by Sam Rodriguez, Director of Hispanic/Latino & Multi-Ethnic New Church Starts, Path 1
After having just finished facilitating Session One of Church Planting 101 for the Lay Missionary Planting Network, the topic of finding planters is fresh on my mind. As I started the session I shared how I obeyed a calling to full-time ministry four years after the seed was planted in my mind through a pastor who was sure I was a “shoo-in” for a position at a community center in Texas. After shaking off the disappointment of not starting a vocation in full-time ministry and going back to selling stuff, I continually wondered why this had occurred. Was it that God was testing me and growing my desire? Why would this pastor be so sure that I was going to get this job?
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by Ron Bell, Director of Congregational Development and SBC21 for Peninsula-Delaware Conference (and Path 1 Associate)
She grew up in the area, moved away several years prior to pursue a successful career in business and now returned in her mid-50’s to help her ailing mother transition. She’d forgotten how much she missed the area, and as she drove through the streets she began
to weep over the difference so many years had taken on her once beautiful town. The same shops where still there, the same owners and families she’d grown up with, but now there was a pronounced presence of liquor stores, check-cashing vendors, fast-food stores and pawn shops. “This once stunning town was now hijacked by slum,” she thought as she drove “something must be done.” Continue reading
Discerning a Call to Church Planting
Are you curious to see if you have characteristics in common with successful new church missionaries? Take our short online quiz: English and Spanish
Are you ready to see how your spiritual gifts might be used in a new church start? Take our spiritual gifts assessment in English and Spanish.
For information on church planting in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church, contact Rev. Irving Cotto, icotto@epaumc.org or 610-620-5100, ext. 218.
