For Such A Time As This

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a get-together with Lexington UM clergy along with our new Bishop, Lindsey Davis. Bishop Davis shared his "vision" for the Kentucky Conference and on the very top of his list was church planting. Bishop Davis has been a bishop for twelve years and previously presided over the North Georgia conference where 98 churches were planted under his episcopacy appointment. Bishop Davis led North Georgia as one of the largest and fastest growing UM conferences across the country. Also, Bishop Davis chairs the episcopacy committee on the Path 1 initiative to plant 650 new churches over the next ten years across the U.S. Needless to say many are excited at Bishop Davis' arrival in Kentucky!

Supporting his case for church planting Bishop Davis stated a recent study done by Lovett Weems. Weems researched two UM conferences, Virginia and North Carolina. Over the past twenty years the Virginia Conference has declined by 20% and the North Carolina Conference had grown by 8%. Weems reported both conferences share many similarities and are almost identical. However the one underlining difference was Virginia spent too much time trying to revitalize existing, declining churches and didn't emphasize planting new churches while North Carolina did the opposite.

A second concern for Bishop Davis is similar to his first priority of church planting. It's simple; we are not reaching young people between the ages of 18-35. Many of our KY churches have failed to show any professions of faith according to the 2007 Conference report. That means one of two things, either evangelism is not being done or the methods are not being contextualized for today's mission field. These concerns for the Bishop are on the hearts of Embrace UMC. First, we want to launch services in January but also be a Christian faith community that is reproducing itself. So, that means in a few years we hope to send out church planters to start a new Christian faith community. Second, we desire to reach out to people who don't know Christ or have an existing relationship with a Christian faith community. Based on our location, the demographics show a majority of our immediate population is the age group that Bishop Davis is concerned about reaching for Christ.

Please continue to pray that we would stay the course. I believe God has brought all this together not as a simple coincidence but orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. God is bringing all this together for such a time as this that people would be reached with the Good News.