Bob Mayfield

One Day Update Pt. 2 - The Results

Yesterday I explained where we were regarding the equipping of our Sunday School and small group leaders around the state of Oklahoma and how we came up with the One Day concept. I do have people ask occasionally why we call it "One Day". The original plan for One Day was actually a simulcast that we were going to do on Tuesday, August 25. Our plan was to have 100 sites and involve about 10,000 leaders. A couple of things changed this: One was the technology required to do a satellite uplink and also that our 100 sites had to have a satellite receiver. But the other issue was that August 25 might not be the best date for training on many church calendars. So we decentralized the training and went with a DVD for the plenary session and let the churches choose a date that works best in their calendar.

So what are the results for One Day? They have been amazing! We had 273 churches register to participate in the training (That's about 75 more than we were having at associational clinics). The chart below will give you a good comparison.

	2008	2009
Associations/churches	28 (associations)	103 (churches reporting)
Leaders trained	2,600	7,508

Yes, we tripled our leadership training participation so far this year, and we still have 170 churches who have not reported back yet! Of the 103 churches that have returned a survey to date, 97% have had a positive response to One Day. Here are a few of their responses:

We have had several families step into roles in ministry since the One Day training. It was an amazing tool. We look forward to it next year! From a church in Oklahoma City.

We had the strongest leadership training in recent memory: 49 in Adult Div., 17 in Youth Div., 15 in Child Div., 8 in Preschool Div.  The Ed Stetzer video was extremely well received (maybe THE hit of our training). - Andy Teague, Enid.

It went very well. We were able to break into separate groups for Preschool/Children, Youth and Adults. There were some good conversations. Our event was held on a Friday night and one of our adult classes had already discussed and settled on two separate mission projects by that following Sunday! From a church in Sapulpa.

Our church is 8 years old and we have never really thought about equipping our small group leaders. One Day was great and helped us focus on our purpose in our small groups. We're going to do this every year now and we are looking forward to next year. From a church in Bixby.

As you can see, the results from our churches in Oklahoma have been tremendous. We have had churches of all sizes and shapes participate, from megachurches to rural churches to innercity churches. From what I can tell, here are some reasons why the One Day Initiative has connected with our churches:

• First, the training is decentralized. Ownership of the training was shifted from the state convention to the local church (or association in a few cases).
• Second, a local church does not have to have a "professional" to teach the breakout sessions. We encourage pastors to enlist their own people to lead the breakout sessions. We did train a number of consultants, but feedback we have received from them indicates they were not very busy. Part of our intent here is to uplift and encourage the development of new leaders within the church.
• Third, our video team did a great job capturing Ed Stetzer on video. I believe that having this video available on DVD was instrumental in helping us paint a broad and appealing picture of what a class or group's purpose is. Although churches may have different contexts, the mission of making disciples is the same. I believe that we must clearly communicate the purpose of Sunday School/groups in new ways and terminology so that we are keeping our people on mission.
• Finally, with 26 breakout sessions available to download online (we also burned a few on disk), each church was able to customize the training for their situation. Rather than being forced into one topic, churches were able to pick and choose training topics that were beneficial to their context.

Tomorrow, I am going to complete this One Day evaluation trilogy with a look at what we have learned this year and some things we are doing next year to help make this process even better.

One Day Update Pt. 1 - The Prognosis

I had to take some time off after the "31 Days of Sunday School" blogapalooza! But I am very excited about the results we are receiving from our One Day Initiative that we are doing in Oklahoma right now, so I am back and ready to start blogging again!

Just to update you quickly about One Day:  Our state convention Sunday School office re-engineered the way that we deliver leadership training to Sunday School and small group leaders this year. In the past we have focused on training teams of consultants. We then sent these highly trained professionals to associations to train lay leaders from the churches in each association. We conduct about 25-30 of these association training clinics annually, almost all of them in August/September. Our attendance at these clinics total about 2,500 leaders per year.

