Sitting down with leaders in your community such as principals and police officers helps you learn more about neighborhood needs from a different perspective. It's also a great way to establish connections and partnerships with others who want to build up and support the community.

One great way to get to know your community is through driving around with some people and making purposeful observations. Click here to find a guide that includes specific things to look for and questions to ask yourselves.

Daniels draws from the story of Nehemiah to call churches to pivot outwards and toward their communities. For Daniels, the key is to build relationships with people in the community so that churches can engage in ministries with others rather than to others.

Who lives in your community? MissionInsite is a demographic tool that gives you instant access to community information based on zip code, city, or county with customizable reports that will help you minister more effectively to your community.

Though prayer-walking you can seek God's guidance, mercy, and transforming power—both for the community and for ourselves as God's servants in the community. Click here for a prayer-walking guide.

Simple Church is a network of dinner churches--a new way of connecting with people for whom regular worship services might be too intimidating.

Fresh Expressions is an international movement of missionary disciples cultivating new kinds of church alongside existing congregations to more effectively engage our growing post-Christian society. Find out how they can help your church connect with new people.

The Smith Center for Evangelism and Church Growth is offering grants of up to $10,000 to churches in the CTC to start new faith communities.

This flyer outlines six ideas for creating new faith communities under the umbrella of an existing church.

Discipleship Ministries, an agency of the UMC, provides helpful resources related to covenant discipleship groups in the Wesleyan tradition.

This 20-page booklet from Discipleship Ministries outlines steps for launching a small group ministry within a local church. It offers both a broad overview of how small groups benefit a church as well as practical tips to make it work.

In this book, Steven Manskar explains how churches can use accountable discipleship groups to promote spiritual growth. This book is also the main text for the Lay Servant Ministries course of the same name.

How can your church build on the the Wesleyan legacy of class meetings to draw people into deeper discipleship? In The Class Meeting, Kevin Watson explains how class meetings differ from information-driven small groups and offers a framework for introducing class meetings into congregational life.

Rev. Mike Ramsdell created this resource to help church leaders navigate the process of visioning.

When woven into the fabric of a congregation, strategic planning helps churches organize themselves around their mission and vision. In this book, Gil Rendle and Alice Mann offer a framework for planning centered on identity, purpose, and context.

Are you new to strategic planning in the church? The Center for Congregations has created a helpful flyer that will introduce you to the basics.

Andy Stanley offers pastors and leaders guidance for helping churches catch a vision for what God is calling them to be and do.

Adding or changing a worship service can be a great way to engage new people. This Interpreter article offers advice about implementation strategies and identifies pitfalls to avoid.

Discipleship Ministries connects pastors and lay leaders with numerous resources related to worship planning, music, and preaching.

The Festival of Homiletics is a week-long conference that brings together a wide variety of outstanding preachers and professors of homiletics to inspire a discourse about preaching, worship and culture.

In this book, Marcia McFee offers strategies for creating and sustaining sensory-rich worship that offers unforgettable messages each and every week.

Leading Worship and Planning Worship are two, ten-hour Lay Servant Ministries courses periodically offered in the CTC. Connect with your district director of Lay Servant Ministries to find out more.

Learn about mission and retreat opportunities for youth and ways for CTC youth leaders to connect and grow.

This denominational resource is both for youth and young adults and the leaders who work with them. You will find networks, gatherings, blogs, grants, and many other opportunities here.

Growing Young offers six strategies you can use to help young people discover and love your church. Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin draw from research done by the Fuller Youth Institute to help churches understand how best to connect with young people.

Author David Kinnaman and Barna Research have discovered some of the most insightful trends and tips for reaching the ‘Next Generation.’

This resource is designed for both parents and youth leaders to grow deeper relationships with their teens and develop life-long faith in this age group.

In this book, Thomas Bandy describes eight different types of spiritual leaders and the types of people who respond to each. Looking forward, Bandy hypothesizes about the sort of leaders churches will require in the future if they desire to connect with new people.

Faith & Leadership is the online magazine of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity. It provides helpful and timely articles related to leadership development in local churches.

Affiliated with Wesley Theological Seminary, the Lewis Center for Church Leadership provides ideas, research, resources, and training so that congregations and denominations thrive, serve, and grow.

