Congregational Development

Monday, January 10, 2011

NorthStar UMC warms up Black Friday shoppers

Bob Orzolek, husband of Pastor Wendy Orzolek, hands out hot chocolate in the pre-dawn hours of Black Friday to chilly shoppers at Target in Exeter Township.

by Suzy Keenan

Pastor Wendy Orzolek, pastor of new church-start, NorthStar UMC, and a faithful team of five found a great way to warm up the Exeter Township community to God’s love. In the pre-dawn hours they served up hot chocolate and coffee to anxious chilly shoppers waiting in line outside Target on Black Friday.

NorthStar has worshipped together two times to date: once in October and once in November. The Black Friday outreach was a way for the church to make its presence known to the local community and to share God’s love in a unique way.

Monday, January 10, 2011

PlumbLine on the Mainline new church start

New church pastor, Lydia Muñoz, leads worship at PlumbLine UMC in Narberth.

By Lydia E. Muñoz*

If anyone tells you that the process of church planting is filled with great joy and excitement, stop them immediately and ask them “so, have you planted a church lately?” The truth is that it is filled with great joy and excitement, but they are cleverly disguised in challenges, struggles, endless phone and personal contacts, countless hours of proposal writing, and a myriad of trips to the grocery store for refreshments to be ready for every event that you host.

However, sooner but most likely later, through divine intervention, things begin to line themselves up and those long days of working through contact after contact, and perhaps never seeing a response begin to bring back some results.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A Sacred Call to Grow Healthy Faith Communities (English/espanol)

Praying hands

Communities of Faith: A Sacred Call to Growing

by Rev. Dr. Irving Cotto

“The greatest among should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves”. -Luke 22:26b

In the month of September I was asked to share devotions with the High Potential Church pastors who have been meeting for study and training over the course of two years. This is a reflection I shared with them.

When we talk about health particularly mental health we must face at least two particular ways of defining the condition under study. We are either talking about a pathological situation, that is, an illness that needs to be cured or we are talking about a system, personal or communal, that is dysfunctional and needs to be repaired. In family therapy we talk about the dangers of “triangling”, the development of relational patterns in which there is a “two against one”

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Casa del Pueblo ministry reaches out to Latinos in Hatboro

Celebration reaches out to Latinos in Hatboro. Two churches, Casa del Pueblo Latino Ministry of Lehman UMC and El Buen Samaritano UMC of West Chester, visited in the local neighborhoods of Hatboro.

On August 29, 2010,“Casa del Pueblo” (house of the people) the Latino Ministry of Lehman UMC in Hatboro, PA. had a very special Sunday celebration. This ministry is led by Pastor Luky Cotto, one of our newest church planters. On this occasion another Latino congregation from West Chester came to visit and help visit a neighborhood where many Latino families live.

Pastor Evodia Villalva and El Buen Samaritano Church went house to house with a group of lay leaders who have just completed their training with the Evangelism Explosion curriculum. This is an idea which began at the Latino Commission’s yearly retreat held in January of last year. Pastor Luky and Pastor Evodia talked about the possibility of working together on this project.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Application for Funds for New Church Starts

Persons who wish to start new churches or ministries may request funds from the Calling Disciples Resource Team.

Click here: Application for Funding for New Church Starts

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

MissionInsite provides important demographic information for disciple-making

MissionInsite

The Congregational Development Resource Team and The Office of Urban and Global Ministries have partnered to bring MissionInsite to the local churches of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. We are licensed for one primary user from each local church to access the database.

"MissionInsite equips you with an interactive, map-driven, web-based resource, called The MI System. This system provides over 50 variables of current demographic information. This information is provided on the MissionInsite website. http://www.missioninsite.com

The MI System provides you with a new way to access community information. It moves beyond static reports you order to neighborhoods you explore. If you have used MapQuest or Google Maps, you will find yourself at home in the MI System.

While there are a few things you need to learn, the system is designed to be user friendly and provides you with additional services not available from other systems. Have fun exploring your mission context and remember there is no possibility of accidentally harming the system or data." -- from MissionInsite

Announcing MissionInsite's NEW Spring 2010/2015/2020 Data Updates -

Thursday, June 17, 2010