wfn.org | More than $1 million sent to presbyteries to grow ‘Mustard Seed'

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Note #6252 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

projects
3-November-2000
00392

More than $1 million sent to presbyteries to grow ‘Mustard Seed' projects

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) officials hope that many
innovative programs in ministry and outreach will grow from the $1 million
of Mustard Seed funds they planted this week in more than 40 presbyteries.

	The fund is providing presbyteries with 43 grants of $10,8000 to $25,000 to
support innovate work in evangelism done by local churches for which they
currently do not have the money. In February, the denomination's General
Assembly Council (GAC) approved creation of the Mustard Seed Fund, using $1
million of surplus funds generated by increased unrestricted giving to
General Assembly mission by congregations and presbyteries in 1999.

	 "The Mustard Seed Fund is one of the most exciting opportunities for
church growth in any denomination," said the Rev. Doug Wilson, associate
with the PC(USA)'s Evangelism and Church Development office, adding that
Mustard Seed checks -- totaling $1,006,100 -- were mailed on Nov. 1. "The
Mustard Seed grants support and encourage churches, clusters of churches and
presbyteries to develop and try new, innovative, creative and risky ideas
for church growth."

	Eighty-four applications were received for Mustard Seed funds. The GAC''s
Church Growth II Team met at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina
Sept. 17-19 to review and discuss the applications, awarding 43 grants.

	Ten of the projects are related to presbytery strategies for church growth.
Ten projects are specifically planned for immigrants and racial ethnic
church growth. Eight of the projects seek to use new worship forms and
opportunities to reach new people, while seven focus on community outreach.
Six projects address children and youth; two projects focus on leadership
development.

	A youth outreach program provided by First Presbyterian Church of Helena,
Mont., is a Mustard Seed favorite of Mike Gillespie of Cincinnati
Presbytery, co-chair of the growth team, which administered the Mustard Seed
Fund.

	"The Lessons and Loafs project is one that I see everyone of our city's
youth and our church benefitting from," said Gillespie. "You can hear the
roots growing in those cities across the church."

	Other projects include First Presbyterian Church of Cornelia, Ga.,
(Presbytery of Northeast Georgia) which will develop a cable television
broadcast outreach to Laotians with a Lao language worship and news reports
from Laos. This is thought to be the first Lao language worship broadcast in
the United States. This project will expand the opportunities to minister to
this population by the church.

	The Mustard Seed Fund is a response to Vision for Growth for the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a strategy paper adopted by the General
Assembly in 1999. The grants are being made to presbyteries as a one-time
investment. Officials hope, however, that enough surplus funds will be
available in future years to continue offering grants to other presbyteries
in the future.

	Part of each grant is "an agreement to share the results and what is
learned" from each project with the whole church, Wilson said.  "Thus, the
projects can become pilots for others and helps generate other new
possibilities."

	A complete list of Mustard Seed grant recipients with project descriptions:

I. Presbytery Strategies

The Covenant Ministry Team Project	
Presbytery of Mackinac	                   $25,000
	The project will provide a missioner who will work with small, isolated
churches without pastoral leadership. The missioner will help train members
in leadership for the church and as witnesses in the community toward the
goal of strengthening the ministry and witness of the churches in reaching
the people in their communities with the gospel.

Growth Partner Project	
Winnebago Presbytery	                   $15,000
	The project builds on Loren Mead's four types of church growth as a
holistic pattern for each congregation. The project will train, equip and
support Growth Partners as consultants who will contract with specific
congregations to consider potential areas of growth; initiate a year-long
process of planning, implementing and evaluating a church growth plan;
applying the lessons to all areas of church life and sharing the learnings
with others in the presbytery.

Breaking Ground For Leadership in a Changing Church	
Presbytery of Blackhawk	                   $25,000
Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois	   $25,000
	This is a partnership of two presbyteries to help current leaders re-tool
for the future. Modeled on the Interim Pastor Training, it will provide
intensive training for pastors and lay leaders over a two year period. Some
topics included will be spiritual disciplines, missional church, worship
leadership and pastoral care for the future; equipping disciples; change
theory.

Parish Partnerships for Church Growth	
Presbytery of St. Andrew	           $20,000
	This presbytery of small, rural churches will develop cooperative clusters
called parish partnerships. The partnerships will challenge each church to
move beyond its tradition of identifying itself separately, to developing a
common parish focus outward to the local community and its needs.
Partnerships will include publicity and promotion of the churches and their
activities as a means to reach new people.