My evaluation of our association clinic model revolved around three areas: 

1. Although 2,500 leaders trained annually may sound like a lot, in the context of about 20,000 leaders in our state, it is barely more than 10%.
2. The age demographic attending associational clinics is getting older. Most of the attendees are over 50 years of age. Rarely did we have a leader attend in their 20's or 30's.
3. Due to the model, the training topics tend to be rather narrow. For example, if the training theme this year is ministry, but your church leadership needs training in outreach/evangelism... well, you see the problem!

So we deconstructed the training model this year and rebuilt something new... One Day. We redesigned the training and built it off of two key concepts: decentralized and customized. We wanted to put together leadership training that a local church could implement (decentralized). And... we wanted to offer a variety of training topics so that a local church could pick and choose seminars that best fit their situation (customized).

However, we still wanted to focus the training around a common purpose. In Oklahoma, we are encouraging our churches to be missional. Since I believe that the church's small group structure should be the practical implementation of the church's vision, we have adopted the term "missional Sunday School" or "missional small communities". Ed Stetzer graciously allowed us to capture his message about missional small communities on video, and these videos have been made available to our BGCO churches (and yours as well, for a small $10.00 fee).

We also wanted to customize the training for our churches, so we enlisted pastors, education ministers, student ministers, and childhood education leaders from our churches to write the various breakout sessions for us. These leaders developed 26 different conference plans for our churches to use to equip their leadership. These plans were then posted on our BGCO website for our churches to download and use. Our communications team informed me that the One Day webpage received more hits in August than any other page on our convention's website.

Tomorrow I'll bring an up-to-date report and an evaluation of the One Day Initiative, and what we are doing to improve it for 2010.

The Face Behind the Music of One Day

The Baptist Messenger has a great article about Ryan Smith, worship & discipleship pastor at Eagle Heights Baptist Church in Stillwater. Ryan wrote 9 of the 10 songs on the "One Day is Coming" worship CD that we put together to support the One Day Initiative.

The worship CD is an integral part of making One Day a holistic opportunity for the local church, and it was also a great partnership for the state convention and the local church. As Ryan says in the article, One Day Smith was "really thinking outside the box, and that's what really attracted me to the whole project. I think it's such a bold statement for our Convention to make in that you know, we're not going to be satisfied with doing things how we've always done them, and he really had a vision to reach, in particular, the generation that's been leaving the church."

Go here to read the entire article.

You can purchase this CD through my office for $7.00 at [email protected] or through the website at www.bgco.org/oneday. It is really great music and my personal favorite is "Hope Rising". This is contemporary Christian music, and by that I mean that it is not Christian elevator music. Order it and enjoy!

You can also preview and download the songs on iTunes. Search for "Ryan Smith Band".

 

BGCO/NavPress Partner on New Member Resource

Mike Miller and our friends at Nav have partnered with the Church and Family Equipping Team of the BGCO to provide an eight week study for new believers! Basics of Christian Living is a new resource especially designed for adults who have recently become Christians. Nav has intentionally avoided churchy sounding lingo in the book. It also has a Leaders Guide in the appendix to help facilitate small group Bible study.

The Oklahoma convention is conducting the One Day Initiative this fall where we are encouraging our classes and small groups to be missional. Basics of Christian Living is a companion piece to One Day to assist churches with new members and new believers who are reached through class mission projects. As you can see from the photo, Nav even added our One Day graphic!

For churches who conduct Membership Classes, Basics of Christian Living is an excellent product to provide at these classes. BCL can be used as either a self-study or it can be used as part of an ongoing Membership Class.

Ordering can be made online at the Nav website. Order directly from NavPress, or use the book's ISBN 9781615213924. NavPress is also offering discounts for 10 copies or more.

De-centralizing Convention Sunday School Ministry

We are trying an experiment in Oklahoma. Okay, I'm referring to the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, not the Sooner football team! With our new "One Day Initiative", we are de-centralizing the way we have equipped lay Bible study leaders. I know many conventions follow a similar model for equipping the leaders of their small groups and Sunday Schools. In the past, we have generally focused on associational or statewide clinics and encouraged churches to bring their leaders to these events. Before I proceed, I want everyone to know that I am not opposed to these models. Oklahoma may indeed return to something similar someday for their Sunday School leadership training, the pendulum swings one way and then the other. We have all seen churches call a new pastor who is the polar opposite of the previous shepherd.

