WCOH Awarded Discipleship Ministry Grant
Discipleship Ministries (The General Board of Discipleship) announced the recipients of its Discipleship Ministries Racial Ethnic Local Church Concerns grants (RELCC).
The RELCC grants provide funding of up to $10,000 to strengthen the ethnic local church through leadership training, small groups, worship, stewardship, and spiritual formation as they engage in developing disciple making systems inside the church walls, as well as in the local community. Priority was given to new programs and ministries that move churches to places where disciples are formed, grow, and make new disciples of Jesus Christ who will transform the world.
Naomi Annandale, director of Research and Strategic Evaluation for Discipleship Ministries, chaired the board’s selection committee. She said, “The board was grateful to be able to award these grants. We received many exciting proposals and choosing the recipients from among them was difficult. We are eager to see what these grant recipients are able to do to help their churches reach out to the communities around them.”
“These grants are meant to be seed money to help something get off the ground,” said Annandale, “not to finance something that is already an on-going ministry. Every year we look for new and exciting programs our churches want to do to reach their communities for Christ.”
Wesley Church of Hope, Columbus, Ohio (West Ohio Annual Conference)
Racial-ethnic group: African American. $5,000.
South Side Hope: Neighborhood improvement program meant to strengthen commitment to transitional neighborhood, help people buy homes in neighborhood, and connect church to community through discipleship development.
“We purposely look for projects that take a fresh approach to discipleship,” Annandale said. “We want to see church members reach out to a hurting world and embrace those who need Jesus. I believe all of us look forward to see how these churches use the grants to do that. We see these grants as a way for Discipleship Ministries to partner with churches as they create new avenues of discipleship.”
The mission of Discipleship Ministries is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, Discipleship Ministries is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn.
For more information, visit www.UMCdiscipleship.org, the Press Center at www.UMCdiscipleship.org/about/press-center or call the Communications Office at (877) 899-2780, Ext. 1726.
