Our Conference's three-year strategic plan Equipping For the Harvest is starting to take shape across our family of churches in Eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. One of its central pillars of the strategic plan is to Equip Every Church to Partner in Planting, with the objective of launching 15 new worshiping communities over the next three years.
And believe it or not, your congregation has a part to play! One of the most effective ways the Church reaches lost people with the Gospel is through planting new churches.
New church plants create fresh opportunities to reach people who are not currently connected to an existing congregation. They move into new mission fields, crossing cultural and language barriers, to build relationships with people not yet connected to the Church and create new communities where people can encounter Christ and grow as his disciples.
Although we are just now beginning to live into this strategy, we already have several church plants that are forming and growing. If you and your congregation feel led to engage with these new starts, feel free to reach out to them:
The Gathering Global Methodist Church
Bossier City, LA | Pastor Chris Cypher
Little Rock Global Methodist Church
Little Rock, AR | Pastor Clefton Vaughn
Heritage Church Chaffee Crossing
(A Campus of Heritage Church: Van Buren, AR)
Fort Smith, AR | Pastor Zach Anderson
Christ Church Global Methodist
Jonesboro, AR | Pastor Jonathan Griesse
The HeartLand Church
Humble, TX | Pastor Stephen Goldsmith
As we celebrate these new communities, we acknowledge the deeper vision is bigger than simply reaching a number. We are being called to cultivate a movement of multiplication across the Trinity Conference.
Multiplication begins when transformation does not end with us. Disciples make disciples. Leaders raise up leaders. Kingdom centered churches reproduce, creating new communities of faith where more people can come to know and follow Jesus.
Earlier this year, Bishop Mark Webb made the necessity of a movement of multiplication clear:
"If your church isn't willing to multiply disciples and multiply churches, the Global Methodist Church probably isn't for you."
— Bishop Mark Webb
This means church planting is not just the responsibility of a few planters or our conference team. Every church is called to engage in the harvest.
For some congregations, participation may begin with intentional prayer. Others may support a planter financially, provide volunteers or resources, partner with a new congregation, identify and develop emerging leaders, host a church planting resident, or even help launch a new worshiping community. Not every church will participate in the same way, but every church can find its place in the movement of multiplication.
In the months ahead, we will begin providing opportunities for pastors and congregations to learn more about church planting, explore what healthy planting looks like, and discover practical ways to engage. We will also begin identifying and equipping clergy and laity who may sense God calling them to help start something new.
So perhaps the first question for every congregation is simply this: How might God be calling us to participate in multiplication?
If you are a pastor, lay leader, or congregation interested in church planting, or if you simply sense that God may be stirring something new, I would love to hear from you. Reach out to me, and let’s start the conversation about how your church can be part of this movement of multiplication.
The fields are ripe. The mission is before us, and together, we can be equipped for the harvest.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Brad McKenzie
Equipping Elder