But for now, we are in our first year of a three year emphasis of trying something new. Instead of asking our pastors to bring their leaders to an event hosted by the BGCO and led by BGCO personnel or consultants, we are encouraging our churches to host their own training. In essence, we are saying that leadership development belongs to the local church, and we want to assist the church in this endeavor. We want to uplift and encourage the development of the leaders that God has put in our local churches. I believe that we have many "Davids" and "Esthers" who are waiting to be discovered.

So how are we de-centralizing the equipping of our Sunday School leaders? 

1 -  the BGCO is producing resources to assist with the training.

• To provide a consistent vision to encourage missional groups, we invited Ed Stetzer to Falls Creek where we recorded an outstanding video titled, "Missional Small Communities"; (there are actually 3 videos total)
• Age-appropriate conferences were written and developed, primarily by people in the field: pastors, education ministers, student leaders, and childhood leaders from across Oklahoma were enlisted for this task. We not only want to encourage lay leaders in our churches, but we also want to uplift our own pastors and staffs as well;
• All of the One Day Conference breakout plans are online, and include: conference plan, listening guide, powerpoint presentation, and handouts.
• Materials are FREE to BGCO churches. As part of our Cooperative Program partnership, I wanted to make the materials available so that any church, no matter their size or budget, could afford the materials. Non-BGCO churches can still download all of the Conference materials for free. They can also purchase the DVD album (that's right, 2 disc album) with the Stetzer videos, music videos, and promo videos for $10.00. Next year, these materials will be available in Spanish too;
• Churches of any size can host their own One Day training. I had a pastor ask me how his rural church of 25 people and 3 teachers could host their own training. My response was to invite his leaders into his home for dinner, show the Stetzer video on his DVD player, and then lead himself, or ask a teacher to lead one of the Conference plans for general leaders. He was thrilled!

2 - Customization (ownership). Remember that the intent behind One Day is that I believe the local church knows its mission field better than I do, so we encourage customization. That is why there are 26 different Conference plans. You can't do them all in one evening, so pick the plans that best fit your situation. Next year, we are going to add at least 25 more conference plans to this list, so a local church will have over 50 topics to choose from to train their leaders. By the end of the third year, there will be 75-100 topics!

3 - Local church leadership. The final piece of our de-centralization process is the leadership. Although we have a great staff here at the BGCO, we are encouraging the local church to use its own lay people to present the Conference plans to their peers. We live in a day and age where celebrities draw crowds. But I do not believe that there is any way to replace the peer-to-peer learning that takes place when we equip someone who has their "shoulder to the plow" alongside us. Sunday School is a lay movement; so is the small groups movement. I believe that by growing lay leaders in the local church, we are also supporting and broadening the ministry and leadership of the local pastor.

Interview with Scott Badgett about One Day

Our very first One Day seminar was held last Wednesday at Chisholm Heights Baptist Church in Mustang, OK.  Dave Bryan is the pastor at Chisholm, and like every great pastor... he has a great education minister! Scott Badgett oversees Chisholm's Sunday School, small groups, and discipleship ministries. Scott has been one of our leading ed guys in Oklahoma the past few years and he did an absolutely incredible job getting his leaders ready for their orientation to a missional Sunday School through the One Day Initiative. I had a chance to interview Scott right after their One Day orientation.

(For those people who may be wondering, CHBC has an average weekend attendance of about 600 people. Mustang, OK is a suburb of Oklahoma City.)

Bob: How is the One Day training event different from how you have trained your leaders in the past?

 

Scott: In the past, we have trained our leadership by either attending an association event of several churches or we just put one together ourselves. Our leaders generally are reluctant to travel to other locations, so our turnout for those type of training events is generally low. When we do our own event, we struggle looking for resources that match where we are trying to go at Chisholm.