Western Kentucky Thrive		
Presbytery of Western Kentucky	           $25,000
	This project targets churches that want to grow and will provide help in
developing an evangelism plan tailored for each church. The plan will be
implemented over a year with the help of a consultant. Churches will be
encouraged to develop a continuing five year plan based on the original
results.  Success stories and insights will be compiled in a booklet as a
resource for the churches of the presbytery.

Leadership Development for Pastors of Small Congregations   
Presbytery of De Cristo	                   $25,000
	As a geographically large presbytery of mostly small churches, there is a
need for affordable continuing education for pastors. This project will
provide opportunities for continuing education events within the presbytery
in the area of church growth and some scholarships to other events where
attendees can bring information back for the whole presbytery. This will
help stabilize pastoral turn-over and provide skills for reaching new
populations in the communities.
	
Southern Delaware County Reformed Renaissance Community
Presbytery of Philadelphia	           $25,000
	The project brings together four congregations, a suburban, small blue
collar church, an African American church and city church to develop a
common witness and ministry in Chester, a distressed community.  By
developing a common life and witness they will work together to reach out to
the wider community and present a vital Reformed ministry and presence.

Presbytery Media Campaign	
Upper Ohio Valley Presbytery	           $25,000
	This is an integrated media project focusing on the three geographical
areas of the presbytery. It will provide a media campaign to reach the
unchurched and training for members on being more welcoming of visitors. The
focus will be on television, radio and billboard ads placed by the
presbytery with newspaper ads and local events undertaken by the churches.

Ministry Exploration for Ft. Leonard Wood Area
John Calvin Presbytery	                   $25,000
	The presbytery will explore the potential of a ministry, maybe leading to a
new church, in the area of Ft. Leonard Wood. This is an expanding army base
with a multi-racial, multi-cultural population of young adults and families.
This effort will explore ways of developing a mainline ministry, possibly of
an ecumenical nature in this area.

II.  Immigrant and Racial Ethnic Projects

Developing Hispanic Faith Communities		
Miami Presbytery	                   $25,000
Responding the influx of Spanish-speaking people, the presbytery will
research who is currently doing ministry with Hispanic communities; build
relationships with Hispanics through congregations; provide
community-organizing opportunities and leader development with Hispanics;
and develop education on issues for congregations and advocacy on issues
identified by Hispanics. Opportunities for Hispanic worship services and
bi-lingual worship and education in congregations will be part of the
project.

Equipping Church Planters	
Midwest Hanmi Presbytery	           $24,000
	In response to the Great Commission and the church's goal of church growth,
a Korean version of a church planting manual will be developed and training
offered for new church development pastors. This will address issues of
Presbyterian polity, policies and church development in the Korean American
context.

African American Community Ministry	
Presbytery of Memphis	                   $25,000
	The proposal supports outreach ministries in four predominantly African
American Memphis congregations using various ways to reach youth, males, and
families.

Evangelism Re-Visioning Project		
Presbytery of Eastern Virginia	           $25,000
	This new presbytery initiative focuses on church growth in five African
American congregations and with twenty-five small urban congregations. In
the former, there is a design to help re-vision an overall ministry for
racial ethnic populations, especially with younger adults. The 25 small
churches will be involved in planning around viability, options for the
future, identifying specific ministry goals and plans.

The New Ark Congregational Cluster Project
Presbytery of Newark	                   $25,000
	Initiative with five congregations to develop church growth models which
work in multi ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural, ecumenical and
interfaith communities. The five congregations have set goals for worship
and membership increases for the next five years. Programs will focus on
after-school ministries with children, evangelistic outreach with new
immigrant families, and inclusion of at least one new group in each
congregation.

African Evangelism Project	
Presbytery of Northern New England	   $25,000
	The Eliot Church of Lowell, Massachusetts is a multi-cultural church.
Building on this history, the church seeks to reach the 4,000 new Africans
who recently moved into the community. Through an African music ministry,
they will engage members of this community in worship and fellowship across
national, tribal, and cultural lines.

Hispanic Ministry Growth and Church Enhancement 
Central Florida Presbytery	           $25,000
	Designed by the presbytery's Hispanic Ministry Planning Team, the project
is to reach out more effectively to over 230,000 Hispanics in the
presbytery. The design is to train leaders for new congregations and enhance
the ministry of two Hispanic congregations and several cell groups. Use of
media, music training, vacation Bible schools, Hispanic symposiums, and
continuing education for lay leaders will be part of the project.

Lao Language Television Broadcast	
Presbytery of Northeast Georgia	           $24,000
	The First Presbyterian Church of Cornelia, GA will develop a cable
television broadcast outreach to Laotians with a Lao language worship and
news reports from Laos. This is thought to be the first Lao language worship
broadcast in the U.S. This project will expand the opportunities to minister
to this population by the church.

