New Faith Community Team

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God is still putting dreams in the hearts of people to plant new places for new people! The New Faith Community Team of the Conference continues to work to come alongside and support them as they follow 3 the vision God has given them. 4 5 Since the pandemic came and changed everything for every church and Conference ministry, the New 6 Faith Community Team has joined everyone in adapting to continue to meet our mission. The primary 7 training/equipping tool we use is Launchpad, which until 2020 was always held in person over a weekend. 8 COVID forced us to create an on-line option and because no one wants to sit on a Zoom call for 9-10 hours 9 over back-to-back days, we broke it down over six evening sessions, over a period of weeks. Teams had 10 time between sessions to meet, process what they were learning, and apply it to their own context. We 11 learned quickly that this was actually a better mode of learning. Since then, we have decided to never go

12 back to in-person Launchpad. Instead, we will offer two Launchpads each year, providing a great learning

13 14 experience for up to 20 persons.

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 In addition to Launchpad, the New Faith Community has been improving our support of people after Launchpad! We have started offering Greenhouse Groups. These are coaching groups for people who leave Launchpad with a plan and seek to implement it. Greenhouse Groups are led by experienced coaches and planters and last from 6-12 months.

In the fall of 2021, the New Faith Community Team also offered an on-line learning experience called “What Now?,” a series of podcast style conversations with three nationally recognized experts, around issues of life in the church during and after covid. Those who attended received great information about the epidemic of loneliness in the world, how to start a new “fresh expressions” faith community, how to improve the on-line worship experience for people who find that the best choice, why every church MUST work to improve their online disciple making, etc. After the event was complete, the team created a UNY NFC YouTube Channel so that that others can watch and learn from these videos. Since then, a couple of hundred people have watched these videos. You can find and watch them yourself by searching “Upper New York New Faith Communities” in YouTube.

The best news is that our New Faith Communities continue to reach new people. The Hispanic/Latino planting team has started two new churches in 2021 and they have plans for further multiplication in the years to come. The pastor of the Miso church in Buffalo has started two new house churches, one in Rochester and one in Syracuse. Many churches are exploring starting new fresh expressions of their church in “third spaces” (outside their church building, in places where people already gather) in their communities. Other small churches are following a pattern of combining efforts with other congregations in their area; casting new vision, creating new leader teams, and exploring new ways of being church. The NFC Team will continue to support all these efforts.

As we move forward, we recognize that no matter what happens with the denomination, all Methodists will need to be engaged in finding new ways of reaching new people! So, our team is committed to continuing to find new, better ways of supporting people who are seeking to follow the dreams God has placed on their hearts!

Submitted by: Rev. David Masland