Tags: Contemporary Worship, Discipleship, Hospitality, Large, Leadership, South Carolina
This is part of a series of interviews with pastors of churches whose attendance has grown 20% or more in 5 years. We hope this series will be a resource of ideas to help increase worship attendance at your church. Casting Vision: Matt 28:16-20 / Luke 15 / healthy, living things grow Chapin UMC [...]
Beginning September 6, Pray40 will once again invite The United Methodist Church to pray for students on our nation’s campuses and universities as they head back to class. Coordinated by College Union (www.CollegeUnion.org), the purpose of Pray40 is two-fold: to call the Church to pray for college students, and to help college students to learn [...]
Tags: Accesible, Alternative, Large, Mississippi, Relationships
The Orchard: A United Methodist Congregation was launched in December of 1998 as a parachute drop of the Mississippi Annual Conference. In the last 12 years it has grown to nearly 2,000 in weekend worship attendance now worshipping in four sites throughout the region. The vision of The Orchard is to be devoted to the cultivation of fruit for Christ’s Kingdom (John 15:16) by helping people grow deep in the love of Jesus and branch out to others with that love. The heart of living out this distinct call in its region can be best expressed by The Orchard’s attention to 5 specific strategies.
An Alternative Expression of the Gospel: The Orchard often gets labeled as “contemporary” because we sing music that is called by the same name. However, we describe what God has called us to as “an alternative expression of the Gospel.” What we mean by that is that in whatever way the Gospel is being expressed in the community in which we exist—we want to express it in an alternative way. This also means that as other churches begin to speak in the same way we are, we learn new cultural languages so that we become alternative again. These alternative expressions certainly include music types, but also expectations about dress, service times, opportunities and outreach partners in the community. We want to be doing what no one would expect the church to do when it comes to advancing the Kingdom of Christ. The key is, however, an alternative expression of The Gospel. We are not working to advance our Kingdom—but Christ’s. That is the direction all our efforts are focused in.
As the youngest person from the North Texas Conference to be elected leader of the lay delegation, Ricky Harrison is part of a new generation of delegates to the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. A 19-year-old sophomore at McMurray College, Ricky’s election made history at the 2011 North Texas Conference. He was elected on the first ballot.
Ricky Harrison has been active at First UMC Richardson and was previous chair of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry. He is the son of Charles Harrison, a trustee of The Foundation for Evangelism, and Executive Director of Youth Worker Movement. In an interview, Ricky told us about himself, his goals, and his future as a lay delegate.
Ricky Harrison
My name is Ricky Harrison and this past June I was elected by the North Texas Annual Conference to co-lead the North Texas General Conference Delegation. As a nineteen year old college sophomore studying at McMurry University I am excited about this opportunity to engage in meaningful leadership with the North Texas Delegation. I have been involved extensively in Church leadership as a young person for the past six years. I’ve served at many levels of church leadership including at my local church, District, Conference, Jurisdiction, and in the Global Church where I was elected to serve as a voting delegate to the Global Young People’s Convocation in Berlin, Germany last summer.
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