The Seven Pathways

Our Council of Bishops has identified SEVEN PATHWAYS that we will focus on as we center on making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world:

1. Developing new congregations in churches that are more than 10 years old it takes 72 members to win one disciple. In churches that are between 5 to 10 years old it takes 17 members to win one disciple. In churches that are less than 3 years old it takes 2 members to win 1 disciple for Jesus. That alone should show us what powerful tools of evangelism new church launches are. Further, it is important to remember that we now have 20% of our churches where 80% of the American population lives. Revelation 1-3

2.  Teaching the Wesleyan model of forming disciples of Jesus Christ. I am so pleased that our 2005 statistics show that we have 3,735 more accountability groups here in the North Carolina Conference than we had last year. We are moving in the right direction!
Acts 1:8; Acts 16:9 -10

3.  Strengthening clergy and lay leadership . This is at the heart of our vision here this conference and I will speak more about this pathway later in this address.
Philippians 3:13-14; 2nd Timothy 2:14

4.  Reaching and transforming the lives of the new generations of children . Did you know that there are 75 million children and youth in the Millennial generation? That's a larger generation than the Baby Boomer generation! It's the largest generation we've ever had in America . And yet, the 2005 statistics of our North Carolina Conference show that we had 3,144 fewer children and youth in our Sunday school classes every Sunday than we did in 2004! We experienced a 342 loss in average weekly attendance at our UMYF meetings! The number of children and youth in society has been rising sharply but the number we are reaching is significantly declining.
Matthew 28: 19-20


5.  Eliminating poverty in community with the poor. That means we eliminate poverty not with a handout but a hand up.
Matthew 19:14; Acts 2:39; Proverbs 22:6

6.  Expanding racial / ethnic ministries. Racial / ethnic communities, and especially the growing Hispanic/Latino areas in North Carolina, clearly are fields where God calls on us to "Go and Make Disciples."
Deuteronomy 15:7; Luke 10

7.  Transforming existing congregations . Once again, this at the heart of our vision here in this conference and I will speak more about this pathway later in this address.
Acts 10: 28

Taken from the Bishop Al Gwinn's "2006 State of the Church Address" at 2006 Annual Conference, including a later modification from the Council of Bishops in the Pathways.