The Praxis Internship provides college students an opportunity to experience pastoral ministry through a ten-week, paid summer internship in a local church.

The Vital Leadership Academy (VLA) is a selective, six-month leadership development program for lay people. The VLA is designed to identify, inspire, train, and support people who are new to leadership so that they can partner with clergy to lead positive change in local congregations.

UM Discipleship Ministries is a great resource for lectionary and seasonal ideas for children and family ministries.

GenOn provides support and training for intergenerational ministry in churches of all denominations.

Glen Lake Camp & Retreat Center has been changing lives for over 75 years. Summer is filled with great camp opportunities for children, youth, and families.

This Fresh Expressions model invites new families to experience God and church through an interactive, intergenerational, and messy worship experience. Check out the video and learn more!

Vibrant Faith is leading the way for faith formation with ideas for parents, families, and church leaders, including training and certification.

This free resource from UM Discipleship Ministries helps churches answer the questions: What is a disciple? And why are we called to make them?

This workbook provides a great introduction for new or returning members on what it means to be a disciple in the Wesleyan tradition.

Resources and tools for every stage and age in your discipleship ministry, including a vision for how to create a new culture of faith formation in your church.

This tool from Phil Maynard is offered free of charge to all CTC congregations to help you understand how your church members can grow in their discipleship.

Stepping stones are a great illustration for spiritual development. Discipleship is not taking a class and joining a church. Becoming a disciple is a life-long process of opening ourselves to God and responding to God’s grace.

For years, the Walk to Emmaus (and Chrysalis for teens) has helped produce deeper disciples and Christian leaders for our churches through its Wesleyan message of grace.

The Lewis Center of the Church Leadership provides great articles on various topics related to generosity and stewardship.

In this book, Clayton Smith emphasizes that effective churches cultivate a culture of generosity as an important aspect of discipleship. In addition, he provides pastors and lay people with great practical suggestions.

In this interview, David King discusses research findings related to religious giving. In short, church leaders should discuss giving in terms of how people think about the meaning of their life and work.

Cokesbury provides a helpful chart that compares several different stewardship programs.

In this book, Pastor Mike Slaughter provides a thoughtful framework for how Christians should reflect on money and how to use it in a way that brings honor to God.

One of the first steps of offering hospitality to church guests is to do an honest assessment of what newcomers experience in your church. UMCOM has compiled a great set of assessment resources that can help.

Exceeding expectations rather than simply satisfying them is the cornerstone of the Disney approach to customer service. What might your church learn about exceeding the expectations of people who walk through your doors?

Check out this great collection of articles related to welcoming guests into your church.

Hospitality is about far more than donuts and coffee. (If only it were that easy!) In this book, Jim Ozier calls churches to develop cultures of hospitality where welcoming new people is everyone's job.

The design of your church building can contribute to (or hinder) the ways in which people connect together and feel welcome. This article can help you think of ways to adapt your building to be a "third space".

Who Is My Neighbor? is a field-tested resource through which English speakers of any church and congregation can learn basic Spanish-speaking skills to be able to communicate and provide a welcoming atmosphere to the Hispanic communities surrounding them.

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert have authored a series of books in the "When Helping Hurts" family. They encourage churches to rethink traditional ways of mission which actually disempower those we serve and develop a new understanding of the difference between relief, rehabilitation and development.

Global Ministries, an agency of the UMC, connects the church in mission. Its initiatives include supporting missionaries, responding to disasters, and promoting global health.

Reggie McNeal focuses on three shifts he has identified as necessary to embrace a missional model of ministry: from an internal to external focus; from running programs and ministries to developing people; and from church-based leadership to community-engaged leadership.

Engaging the community and the world for mission and transformation is a process. Check out the resources available on the CTC Center for Mission Support page to help your church structure its ministries in ways that will allow all parties to grow as disciples.

Ruby Payne has authored two books that are foundational to understanding poverty. In "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," Payne explores cultural differences that exist between economic classes. In "What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty," she extends the focus to ways churches can adapt their ways of being in ministry with those experiencing poverty.

This is an excellent introduction to God’s call on the faithful to serve the poor. It is a very easy read and also comes with a study guide for small group study. Several CTC churches have used this resource as a sermon series followed up by strategic thinking about mission that builds relationship with and serves our neighbors.