New Church Starts
 | Bob Crossman |
Are you interested in creating new places for new people?
Typically, new church pastors must meet the standards of licensed local pastors or ordained clergy. There may be unique settings where the district superintendent will ask a lay speaker to initially fill the role of mission pastor.
Each year the Arkansas Conference Cabinet is asked to identify up to 30 pastors who they perceive to have the leadership gifts and graces for starting new churches. These pastors will be invited to apply for the New Church Leadership Institute. This institute has several goals:
- Assist in discerning a call to be a church planting pastor
- Equip leaders with knowledge and skills for successful church starts
- Prepare pastors for a variety of New Start strategies
- Introduce some of the most recent printed resources on church planting
- At the conclusion, each participant will write a self-reflective essay for their District Superintendent
- On-site visits to half a dozen new church starts
- Attend the national School of Congregational Development
- Prepare a pool of pastors for the cabinet to appoint to plant new churches
- Prepare a pool of pastors to be the second pastor in our new churches
- Prepare future Senior Pastors to be supportive of becoming a "Mother Church"
Go to the Arkansas New Church web page www.umnewchurch.org to learn more.
