Bbm 407 - Action Research Proposal

Action Research Proposal

Kelly Ohnmacht

BBM 407

Wilmington University

I am a member of Grace Fellowship Church which has a small congregation of only about 20-30 people.  This is the story of how my church became my church. My Uncle, TJ Tennefoss, is a true and firm believer in Christ and he is always striving to share the Word of God. He was raised a Mennonite and attended school at Rosedale Bible College where he learned and was lead into pastoral-ship.  After a sad separation from a previous church, my family, his family and one other family began to meet for “church” around the kitchen at my parents’ home. They all still wanted to praise the Lord even though they didn’t have an actual building or “church.” The fellowship started to get bigger and bigger and me and my cousins joined in the study and eventually we had to move it from the kitchen table to the garage. That all happened about 7 years ago and now we have a building we can call our own and have branched out from just family members and have around 20 to 30 people attending every Sunday.

Everyone has the potential to be a leader and I feel like TJ Tennefoss is a contemporary leader.  He serves others expecting nothing in return, he is always there when you need someone and he recognizes the value in other people.  He is a confident pastor and loves to connect people to Christ. His dreams are so big they seem impossible.  He is an amazing man and touches the lives of everyone he meets.  He longs to make a difference, values relationships more than tasks, and has motivation.  A leader has a vision and my Uncle TJ has that vision.  Leaders recognize a problem and fix the problem.  Different people require different styles of leadership because all situations are different. The outcome of the leadership is direction, alignment and commitment. Direction is important because it shares the vision of the group. Alignment is important because it is the coordination of the group. Commitment is important because it is the willingness of the people to provide for the group.

Problems can and will arise in any organization, even church.  The problem within my church would be consistent attendance.  This is a problem for us because we are a small church and financially it is hard to sustain.  We have decided, as a group, to make our church time from 7:00pm-8:30pm. We also have some sort of pot-luck before church begins so this is around 6:30pm. With some of our members having young children this makes attendance hard for some of them. It feels like we are always living on the edge of financial sustainability.  How will we keep the church going, how will we pay the bills and how to get those people and more to attend. If we lose more people we will suffer even greater financial shortfalls.  Within a small church the impact of the rippling effect of even the loss of one or two families can affect the whole congregation.  When problems arise we react quickly, if we fear that, problems may escalate and have more damage to the church.  Often when issues arise within the church there are often underlying issues that cause the problem.  Church attendance, participation, and fellowship should be regular aspects of a believer's life.  Weekly church attendance is in no sense required for believers, but someone who belongs to Christ should want to worship God, receive His Word, and fellowship with other believers.  

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