UMC New Church Starts

The Coney Island Factor

Paul Nixon — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:34:13 +0000

I write this on an Amtrak train returning from a 4th of July weekend with my young adult son in New York City. We are headed to DC for fireworks tonight before he flies home tomorrow. He and I had great fun in New York. I had never seen Times Square at 2 am, but [...]

Cutting Edge Ministry by Cheri Holdridge

path1@gbod.org — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:08:42 +0000

“Beware ministry on the cutting edge; because on the cutting edge you bleed.” I’m told this piece of advice was circulating more than a decade ago, in the church growth movement, among mega church staff people. The idea was this — better to play it a bit safe when trying to grow a mega church. [...]

New Places for New People in the Rocky Mountain Conference

Gary Shockley — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:10:36 +0000

Another Path 1 staff member and I recently spent a week traveling through parts of the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference which includes Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Among the hundreds of well established churches there I learned of a couple new and innovative church starts that really captured my attention.

Engaging Lay People in Church Planting

Bener Agtarap — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:16:11 +0000

One of the significant tasks of church leaders is to find, equip and deploy lay people to lead in creating new places for new people. If we are going to produce a multiplicative growth for the new church starts movement in the United States, engaging lay people in church planting is one of the paths [...]

A Story of Two Villages

Paul Nixon — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:00:29 +0000

At the center of the blitz of new United Methodist church development that is swirling around Chicagoland, there is a village. Actually, there are two.

Reflections on our Path 1 Coaching Forum

Gary Shockley — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:12:42 +0000

Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Dr. Leo Marvin (“What About Bob” fame) said, “Baby steps, baby steps…” On a cold weekend in January eighty-plus people took many steps from around the country braving threats of snow and ice to participate in our inaugural Coaching Forum in Nashville, TN. [...]

Without Adequate Funding Our Visions Perish

Gary Shockley — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:16:41 +0000

It’s been one of the most frequently quoted scriptures, “Without a vision the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:19) As church planters we have been well schooled in the virtues of casting a compelling vision. Wise planters do this well…and often! But there’s another side of this that requires equal diligence. I phrase it like this, “Without [...]