The year 2015 was the most fruitful church planting year in World Impact’s history. As I thought about the year, a picture of an art museum came to mind. Imagine a gallery with three hundred spaces for pictures to hang, each space corresponding with World Impact’s vision to see 300 new church plants launched by 2021.
This past year, twenty-two new and one of a kind pictures were added to the art gallery. Each portrait displays the beauty of God’s grace in a unique way, in a unique place, with unique people. Church plants were launched in Alexandria, VA; Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; Newburgh, NY; Brooklyn, NY; Coney Island, NY; New Brunswick, NJ; Miami, FL; Colorado Springs, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Long Beach, CA; and San Francisco, CA.
In addition to these amazing displays of God’s grace, significant advances were made in the areas of contextualized training for church planters, printed and electronic resources, and missional partnerships. In 2015, five Dean Teams were trained to run Evangel Schools of Church Planting around the country, and six new books for church planters were published by TUMI Press.
This table provides an overview of the church plants launched in each of our regions last year:
|
|
East Coast | Midwest | West Coast | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2015 New Church Plant Efforts |
12 |
1 | 9 | 22 |
| Total Number Toward the 300 Church Plants Goal | 15 | 2 | 39 | 56 |
|
Total Number of Church Plant Efforts Since 1990 |
32 | 30 | 118 | 180 |
This year, World Impact and its partners are on track to charter some thirty church plant teams. There are currently eight Evangel Schools of Urban Church Planting scheduled for 2016 to train these new teams. Each of these schools includes strategic planning, training, assessment, and times of prayer, worship and devotional teaching. Each month new teams are launching and need are prayers as they represent Christ in new urban neighborhoods.
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2/25/2016 2/27/2016 Wichita, KS World Impact Wichita
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2/25/2016 2/27/2016 Fort Worth, TX World Impact Dallas
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3/4/2016 3/6/2016 Newark, NJ World Impact East
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3/29/2016 4/2/2016 Topeka, KS World Impact Topeka
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5/20/2016 5/22/2016 Dallas, TX World Impact Dallas
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6/8/2016 6/11/2016 Los Angeles, CA World Impact West
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9/2/2016 9/4/2016 Newark, NJ World Impact East
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TBD Fall 2016 Wichita, KS World Impact Wichita
One of these churches, Iglesia Renovación, was officially launched in Los Angeles earlier this month. Renovación is being pastored by Pastors Willy and Romi Ledezma and the church is part of the Christ the Lord Association of Churches. The Ledezmas have prepared for their ministry as students at The Urban Ministry Institute of Los Angeles. Their church’s outreach is focused on new immigrants from Central and South America.
Our God is an amazing artist. Praise him for the displays of his beauty that he is creating in inner cities all over this nation and the world. Please join us in praying for Renovación and the many other church plants launching this year. Pray that God will raise up many workers in each church to share his shalom with the city.