial Education & Guidance Board, the Free Methodist Church consecrates this process through ordination – the recognition of God’s calling in their lives for His work in the church. We welcome these incoming ordained Elders and pray for God’s blessing in their ministries.

– Annual Conference 2021

What is Annual Conference? It’s a time for all of us to celebrate what God has done throughout our churches, remember those who have gone before us, and consecrate God’s calling on the lives of new church leaders across Southern California. It’s our opportunity to remember that “It’s good to belong.”

Find out more at https://ac21.fmcsc.org