Albuquerque Native American Urban Ministry	
Presbytery of Santa Fe	                   $25,000
	There are about 25,000 Native Americans from over 150 tribes in
Albuquerque. Working with Native American organizations, educational
institutions, Presbyterian churches and ecumenically, prayer fellowships
will be developed blending Native American spirituality with our Reformed
faith. This will strengthen the participation of Native Americans in the
church and provide a foundation for potential new church developments.

Grace Presbytery Hispanic Ministry Specialist	
Grace Presbytery	                   $25,000
	Engaging the growing Hispanic population, the presbytery seeks to
coordinate an intentional ministry to work with existing congregations
seeking to expand into Hispanic ministry and to begin new ministries. This
grant would offer the chance to provide leadership support for a year which
will be continued by the presbytery.

III. Worship

Sights and Sounds of God: Worship More than Words 
Maumee Presbytery	                   $25,000
	The presbytery seeks to explore the use of contemporary forms of worship in
at least eight churches over a year.  Leadership teams from the churches
would be trained in the ministry of contemporary worship in the Reformed
context.  The project includes engaging a contemporary worship band to work
with the churches and the development of advertising, promotion and
evaluation.

Central at the Mall              	 
Muskingum Valley Presbytery	           $25,000
	Central Presbyterian Church in Zanesville, Ohio, a 200 year old
congregation, seeks to reach a new generation through adding worship at a
second site, The Colony Square Mall. A Friday and Saturday evening
multi-sensory service will reach people in their 20's and 30's in a
non-traditional church setting.

Praise Explosion               	
Prospect Hill Presbytery	           $12,200
	This once a month ecumenical worship and fellowship spans three school
districts to reach youth and young adults through the First Presbyterian
Church of Paulina, IA. The contemporary service, using a variety of musical
groups, is followed by refreshments and fellowship, and efforts to provide
pastoral care and connection to a church.

The Whitewater Wineskins Project	
Whitewater Valley Presbytery	           $25,000
	Matched by presbytery funds, this project will offer grants to
congregations seeking to reach out to new generations and new racial ethnic
populations by offering worship services that reflect the culture of these
potential members, and adopt communication strategies that will reach these
audiences.

Harford County Gen X Outreach Process		Presbytery of Baltimore	             
     $25,000
	The eleven churches in Harford County will together develop an outreach to
unchurched young adults. The project will be planned by young adults from
the churches and will include an organizer and coordinating team. On-going
outreach events will invite unchurched young adults into a fellowship to
begin exploring their spiritual journey.  Small groups, hands-on mission, or
service within the group will give opportunities to participate along with 
celebrative/reflective worship.

Worship Enrichment Using the Six Senses	
Presbytery of Genesee Valley	           $23,000
	Training open to all churches will focus on using the six senses (sight,
sound, touch, taste, smell and the spirit). Specifically plans will be laid
for World Communion Sunday 2001 and Pentecost 2002. Resources from many
cultural, ethnic, racial traditions will be included along with ideas for
all sizes of churches. The goal is to attract, include and retain  newcomers
to worship and fellowship.

Back Door Ministries	
Presbytery of Arkansas	                   $25,000
	Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church in Little Rock is an aging
congregation. This project will attract members through the back door with a
free simple supper and worship on Wednesdays. The format will be casual,
with more modern music based on traditional reformed forms. A team of single
college-age adults will provide leadership in exchange for free housing;
marketing strategies appropriate for the audience will be used and the
services will be signed for the deaf.

New Life Worship Team	
Presbytery of Indian Nations	           $25,000
	Provide music and drama for predominantly African American small churches
and new churches in Oklahoma City. Monthly participation of the worship team
in each of four churches will enliven and expand the worship services and
bring multi cultural musical expression. Publicity will focus on the
excitement of expanded worship as a means to attract and involve new
members.

IV. Outreach Ministries

The Maryhurst Partnership 		
Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky	           $25,000
	The partnership is one facet of a new ecumenical ministry of the Portland
Avenue Presbyterian Church in Louisville. Working with Maryhurst, a human
service agency, the church and volunteers will give support to families
through case management and on-going relationships toward self-sufficiency.
The church will be a continuing presence and part of the support system
including families in its life and fellowship.

Planting the Seed 	
Presbytery of San Juan	                   $20,000
	A joint effort of two congregations, this project will support a Children's
Club reaching community children ages 4-13 with the gospel.  Most from low
income families, the club will offer worship, group activities, sports, arts
and crafts, music, field trips. Activities will reach the whole family as
well as the children.

