Leaders advised to share passion for new churches

 

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Southwest Texas Conference leaders need to share their heartfelt passion for spreading the gospel by starting new congregations.
That was the advice of church-planting consultant Jim Griffith April 28. He spoke to members of a special task force planning the Bishop’s Initiative with New Church Development.
The 45-member group met at Oxford UMC, San Antonio, to prepare a progress report for the June 1-4 Southwest Texas Annual Conference session in Corpus Christi.
“This is a heart issue,” Griffith said. “It’s important that you send the message that you as clergy and lay leaders have taken building new churches to heart.”
Griffith is founder of Griffith Coaching Network, a group committed to helping church leaders develop more fruitful ministries. Griffith spent the first 25 years of his ministry starting five different congregations.
Bishop Joel N. Martinez noted that he had celebrated a number of 150-year anniversaries with congregations in the Austin area. He asked task force members to consider what was happening 150 years ago that sparked the formation of those congregations: the need for mission churches.
Southwest Texas leaders need to consider what offering Christ to all means today, Martinez said.
Griffith said a church’s heritage is its faith story, which is at the heart of the congregation, and that the faith story must be told.
“You want church members to share your heart for this mission, to turn to their pastors and ask, ‘What are we doing?’” he said.
Martinez stressed the importance of consistent messages.
“If we have questions and concerns,” he told the group, “we should hear them out before we go to the annual conference session so that we can lift up the presentations about new church development with enthusiasm.”
Douglas Cannon, communications and public witness director, is working with the New Church Development Commission to draft key points about the church-planting initiative for lay leaders and clergy to include in sermons, presentations and conversations with church members.
Representatives of congregations across the conference are to begin hearing about the Bishop’s Initiative with New Church Development at district conferences this month.
The new church initiative is an outgrowth of the conference vision, “Offering Christ to All.” A 2003-04 study by the New Church Development Commission identified 41 growing areas within the Southwest Texas Conference with no United Methodist presence.
Martinez convened a 45-member task force in late 2004 to develop three aspects of his initiative: clergy leadership development, new church site selection and strategic planning. Task forces have been working on each area since December.
In his address to the 2004 annual conference session, Martinez said, “I urge you to enlarge your commitment to the proven strategy of planting new congregations throughout the conference. The only United Methodist conferences with significant growth in membership and mission outreach are those with new church strategies.
“Christ is calling us through this vision to get ready for a future that by the end of the quadrennium will reach 6 million people in our boundaries. That is our evangelistic heritage: to offer Christ to all.”