 

Bob: You had 93 people attend your One Day Leadership training.  You say you generally have a low turnout for training you have to travel to, but you have more attend when you host it. What do those numbers usually look like?

 

Scott: When we go to another church we usually take about 6 people.  Previously, when we have had the training at our church we had around 30-40 people. I was actually expecting about 60 people for the One Day seminar, which would have been phenomenal for us. As you said... we had 93. I was blown away with the response from our leaders!

 

Bob: You obviously had a great numeric response, but what was the attitude of those attending your One Day seminar?

 

Scott: The general session began with hearing Ed Stetzer on video sharing about Missional Leadership.  It really fired-up our people in attendance and for some I believe it was a life-changing message.  The concept of a Sunday School class being missional was a totally new idea for many of our people. Ed brought a fresh perspective about what a class could be and our folks loved it. The support materials that you and your team put together are great, and we needed the breakout times after the video to digest what we heard and explore the materials

 

Bob: Did you use any high profile people for your training?  

 

Scott: You mean besides the video of Ed? No, with one exception, they were our own church members.
(Note from Bob: One key concept of One Day is to elevate the role and gifting of local church leaders. We encourage churches to equip their own people to lead the breakout sessions in One Day.)

 

Bob: How did you publicize your event?

 

Scott: We publicized this event for all leadership and Sunday School members to come and see how Sunday School can be the tool to change not only our lives, but our community.  We worked through our Sunday School directors and teachers, but also used Ed Stetzer’s promos for two Sunday morning services to build anticipation.  The personal invitations by leadership worked well.

 

Bob: How well were the breakout sessions received. Did you folks like them, or was most of the positive response aimed at Stetzer's video?

 

Scott: I have received tremendous/positive feedback from the adult leaders. In speaking with the age-group breakout leaders, they were very pleased in the response and the excitement of those that attended.  Several  of our adult group leaders spoke of the training as being the best they had ever received.  This goes to show how God can use any tool to deliver His message.

 

Bob: How well was the video about Missional Leadership by Ed Stetzer received?  What have been the responses to the video?

 

Scott: Ed Stetzer was a “hit” with his message.  The crowd responded well outwardly during the general meeting, but following his message, people shared how pertinent his insights were.  It was motivational, gave a vision for pastors and lay people, and is laced with just the right amount of humor.  Several people have suggested we show this video to the entire Adult SS.  The Student leaders are requesting that those not in attendance be given the opportunity to watch this video.

 

Bob: What recommendations would you make to other churches who are considering a One Day Seminar?

 

Scott: Do it!  Invite not only the Sunday School leadership, but also the Sunday School members.  Encourage the congregation that this training will make a difference.  Again, the Ed Stetzer videos, the training materials, and even the promo videos have made organizing this event less complicated and purposeful.

So there you have it, the results from the first One Day seminar. It is not too late to register for One Day and equip your leaders in the missional Sunday School concept. Go here for information and registration. If you are not a member church of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, you can still download the breakout sessions for free and receive the "Missional Communities" video by Ed Stetzer for only $10.00.

First One Day Seminar at Chisholm Heights

The first One Day Seminar was held at Chisholm Heights Baptist Church in Mustang, Oklahoma on Wednesday, August 12. I will post an interview with Scott Badgett next week about their experience, but let's just say that after visiting with him on Thursday, they had a great experience and some inspired lay leaders!

One Day is new concept in equipping lay Sunday School and small group leaders. Instead of bringing in a team of experts from the state convention, denomination, or other professionals; One Day is de-centralized. The local church is in control of its own leadership training. Instead of traveling to another church, the training is held in the local church's facilities.

One Day is also customizable. Many times the local church has little influence into what is being presented. The church must simply adopt whatever their denomination's emphasis is for that year. So if your leaders need evangelism training, or missional equipping; and the denomination is emphasizing ministry... well you will just have to wait a year or two. This year, One Day offers five topics in all five major age groups plus a small group track, for a total of 26 topics for the local church to choose from. In 2010, that number will increase to over 50, and our goal is to have 100 Sunday School and small group topics in 2011, so a local church can highly customize their small group leader training.

