The Kerusso – February | 2023

Five Denominational Priorities ~ by International General Superintendent Edwards

As I shared last month, here at the outset of this quadrennium I have felt directed to a focus word that is actually an acronym. Unlike previous words, like Collaborate, Family, Trust, and Grow, the word for 2023 - PEACE - represents a set of priorities that will continue to be focal points for us throughout these next several years.

1 - Planting Churches

2 - Educating Ministers

3 - Aspiring to Holiness

4 - Connecting People and Churches

5 - Equipping Leaders

It should be said that these priorities are subsidiary goals that will hopefully aid the timeless goals of the church, such as to glorify God and enjoy our relationship with Him; to share the good news of salvation with the people for whom Christ died; and the “whole duty of man” is to “fear God and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). These things are what churches and Christians have always been about, and will always have as primary missions. The five elements of the PEACE acronym are not to supplant those goals, but to enable them.

The scriptural inspiration for the word “PEACE” came to me from Hebrews 12:14, which admonishes us to “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

The first of the five priorities in the PEACE acronym is PLANTING CHURCHES.

(I’ll lightly unpack the other four priorities in the coming issues of the Kerusso)

From the launch of the New Testament church in the first century, planting churches has been an ongoing goal. The great Apostle Paul’s efforts in this regard are chronicled in the pages of the New Testament by Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, but according to church tradition, church planting around the world happened through other disciples as well, such as Thomas (India), Phillip and Andrew (Greece), and several others individuals who dispersed throughout the Mediterranean region including into Spain, Italy, Macedonia, Asia Minor, and North Africa.

Exciting things are happening in church planting around the EMC’s USA Conference, with new works thriving in Idaho, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona (and I may be forgetting some of our newest locations!) The Legacy Fund will soon start seeding additional church plants, and the Board of Evangelism always stands ready to interview potential church planters to launch out and start new works. Statistically, new church plants see higher than usual conversion rates, compared to established congregations. It is always exciting to see folks working to share the good news with unchurched and de-churched folks. There are so many hurting people, some of them hurt by previous experiences in churches and/or church cults, and new church startups are sometimes less threatening, with fresh expressions of worship that are attractive to people with negative experiences and past hurts.

Around the world, we are also excited about church planting efforts engaged in by our Global Conference Partners. Mexico has long been focused on church planting, and there are several active plants in the MEM now. The CFAN Conference is planting at least one new church in the Toronto, Canada area. Myanmar has, as you know, experienced immense hardship, but evangelism efforts are moving forward in spite of the difficulties, and they now have a brand-new district, Paletwa, which developed from missionary and planting efforts. Asia Pacific is seeing a resurgence in numbers of churches following the loss of several during the COVID-19 shutdown. And South Africa is a itinerant system of church localities with circuit riding preachers who are often exposed to new preaching opportunities in various places.