Church Health Commission

Commissions

COMMISSIONS

Healthy Pastor Team

Church Planting Commission

Evangelism & Discipleship Commission

Christian Education

Evangelism Committee

Prayer Mobilization Team

Youth Network

Global Ministries Commission

Leadership Commission

Chaplaincy Committee

CHURCH HEALTH COMMISSION

Including Healthy Pastor Team

The Church Health Commission continues to seek to serve the congregations of the National Conference by providing training and resources that will promote church health, encourage greater effectiveness in ministry, and assist our pastors and congregations to become more intentionally missional. In the course of the present conference year (2013-2014) the Church Health Commission has sought to fulfill these objectives through continued support for the formation and promotion of Affinity Groups, the sponsoring of Church Health Seminars, and the establishment of a Funding Criteria and Process for the funding of church health and revitalization efforts.

AFFINITY GROUPS

Affinity Group Purpose Statement: An affinity group will be established when there is a need for peer support resourcing, and/or training focused on a particular area of ministry. All groups will be under the leadership of the Commission. When established by the Commission, all of the following will apply:

The group will be led by a facilitator.
The group will meet at the call of the facilitator for resourcing, discussion, education, etc.
Groups may be started or ended as the needs of our pastors and churches change.
Groups may be of any size, but may be divided into sub-groups by geographical location or to keep the number of participants to a workable number.

Affinity Groups Presently Meeting and Reporting to the Church Health Commission:

Healthy Pastors Team – Purpose: to provide support, resources, and encouragement to denominational leaders and pastors, their families, and our churches in encouraging healthier lifestyles beneficial for effective ministry. Facilitator, Mrs. Margie Miller ().
Natural Church Development – Purpose: to bring together leaders from local churches presently utilizing Natural Church Development resources. Facilitator, Rev. Gordon Lewis ().
Governance -- Purpose: To provide an opportunity for church leaders to discuss models for local church governance. Current resource: The Evangelical Congregational Church Governance Manual. Facilitator, Rev. Gary Brown ().
Turnaround Churches –Purpose: To provide an opportunity for pastors serving in turnaround situations to meet for study, discussion, prayer, and fellowship. Current resource: Leading Turnaround Churches, Gene Wood, Church Smart Resources, 2010. Facilitator, Rev. Gary Kuehner ().
Pastor’s Wives – Purpose: to provide fellowship and support for the wives of pastors serving in the Delaware Region. Facilitator, Mrs. Carol Kuehner ().
Dangerous Calling – Purpose: to provide pastors with the opportunity to meet to discuss the challenges and temptations unique to the calling of pastoral ministry. This group, which plans to begin meeting in September 2014, will utilize the book and video resource Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp. Facilitator, Rev. Jim Price ().

If you have an interest in participating in one of the above groups you are encouraged to contact the facilitator. If you are interested in facilitating the formation of a new group we invite you to contact the Church Health Commission chairperson, Rev. Gary Kuehner ( ) for guidance and support.

CHURCH HEALTH SEMINARS

The Church Health Commission sponsored two seminars this past year.

Be Stillled by Rev. Mike Campbell, September 21, 2013.

Biblical Preaching Seminar led by Rev. Dr. Randall Pelton on the Great Lakes Region, February 13, 2014.

This spring the Bishop and Conference Ministers led training seminars in each region: Church Leadership 101,and The Healthy Pastoral Relations Committee for pastors, lay delegates and members of local Pastoral Relations Committees.

FUNDING CRITERIA AND PROCESS

The Church Health Commission has a limited amount of endowment funds available each year to financially support church health and revitalization goals. The following process and criteria was developed this past year to guide the use of available funds:

The pastor and local church leaders meet with the Conference Minister to discuss the situation leading to the request for funding. The Conference Minister has the responsibility to evaluate the situation and request and to decide whether or not to move forward with the process.
Moving forward, the Conference Minister requests the pastor and church leadership to submit a written funding request to the Supervisory Committee. Along with the specific amount being requested the proposal should also include the following information.
How the church got to this point (recognizing a ministry opportunity or dealing with a ministry challenge).
What the church needs.
What the church will do with the financial assistance.
What the church expects to happen because of the financial assistance.
The Supervisory Committee will review the request and decide whether or not to submit the request to the Church Health Commission for funding consideration.
The Church Health Commission will review the written proposal and base its decision to grant financial assistance on the following criteria:
Assessment of Church Health – measured by the completion of a Natural Church Development Survey (required and funded by the commission).
Recommendation – by the Conference Minister.
Assessment – of the skills and passion of the pastor in ‘turn around’ work.
Due Diligence – the process is to be followed including all needed forms, exercises, and reports as requested by the commission.
Hope—overall the evaluation of the situation should lead to a reasonable expectation that the funded project will support realistic ministry goals of church health.

