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During the 10 years from 2002 through 2012, average worship attendance in Baltimore-Washington Conference churches declined almost 18 percent.  Professions of faith – representing new believers – were down more than 25 percent, and the number of baptisms declined 37 percent.  During that same period the conference started just one new faith community – The Vine, an extension of Bel Air UMC – that has not survived into 2014.

All this has occurred during a time when 80 percent of people within the areas served by Baltimore-Washington Conference churches do not attend worship on any given weekend.  Clearly, the potential for reaching new people and leading them into a relationship with Christ is great.  But, equally clearly, that potential is not being realized adequately in BWC  churches.

In response to this crisis, the Baltimore-Washington Conference created Vibrant Communities to help create new places for new people and revitalize existing congregations in order to reach new people for Christ.

 Studies show that the best way to reach new people is to create new faith communities.  Over the past 12 months, Vibrant Communities has helped the Baltimore-Washington Conference create eight new faith communities.  Some have already launched and are reaching upwards of 100 people each week in worship.  Others have been building and training launch teams that will begin ministries in 2014.  All have received training, coaching and funding through Vibrant Communities.

Beginning this month, and continuing in the months ahead, you will read about these new faith communities.  They represent several different forms of ministry.  We will explore what has worked well, and what challenges have been greatest in their efforts to reach new people.  We will examine how planting new churches helps existing churches in the same area, what makes for a successful new church-start pastor and what it costs to launch new faith communities.

What we hope will be most apparent throughout this series of articles is evidence that God is at work doing new things to reach new people in and through the churches of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.