Shift Plus is a trainer-led, coach-assisted, best-practices focused program to help as many smaller and mid-sized churches as possible gain traction on the technical and emerging challenges of church life and organization. The goal of the Bi-District in offering this program is to help churches to feel empowered and successful at bringing needed changes even in challenging times. If churches do well in bringing about these more technical changes, we will offer a Weekend Consultation (the “Plus”) to challenge them to achieve more adaptive and innovative changes.

The Shift Training and Coaching Program is based on the teachings of Dr. Phil Maynard, using his  books: Shift, Connect, andMembership to Discipleship, as well as other materials. Dr. Maynard is an experienced pastor from Florida who served and grew churches of all sizes and now coaches, consults and facilitates throughout the United Methodist denomination.  The Bi-District did an initial round of Shift Coaching in 2015 and discovered that churches that invest time and attention in this process can move to a new level of fruitfulness.  In addition to Dr. Maynard’s training, there will be coaching provided by a local trained coach for each of the churches to help with implementation and accountability of the action plans each church will design in the training sessions.

The schedule for the Training and Coaching program for your church will go as follows:

• Orientation for all Shift Clergy- January 7, 2019 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. at the District Office – How to use the process of Shift Plus successfully, find out your church’s coach and books will be distributed.
• Pastor and several key lay persons attend six bi-monthly training workshop days run by Dr. Maynard, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday:
  • Session 1: January 19 – From Fellowship to Hospitality
  • Session 2: March 23 – Connecting with Neighbors
  • Session 3: May 4 – From Worship as Event to Lifestyle
  • Session 4: July 20* – From Membership to Disciple 
    *This session is at Centreville UMC
  • Session 5: September 28* – From “Serve Us” to Service
    *This session is at Centreville UMC
  • Session 6: November 2 – From Survival to Generosity
• In February, April, June, August, October and December there will be a time of coaching for the pastors in 60-90 min coaching session with your own Shift coach (this is another part of the “plus”). There may also be check-ins with a church’s entire Shift team as necessary. These will be a time of:
  • Reporting back on action plans
  • Identifying barriers to implementation; problem-solving
  • Sharing successes and best practices that are working
• Shift Plus Breakfast: February 8, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. at Wesley UMC in Vienna

Register for the February 8 Shift Plus Breakfast.

Shift plus participants can access materials from previous sessions using the button below. 

We can accommodate seven churches from each District in the program and invitations are from your District Superintendent only. There may be a waiting list necessary, as more than 7 invitations per district have been extended.

The cost to each church will be $1000 for the Shift Training and Coaching Program. This $1000 fee can be paid $500 in 2018 (at date of registration and no later than November 15) and $500 at the Pastor’s Orientation on January 7, 2019, thereby spreading into two year’s budgets. The $1000 fee covers all the books for two people (these are easily shared) and up to four people’s attendance at each training session for lunches and workbooks throughout the program.  Workbooks for additional people above the 4 are $10.00 and additional lunches are also $10.00.  Pastors are required to attend each session and bring 3-4 laity, forming a Shift team for each topic, or if the church desires, forming one Shift team for the entire process.

The Weekend Consultation:  Upon the completion of the Shift Training and Coaching Program, a church may apply for a Weekend Consultation, in which a team of  trained observers will facilitate a weekend-long church-wide retreat to listen for where God is calling the church, and help discern the next level of fruitful innovations with which the church is now ready to engage. This process will be outlined closer to the Spring 2020 timeframe in which the weekends will be available.

*Note: Entering into Shift Plus must be approved by your church ministry council before registering!