James Price

CH: HEALTHY PASTOR TEAM

The Healthy Pastors Team serves as an Affinity Group of the Church health Commission. Its mission is to provide support, resources and encouragement to our denominational leaders, pastors and their families, and the EC churches by promoting holistic health and lifestyles that can, in turn, strengthen their ability to carry out their ministries.

This past year, at the 2013 National Conference, the Healthy Pastors Team organized the first ever 5K Rev Run/Walk. The event was open to pastors, their wives and lay delegates. Twenty-eight people signed up to either walk or run the course through the Messiah College campus before the official start of National Conference. The weather cooperated, and even though Messiah was undergoing construction which changed the 5K course several times, the event got off without a hitch. The course was marked with cones and water was provided before and after the event. T-shirts with the conference logo and 5K were provided for each participant and most wore their shirt for the run/walk. Extra t-shirts were sold at conference and all proceeds from the Run/Walk and the t-shirts went toward Church Planting, $1,450. All the participants had their “Photo finish” picture viewed by the entire conference on the video screen. We applaud the participants and everyone who helped with the event.

The EC Leader is now featuring a pastor each month who has developed a healthier lifestyle. It serves to encourage all our pastors and gives them a peer they can go to and ask questions or share their trials in trying to develop a more balanced life. Stress and burn out continue to dominate the reasons why pastors leave their pulpits and return to the secular world.

Margie Miller, FCN (Faith Community Nurse) serves on the Episcopacy committee, assuring she has the “pulse” on our Bishop’s health and can make recommendations and insights accordingly to the committee. Margie also serves on the Healthy Pastor Team.

Jackie Iatesta, FCN serves on the Church Health Commission giving input on topics for Church Health Seminars and is the interviewer for the EC Leader articles featuring the healthy lifestyles of our EC Pastors.

Looking forward to 2014 when the 2nd Annual Rev Run/Walk/Ride will take place at National Conference. Yes, biking is being added to include our bike enthusiasts. A participant can ride only or ride and then run or walk or just walk or run the 5K. Once again the proceeds will go toward church planting. The event is open to everyone, clergy or lay delegates and we look forward to increased participation in 2014.

Both Margie and Jackie have found their “roles” within the EC denomination change according to the needs of the people and seek to follow God’s leading in whatever role they are to play. They are both available as resources, consulting and friends to the entire denomination, the pastors, their wives and their families.

Jackie Iatesta

CHURCH PLANTING COMMISSION

The vision of the Church Planting Commission is that the Evangelical Congregational Church becomes a Church Multiplication movement, realized when churches plant healthy churches that plant healthy churches.

CPC MEMBERS

Bishop Bruce Hill (Chair), Leslie Cool (Church Planting Associate, Vice Chair), Ralph Owens (Secretary), Rob Barley, Tasha Byerly, Bud Daneker, Nathan Fry, Terry Jacobs, Jeff Martin, Ramon Mendez, Pam Ream, Mike Snedeker, Gary Brown (CM), Gary Kuehner (CM), Gordy Lewis (CM), Randy Sizemore – Advisory (Director Global Ministries).

We have a teeny, tiny dilemma – church planting, church health, church restart, church revitalization and missional church ministries – the lines between these various types of church and denominational ministries have sufficiently blurred to make the work of the Church Planting Commission (CPC) interesting, to say the least. As we process our responsibilities with and for our planters, especially proposed new planting venues, we are finding it ever more complicated to determine which agency or budget is responsible for which initiative.

In light of this increasingly more complicated world of church ministry, we are striving to keep in mind (and even then, holding the reins rather loosely) what we have tried to say on various occasions . . .

Church planting is the intentional, relational and redemptive work of the people of the church in identified communities or to identify people groups to the end that a new church (gathering of God’s people for church related ministries) is the fruit.

Though not a perfect definition, these words help us find our way in the fog created by the excitement to do something new and the reality of doing something that might produce a new church. In the end, we are the Church Planting Commission, and we are responsible to use the financial gifts we have received as best we can for church planting.

Church planters are the Indiana Joneses of the Church. They are adventurers in search of the treasure of lost souls. They are entrepreneurs, serving the vision and mission of Jesus and His Kingdom in an increasingly hostile world. Church planters are pioneers, living on the edge, often living with just enough. And church planters are ambassadors, representing the One who has sent them. They also represent each of us, the people of the EC Church.

And we know that you get this. How? Your support! You pray. You visit. You serve when we explain a need. You give. Thank you for making church planting a priority in your lives, your calendars and checkbooks. You make EC church planting possible.

CURRENT PLANTING MINISTRIES

These are the men, following Jesus and empowered by His Spirit, who seek to meet the lost where they live. These modern day pioneers take the powerful and life-changing message of Redeeming Love to the un-living. Please pray for these men, their families and ministries by name.

