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News NOTE: Photographs are available at http://photos.gbod.org Path 1 continues mission to start new places for new people; lay key to mission field (NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 29, 2009/GBOD) — Path 1/New Church Starts, a ministry of the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship (GBOD), is launching the Lay Missionary Planting Network (LMPN) to start new faith communities in five regional growth corridors across the United States. The purpose of the network is to find, equip and mobilize 250 lay leaders to reach new faith communities in the Wesleyan tradition. Greenwaldt believes the Lay Missionary Planting Network offers training and support for laity to say 'yes' in concrete ways to the calling of God to witness to faith and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. . The Rev. Bener Agtarap agrees.
While the LMPN targets -- but is not limited to -- ethnic and underserved populations, the emphasis is on starting United Methodist churches in areas where the denomination has had limited presence and in populations and contexts where traditional approaches have not been successful. Five annual (regional) conferences, one from each jurisdiction, have been selected to pilot the model program to involve laity in new church ministries. The first Lay Missionary Planting Networks are based in growth corridors, including Virginia (which will partner with Wesley Theological Seminary and the Baltimore-Washington Conference), Greater New Jersey, Desert Southwest, Central Texas and East Ohio. According to Agtarap, the annual (regional) conferences were chosen because they have the passion and commitment for new church development; infrastructure and plan for new church plants and conference staff in place to give support; growing population among people who are currently underserved by The United Methodist Church; and desire to find and equip lay people to reach the richly diverse communities within their annual conferences. Reclaiming Roots
Central Texas already has a fairly significant number of large and very strong Korean Churches in Killeen, the home of Fort Hood military base, the largest active duty armored post in the U.S., according to a website. "We're tentatively going to focus on African American new church starts. We will probably do seven African American congregations, two Hispanic and one Anglo. Based on our preliminary discussions, we're clear that our focus is going to be on African American new church starts. That is clearly subject to change as we get into this," Lowry said. It's important to "remember that the Methodist Movement was originally a lay movement. So there is a deep sense that we have an opportunity to go back to our original roots. That's wonderfully exciting," he said. "If you study the Wesleyan roots, they're really a re-echoing of what happened in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. What we hope to have through a Lay Missionary Planting Movement is a movement of the Holy Spirit as a part of that." Lowry views LMPN as an opportunity for lay leadership to reach out to a new generation of people. "This [LMPN] opens up avenues for lay people to be in mission and ministry -- both evangelistically and in terms of social justice and mercy -- right in their own faith communities through the establishment of new faith communities or new churches. For the larger church, the LMPN leads us in four of the pathways, including recovery of our roots in terms of lay ministry, and the opportunity to share the gospel with folks that we traditionally have struggled to reach, which is a new generation," said Lowry. Lowry says challenges will exist, but churches need to get on board with a strategy that is outward focused to the mission field. "For instance, among all of the leading ethnic groups [there are] churches that are inward focused or outward focused; the future will live with churches that are outwardly focused. Churches with more memories than dreams are churches that are on a death spiral," Lowry surmised. The Lay Missionary Planting Network seeks to change the downward spiral. "The excitement of the Lay Missionary Planting Network gives us a way to change the trajectory of existing congregations and start new ones; it's a 'both-and' -- renewing and at the same time -- creating new places for new people. No one accused Peter of being qualified. We need to get out of the Holy Spirit's way. We need to be co-participants with the Holy Spirit. The Lay Missionary Planting Network gives us a vehicle for doing that," said Lowry. Reaching Out
The Desert Southwest Conference includes the two fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, Maricopa and Clark counties, yet it is a young and relatively small conference with only 144 churches and fellowships. The LMPN is one of many strategies to address the challenge of declining membership in the U.S. "We want to faithfully respond to this opportunity, but we need the help of the connectional church to do so. The LMPN provides us with the kind of connectional support we need to help grow The United Methodist Church in our area," Carcaño said. "Faithful discipleship in the name of Christ Jesus has always been about sharing our faith. The LMPN helps prepare disciples to share their faith in ways that will transform the world." The LMPN mission is a critical means to reach out to the many who are seeking to know God and to belong to a spiritual community that is relevant in today's world. Agtarap hopes that as more lay people get involved in this church planting movement, the network will create excitement and healthy responses from more individuals and churches wanting to participate in renewing the United Methodist Church by starting new congregations. Participants will receive practical, hands-on, mentor-supported training to lead new congregations.
Charged with recruiting 1000 church planters to create 650 new congregations by 2012, Path 1 is also recruiting coaches and mentors for the lay persons and their plants. The team of lay persons and mentors will be engaged in specialized training in retreat settings that offer open dialogue, growing theological competence and accountable spiritual community. Initially, the LMPN will train 50 laity over a two-year period on "what it means to be Wesleyan and United Methodist," preaching, pastoral care, growing a church, planting and multiplying ministries, discipling and mentoring others, developing leaders, the practice of personal and social holiness, and Christian perfection and stewardship. District Superintendents will forward nominations to a design team for final selection. Made possible by a grant from the Foundation for Evangelism, the Lay Missionary Planting Network also received program monies from the United Methodist National Hispanic/Latino Plan.
News Media Contact: Jeanette Pinkston, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 340-7017 or jpinkston@gbod.org The General Board of Discipleship's mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, GBOD (www.gbod.org) is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at 877-899-2780, ext. 7017.
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