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BY ERIK ALSGAARD
UMCONNECTION STAFF

It?s 10 a.m. in Urbana. Faithpoint UMC is gathering at Urbana Middle School for the first time. For some in the crowd of more than 200, this will be the fourth time they?ve been with the church in a new facility in its four-and-a-half year history.

A church that can?t hold its lease? A congregation that can?t find a home?

Hardly.

Faithpoint UMC, an Acts 2 congre-gation is a church on the move because it?s growing.

'We had the opportunity to go to the Middle School, and we took it,' said the Rev. Matthew Poole. 'It offers us increased visibility in the community, and it gives us more space for worship and our children?s ministry.'

Begun in Poole?s living room with 12 people, Faithpoint has also been housed at Flint Hill UMC and, until Oct. 1, at the Maryland Sheriff?s Youth Ranch. Every step of the way, the church has grown.

'In this situation, the parachute drop model of church development worked,' said Poole.

The 'parachute drop' model of starting a new church is where the annual conference supports a new congregational start by paying the salary and benefits of the pastor for a period of time and 'dropping' them off in a community, saying, 'Go make disciples,' said the Rev. Rodney Smothers, director of New Congregational Development for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

This model, which the conference is moving away from in favor of churches 'parenting' other churches, worked in Urbana, Poole said, because it is a rural community with few churches capable of parenting nearby, coupled with a new developer scheduling more than 3,500 new homes in the next 10 years.

'This worked here, because it was the only option,' said Poole. 'It would be different, say, in Baltimore, where you have many strong, healthy churches to work with that could parent a new congregation.'

Poole?s vision for this parachute-drop church is to one day, itself, be a parenting church.

'I would like to get to the point where we become a parent church,' he said. 'I envision a location and facility where we can grow to 500, or 1,000, in worship and then start planting other churches.'

Poole told his congregation recently that he?s not interested in building buildings. Instead, he is more than willing to create facilities that create places that make disciples of Jesus Christ.

'We?re never going to build a building here,' he said. 'It is tempting to want to do that, but we are all about making disciples.'

And at Faithpoint, that means being willing to explore adding worship services, even on Saturday night.

'We have the opportunity here to reach out to the culture and make a difference there,' Poole said. 'We have to keep one hand firmly holding on to God?s hand while reaching out to the community. The temptation is to let go of either God?s hand and fully embrace the culture, or to let go of the culture and not reach out to the community. It?s a delicate balancing act.'

And so far at Faithpoint, it?s a balancing act that is paying off. More than a dozen new professions of faith have been recorded at the church this year, and another class of new members is on the horizon. Poole knows it won?t be the last one, either.

'We?re getting acclimated to our new home,' he said. 'This includes a ?Kick-Off? Sunday, Oct. 15, and inviting people to come to church with us for a fresh start.'

To extend the invitation, the church is mailing more than 20,000 postcards to the community, encouraging people to go to church, either at Faithpoint or a church of their choosing.

'We?re experiencing a fresh start by moving to the Middle School,' said Poole. 'We?re inviting our friends and neighbors to a fresh start for our church and in their walk with God.'