United Methodists Begin Effort to Plant 400 Churches

The United Methodist Church recently launched its initiative to plant 400 new churches in the next four years with an initial gift from a Christian businesswoman.

Mary Watson, the wife of a former pastor, pledged $400,000 to the 400 Fund campaign to develop new congregations outside of the United States, according to UMC’s Global Ministries, the international mission agency of the UMC.

The 400 Fund will be used to support clergy training, develop Christian education resources and provide worship facilities for new churches in Asia, West Africa, Eastern Europe and Central America.

"I am excited by the thought of 400 new churches and what God can do with 400 new churches," said Watson, who along with her husband, the Rev. Ralph Watson, have been involved in mission fields around the world, especially in Russia, Estonia and Brazil.

She said her earliest memory of Methodist worship was under a brush arbor where her grandmother was raising money to build a church in Hannatown, a community in Decatur County, Georgia, named after her paternal family.

Starting new churches “is part of what God wants us to do in the world … We are to be God’s hands,” said the pastor’s wife from Atlanta to the directors of the General Board of Global Ministries during their Oct. 13-17 meeting.

Watson was able to make the generous donation because of her successful career in the nursing home industry. Her husband, the Rev. Watson, works for the World Evangelism Institute.

Being a Christian helped her “to realize that everything we have is God’s, everything – our money, our talents – everything is entrusted to us for the sake of doing things for God,” Watson said.

But the successful Christian businesswoman doesn’t want the giving to end with her. Watson urged other United Methodists to also donate to the 400 Fund, calling on children to join in and donate even pennies.

One hundred percent of every gift will go toward starting new churches.

Global Ministries, in addition to its goal of 400 new overseas congregations, also aims to start 650 new congregations in the United States.

[By Jennifer Riley - Christian Post Reporter]

United Methodists Serious About Leadership Development

About USD 642 million will be invested by the United Methodist Church in various programs to be developed worldwide in the 2008-2012 period, according to Bishop Gaspar João Domingos.

The amount was approved by participants to the United Methodist Church General Conference that took place in Texas under the theme “Future with Hope.”

According to the bishop, this amount will cover every program of the church worldwide, in the next four years, with USD 12 Million being allocated to the “Africa University” in Zimbabwe, from which USD 2 million will be in vested in theology courses.

During the meeting, several topics were analyzed such as “leadership for the challenges of the millennium,” “development of the church,” “ministry with the poor,” and “mission associated to global health” among others.

The conference brought together 992 delegates from various countries, with Angola represented by the church`s West and East conference.

United Methodists Continue In Decline

United Methodists, at their General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, are being urged to reverse the denomination's decades-long decline in membership.

Lyn Powell, a church lay leader from Georgia, told delegates the United Methodist Church has been bleeding membership for years. "The United Methodist Church in the U.S. lost 55,000 members last year, 70,000 the year before that, [and] 60,000 the year before that. In fact, we have lost membership every year since the 1970s," Powell contends.

Meanwhile, transgender Methodists at the conference held a news conference seeking broader acceptance. Among them was Drew Phoenix, who pastors St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore. Phoenix was a woman named Ann Gordon before she had a sex-change operation.

Some analysts believe the reason for the declining membership is the abandonment of scriptural teaching on sin within the United Methodist Church.