David Wesley's Five Healthy Patterns

A mission conference held in Edinburg in 1910 became an historical marker in current evangelical mission development. The theme of the conference was “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” This conference presented the missionary task primarily as bringing people to Christ and gathering them into churches. As it was a time of positive momentum in world history, social justice issues arising from the world’s problems were seemingly being solved by science and technology on many fronts: in health, industry, economics, and education. In this climate of momentum, the church projected its primary task as evangelizing the whole world.

The United Methodist Church is growing and it is happening in nontraditional areas. Between 2005 and 2013 outreach ministries connected the UMC with diverse communities and created over 130,000 new disciples in His image. Outreach ministries believe in providing sustenance to who are without basic needs and envision a day without want. On this foundation, missionaries built programs and created an opportunity for growth. Through ministry, the UMC continues to provide support and generosity to those who need help while transforming missionaries’ actions into disciples across the globe. UMC apportionments equip ministries and change the world.

Zae Niringe from Uganda says that the North American Church spends too much time thinking about roles and positions.3 “What’s the role of the North American Church?” do we have an interdependent relationship with our brothers and sisters in the global church? There are many things to learn from our global church by building relationships with them. Western Christians need a more robust involvement in the global missions community. North America has much education and resources share with the global Christian community. We also have things to learn and ways to learn from Christians in other countries. Borthwick encourages us to form mutual partnerships with our global church. To invest in these relationships will take time, but the relationships produced will be

Evangelism is described as a three-way cord; building relationships, sharing the gospel, and introducing people to community. The authors encourage the Gospel and the Word to stay central, as well as community involvement and helping the needy in the name of Christ. There is a great emphasis on home groups (the authors are themselves home-group leaders), and how this practice makes church planting easier. The togetherness of this practice aids in ones spiritual growth because one cannot become holy on his

As missional leader, my task is to help my congregation, synod, and church wide to understand the need for adaptive leadership if we are to be vital and thriving hubs for missional outreach in the world. Additionally, I must motivate parishioners and lay leaders to be agents of change; not to be agents of status quo. Additionally, my goal allow the Spirit to transform my congregations from an inward focus of maintenance to an outward focus of mission and to invite my congregation to be agents of adaptive leadership and transformation beyond their comfort zones of homogeneity in their current community context. In other words, my assignment is to help my congregation to understand that the task of the church is to be the church. I must show them the importance of evangelism and outreach, but our doing is important must be married with our being the church. I must help my

There are many challenges to ministry in today’s world and having a vital and relevant ministry is even harder. Churches across all denominations face drastic declines in both attendees and financial giving. With this as the background, it is imperative that vital ministries seek out opportunities to grow and engage groups and communities that have previously been overlooked, missed or not involved for other reasons including some theological reasons. With this idea and goal in mind, this essay sets out to examine and design a process by which the Churches of Cherokee, Oklahoma can successfully connect with and minster to the new Hispanic community in Cherokee. Using the pastoral cycle method, a process will be designed in this essay to

In the book, “Breaking the Missional Code,” Ed Stetzer and David Putman lay a foundation for church leaders and pastors to break the missional code that has caused so many churches today to decline or worse, shut their doors. It is not easy to grow a church because there are many factors that have to be dealt with when dealing with people. This book does a great job to connect the dots in showing how churches can achieve their mission to connect the message of the gospel with the community at large. It is also evident that others are equally frustrated, following the exact same model for outreach but with lesser results. The authors go to great detail to show that just because a missional breakthrough occurs in one place that does not mean

After a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, forcing many Haitians to live in unfathomable conditions, and I felt called to help them. I recall sitting in my elementary school classroom, watching live footage of the trauma in Haiti, asking myself how I could help. It wasn’t until my junior year of high school that someone in my church provided me with the perfect opportunity to serve the Lord and Haiti. They told me about “Mission Discovery,” an organization that works to help Haiti and other impoverished countries.

Book review of Steven R. Harmon’s Ecumenism Means You, Too With an electrical guitarist jamming in front of a red background, one may assume the cover to Steven R. Harmon’s “Ecumenism Means You, Too” book is actually a teen novel. But his audience might not be too far removed from the teen age range. Harmon’s goal, according to his caption on the front cover is for “ordinary Christians to seek Christian unity”. And our author has a unique way of discussing the issue of Christian unity—he frames ecumenism in comparison to the band U2 and their ecumenically driven lyrics.

Rickie James Lairsey (MMST-539 Christian Faith and Culture) Stetzer, Ed and David. Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2006. Stetzer and Putnam Reflective Book Review Ed Stetzer and David Putnam wrote Breaking the Missional Code to assist pastors and church planters in thinking through their context, applying universal principles in their mission setting, and then identifying, as well as, applying strategies that will make them more effective in their context (Kindle Locations 107-108).

During nine years of pastoring in the United States, a new challenge presented itself. People attending the two churches he pastored struggled to find purpose and meaning in their busy lives. Purpose and meaning appear a common quest of people, whether they’re living impoverished in Africa or affluent in

Smith and Pattison reminded us that an “emphasis on homogeneity seems to imply that [the church growth movement] sets its sights on something less than God’s reconciliation of all humanity and all creation (Smith & Pattison, 2014, p. 110). In my own ministry, I have focused on reconciliation

Collective impact allows organizations to come together to jointly define the problem and create a shared vision to resolve an outstanding issue. It brings people together in a structured way, to achieve social change. Collective impact can be helpful to organizations in bringing them together. The article use Strive as an example to define collective impact. Strive is about a group of community leaders who came together using collective approach to improve student achievement. They realized that fixing entire program is better and trying to fix a single thing. Another example is Marjorie Mayfield who helped to find the Elizabeth River project and Shape up Somerville a citywide effort to reduce and prevent childhood obesity in elementary school

Mission and culture have always been inseparable in doing theology in any cultural context. They have always been considered imperatives in the ministry of touching lives. The talk of Fr. John J. Markey, OP on October 12, 2015, at the Catholic Theological Union auditorium had highlighted essential insights and realizations regarding mission and culture in the cultural context of the United States. It highlighted pressing concerns on the following issues: mission and culture, inculturation and Christian traditions. Contextualization in terms of understanding theology had been pointed out as well as an important part of the mission.

Furthermore, it is vitally crucial for the church leadership to clearly articulate its missional vision, which is to be embraced by the rest of the church’s community. The process of spiritual transformation starts from the invitation and continues through engagement and discipleship. This transformational process embodies the missional vision and the language for 'right now ' and 'here '. Surely, the church’s vision ought to be aligned with the missional attributes of the gospel itself, which are 'the good news is for everyone ' and 'belonging before believing '. Our witness should take place amidst relationship and listening. One principle that I consider to be exceptionally useful in my community is St. Patrick’s idea of Celtic Evangelism: establish community, engage in conversation, and invite commitment (2009, 101).