Ministry Action Plan

The Ministry Action Plan established for Deep Creek United Methodist Ministries of Hoyes and Paradise includes emphasis on the following areas:

·        Preaching on Discipleship

·        Prayer

·        Christian Unity

·        Forgiveness

·        Providing Opportunities for Personal Spiritual Growth through such areas as Bible Study, worship and prayer.

A group was started of individuals who possessed the following characteristics:

·        Positive attitude.  Does not possess the tendency to exhibit negative and disgruntled attitudes.

·        Desire to learn and not afraid to read new material.

·        Committed to our church by both words and actions.

·        Show leadership ability within the church and/or outside the church.

This group was given the book titled “Power Surge” by Michael Foss, and was asked to read it.  We then met to set a plan of action for our church to undertake.  The vision and mission statements that are typed above were written by this group and presented to the Church Council for approval.  They were unanimously approved and the vision and mission statements are being presented to the congregations at every possible opportunity including, but not limited to, the weekly bulletins, newsletters, read at worship service, etc.

Individuals are being called to witness and training has been offered in both prayer and evangelism through Bible Study.  Both of these studies will be repeated as more people express interest in taking part.  We have also set out to define our target group and set a plan of action to reach out to this specific segment of the population.  We are working to implement the plans made and to evaluate them along the journey.  The three target groups established are families, children, and youth.  We are not ignoring the senior population of our communities, but realize that in order for a church to grow, membership must include families with children.  At the recent Commission Possible event, the church growth strategies were laid out and the necessity of a target group was made very clear.  Ironically, we had defined our target group one month before attending the Commission Possible evangelism event.  This made us feel that we were on target. (no pun intended) 

Much of the following information, plans, and strategies have surfaced through this group continuing to meet monthly and continuing to work toward church growth. 

Reach

We are striving to reach the unchurched families in our area.  We are beginning to offer our after school Christian Adventure program twice monthly instead of once a month in order to attract new participants.  We are also offering a bi-monthly mid-week worship service at the Paradise Chapel to afford more opportunity to join in worship.  We realize that sometimes it is just not possible to attend worship on Sunday morning, so we are attempting to offer an alternative.  We are also reaching out to the students who are attending Garrett College through the Campus Ministry beginning there.  Reaching out to the students and letting them know that we are here to help them in any way we can is an ongoing outreach for DCUMM.  We are also looking for ways to reach the seekers in our community.  We realize that there are some people who are looking for knowledge of the Bible and not necessarily looking to attend worship at this time.  We are striving to discover how to meet their needs as well through offering Bible study at a neutral location such as cottage Bible study groups.   

Receive

With our vision and mission being more clearly defined as reaching others for Christ, we are striving to be a welcoming church at all times, reaching out into the community to welcome everyone into the fellowship of believers. The reputation of a church in a community is very important to attracting people to become part of a congregation. The current reputation of our church is not one that is helping us to grow.  By continuing to reach out to those in need, both spiritually and physically, we are making strides to repairing the reputation and beginning the healing process for the church.  This is one area where we are working diligently to become, in the eyes of the community, the fellowship of believers that we are called to be.  Specifically, we held a prayer service for the military and their families in August.  A lot of care and love was put into the preparation for this service.  This service was well received by the community.  Additionally, we had a few college students from Garrett join us at the Spaghetti Dinner in September and we are planning to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner for those students who are unable to return to their homes during the Thanksgiving break.  These are the types of community outreach projects currently being undertaken by DCUMM.

Equip

Personal spiritual growth is at the core of everything we are striving to accomplish.  A Bible study on the book of Acts is beginning in October.  We have offered studies on Prayer utilizing Maxie Dunham’s book “Workbook of Living Prayer” and on Evangelism utilizing the “Contagious Christianity” series.  Emphasis is also being placed on transforming our congregation into a community of disciples rather than a community of members.  With this change in understanding of our roles as disciples, witness and evangelism are at the forefront of this shift in priorities.  These studies can be repeated as often as the need arises.  Reverend Sam has set as his preaching priorities: understanding discipleship, prayer, Christian unity, church healing and forgiveness, personal spiritual growth through Bible study, worship, and prayer.  Reverend Amy is working at the Garrett College to equip while being in the organization stage of a Christian Club.  She is also working to begin Bible studies as the opportunities arise.  Equipping is not only a formal result of a study.  Equipping is also gaining the knowledge of Jesus and his unconditional love for us.  This is a natural byproduct of the campus ministry that Reverend Amy is undertaking at the Garrett College.  Simply showing the students that we care is helping to open doorways for many other evangelistic opportunities.  

Send

By offering both training and encouragement to our disciples, we are equipping people to step out of their comfort zones and reach out to others that they come into contact with on a daily basis.  In addition to a high emphasis on personal evangelism, we as a church are striving to become disciples and build relationships within our community.  We are offering many diverse opportunities for outreach which include: singing at nursing homes on a monthly basis, our bi-monthly Christian Adventure program for elementary-age children, our bi-monthly Youth program for the young men and women in middle and high school, our monthly Free Community Spaghetti Dinners, our bus trips to Sight and Sound theater, our newsletter, our worship services, our bi-monthly weekday service, etc. All of these opportunities are in addition to the outreach ministry being offered at the Garrett College.  These diverse situations offer us opportunities to reach out and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with those people around us. 

Respectfully submitted,

R. Samuel Wachter
Senior Pastor

Amy L. Chesla
Associate Pastor