Ministry Initiative: Church Planting in Hawai`i
Calvary Church in Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii, a Network-affiliated parish, has caught the vision to plant a new church in its community. January 26–28, 35 members of Calvary attended a church planting workshop led by the Rev. Tom Herrick, Anglican Communion Network’s (ACN) Director for Church Planting, and the Rev. Kathleen Adams, Church Planting Coordinator for the ACN’s Western Convocation.
“Our desire to become a ‘church-planting church’ was birthed at the Network’s Planting Anglican Churches Now conference in November, 2005, the Network’s first national church planting conference that preceded the Hope and a Future Conference,” said the Rev. Joe Carr, Calvary’s rector, who attended that conference with seven members of his congregation. Calvary’s leadership continued its training by sending Carr and senior warden Warren Na`ai to the National New Church Conference in Orlando, Florida in the spring of 2006 to give more definitive shape to their vision.
Last October, Carr joined Herrick and Adams on a team of five that the Network sent to study the church planting methods of the Church of Nigeria. “The Network team saw first-hand the fruitfulness of congregations giving birth to new congregations on a massive scale, and the blessing that it is both for the mother congregations and for the new churches,” said Adams. “We designed the weekend workshops to help Network churches see that this method of church planting is not simply for large, well-resourced parishes, but for every congregation, regardless of its population or the size of its resource-base.”
Calvary’s January workshop presented the idea of birthing a new congregation to its entire congregation, showing them in detail how the vision can be accomplished. The workshop covered such topics as “Preparing to Become a Parent Church” which explores the underlying values that give rise to a church’s ability to plant; “Understanding the Planting Process” which covers the stages of the new church’s development, the parent church’s role in each stage, and the mistakes to avoid; and, “Developing a Gathering Strategy” which focuses on the strategy and timetable for gathering the initial launch team for the new church and the ways the mother church can assist in this process.
Calvary spent the weekend talking about how they could reach young adults and young families in their community, the largest segment of their local population that has not heard the Gospel. They are preparing to begin the new church plant by assembling a team from within their own ranks, then expanding that team by recruiting others outside the church to join them.
According to Senior Warden Warren Na`ai, “As a vestry, we are in the process of defining who we are and who we want to become. Our challenge is moving by faith from where we are now to where God is leading us. The church plant team is just beginning to form through informal gatherings of potential team members and supporters to test the waters, although a few people are raring to go.”
Herrick is very excited about the possibilities that present themselves in Kaneohe, on the island of O`ahu. “What God is doing in Hawaii through Calvary is showing us that ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things. Calvary, an average-sized parish, has a big vision and is not waiting until a more convenient time, until things settle out with The Episcopal Church, or until they grow by 50 more families. They are answering God’s call now,” said Herrick. “And, what we will see in a few years is that God will reward their faith with a great harvest.”
Posted 3/8/07