A letter from the bishop: February 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Church buildings, like the first temple built in 957 B.C. by Solomon, are built to glorify God, aid in people's worship of God and serve the spiritual and community needs of the culture.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference has churches built three centuries ago and in the last 10 years. Our buildings reflect the times and the period in which they were built. We find they both aid and hinder present day worship and they stretch and consume our resources.

Late last year, the Board of Trustees, in partnership with the Cabinet, developed a new ministry called The Facility Sustainability Ministry (FSM), which is aimed at providing churches with a way to view how well their facilities support their ministry within the community.

The ministry has a dual approach to new church growth, renewal and revitalization. The primary approach of the Facility Sustainability Ministry is to spur congregational growth through healthy small group development. The process embodies ministry first with an eye on local church facilities and their capacity to support ministry growth.

Once launched, the Facility Sustainability Ministry team will meet with local church leadership to develop a ministry profile designed to reveal existing small group strengths and growth opportunity. A facility profile will be developed from onsite observations and from existing building information systems to determine ministry capacity as well as risk factors associated with building structure and site conditions.

Initially, we have hired a team of professionals for performing the facility profiles. It is our goal that the professionals will eventually be paired up with volunteers from our conference churches to enable broad changes to occur.

When thinking about this new ministry, the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37 comes to mind:

"Then he said to me: 'Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel.' They say, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off." Therefore prophesy and say to them: "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel."

The Facility Sustainability Ministry is important work because we are not just resurrecting and renewing buildings that were built for another generation, but through them we are resurrecting people's spirits for stronger Kingdom building. We are re-imagining and opening doors for new possibilities for new disciples to know Christ. I invite you to be in conversation with your regional Guide if your church is interested in being assessed for this new ministry. Together, we can work to shape and re-imagine our buildings for a new generation of disciples and very important ministry in Christ's Kingdom.

Keep the faith!