2010 Plan Update #15: December 2001

Key Developments During 2001:

1. CHURCH PLANTERS.
   • Twelve potential church planters from our conference, plus seven spouses, attended a training led by Dick and Karen Lyndon.
   • Four potential church planters were screened by Dr. Charles Ridley.
   • No candidates were approved by the cabinet for the church planters' pool.
2. PLANTING CHURCHES.
   • Fort Wayne Good Shepherd started Open Arms at the former Epworth UMC site.
   • Elkhart Trinity started Somos Unos, a Spanish-language Sunday morning service.
   • Lapel Trinity began developing its second campus at SR 38 & 13.
   • Angola First empowered a task force to explore starting a new congregation.
   • Valparaiso First explored two different church plants and appears to moving forward.
   • New Hispanic faith communities are being developed at DeMotte and First UMC in South Bend with the help of NIC's new Hispanic ministries missionary, Rev. Oscar Ramos.
3. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.
   • Seventeen NIC churches (50 people) attended a training led by Denny Buwalda on the daughtering model of church planting.
   • Five people from the NIC attended a GBGM conference on reaching people in the midst of poverty.
   • Nine people from the NIC attended the School for Congregational Development.
   • Sixteen people from the NIC attended the National Hispanic Plan's lay missioner training, which provided training for the development of Hispanic faith communities.
   • Seventeen people from the NIC attended the jurisdictional church development training event held at Goshen First UMC.
   • Over 100 youth attending Senior High Institutes this summer participated in a special workshop for those sensing the call to full-time church ministry including church planting.
4. REDEVELOPMENT EFFORT.
   • Two strategizing and listening meetings were held with the ultimate purpose to develop a conference-wide redevelopment system for local congregations.
   • Eight continuing education courses sponsored by NIC's Ministry Development in 2002 provide training in the 2010 Plan's four key leadership development areas.
   • Numerous local-church consultations were conducted, including over 30 by Ed Fenstermacher.
   • Ed also developed a local-church redevelopment process that can be self led.
5. COMMUNICATION TOOLS DEVELOPED.
   • A video celebrating churches that are fulfilling the 2010 Plan's goals was shown at Annual Conference.
   • A church planting section was added to the conference website.
   • A recruitment brochure was created for potential church planters.
   • A guide for churches exploring the possibility of starting a new congregation was created.

Praise God for the above! Pray that our conference takes even greater strides in 2002!