Building new churches fulfills the Great Commission

By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
Starting new churches fulfills the Great Commission, spreads the Gospel to places that might never have been reached.
It’s been that way since the very beginning, said Richard Selke, associate pastor of First UMC, Dripping Springs.
“It allows us to make disciples of Christ,” he said.
Selke will leave Dripping Springs this summer to start a new community in Lago Vista. Already, Lago Vista UMC has 135 committed people, he said.
The new congregation is one of two confirmed church plants this year in the Southwest Texas Conference, said the Rev. Mike Lowry, executive director of New Church Development and Transformation. The other congregation is Northeast Community UMC in northeast San Antonio, to be led by the Rev. Emerson Allen, pastor of Sanford Chapel UMC, San Antonio.
Donations and gifts given to the Offering Christ Today for Tomorrow capital campaign is slated to help Selke and Allen in their ventures.
In June 2006, the conference voted to begin the capital campaign. The first phase started in January 2007, and the campaign is in its final stage now.
The campaign is slated to raise $5 million for new church development, clergy member training and support, land acquisition and new church startup kits.
Northeast Community UMC is to be the first primarily African American church plant in Southwest Texas in almost three decades, Lowry said. Conference leaders chose the northeast San Antonio area because it is a quickly growing, multi-ethnic area.
“We need a healthy predominantly African American church in that area,” Lowry said. “It was critical.”
For the Lago Vista church plant, Lowry said a group of United Methodists approached Bishop Joel N. Martinez about wanting to have a presence in the community.
“That’s something that I appreciate (the Bishop) responding to,” Selke said. “This is a community that’s growing, a community that did not have a United Methodist presence in it.”
Last year, the conference launched The Journey UMC in Kyle and Hope Community UMC in northwest San Antonio.
Selke said the conference has pledged some “significant sums” over the next three years to take care of his compensation and some of the new congregation’s expenses.
“That gets us going,” he said. “And then I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to be considered for additional funds when it comes time to buy equipment for worship or as we put a down payment on a piece of land.”
Selke’s first Sunday in the new congregation is to be June 15. Members are meeting in an old restaurant, but it won’t be available to them much longer, Selke said. They are considering different options.
Lowry said the conference has high hopes for the churches planted in the last three years.
“Our hope and dream for every church is that they really be a mission post for Christ,” he said. “They are offering Christ in all kinds of places and reaching out with the love of God in Christ to genuinely help transform their communities.
“If a place grows numerically but isn’t genuinely producing disciples, then we would have failed. We want growing, vibrant, missionally alive congregations that are transforming their communities for Christ.”