Should the AME Church provide support for new ministries including new congregations. What should that support consist of? Does the Bishop have tha authority to assign a minister to an area with the explicit directions to form a new congregatiom?

-- Alton E. Paris (alparis@gte.net), December 22, 2000

Answers

Now the question is: "How do we get our retired and non-pastoring clergy out of the pulpit assisting in the worship and into evangelism and church planting?

Perhaps we should include a stipend for such persons in our 10th Episcopal District Budget to be used until the ministries are able to support them?

What if they just assisted by attending small congregations as "seed" members, not functioning as clergy but visitors to encourage attendance?

Blessings, Pastor Paris

-- Alton E. Paris (alparis@digitex.net), June 21, 2002.

Amen Brother Payne. I am glad to see you issue the challenge to the supernumeraries who are not engaged in any specific ministry in thier local settings other than assisting in the order of worship. The harvest is truly plentiful, but....

God Bless,

W.C. Ervin III

-- W.C.Ervin III (werviniii@aol.com), June 20, 2002.

I am in FULL support of supporting our clergy. When you look in the book of Acts you will find that belivers in the "Way" as some would call it even went so far as to sell their own possesions to give to those as they needed. And not one of them had a need for anything because of that Communistic society. We should all be so supportive

-- Joseph Grant (stjoseph5@yahoo.com), April 06, 2001.

I do believe that this is one of the mandates of our church. There is a need however to maintain some of the charges which exist. There is no effort being made to help the charges which have few members and means to take care of themselves. If we would do what needs to be done for what we have, then we could move out. Someone said, "Charity begans at home and spreads abroad".

-- Rev. George O'Neal (MrPreacher@yahoo.Com), April 05, 2001.

Should the AME Church provide support for new ministries including new congregations. Yes. The Prime Directive of the church is to "Go, Preach, Teach, Make Disciples" (Matthew 28:17-20). If people have moved away from old places, congregations should be established where they are. Each district should engage in active evangelization. New congregations are one method of achieving that.

What should that support consist of? We used to have a dpeartment, run by Hercules Miles, of Church Extension. I would think it would have tools to support starting new works. Also, Elder Russell Cephas had resources under The Department of Worship and Evangelism. The support should consist of resources, a commitment from the church to undergird the ministry while it establishes itself, and finances to get it going. The latter is the sticking point. Several years ago two new churches started in a certain area in Texas. One wnet out with a vision, a pastor to carry it out, and $30,000 in seed money from a sponsoring set of churches. It was Baptist. The other went out with a vision, a pastor to carry it out, and the prayers of the Annual Conference.

Does the Bishop have the authority to assign a minister to an area with the explicit directions to form a new congregation? Absolutely. If we are all on fire for ministry though, the clergy at large should be like Joshua and Caleb, seeking out the land and looking past the giants to bring the Bishop the Minority Report. Many of our conferences have supernumeraries. Can you imagine our church growth if each supernumerary would take an active role in evangelization in a new area rather than sitting in the congregation of their roots?

-- Jerryl (jlpayne@ghg.net), December 29, 2000.