Lessons and Loaves 	
Glacier Presbytery	                   $23,100
	The First Presbyterian Church of Helena, MT plans to establish Christian
relationships with unchurched youngsters and their families through an
after-school program. It will involve church members, three other churches,
and community agencies

The Music Institute at Fraser 	
Presbytery of New Harmony	           $10,800 
	The goal for the Fraser Memorial Church of Sumter, SC is to identify
children in the area around the church interested in music and involve them
in the church through development of their musical talents. They will be
invited to share in the music leadership of the church.

Trinity Training and Transition Project	
Peace River Presbytery	                   $25,000
	This is an evangelistic outreach of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Venice,
FL to retirees, lower income people in the workforce and to young families
in need of suitable activities for their children while they work. It
includes job training, career counseling, after school education, and
recreational computer use for seniors.

Outreach to Unchurched People		
San Gabriel Presbytery	                   $25,000
	Two outreach programs will be supported: The Rainbow Choir, a multicultural
outreach ministry of Pasadena Presbyterian Church will expand its outreach
to new racial ethnic populations with a multi-cultural children's music
program as a way to be missionaries to the diverse population of the
community.  The Arabic language television outreach will use tv as a means
to reach the large Arabic speaking population with the Christian message.

Morgantown Mustard Seed Project	
Presbytery of West Virginia	           $25,000
	Through a structured hospitality and educational program, the Morgantown,
WV Presbyterian Church  will invite non-churched adults to explore the
Christian faith and church membership through small groups with basic,
intermediate, and advanced courses on topics of Christianity and Christian
life. The design is similar to the Alpha program but developed from a
Reformed perspective.

V.  Children and Youth

The Next Generation	
Olympia Presbytery	                   $25,000
	The Tenino, WA First Presbyterian Church will experiment with new ways to
reach youth through two programs: a Saturday night contemporary worship
service which will be youth led, and a Friday evening "movie night." In the
community of Tenino there are many youth, but few activities.This is an
attempt to meet a community need for youth activities. There is no theater,
and this program will present Christian values as part of its program,
hoping to include youth in the church.

Rites of Passage		
National Capital Presbytery	           $24,500
	This is a ministry of Faith Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. to help
youth 14-18 as they transition through life passages into adulthood. It will
help instill self-esteem, self-discipline, and promote spiritual growth
emphasizing African-American heritage and Christian discipleship. It will
involve parents and families as well as youth.

Outreach to International Families	
Boston Presbytery	                   $24,000
	This is a partnership of three Boston churches each of which reaches
different and distinct immigrant and international populations.  The project
will develop a Christian education program easily accessible to ethnically
diverse children and parents, based on resources of "Godly Play". It will
further assist each church develop its unique outreach to the population it
seeks to serve.

Churches United For Youth		
Monmouth Presbytery	                   $24,500
	The Allentown (NJ) Presbyterian Church provides leadership for a community
after school youth ministry for grades 6-8. In addition there will be a
mid-week worship service planned by high school youth to attract people not
attracted to traditional worship.

An Outreach Youth Ministry		
Providence Presbytery	                   $25,000
	Grace Presbyterian Church in Fort Mill, SC plans to start a new youth
outreach program which will address non-churched youth equally as much as
youth in their church. It will build relationships, involve youth in
worship, study and mission and experiment with new forms of doing youth
ministry as a means to invite unchurched youth and their families into the
church.

Hazelwood Community Ministry Instruction Network  
Pittsburgh Presbytery	                   $11,000
	Hazelwood is an inner city congregation with a part time pastor and
seminarian. The project, led by the seminarian, will develop a lay ministry
team and equip them to provide organizational and instructional leadership
for a Saturday morning children and youth ministry and help provide
transportation for the program.

VI. Officer/Member Training

GROW: God's People Reaching Outward	
Cincinnati Presbytery	                   $25,000
	The Loveland Presbyterian Church is designing a two-part project which will
train and equip church members in hospitality, evangelism, and cultural
diversity and then will reach out to the community through monthly
celebrations and activities focusing on different groups in the community.
Hispanics, Asians, immediate neighbors, Appalachian heritage, children,
African Americans will be invited to share in various events and worship.
The idea is to build understanding and relationship between various
populations and participation in an increasingly multi-cultural church.

Cluster Evangelism Leader		
Presbytery of Western Reserve	           $25,000 
	The six churches of the Eastside Urban Ministry Cluster will engage a
shared evangelism leader to help with the redevelopment of these churches in
relation to the community. The leader will be a staff member shared
primarily by two churches to train the pastors and lay leaders for
establishing hands-on evangelism teams. The goal will be to engage the
neighborhoods in new ways of working with and reaching people not currently
involved in a church. Other churches in the cluster will be able to
participate in and learn from this project which can become a model for
other clusters in the presbytery.

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