A Heavenly Calling

By Robin Lopez

Ifeel blessed to collaborate with every Texas Conference department in serving our constituents and, more specifically, our communities.

As of December 2022, the Texas Conference embraces 255 churches, 66 companies and 34 mission groups. The most amazing thing is that from those 355 congregations, 75 have been planted within the last five years, with 10 planted this year and three more in incubation. This means that 21 percent of our congregations have been planted in the last five years—to God be the glory!

Such growth could not have been possible without help from our department committee, support from the Texas Conference administration, the joint efforts of every leader of our local churches and a fantastic team of volunteer lay pastors.

You may be asking, “What are volunteer lay pastors?” Volunteer lay pastors, or VLPs as we call them, are church elders with the heavenly calling and gift to serve and lead a congregation under pastoral supervision. These individuals participate in a very intense and continuous training that helps them to be well prepared and more effective in leading the congregation with a spiritual and missional mindset.

Since starting this program almost a year ago, 37 new VLPs have trained and joined church leadership teams in congregations throughout the Texas Conference. As of Feb. 28, 2023, we are blessed with 59 VLPs, five of whom lead multiple congregations. Volunteer lay pastors are being added according to the need in different areas and congregations.

These individuals are carrying an awesome and blessed responsibility for the Lord. The simple fact that an army of volunteers is willing to serve in this capacity and help expand the kingdom of heaven is vivid proof that God is guiding His church in Texas.

As the leading conference in church plants in the North American Division, we want to make a difference and an eternal impact in the Texas Conference. Planting churches is good and being number one is amazing, but planting healthy congregations is the ultimate goal of our department. How are we doing that?

ACTS stands for Assess, Coach, Train and Send. ACTS nurtures a churchplanting movement through multiplying practitioners, leaders and residencies. The following shifts in how we equip are key:

• From open-invite lowcommitment programs to inviteonly, high-commitment groups

• From going wide with many to going deep with a few who will invest in many

• From pushing a model to discerning the Spirit’s leading in your context

• From train the trainers to train the trainers who train the practitioners

• From planning the next event to developing the next multiplier

To date, the 15 pastors in our conference who completed this program in 2022 are now helping train 21 additional pastors: one group in English and one group in Spanish. And last, but definitely not least, ACTS Church Revitalization will come very soon to the Texas Conference. Be on the lookout and be blessed!