Raising Up Leaders and Expanding Reach: The Northeast Annual Conference Prayerfully Casts Vision

 A conference that spans more than 150 thousand square miles, the Northeast Annual Conference is gathering churches and pastors together to cast vision and understand and share the mission and DNA of the Global Methodist Church.

The conference is in the beginning stages of a strategic planning process, with evangelism and discipleship leading the way. The strategic plan will also focus on building missional partnerships, recruiting and deploying clergy, raising up laity in ministry and developing financial and human resource support. Another key priority–raising up the next generation of leaders.

Conference Superintendent Rev. Steven Taylor spoke to the urgency of creating pathways for young believers to enter ministry. “We believe that there’s a wave of the next generation, Z and Alpha, that is coming and we need to begin not only praying for them, but preparing for them to take over in leadership,” Taylor shared.

The conference actively seeks opportunities for young adults to enter leadership positions within the annual conference, encouraging them to have a voice both at the conference level and within their districts. 

The conference has 23 districts with 192 churches in one of the most populated areas in the United States. With a population of more than 50 million people, Taylor conveyed the need for churches and the gospel.

“The Northeast is a challenging place to be in ministry because it’s the least churched area of our nation and has the largest unchurched population in our nation as well,” Taylor said. “Methodism in America was birthed in the Northeast, and we’re convinced that it will be rekindled in the Northeast as well.”

The Northeast Annual Conference has a goal to have one Global Methodist Church in each county throughout the 12 states and Washington D.C. The conference has already planted 15 churches and currently has at least one church in each state. With several major cities in the conference area, including New York City, Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, the conference is praying about how to train and prepare urban church planters to reach the unchurched.

“We don’t have any shortage of people who need to hear the gospel of Jesus,” Taylor said. “We are working diligently to find ways to not only revitalize our existing congregations, rural, suburban and urban, but also to plant new congregations in places where there are no Orthodox Methodists.”

It's common to find smaller churches in the Northeast. “The culture of the Northeast doesn’t lend itself to large churches like it might in the Bible Belt or other parts of the country,” Taylor said. 

One such smaller church is Mt Zion Orleans Church, with a congregation that meets down a five-mile dirt road in rural West Virginia. The church started with a gathering of about a dozen people and now sees numbers upwards of 40 attendees. Just recently, the church performed baptisms in the Potomac River, demonstrating their passion for preaching the gospel and freedom to minister through the Global Methodist Church. Other small churches in the conference are making an impact in their local communities through Vacation Bible School programming, outreach ministries and revivals.

To maintain connections with churches of all sizes, the conference follows the model set by John Wesley. Pastors in the Northeast Annual Conference attend weekly class meetings with their presiding elders. This rhythm of connection, accountability and mentorship educates presiding elders and enables them to support local churches and pastors. Just as the presiding elders meet with local pastors, pastors are encouraged to use this model to hold class meetings within their local churches.

Above all things, the conference is devoted to prayer.

“We’ve worked from day one to proclaim our identity as Global Methodists and to be grounded in prayer and to be moving in the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit,” Taylor said. 

The Northeast Annual Conference prayer ministry holds regional prayer events and develops prayer points of contact throughout the conference. The conference holds a monthly open prayer Zoom meeting for anyone who wants to participate and a weekly prayer with all pastors, which speaks to the conference’s efforts to not only pray together, but connect with local churches and membership.

“John Wesley gave us some great models when he would rise every morning and pray for an hour or more,” said Taylor. “We, as Methodists, are called to be on our knees, seeking God's will to further the mission that we've been called to. It is the foundation of everything we're doing.”

More than 100 churches in the Northeast Annual Conference area are pursuing the process to become Global Methodist churches and join the movement. Pray for these congregations as they eagerly take the next steps to join our denomination, and continue to pray for the churches in place, that they would meet the needs of their communities and more would come to know and love Jesus.