Plants
Bethlehem, PA . . . Sonrise (Rick Sergi)
Ephrata, PA . . . House of Blessings (Abe Montanez)
Harrisburg area, PA . . . Restore Community (Brian Parker)
Lehigh Valley, PA . . . Horizon (Bud Daneker)
Millersville, PA . . . The Gathering (Juan Carlos Morales)
Philadelphia, PA . . . CommunidadBiblica (Rolando Diaz)
Allentown, PA location
Pottstown area, PA . . . Journey53 (Rick Christman)
York, PA . . . Iglesia Cristiana (Carlos Kelly)
Restarts / Revitalizations
Slatington, PA . . . Trinity (Brian Kern)
Tallmadge, OH . . . New Direction (Tim Ream)
Informal Partnerships / Missional Works / Potential Adoptions
Lancaster, PA . . . Iglesia De Dios Ven A El (Luis Ramirez)
Palmerton, PA . . . Gaming Grotto (Chris Bronico)
Reedsville, PA . . . LifeTree Café (Jeff Byerly)
Sinking Spring & Mohn’s Hill, PA . . . Two Lifetree Cafés (Jerry Artz, Mohn’s Hill & Mike Snedeker, Sinking Spring)
“Off the Avenue” and “Canal Street”

PLANTER CARE

The members of the CPC try to balance allowing our planters to tell us what they need with intelligent guesses based on our contact with them. We have discovered that they are sometimes just too close to the issues to recognize that they need help or a break. Regular contact, as much as possible (Bishop, CMs and CPA) with our planters is a first line of action. Along with focus upon their ministry goals, our concern is self care. A healthy planter will better lead to a healthy ministry.

We’ve recently shifted away from an annual planter retreat (not a good match for planters’ busy schedules) to an “as needed” provision of funds for short getaways. Our feeling is that “tired today” cannot always wait until the next retreat. Some of these getaways have been designed to overlap established events – Exponential, Ecclesia, Fresh Expressions gatherings, and similar events.

VISION DAY

The CPC co-sponsored the November 2013 Fresh Expressions Vision Day in Sewickley, PA (near Pittsburgh). A fair representation of EC leaders attended, as well as representatives of a couple of other tribes. The conversation was encouraging. Each attendee walked away carrying seeds of ideas that might be planted for ministry. We invite you to pray for the EC leaders and churches who are currently pondering what to do with what they now know. Ask God to open their minds and hearts to what He is already doing that they might join Him and realize newness in their ministries.

EDUCATIONAL ISSUES

The CPC has long believed that almost every ministry technique a church planter carries in his toolbox could be valuable for a pastor and/or established congregation. To that end, we have been discussing the value of seeking to educate our pastors and leaders regarding church planting, as well as the value of using church planting ideas and techniques in the context of the local church. This has been the catalyst for sponsoring several Fresh Expressions Vision Days.

We are currently discussing the possibility of smaller, more locally focused, informal conversations that we might make happen between Fresh Expressions and other planting leaders with some of our pastors and church leaders. Our hope is that these types of events, closer to our pastors and leaders, might improve attendance and exposure to new ideas for ministry. We’ll keep you posted.

The CPC recently posted an invitation for our pastors to attend the Fresh Expressions National Gathering in Alexandria, VA (March). Scholarships were provided and a few pastors and leaders took advantage of this opportunity. This two-day event provided exposure to many of the men and women who are leading the way toward church health, growth and multiplication.

We had a group attend Exponential 2014 – Chris Bronico and Nathan Fry (Palmerton Gaming Grotto); Juan Carlos and Lynette Morales (The Gathering); Mike Snedeker and Matt Hill (Community EC, Sinking Spring); and Les Cool (CPC; I dragged Carol along). Our goal is to capture the excitement, learn a few new ministry techniques and to share what we bring back with the greater EC community.

NEW MINISTRY VENUES

For the second time, we advertised available financial support for churches with ideas for new planting ministries. The first offer has produced the exciting Gaming Grotto in Palmerton, PA. Chris Bronico has already introduced spiritual conversations into a gathering of game players. Fresh Expressions recently produced a promotional video for FE based on the ministry of the Gaming Grotto. In addition, Chris and Bishop Hill were interviewed at the Fresh Expressions National Gathering.

The recent proposals, though all very good congregational ministry ideas, were not quite what we were looking for. We offered each church helpful “next steps” they might take to find other means of support or advice regarding the possibility of redesign for a future proposal. We are optimistic that God will either lead us to or bring to us the next EC planting initiative.

It has been during the discussions around these ministry proposals that we encountered the complications associated with the reality that more and more of what the CPC is asked to do overlaps church health and church education. We are trying to sort this out.

We have also been forced to ponder the questions associated with churches “not in good standing” asking for financial assistance from the CPC. We are also trying to sort this out. This may also overlap churches asking for help from other EC entities. Pray with us as we continue to work through this new reality.

PLANTING PARTNERS

One of our significant and dependable sources of income for church planting has been our Church Planting Partners program. Each planting partner pledges $100 for church planting each year, and their regular prayer support of our planters, their families and the ministries they represent. Thank you Church Planting Partners for your faithful support of our current church planting ministries. Each gift you send not only helps fund church planting, but also encourages those involved in making church planting happen.