But we want more than just information at a One Day seminar, we want inspiration. So we have a DVD with a 35 minute video of Ed Stetzer sharing the vision of missional small communities. The lay leaders at Chisholm Heights were so motivated by this video that they are passing the video around. The youth leadership team even recommended that they show it to the whole church!

There is one more idea. Instead of getting information and inspiration about being missional through your small group structure, we actually want each group to start being missional. So we encourage every small group or class in the church to conduct a mission project in their local community right after their One Day Seminar. In some pilot efforts, we have found the class mission projects to be the most rewarding part of the One Day experience.

For more information about One Day, click here and browse the One Day resources and register to participate in One Day.

Stetzer Says One Day Model an Example for the Future

One of the main reasons that we are doing the One Day Initiative among Oklahoma Baptists is that we need a new model to equip lay people, especially small group leaders and Sunday School teachers. I have been in Oklahoma for four years now. Our model of training has been through the associations. We (the state convention) bring a team of experts that we have trained, to a church that hosts the training for the association. The association publicizes the training to their churches. Oklahoma and other state conventions have used this model for years. After four years of training, I have noticed a few things:

• we generally have the same people attending each year;
• as a general rule, most of the people attending a seminar are over 50 years in age;
• we rarely have even one person attend who is under the age of 40;
• attendance has been plateaued for years;
• total attendance out of 25-30 associational training events is between 3,000-4,000 leaders.

My guesstimate is that we have about 20,000 Sunday School or small group leaders in our churches in Oklahoma. Even allowing for churches who conduct their own leadership equipping, at least 70-75 percent of our leaders are not receiving any equipping for their ministry. Obviously, times have changed and our Sunday School team felt like it was time to try a new approach, we just did not have a direction.

Last year, I was having lunch with my pastor, Mark Sinor of North Pointe Baptist Church in Edmond, whose average attendance is around 250. He made a comment that is still bouncing through my cranium. "Bob, if I bring my leaders to an association training event, I'll bring 5 or 6 people. But if I train my leaders in our own church building, we'll have 30-40 leaders attend." Train whistles were going off in my head. What if we just empowered the local church to conduct their own training and we provided resources to help them! More people could attend! The One Day Initiative was born!

We still felt like we needed a resource that was useable by a local church that could broadcast the vision of what we now call "missional small communities" (MSC). MSC's are either small groups or Sunday School classes whose purpose is to make disciples who are impacting lostness in their neighborhoods. So we needed a 30 minute video that pastors could show their leaders that would communicate this vision. Up stepped Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. Ed not only agreed to be the presenter for the 30 minute video about Missional Small Communities, he volunteered to do two more 30 minute videos for us too on the topics of: Missional Leadership, and Young Adults.

Ed Stetzer mentioned the One Day Initiative on his blog this past week. He says "Let me add that I think this kind of approach (One Day) will be big part of the future... It takes such training to people and not just to pastors." Here are some reasons why I think that an approach like One Day has such opportunity to strengthen the leaders in our groups and classes.

1. The church owns the training. They are not attending an event someone else is responsible for;
2. Leaders within the church are developed. Someone has got to lead the breakout sessions, and that would be the church's own people;
3. The video provides a compelling vision of what a small community should be;
4. One Day has a follow up plan where every group is asked to conduct a mission project in their community. It has follow through;
5. It's less expensive. Church leaders do not have to travel across the county for training;

De-centralized and Customized

These two words are the key to the One Day Initiative. This equipping process is de-centralized. The local church is in control of the process. And customized, enough resources are offered so that each church can customize its training to its own context.

For more information about the One Day Initiative, go to the "About One Day" page at the BGCO website: http://www.bgco.org/5397.

