NEWS From Motivation to Movement: A Decadal Report and Vision for the Future A fresh wind of excitement is blowing through our church to reach lost people. As I travel across the region, I find a palatable sense of excitement: The USA/Canada Church is motivated. I believe the Spirit wants us to shift from motivation toward movement, thinking, and practices that will prepare us for a strong missional future. The department of Evangelism and New Church Development has seen its most exciting days since the late ‘50s. Early in this decade, Dr. Bill Weisman’s emphasis on evangelism and church planting changed the USA/Canada landscape. He reminded us of the essential need to plant all kinds of churches, in all kinds of places, for all kinds of people. This effort was successful for many reasons: • Exciting, intentional, visionary leadership from the Board of General Superintendents. • Courageous leadership of Dr. Bob Broadbooks over the region. • District superintendents and pastors engaged quickly in mission multiplication. • Partnering with DCPI (Dynamic Church Planting International), a church planting organization providing amazing, no-cost training tools. • Leaders, both lay and clergy, embraced the exciting biblical challenge to multiply new churches. The result of these co-operative efforts has been amazing. I. Evangelism has become a high priority. • The mission of this decade, “Making Christlike disciples in the nations,” has fueled a new interest and freedom to focus on the lost. • The M19 (Mission 19) Conference, “The Gospel Unleashed,” under the strong, visionary leadership of Dr. Randy Cloud,
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was a watershed event moving us to a greater focus on the lost and dying world around us. • EMT (Evangelism and Multiplication training): 21 districts and over 1,000 leaders have been trained in personal disciplemaking principles and practices. This training, inspired by Dr. Crocker from the language of the Each One/Reach One tool used successfully in other world areas, is now having an impact here. The training material teaches the essential truth that every believer should be involved in disciplemaking as well as church multiplication. II. Church planting is thriving, compared to the past 60 years. • Eighty percent of our district leaders have received church planting training. • Over 4,000 leaders have been trained for church planting. • The past seven years show triple-digit new church plants for the first time since 1959. • Our research department tells us that one out of every four Nazarene churches has been started since 2000. If the current trends continue, by 2045, the number of active churches begun since 2000 will outnumber the active churches begun before 2000. • There have been more new church plants in the past decade than in any previous decade since 1959. • Under the fantastic leadership of our brothers and sisters in Canada, Dr. Ian Fitzpatrick and an excited new group of district superintendents have motivated and activated the Canadian church for the lost. Our church is motivated in evangelism and church planting. The question is: How do we move from motivation to movement again? Recent
