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By: William Beasley

The week of June 14 I had the privilege of joining Ron McCrary, Tom Herrick, John McDonald and Jenni Bartling in Pittsburgh to teach a course on church multiplication at Trinity School for Ministry for their June Intensive.  Later in the week Archbishop Duncan, Phil Harrold, Tory Baucum, and Mike Wurshmidt joined us for a TSM’s annual Roundtable which focused on church planting and catechesis.

Monday night began with a workshop at St. Stephen’s Church in Sewickley that 65 local leaders and potential planters attended.  Jenni Bartling works for the Diocese of Pittsburgh as Congregational Developer for Church Multiplication.  (What a great job title!)  She describes the Monday night event: 

The energy in that room was palpable.  For years we have heard about the African model of church multiplication, but it was a challenge for many in the diocese to wrap their brains around the concept of a lay pastor-led congregation.  By the end of Monday night, however, the I-get-it light had been turned on.  Lay people CAN begin and multiply new congregations.

My message was simple:  The Holy Spirit gives gifts to all his people.  The church needs everyone’s gifts.  Clergy play a key role to help identify, empower, connect, and give oversight to lay people for leadership roles in church multiplication.  Jennifer wrote me about what a student at Trinity School for Ministry and a member of Trinity Church in Washington, Will Burrows, had to say about the workshop:

I was excited by the possibilities of the model for church growth that Beasley presented: a regional parish church with multiple satellite congregations led by lay catechists. I was especially encouraged by the idea that people could start congregations before being trained as catechists. If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll never move forward. We might wonder about the orthodoxy of untrained teachers, but as long as people are reading the Bible together, they will be transformed by it, and this has worked in Africa. I also appreciated the method he suggested for celebrating the Eucharist – that the elements would be consecrated at the parish church and then taken to the satellite congregations to be distributed by lay Eucharistic ministers.

I appreciated how under the leadership of John McDonald Trinity partnered with local churches for their growth and development in practice not just in theory.  Students canvassed the communities of Ambridge and Beaver Falls to help gather data that existing churches and a new church plant will use to help them set up their ministries for this fall. 

 

Posted on June 23, 2010

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