Just Say Yes! Leader Retreat Guide: Unleashing People for Ministry – eBook

In Just Say Yes! Robert Schnase shows church leaders how to unleash
people for fruitful ministry. He teaches leaders to spot their own
nay-saying, and gives specific instructions for reversing the culture of
‘No’ that has become so prevalent in many churches. Step by step,
Schnase shows readers—pastors, other church leaders, and congregants—how
to make significant change in their attitude and actions, to become a
permission-giving church.

This set of resources is the next step in the author’s effort to reshape
church leaders across the mainline denomination. Just Say Yes! Becoming
a Permission-Giving Church give church leaders what they need in order
to begin implementing the principles in the original book. It starts
with a group study experience for church leaders, facilitated by a
senior leader (typically the pastor). The study can be done in as little
as 3 hours or, if groups watch all the videos and do all the optional
exercises and activities, up to 6 hours total. The sessions can be used
as a single-day retreat or broken up into 3 or 6 separate sessions. They
can be stand-alone sessions, or incorporated into meetings for staff
and lay leaders.

The Leader Guide includes instructions and guidance for leaders in
planning, hosting, debriefing and following up after the experience.
Using this resource, plus the included customizable PowerPoint slides
and the video Stories of Permission, a pastor or other key leader can
effectively facilitate an extraordinary group experience resulting in
transformation for the congregation.

The Participant Guide is a complete workbook and devotion guide for
church leaders—staff and laity—who participate in the Permission-Giving
group experience. These will typically be church councils, staff teams,
committee chairs, ministry team leaders, and the like. The Guide
includes prompts to reinforce the material shared in the videos and by
the facilitator, questions for reflection and discussion, and specific
action steps for becoming permission-giving leaders in the church. It
includes plenty of room for writing and note taking during the group
experience. It also includes a 30-day Devotional, which the participant
can complete either during or after the group experience. The group
experience includes 6 inspiring and compelling videos from real church
settings. Several additional video clips are also available, for groups
wanting to spend more time exploring ideas together.

A printed 4-Week Devotional is also available, and can be used by
individual church members autonomously, or (ideally) used by every
member as a personal study guide accompanying the 4-Week Sermon &
Worship series. The material is flexible and accessible for all adult
readers, and can be done in one sitting or spread throughout the week.

This study consists of a Leader Guide, Participant Guide, DVD, a
Devotional Guide and free Customizable Downloadable Resources. The DVD
has 8 video stories showing the Permission-Giving Church in action, 3
brief videos essays demonstrating the essentials of a permission-giving
church and 1 video promo for inviting participation in the Just Say Yes!
experience.