Special conference session expected early in 2005

Bishop Joel N. Martinez
delivers his State of the
Church Address June 3
in Corpus Christi.

UM leaders to vote on
capital campaign for
new church starts

Bishop Joel N. Martinez said last week he plans to call a special session of the Southwest Texas Conference early next year.
That special legislative meeting would consider a proposal for a multiyear capital fund campaign to support new church development.
The announcement came June 3 in Corpus Christi during the bishop’s yearly State of the Church Address to the Southwest Texas Annual Conference session.
“If reassigned to this episcopal area (in July by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference), I will make this (new-church development) effort my priority commitment on my schedule with my energy and my time” (through 2008), Martinez said to sustained applause. “I trust you will do the same.”
The effort to finance new church starts, Martinez said, is in line with the newly adopted conference vision statement: “Offering Christ to All.”
“We won’t rise to the full opportunity to offer Christ to all in this area of so much growth without new church starts throughout the length and breadth of the Southwest Texas parish area,” Martinez said. “The only United Methodist conferences with significant growth in membership and mission outreach are those with new-church-planting strategies.”
The Southwest Texas Conference recorded a slight net membership loss during 2003 after 10 straight years of membership growth.
“I’m not saying you have been standing still” (in church planting), Martinez said. “You have not speeded up. Christ is calling us through this (new conference) vision to get ready for the future that by the end of this quadrennium will see more than 6 million in our boundaries.”
The New Church Development Commission, Martinez noted, was working on a fund-raising plan and church-planting strategy.
The capital campaign may seek as much as $10 million, said the Rev. Bill Henderson, chair of the New Church Development Commission, in his June 4 report to the conference. But no specific goal has been set yet.
“We have retained the services of Bacon, Lee and Associates to facilitate planning for such a capital fund campaign,” said Henderson, senior pastor of Northwest Hills UMC, Austin. “They are a major San Antonio-area fund-raising and stewardship company that has helped a number of church and charitable organizations—even our own Morningside Manor.”
The consultants would help the commission get feedback from clergy and laity leaders in all seven districts about proposals for the fund-raising campaign, Henderson said.
“Our commission hopes to offer sufficient warrant such that Bishop Martinez calls you back into special session before next June to consider this (fund-raising) proposal and to vote to share in this (church-planting) dream,” Henderson said.
Martinez had urged conference leaders to develop a strategy for starting new congregations in both his 2002 and 2003 State of the Church Addresses.
In addition to starting new congregations, Martinez called this year for conference leaders to develop over the next four years:
> A “Mission Renewal Fund” to help revitalize existing congregations.
> An “Evangelization Institute” to train church members to share the gospel with others.
“We need to help all local churches reclaim their mission as disciple-making and disciple-sustaining centers,” Martinez said. “The annual conference should offer the challenge but also encouragement and resources to congregations that want to go further in offering Christ to all.”
Martinez suggested the Congregational Growth Office, the Council on Ministries and the Board of Discipleship work on those two projects.
If he is assigned to the San Antonio Episcopal Area for another four-year term, Martinez said he would seek to go further in:
> Promoting the unity of the church.
> Working for growth and expansion.
> Bearing witness to the gospel of personal salvation, social justice and peace.
> Sharing ministries between the Southwest Texas and Rio Grande conferences.