If you want the DVD that has all three of Ed's promo videos on it, then you need to register to participate in the One Day Initiative. Register at: http://www.bgco.org/5399. This video, by the way is really loaded. It includes:

• All three of Ed's presentations;
• four, 60 second promotional videos for announcements to acquaint your church with One Day and Ed;
• four, 120 second worship videos to be used as part of your church's worship experience during One Day.

One Day FAQ's

So you are interested in the One Day Initiative, but still have some questions about implementing it in your church or association? Here are some FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) about One Day:

FAQ's

Who trains my church leaders (small groups or Sunday School) in the One Day Initiative? We are decentralizing the training for Sunday School and small group leaders for your church or association. Previously, we used to bring a team of specialy trained leaders to a church in your association to train your leaders. In One Day, we want to empower the local church, so we recommend that you enlist a leader from each age group in your church who will then train your church's leaders. We believe that you will not only have better "buy in" by hosting a One Day Orientation seminar yourself, but that the people you enlist to lead your orientation will become better leaders themselves. In other words, your people are going to become experts in Sunday School or small groups!

Where do I get the resources for One Day, and who actually put the resources together? All One Day resources are available online at www.bgco.org/onedayresources. These resources are being added to every week, especially in the video area, so be sure to check back frequently. These resources have been developed by pastors, laypeople, Sunday School teachers, housewives, student ministers, and ministers of education. The resources were then organized by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

There are 26 topics listed as training resources. Which ones should I use? Obviously, you can not teach all 26 training resources in one evening. Part of the strategy of the One Day Initiative is to allow for customization. In the past, training was limited to whatever that year's theme happened to be. So if the training theme was outreach, then outreach is what you got... even if what your leadership really needed was Bible teaching methods or class ministry. With 26 topics, you can pick and choose what your church is going to teach its Bible study leadership. So pick the topics that best fit in your situation.

What do I do at my One Day Orientation for my Bible study leadership? Below is a suggested schedule, but remember, we encourage you to customize the schedule for your situation.
        6:00    Meal
        6:30    Show the "Missional Small Communities" video featuring Ed Stetzer from the One Day DVD
        7:00    Breakout session #1 (by age groups: preschool, grade school, student, adults, leadership)
        8:00    Breakout session #2 (by age groups)
        8:45    Dismiss
Depending upon the amount of time you have, you might do one breakout session and then teach some of the other sessions at future leadership meetings at your church.

I pastor a small church and I only have 3 Sunday School teachers. How do I train my leaders? Several of the breakout sessions are compatible with general leadership training. We recommend that you invite your leaders (and maybe a future leader or two) to your home for fellowship. Show the "Missional Small Communities" video from the DVD on the television in your home. Then, you or someone you have enlisted can lead the group through one or two of the breakout sessions that you choose.

Is there a follow-up plan? Most definitely! We have probably all been to a seminar or conference that we really enjoyed, only to return home and find that a month later nothing has changed. In One Day, we encourage every class or small group to conduct a mission project in their community in the 60 days following the church's One Day Orientation. Let's face it... many of our groups have forgotten their purpose. When a class plans together and then conducts a mission project in their community, they will often rediscover their purpose... that the goal of small groups or Sunday School is not to huddle and cuddle, but to reach out to their friends and neighbors with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How do I promote One Day to the church? In early July, every pastor in Oklahoma will receive a CD with four, 60 second promo videos to show in the weeks leading up to the date you have set for your church's One Day Orientation. These videos will help acquaint your people with the message of One Day and encourage their attendance.

What is the bottom-line? How much will One Day cost? Resources from the One Day Initiative are FREE - thanks to the faithful partnership and contributions of Oklahoma Southern Baptists to the Cooperative Program. Some resources such as the One Day Worship CD and posters have a small charge to cover printing and other factors. I recently had a brochure from a professional company that provides Sunday School training that had only 10 breakout sessions and did not have a 30 minute vision-casting video. The cost: $500.00! Obviously, One Day is great resource at an even greater price - FREE!

