Urban Free Methodists Attend CCDA Conference
by Helen Kaufmann

Traditionally, Free Methodist Urban Ministries (FMUM) hosts an annual conference to encourage and train urban workers. At the last such event in April 2002, FMUM decided to partner with the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) by attending their national convention. This would liberate energies for other local tasks, as well as facilitate networking with a top-quality organization including the best of the nation's resources for urban ministries.

The CCDA conference, held in November 2002, in Pasadena, CA, featured the theme, "What Are We Going to Do About It?" This theme provided the focus for all the sessions, including addresses by well-known leaders in compassion ministries, such as Keith Phillips and Don Davis of World Impact. Other speakers included Danny DeLeon, pastor of the largest Latino congregation in the country, Indian-born theologian Vinay Samuel and retiring chair and founder of CCDA, John Perkins. Korean choirs provided music at several evening events and a special Saturday evening concert featured musician André Crouch.

Thirty Free Methodists attended the CCDA conference. Attendees found the CCDA — with its emphasis on developing and empowering communities — a treasury of ideas and models. Besides participating in the rest of the conference, Free Methodists gathered in a special breakout session to collaborate on plans for the future of urban ministries within the denomination.

More than 100 individual workshops were offered for the approximately 1,800 attendees. Among sessions attended by FMers were the following:

Other sessions covered a wide variety of social issues — from women in ministry to homelessness to the challenge of AIDS in Africa.

The CCDA brings together a host of ministries for collaboration and networking. The conference itself is in its 14th year and is held in a different location each time. The idea for the organization was conceived in the mind of its founder and leader — Dr. John Perkins — during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s. Its genius is the emphasis on presence in the community and appreciation for the dignity of the poor. In the words of Perkins, "The organization is always concerned for the poor, not just committed to serving them. The way we value our faith is shown in how we value the poor." The 2002 conference was a particularly significant one, as it marked the retirement of Perkins, at age 72, as president of the organization.

To learn more about the CCDA, visit their Web site at: www.ccda.org. The next conference will be in New Orleans, LA, November 12-16, 2003.

Tel-Start Helps Houghton Lake Church Plant Take Root
After what Pastor Richard Kennedy calls a 14-year "missionary stint" in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, he returned to the open arms of the Free Methodist Church in 1998, specifically the Perry FMC in East Michigan. "As far as being a Free Methodist, that's what I am. I was 10 days old when I went for the first time," he laughs.

With him, Kennedy brought years of church planting experience. Along with wife Kathleen, Kennedy had "mothered" one plant and pioneered two others in Michigan for the United Brethren. So when he was appointed to the Church Ministries Team at Annual Conference in 1999, he knew he was in the right place.

The Kennedys owned property in the Houghton Lake region of Michigan, the place where they hoped to one day live in retirement. In January 2002, they realized that God had planned for them to live there earlier than they had imagined. When the call came to pioneer a church plant in Houghton Lake, "I didn't even pray about it," says Kennedy.

"I already knew that God wanted me to do it."

Proposals for what they would call "Church of the Lakes" were drafted and grant applications submitted. On July 1, 2002, the Kennedys moved to their new community and implemented a four-pronged approach to fill their yet-to-be-determined place of worship: praying, planning, preparing and performing.

One way the Kennedys hoped to cultivate prospects was through Tel-Start, an automated message system set up to call households in the community with information about the new church, giving them the option of recording a name and address so they could receive more information. However, Tel-Start would not begin to make calls until a meeting place had been secured because the first question people often ask is where the church will meet. Finally, two weeks past the time Kennedy had hoped calls would start, he secured the local township hall as a worship venue.

Once again, timing proved providential when a Tel-Start call was placed to Ernie and Bonnie Strayer. As both had been struggling with health problems and hadn't been attending church, the couple found themselves praying in earnest — asking the Lord what direction He would have them go. The phone rang and information about Church on the Lakes FMC was at Ernie's fingertips.

