Covenant News

Ministry Planting Training Under Way

EAGAN, MN (March 8, 2002) - Twenty-three clergy and laypeople representing six Covenant conferences gathered Thursday evening at the Residence Inn to begin the Churches Planting Ministries consultant training event.

Churches Planting Ministries is an initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church designed to support local congregational involvement with ministries of compassion and justice. Providing local churches with trained ministry consultants is one of three services that conferences will offer to local churches through Churches Planting Ministries. Financial grants and educational opportunities will also be available.

Program leaders include Sue Sporte, former field consultant for the Church and Community Project of McCormick Theological Seminary; Sally Johnson (see accompanying photo), a member of the initiative's consulting staff and special assistant to the ECC president; and Lopez-Cepero.

The evening began with a welcome and time for introductions, allowing participants to share their backgrounds and areas of interest. Jon Kramka, Northwest Conference coordinator, welcomed guests on behalf of the conference.

A brief presentation described the history, biblical foundations, program details, funding, and future plans for the Churches Planting Ministries initiative. Many consultants spoke of lifetimes of experience and interest in the field of compassion and justice ministries, as well as a gratefulness for being part of the Covenant at a time like this.

"Tonight was inspiring and it generated a lot of excitement among the laypeople," reported Robert Owens, Southeast Conference coordinator for Churches Planting Ministries and conference associate superintendent. "We are not doing anything new here - we are affirming what God is already doing in many churches," said Max Lopez-Cepero, director of the Churches Planting Ministries effort. "We are just trying to catch up."

Five conferences will launch Churches Planting Ministries during their respective Conference annual meetings this spring.

Consultants were selected for this training by their Churches Planting Ministries conference coordinators. Their job is to support ministries of compassion and justice being developed by local churches in their conferences. Participating consultants represented great diversity regarding age, ethnic background and experience. A sample of occupations represented included farming, human resources management, pastoral ministry, missions, lawyer, camping management and computer programming. Participants also represented Covenant conference staff, Covenant Ministries of Benevolence and denominational offices.

Additional information will be provided during conference annual meetings and is also available from conference coordinators.

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