Are there other resources besides the One Day DVD with Ed Stetzer and the 26 seminars for One Day Orientation? Yes there are:

• One Day Worship CD (featuring the Ryan Smith Band) $7.00/each
• One Day sheet music - free
• Four 60 second One Day promotion videos - free
• Four One Day inspiration videos for worship following your One Day Orientation (about 2:00 minutes each) - free
• One Day Promotional posters - 50 cents/each
• Missional Pivot Points book - $2.00/each

Why do I have to register to receive the DVD with Ed Stetzer's videos? We want to be able to measure the value of the One Day Initiative. To accomplish this, we needed something that would encourage churches to participate and register. By registering for the One Day Initiative, we will be able to measure how many leaders were trained, how many churches participated, and what were the results. There is a short evaluation that we ask each church participating in One Day to complete.

The missional small communities concept intrigues me. Where can I learn more? I recently wrote a book called Missional Pivot Points to help explain the need, in layman's terms, for the church to make some essential changes in order to effectively reach the 21st century American Christian. These books are easy to read (44 pages) and inexpensive ($2.00). You can order them online at www.bgco.org/pivotpoints. I encourage you to buy a copy for all of your church leaders.

By the way, there is a discussion guide at the end of each of the 10 chapters of Missional Pivot Points, which will enhance discussion among your church's leadership or small group/Sunday School leaders.

Free Leadership Training.. Priceless

I recently received a brochure from a well known company that produces Sunday School teacher training. Very good stuff. As I perused it, I recognized the people involved and even know a couple of them personally. I'm sure the training they are providing is excellent.

Here is an overview of what the brochure offers:

• Training in five age groupings (preschool, children, student, adult and young adult)
• Two 30 minute video sessions in each age group (10 sessions total)
• A participant book
• A leader guide
• Promo items
• A vinyl album
• Cost:  about $500.00 depending on your order

Glancing through this piece, I realized that our own state convention just put together something similar for our churches as part of our new One Day Initiative. In fact, on May 1 we equipped about 200 consultants in One Day.

Here is an overview of the One Day Initiative:

• Training in 5 age groups (preschool, children, student, adult, and general leaders)
• Five 60 minute training sessions in each age group (25 sessions total)
• A small group training session (that's 26 sessions now)
• Conference plans
• Listening guides
• Handouts
• PowerPoint presentations (for most sessions)
• PLUS three 30 minute videos by Ed Stetzer on the topics of: Missional Small Communities; Missional Leadership; and Reaching and Keeping Young Adults
• Listening guides for all three of Ed's videos
• PLUS - LifeWay has graciously allowed us to include their new Connect3 training in each of our age group sessions
• Four Worship/Inspiration videos (available July 1)
• Four 60 second informational videos to use during your worship announcements (available July 1)
• Promo posters
• All training sessions downloadable now
• COST:  $$-FREE-$$

The sessions for the One Day Initiative were written by pastors, housewives, Sunday School teachers, lay people, and education and student ministers. People who are leading their churches and groups to be missional disciples in their neighborhoods.

In addition, One Day has a follow-up plan. During September and October, we are inviting every class or group in every church that participates in One Day to have a mission project in their local community. We want to put action to the training your church receives by participating in the One Day Initiative.

As part of One Day, the local church owns the training. You probably can not teach your people all 26 sessions in one evening, so pick 1 or 2 sessions from each age group that best fit your situation. One Day is decentralized and customizable. Plus, 2009 is the first year of a three year emphasis, so by the end of the third year your church will have almost 100 different sessions to choose from so that you can highly customize the equipping of your leaders to your context. Next year we are adding training for smaller attendance churches and Hispanic churches.

You can download all of the training sessions right now for free at www.bgco.org/oneday. If you have a really slow internet connection, let us know and we will ship you a CD with all of the training sessions.

How are we able to provide this resource for free? Through the Cooperative Program. The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma is using some of the Cooperative Program contributions from its member churches to help local churches equip their people to have evangelistic, missional disciples. By partnering together, we all benefit!

You can download all of the One Day equipping sessions, and also register for the One Day Initiative and receive the Ed Stetzer videos at www.bgco.org/oneday.