The past few days I have been at Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe, Kansas (just outside of Kansas City) at the annual conference of Church Multiplication Association (CMA) for church planters. This has been one of the most significant Church of God events that I have been to in a long time.For those of you that don't know, CMA is a Church of God - related organization that is leading the way in our movement for church planting. They have helped plant over 60 churches and have experienced tremendous success compared to most typical church planting efforts. Founded by Robin Wood and Gary Kendall, CMA provides a high level of screening, training, and support for church planters.
There are several reasons I consider this event as significant. First, it represents an exciting, new thrust in church planting. Sadly, in recent decades church planting has been hit and miss within the Church of God. While some tremendous new churches were launched, overall it is a small number and we have lacked a coherent vision or methodology.
Second, attending this event put me in contact with some of the most gifted and passionate young ministers in our movement. Seeing the quality of this group gives me great hope for the future!
Third, CMA represents a new paradigm in how we get things done within the Church of God. Despite our struggle with becoming a "denomination" the bulk of our cooperative efforts have been in centralized structures. CMA was not conceived in "Anderson". It is a network that operates within the Church of God, but not within our formal structures. This may go against what we are used to, but is indicative of a trend that is developing around us, and may be more congruent with our polity. Networks have tremendous effectiveness, and probably will represent the future in many other areas of our national life, such as missions. I was impressed to see that Church of God Ministries is not feeling threatened by the growing prominence of CMA, but instead is embracing this work and cooperating with it. The evidence of that is found in the fact that Dr. Duncan brought the Ministries Council to Olathe this week for their meeting, and so that they could experience first-hand what is happening in this "movement within a movement".
Finally, the event itself provided significant opportunities for personal growth and ministry development. CMA brought in some outstanding speakers and practitioners, and offered a wide range of helpful conferences and presentations. The evening worship services themselves were worth the trip. For example, on Tuesday evening I witnessed one of the most profound moments of honesty, transparency and grace confronting personal brokenness among leaders that I have seen in the Church of God.
If you are desiring to experience new vision and hope for the Church of God, I'd encourage you to learn more about CMA and to plan on attending next year's annual conference.
