Creatively connecting over the summer
During the summer, many churches in Northern Illinois face declining attendance as families focus on vacations and outdoor activities. However, churches have found creative ways to engage…
The Academy (Hispanic/Latino) for Faith Community Development is a two-year training program for pastors and lay persons who feel called to start a “new thing” with the Hispanic/Latino community of Northern Illinois. This intensive process provides support, ministry skills development, and leadership training in order to prepare a pool of leaders for reaching out to religious “nones” through Hispanic/Latino ministries in the Northern Illinois Conference.
We invite you to recommend prayerfully someone whom you believe is suited and gifted for planting a new church or starting a new ministry. This could be a colleague, a clergy person, a lay person, or even yourself!
The Academy seeks participants who have the following traits: (1) A passion for starting a “new thing.” Many Academy participants will not launch a church plant. We simply desire participants zealous for reaching religious “nones.” (2) Hunger for learning. We desire participants who want to learn from the presenters, peer-to-peer sharing, personal accountability, and the spiritual formation process.
I learned when and how to reach out to new people at the Conference Academy!
By visiting other churches, I picked up new ideas for my local ministry.
For more information, contact Martin Lee, at mlee@umcnic.org.
2017-19 Class