New Church Development is an elected committee of the New Mexico Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
New Mexico Annual Conference
of the United Methodist Church
Developing New Churches will be at the heart of a renewal of the New Mexico Annual Conference. Emerging scholarship is showing that mainline church decline over the past 30 years can be attributed to a decreased level of new church development. In 1961 the UM Church started 176 new churches. In 1971 the UM Church started only 16. In contrast, the Southern Baptist Convention, which experienced no decline during this period, started an average of 95.2 new congregations (each year!) (1) between 1963 and 1973. In other words, the loss of membership in the United Methodist Church is NOT because of our social agenda or our theological stance, but primarily because we stopped making New Church Starts a priority.(2)
WHY START NEW CHURCHES?
New people are more likely to join new churches than old churches.
Old churches are moved toward renewal by the presence of new churches in their communities.
Old denominations are renewed as the percentage of new churches increases.
New churches are more likely than old churches to be open to all kinds of people (inclusive of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, nationality, gender, etc.)
New churches are more likely than old churches to call or receive female pastors, or pastors whose cultural background, race, ethnicity or nationality differs from that of the majority membership.
New churches find it easier than old churches to live out new models of mission and ministry. (3)
To this end the New Mexico New Church Development Committee has been working with our pastors and cabinet to provide the training and resources necessary for the task.
Looking at Other Annual Conferences
The following will summarize information gathered from 29 Annual Conferences at the Church Developer's Network Meeting held February 11-13, 2004 in Gulf Breeze, FL.
Leadership Development from Within
While many factors can contribute to the failure of a new church, 29 Annual Conferences agreed that the single most important factor contributing to the success of a new church was selecting the right leadership. Only 8 Conferences are currently making any attempt to find new church pastors outside their annual conference. There is wide consensus that we need to find and train pastors who have roots and an investment in their own annual conference.
Training Programs
One way that other Annual Conferences are using to raise up New Church pastors is through a training program or academy. Notable among these are the programs run in the Kentucky and North Georgia annual conferences. The policy in most conferences is that participation in the program is mandatory in order to be considered for a new church appointment although it does not guarantee a new church appointment.
Reasons for Failure
Leaders present at the Network Meeting affirmed that everyone always complains about the lack of money, but that in the end its never the primary reason why a church fails.All conferences have experienced failure in new church starts. There is wide consensus that "wrong leadership is the most frequent reason for failure. Sometimes this means a failure of the individual; sometimes this means a failure of the conference to match the setting to the gifts of the pastor. Other reasons for failure included:
Ignoring demographics
No vision/No plan
No benchmarks
Building too soon/beginning worship too soon
1) Steve Compton, Rekindling the Mainline (Alban Institute, 2003) pg. 36
2) Jackson Carroll, Rekindling the Mainline (Alban Institute, 2003) pg. vii
3) Steve Compton, Rekindling the Mainline (Alban Institute, 2003) pg. 39
