Why we partnered together
Following General Conference 2016 and the election of Dr. Wayne Schmidt as General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church, the strategic focus of the denomination crystallized in a simple, inspiring statement:
Celebrating every time a disciple makes a disciple and a church multiplies itself, until The Wesleyan Church has a transforming presence in every zip code.
This renewed clarity on the mission of God to close the “Gospel Gap” generated multiple and varied conversations on how to do missional ministry more effectively. One key idea emerged from that ongoing dialogue: We can do ministry better together.
The District Superintendents from four districts in the nation’s heartland began meeting to pray and ideate about how we might partner together to reach the 12 million unaffiliated people who live in the four states of our region.
After nearly a year of prayer and conversation in 2017-2018, the four districts unanimously agreed to partner for three years in specific ways that would hopefully bring about greater regional ministry effectiveness. During this time they will prayerfully and collectively seek God's will for future ministry partnership, even including full merger as a possibility if God so leads.
Our desire is to work together to develop leaders, make more disciples, and multiply new churches. Our highest priority is to unleash those God has called and equipped to be Apostolic Multipliers to catalyze new Kingdom growth throughout our region.
Our partnership pathway consists of a three-year plan that began in 2018:
Celebrating every time a disciple makes a disciple and a church multiplies itself, until The Wesleyan Church has a transforming presence in every zip code.
This renewed clarity on the mission of God to close the “Gospel Gap” generated multiple and varied conversations on how to do missional ministry more effectively. One key idea emerged from that ongoing dialogue: We can do ministry better together.
The District Superintendents from four districts in the nation’s heartland began meeting to pray and ideate about how we might partner together to reach the 12 million unaffiliated people who live in the four states of our region.
After nearly a year of prayer and conversation in 2017-2018, the four districts unanimously agreed to partner for three years in specific ways that would hopefully bring about greater regional ministry effectiveness. During this time they will prayerfully and collectively seek God's will for future ministry partnership, even including full merger as a possibility if God so leads.
Our desire is to work together to develop leaders, make more disciples, and multiply new churches. Our highest priority is to unleash those God has called and equipped to be Apostolic Multipliers to catalyze new Kingdom growth throughout our region.
Our partnership pathway consists of a three-year plan that began in 2018:
- Year One (2018-2019): District Superintendent’s begin meeting and build a regional leadership alliance. This took place quickly which involved more leadership decisions from the respective District Boards of Administration to lay the groundwork for partner projects in the years ahead.
- Year Two (2019-2020): Allow God to shape our understanding of a regional mission and vision, while we plan and conduct some all-region events. Our first Heartland Region event is a joint Ministerial Retreat in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in March 2020.
- Year Three (2020-2021): Continued evaluation and refinement of the partnership will take place. If there is evidence of the Heartland Region being a fruitful partnership, decisions will be made to either keep the regional partnership relationship as it is or officially exploring merger if that appears to be the best path forward for greatest missional effectiveness.
