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BY BARBARA COWARD
UMCONNECTION CORRESPONDENT

At a time when the nation is experiencing a decline in mainline church membership, new and creative methods of making disciples are being explored.

One strategy involves a 'campus-style,' or multi-site model of ministry, one of which is taking shape in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

In this case, it all started with the book, 'A Mainline Turnaround,' by Lyle Schaller.

The Rev. Ianther Mills, superintendent for the Washington East District, found inspiration in the title, which discusses how congregations can reinvent themselves and redesign their ministries to respond to the needs of the times.

'The bishop likes us to see opportunities, and has us doing a lot of reading,' said Mills. 'I read this book about turnaround strategies for churches with declining membership.'

The pages of inspiration were transformed to action when Mills and the leaders of three churches in St. Mary?s County talked as a group about a multi-site ministry program.

'St. Paul?s UMC has 350 people in worship and a strong discipleship focus,' said Mills. 'The two other churches, First Friendship UMC and St. George Island UMC, located 20 minutes from St. Paul?s, each have fewer than 50 worshipers.'

'We looked at St. Paul?s UMC to leverage their experience with discipleship making and share it with the other churches,' she added.

The timing was right to try the multi-site ministry model.

'The opportunity came about because the two small churches needed a new pastor,' said Mills. 'After listening to them and experiencing what they were going through, there was an opportunity for the ministry.'

Here?s how it works.

During the two-year test period, which began in March, each church has its own church council, board of trustees, budget and ministries. At the same time, each church shares some ministries and worship experiences. Parishioners may attend worship, Bible studies and activities at any of the churches.

'You can move around from church to church and it is pretty much the same worship service,' said Mills.

'With campus-style ministry, the goal is to become a single organizational unit with separate sites,' added the Rev. Keith Schukraft, associate pastor of St. Paul?s UMC. 'It?s not that each church loses its identity, but has a shared ministry.'

'We are using multi-site ministry as a way of strengthening the small membership church,' said Mills. 'St. Paul?s UMC has a reputation in discipleship making. Some of those skills we want the others to pick up. But we also want to share in the other direction.'

'We want to look at what is the niche for each church, what is the specialty each church will bring to the relationship,' she added.

'We really see this as taking the strengths of all three churches,' said Schukraft. 'Each church has something to contribute in reaching out to the community.'

The campus-style ministry is intended to have several advantages, which include bringing together the best aspects of the larger church and smaller church, increasing the options of location and worship styles, increasing the total number of seats available during optimal seeker times, reaching out to friends and family who would not go a great distance to church, creating a climate of diversity, creativity and innovation in ministry, and mobilizing disciples through a variety of ministry opportunities.

'My hope is that this experience will really be a model for multi-site ministry in this conference,' said Mills. 'These three churches are the first to try it.'

Although it has only been a matter of weeks since the experiment started, the innovative ministry has already shown signs of success.

'We are already seeing fruit being born by a slight increase in attendance at the two small churches, and we are already sharing some ministries such as discipleship studies,' said Schukraft.