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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

At Zion Wesley UMC in Waldorf, they worship a God of glory, of power and of surprises.

Statistically, the church is a small one, but it has the celebrated distinction of being the first in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to be an Acts 2 church for five consecutive years.

Acts 2 churches are the metric conference members adopted in 2005 to increase congregational vitality. An Acts 2 church reflects the faithfulness of the early church, each year increasing the average worship attendance by 2 percent, adding one profession of faith for every 25 people who attend worship and paying 100 percent of apportionments to support connectional mission and ministry.

Since 2005, 434 BWC churches have experienced being an Acts 2 church for at least one year.

In that same time period, Zion Wesley has met these goals for five years, growing from 97 professing members in 2005 to 221 members in 2011. Worship attendance also increased, from 65 in 2005 to 97 last year.

The Rev. Richard Bernard Black, who started at Zion Wesley UMC in July 2011, is a little surprised that his church holds this honor. "But we know in our hearts what God wants us to do," he said. "We pray, we serve, we grow."

Charlie Johnson, the chairwoman of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee, agrees, acknowledging that in the past several years, Zion Wesley has moved from being almost a family chapel to a church that shines with the light of God.

The pair embrace the strong partnership between clergy and lay people and outline seven factors they believe empower their congregation to be an Acts 2 congregation:

• Every church has talented people who sit in the pews and do nothing. Learn what people's skills are and don't allow them to sit on their assets. Don't let the same handful of people do everything. Invite others to put their gifts to work for God. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
• Empower the laity and teach them to be accountable. Become a teaching church. Figure out the people who are influential and then get them personally invested in ministry. Training is essential. So is accountability.
• Acknowledge good leadership. Empower people, and then put them out in front of the congregation and let them lead.
• Provide options for worship, but whatever you do, do it with excellence.
• Keep yourself and other leaders prayed up.
• Create and foster strong children's ministries. Pair adults with young people – let them be mentors. Thirty-five to 50 percent of the people in the church are children. That is not by accident.
• Reach out to community in many different ways. Hold events and put the word out to draw the community into your church. But more importantly, go out into the neighborhood and meet people at their point of need.
• Don't hesitate to share your story of faith. The way of showing people God is through the things we do.

"Everything we do here is really about the Gospel," said Black, who views himself as a liberator. One of his favorite parts of ministry is finding someone who is uncomfortable or has lost their hope and encouraging them to find the wholeness that comes from Christ. "Preach the Gospel in all you do," he advises. "It's contagious."

Johnson agrees. "We allow the spirit to move in this church. That's what our gift is," she said. "When our hearts are open, the spirit can dwell here. This church is on fire. It's alive."