By Stacey D. Wheeler, EFC-MAYM Director of Communications and Church Planting Support
We have exciting news! For the first time in our history as Evangelical Friends across the nation, we now have an organized Task Force at the national level designed to help each yearly meeting plant new churches and spread the good news of the Kingdom of God: the Evangelical Friends Church Planting (EFCP) Task Force. EFC-MAYM is excited to continue our support of three current church plants within our yearly meeting while embracing the new endeavors: Adonai with Elisee Mutshipay (Mariam); Iglesia Amigos North Houston with David Byrne (Joyce); Narrow Gate with Theo Amagito (Godlive); and Outcalled with Ethan Vanscoy (Chelsea).
To give a brief history of how the first ever National Friends Church Planting Sunday came to be, last summer, on May 29-30, 2023, Lead Superintendent, Thayne Thompson, and Superintendent of Pastoral and Church Health, Tony Wheeler, attended the Superintendents Meeting at Quaker Ridge Conference Center in Woodland Park, Colorado, with other superintendents from across Evangelical Friends Church- North America (EFC-NA). At these meetings, the EFC-NA leadership approved a recommendation from Jim Le Shana, Superintendent of Northwest Yearly Meeting, to emphasize church planting in all 350 churches nationally on the same weekend, (including Indiana and Iowa Yearly Meetings). All eight of the regions representing these 350 churches have been involved in some way in the startup of the EFCP Task Force and have sent liaisons from their regions to relay information to the superintendents and leaders in their area.
Most recently, I’ve had the honor of being given a new title and role within EFC-MAYM of Director of Communications and Church Planting Support, and as such, starting on September 1st, have been made a liaison between the EFCP Task Force and the superintendents, pastors, and pertinent lay leaders in the area of church planting within EFC-MAYM.
It was exciting to join my first online meeting on the Task Force along with 9 other liaisons and leaders in America representing 7 of the 8 yearly meetings that night (Missing Aurora Sampson, Superintendent of Alaska Yearly Meeting). Present in this meeting on August 17, 2023 were Jim Le Shana (NWYM), Elizabeth Licon (NWYM), Robert Radcliffe (Iowa YM), Becky Towne (RMYM), Tom Palmer (IOWA YM), Josh Cortez (IYM), Rusty Savage (EFC-ER), Brain Donahue (EFC-ER), Stacey Wheeler (EFC-MAYM), and Kevin Zimmer (EFC-SW). Nick Shaffer, also on this Task Force as a representative of the Home Missions Board under EFC-MAYM, was unable to attend this meeting but will attend them in the future.
We can thank EFC-ER (Eastern Region) for their forerunner work in designating four Sundays in October to promote the idea of church planting and raise interest and support. Their fourth Sunday is October 22nd which has led to other yearly meetings joining in through the Task Force, embracing the idea of having at least one Sunday where we intentionally pray and seek God concerning a possible church plant multiplying out of one of our individual churches or out of EFC-MAYM. This is historical in that there has never been a united emphasis within our evangelically-minded churches on the same Sunday nationally around ANY topic presented in our 350 churches at the same time.
EFC-Eastern Region also designed their four Sundays around four easy-to-remember terms: “Learn,” “Pray,” “Give,” and “Go.” The collective EFCP Task Force decided to keep this congruency for October 22, the National Friends Church Planting Sunday, also agreeing to use the “X” in the Multiplication Conference logo to help with the branding and recognition to hopefully show some synergy and connection to the efforts of church multiplication that have gone before, desiring people to recognize something is building in relation to church planting across the country within evangelically-minded Friends.
As Isaiah 43:19 states, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” God is doing a new thing in the area of church planting!
We are asking that all of our churches consider participating in this new initiative on Sunday, October 22. This is an exciting opportunity for our churches to focus on what God might be calling each individual and each church to do concerning an EFC-MAYM Church Planting Initiative for 2024 and beyond. Jesus called us to go into all the world and make disciples, and this is one way we can put our efforts into seeking and saving the lost and making disciples. Eight regions across North America will have churches that are also responding on Sunday, October 22 to this new thing God is doing!
What Do I Need to Know as a Pastor to Participate on October 22, 2023?
If you desire to participate in this church planting initiative, here are some elements to consider to help you with this opportunity:
- Learn: Give a sermon, preached by the pastor or someone passionate about evangelism or church planting, on the topic of fulfilling the great commission, evangelism, or more specifically church planting.
- Pray: Have a special prayer time during the service (designate someone to pray or gather in small groups to pray) – focused on planting churches in EFC-MAYM and in other parts of the US wherever the Lord leads us to go.
- Give: Take a special offering for church planting, sent to the EFC-MAYM office.
- Go: Give an invitation for people to become church planters, to join a church planting team, to support a church planter, to pray, to give, and ask your local body a question: Might God be calling our church to multiply? Give God a chance to move.
What Resources Will Be Provided to Help Me Communicate with My Congregation on October 22nd?
- Show a 4–5-minute video with video testimonies from all 8 regions and from some current church plants. Seth Binford is creating this video. We hope to have this to interested churches one to two weeks or so before the Church Planting Sunday so you can review it.
- A simple handout template will be made available to each church that can be printed and distributed in each worship service like a bulletin insert. It will have a response form with boxes that can be checked and turned in, as well as a QR code that can be used to check the boxes digitally on cell phones. This form will also be available on the website at www.friendsmultiply.org.
I believe most Christians would say that GC2, the Great Commission and the Great Commandment are important for all believers to follow. Planting churches falls under this umbrella. We have an opportunity to seek and to save the lost, to leave the 99 and go after the 1 lost sheep. At the national level, the EFCP Task Force gives us the opportunity to begin to push hard in order to give our churches a WAY to engage and help with this current movement across America within evangelically-minded Friends. You may not be called to plant a church, but what might God be calling you to do to HELP plant a church? Can you give some money? Join or start a prayer gathering? Support a church planter? Zechariah 4:10a declares, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, . . .” What small work might the Lord rejoice over within your local church?
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