Contact: Jason Pankau, Life Spring Network, 888-958-3331, Jason@lifespringnetwork.org
ITASCA , Ill., May 11 /Christian Newswire/ -- Church leaders have begun gathering for web-meetings with an eye toward building a network of discipleship thinkers and practitioners across North America, according to Life Spring Network, a discipleship training ministry focused on mentoring. The aim is to stem the advancing tide of personal self-leadership and disconnectedness in contemporary church life.
Research featured during these web-meetings deals partly with the state of discipleship in the church and partly with the degree of connection among church members and in people's lives generally. For example, research from the Gallup organization shows that three out of four American employees are emotionally disengaged from their fellow employees at work. Gallup research within churches reveals that levels of disconnectedness from fellow church members has reached 71%.
"Participants in our weekly web-meetings are fascinated by the research we're bringing to their attention. They have an intuitive sense of the trends, according to our online polls, and yet they're shocked to see the reality of the research results," commented Michael Stallard, who joins Life Spring Network president Jason Pankau in the presentations. They are co-authors of the best-seller Fired Up or Burned Out, which deals with creating what they call a "connection culture" in the church and in the workplace.
The interactive event permit's participants to comment on the discipleship ideas being presented. Pankau explained that "Discipleship training and mentoring are the keys to making church members become reproductive disciple-makers." The ministry has sought out and developed resources that equip churches to train members for that. Its training features a comprehensive church-wide transformation campaign, the Omega Experience, the center of which is the Omega Course.
A web camera enables a full face-to-face kind of interaction during the web meetings. The format allows for polls to be taken as well as for comments and questions. Participation in the free one-hour interactive meetings are available by visiting the "Events" page of the website, by contacting the ministry to receive a link via e-mail, or by clicking HERE:
The web-meetings will be complemented this summer by conferences for leaders interested in transforming their churches into cultures of connection and disciple-making. Details about the "Leading the Omega Experience” conferences scheduled in Chicago and New York may be found on the website.