Meanwhile, Kennedy was in his office praying for additional help to lead the fledgling plant. His phone rang and Ernie expressed interest in learning more about the church. Kennedy had found his helper.

Of the 8,000 Tel-Start calls, 27 responses were received, an average return for such a system. Of those 27, half have visited the church since its first prayer meeting on September 18, 2002, and all 27 have remained on its mailing list. An advertisement placed in the local newspaper has attracted additional visitors.

Future goals for Church on the Lakes include an average attendance of 50 by conference time, official organization when it reaches 100 and property ownership at 200. Kennedy also hopes to make another 8,000 phone calls to community households at the church's one-year anniversary.

Kennedy has learned that things don't always go as expected. "Goals can always be readjusted when God steps in and says, 'We have an open door.'"

Wild and Crazy in Phoenix
"Our church is located in a wild and crazy neighborhood," says Pastor Sid Ogino of Phoenix Japanese FMC in Arizona. He backs up his assessment with several examples.
Recently, the church's property manager, John Samuelson (a quadriplegic who lives in the parsonage and watches over the grounds), discovered a dirty, disheveled woman in her late 40s pounding on the facility's doors. When Samuelson told her no one was there, she begged him for heroin and proceeded to disrobe. Police and social workers were summoned and the woman (probably high on Ecstasy) received a shower and clothing from the church before being led away. And, not more than a year ago, a man shot himself approximately 100 yards from the church and a gang fight across the street resulted in the killing of another.

When the church was started some 70 years ago, this section of Phoenix was largely agricultural. Now, the farmers are mostly gone, replaced in part by a low-income, high-crime populace. Also, the area's Japanese-speaking people (associated with farming) have exited with the sale of their land, and a number of Spanish-speaking people have moved in. This makes the church — which offers services in Japanese several times a month — less sought-after by its nearest neighbors. "We've tried to plant a Hispanic church which would share our facility," says Ogino. "But so far we've met with little success."

It wasn't always this way in the neighborhood, says Ogino, who admits that he and his congregation may eventually have to relocate. In the meantime, however, he provides counseling to a number of the neighbors, and the congregation periodically helps build Habitat for Humanity homes nearby.

For now, the hope is that Ogino's counseling will touch hearts and lives, drawing the lost and hurting into God's presence. Then this persevering colony of believers may once again bloom where they're planted.

They're Adding to the Family in Southern California
Slow and steady wins the race, so they say. And that's exactly the way things are going at Crossroads Christian Fellowship in San Bernardino, CA.

When Pastor Kevin Webb arrived in mid-1997, the church — which dates back to the 1930s — had a congregation of 25. Today, average Sunday morning attendance is above 125, and they keep on coming.

One reason for the continuing growth is the church's strategy for reaching out and welcoming. "We can't just say we hope to reach the unchurched," says Webb. "We have to intentionally invite and include them in our church family." This is done at Crossroads by welcoming visitors through the "Entryway" (the Sunday morning experience — including the appearance of the building and grounds; music and multimedia; the gospel repackaged in relevant, readily understood terminology) to the "Living Room" (inviting events that take place in small groups, i.e., Home Teams) to the "Kitchen" (where friends become family, joining a Home Team and in turn inviting others to come).

Webb first got the idea for intentional growth from a quote he attributes to John Maxwell: "You can give people all you want, but hope is not a strategy." Webb realized that he was hoping for growth, giving it a lot of time and effort, but didn't really have a "plan" for reaching his goal. Once the concept of transforming "friends" into "family" was presented to the congregation, the goal became everyone's. And they're pressing on.
A highlight of the ministry: the Book of Life. Whenever people give their hearts to Christ at Crossroads, they come up front and sign the Book while the congregation joins in singing Celebration by Kool and the Gang. Webb reads Luke 15 and reminds everybody that angels are rejoicing in heaven as well.

And here on earth — at Crossroads Community Fellowship — friends are really becoming family. Forever. And slowly, steadily … the family is growing.