Leon Johnston
I am the pastor of Wolf Creek Community Church of Lacombe, AB. My wife is currently training to be a Registered Nurse. I have four children, all of whom study at Lacombe Christian School. We enjoy camping, gardening, music, cycling and swimming.
Posted in: Does anyone have a council spiritual retreat program that we could borrow?
Hello.
As far as the council spiritual retreat goes, at this point we are thinking about spending the Friday night connecting and worshipping together. Then Saturday morning would probably be some leadership development with a guest teacher. Then Saturday afternoon would be spend dreaming about the future, which would likely center around reviewing our mission statement and praying and discussing future direction.
What plans have you made so far? I'd be glad to hear them!
--Leon
Posted in: How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
Hi Jolanda,
Thank you so much for the guidance. I look forward to exploring those resources to discern how to best mentor our Sunday School teachers. I'm probably going to suggest that we conduct a workshop early next fall and incorporate some of these ideas. We've also found mentoring to be helpful, although sometimes it is hard to find one teacher for each group, let alone having these teachers mentor others. I really like the idea of developing a vision for teaching (or a philosophy of teaching ministry), and I think we really need to do that.
Again, thank you so much for the guidance. Perhaps I'll be in touch with you with more questions/comments after I review the resources you sent.
Peace to you!
--Leon
Posted in: How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
Hello again, Jolanda:
Thanks again for your response. I just browsed through the resources you suggested for training Sunday School teachers and the materials for visioning. They all look very helpful, and I will aim to use some of them in the future. I think my next step is to meet with the chairperson of our Education Team and cast a vision for a debriefing meeting this spring to evaluate our year, and a visioning/training session in the early fall, when we're gearing up for the new teaching year.
Thanks again for your support and guidance.
Peace of Christ,
Leon
Posted in: Does anyone have a council spiritual retreat program that we could borrow?
Hi Meg,
Thank you for the suggestions. Great idea to consult with Lis VH and to explore resources from Ruth Haley Barton. And I also agree with you about the need to play together. In fact, we're planning on having some fun on the opening night, and then probably ending the evening with worship or at least Scripture and prayer. We've also invited our classis pastor-church relations consultant to lead us in a couple of seminars/workshops on Saturday morning (leadership development). And then we plan to review our mission statement and begin to review our effectiveness (visioning). I'm really looking forward to this spiritual retreat!
God bless you, sister! Have a blessed season of Lent.
--Leon
Posted in: Have you ever had a person ask you to re-baptize her, and how did you respond?
In case anyone is wondering, I met with the student and her parents that I mentioned above. Happily, the Lord really blessed this meeting. The family was open and honest with each other. There was understanding, acceptance and tears of joy! We talked about infant baptism and profession of faith, and what they both meant and the connection between them. In the end, I asked the student, "So what do you feel the Lord call is calling you to do this matter?" And she said, "I feel the Lord is calling me to profess my faith and not be baptized again." So we started making plans and set a date in June. I thank the Lord for guiding us all in this matter, and using it to bring a family closer together and teaching us about faith formation and the importance of remembering our baptisms.
--Leon H. Johnston
Posted in: Does anyone have a council spiritual retreat program that we could borrow?
Hi Lis,
Thank you for offering support regarding the visioning process. I'll keep this in mind as we plan the retreat. Regardless of the specifics, I'm thankful my leaders are willing to go on a retreat at all. I trust they will feel renewed and blessed--and want to go on retreat again in the next few years!
May the Lord continue to bless your life and ministry!
Lis
Posted in: How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
Hi Jolanda,
Hope you're doing well! Blessed Pentecost!
I thought you might be encouraged to know that we recently debriefed the Sunday School ministry at our church. Happily, the Lord really blessed this meeting! We debriefed the year and focused on what went well and what didn't, and how we can improve. Then we sought to become more unified in terms of direction and curriculum. I'm thankful at how this meeting turned out--thanks be to God!
Thank you for your guidance!
--Leon
Posted in: Does anyone have a council spiritual retreat program that we could borrow?
Hi Lis,
I trust you're enjoying the season of Lent. What a blessed time of the Christian Year. I can feel the anticipation!
Say, would you be willing to pass on some ideas or the outline of the visioning process that you do with SCE? I'm planning the details of our upcoming spiritual retreat this week, and I would value any guidance you would care to give in this regard.
Thank you kindly!
--Leon
Posted in: How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
Hello,
We try to keep our pre-school Sunday School going all year around, but not the older students. But the only way we've managed to keep it going thus far is to ask parents to volunteer, so usually not every Sunday gets covered. But it's a good way to get parents more engaged in the Sunday School ministry.
--Leon
Posted in: Discernment Needed for Pastor's Office Hours
Pastor Cecil,
Thank you for prescribing spiritual discernment regarding this issue. It can be a tricky one! For some reason, some people seem to equate office hours with the number of hours the pastor actually works, not realizing that often he/she does his/her best work away from the "office." But I agree, balance is needed. One thing I've done recently with council approval is to spend some of my "office hours" at the local Tim Horton's. So, I spend most Tuesday afternoons there, so I call it "Timmy Tuesday." I've found that more people (church and community) are willing to visit me at the local Timmy's than drop by the church "office." I would encourage other pastors to try it!
--Leon
Posted in: The Evangelical Liturgist
Sam,
Thank you for writing this article on liturgy and liturgical training. I agree with you: there is much to be done in terms of training liturgists for weekly worship. To this end, we are having our first (hopefully) annual "worship workshop" at our church. Accordingly, one of the topics we hope to address is the "in-between" words that we liturgists are called to speak between elements in the worship service.
Thank you also for suggesting the Quentin Schultz book on public speaking. I look forward to reading it.
Happy Easter,
Leon
Posted in: Winging Our Prayers
Sam,
Thank you for writing this reflection on the Prayers of the People. I'm thinking quite a bit about this ministry right now, so I appreciate your thoughts on the topic. I work hard on my Prayers, as I recognize the importance of them. I've employed a variety of strategies as I seek to pray for the people and teach them how to pray. We sometimes have what I call "prayer conversations" at our church, at which time we invite testimonies of thanksgiving and prayer requests. Then I'll invite the people to pray for any requests they feel called to pray for. At other times I'll write out my prayers and read out the prayer. Regardless, one thing I've found very helpful with both forms of prayer: praying the psalms. I'll almost always read a psalm as a Call to Prayer or use parts of a psalm in the actual prayer--with great blessing.
Again, thank you for reflecting on public prayer. A very important ministry in the worship service.
Grace & peace,
Leon