"Momentum That Builds a Movement" Where We've Been... In our first 30 years, we planted or added an average of 1 church per year in The Evangelical Church. Church planting has been an important but not always intentional part of our ministry. In 1996, an intentional effort began to get leaders across our denomination to be better educated and equipped for church planting so we could be more effective as individual conferences and as a "team/partnership" working together. In 1998 at our General Conference, we made church planting a major ministry goal for the next 10-20 years. Where We Are... Since that 1998 decision... Advanced Training Over 150 leaders across our Denomination have received some training in the area of church planting/ multiplication/health through a variety of means: o 25 leaders have gone through a Boot Camp training experience at least once. o Over 40 leaders went through Assessment Clinic/Church Planting orientation workshops sponsored by the North Central Conference (NCC). Over 20 more were trained in the Eastern Conference. o Three Conferences have sponsored Church Planting training events (NC, W, Assessments * We have assessed 15 potential church planting or missions families-the first time we have ever done that in our group. Articles Regular articles about church planting have been part of our Denominational magazine. "Advertising" * A "Packet for Potential Church Planters" was developed for use across our denomination to send to potential church planters. * We have a subscription to "The Church Planters' Paradise"-a web site to help us recruit potential church planters. This is free to us because one of our own reviews and refers potential planters for the web site. * A web site devoted to helping communicate our church planting ministries is now on the web. You can visit it at: www.EvangelicalChurchplanting.org Assistance We are developing unprecedented partnerships across Conference boundaries to bless, resource and encourage each other to help us plant more churches. Also, our Denominational Board appointed Tim Roehl as our "Denominational Church Planting Consultant" to assist us to be more effective in church planting ministries across our denomination. Attracting Leaders From 1990-1998, we licensed or ordained 31 ministers. In 1999-2000, we licensed or ordained 33! Adding Churches! We have planted or are in the process of planting or adding 11 churches: o 2 in the Pacific Conference, including "restarting" one of our churches as an hispanic congregation o 2 in our Southeast Conference including assisting the plant of a hispanic congregation o 3 in our Western Conference, including a "restart" o 2 in our North Central Conference, including a "restart" o 2 were added by transfer in our East Central Conference. o In other words, we are adding churches 5 times faster than ever before! Where We're Going... Our goal is to become a movement of vibrant, healthy, multiplying Wesleyan churches that continuously sees: * new people come to Christ * new ministries started * new leaders raised up for the harvest * new churches started or "restarted" under the leadership of the Holy Spirit...until Jesus comes! We believe adding 100 churches in the next 25 years is possible if we work together! Momentum is building...God is working...keep praying, believing, giving, and working! --Tim Roehl