{"id":1745,"date":"2008-04-21T20:11:57","date_gmt":"2008-04-21T20:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:26:01","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:26:01","slug":"6234","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/04\/21\/6234\/","title":{"rendered":"Midsouth Conference Welcomes Two New Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORMAN, OK (April 21, 2008) \u2013 Welcoming two new churches and a roundtable including pastors of three of the largest congregations in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) were among highlights of the just-concluded annual meeting of the Midsouth Conference.
\n
\nThe two-day conference gathering was centered in Journey.tv, a Covenant church located in Norman. Activities began Friday with a meeting of the Midsouth Ministerium, where the roundtable discussion took place. To learn more about that discussion, see a separate story at Roundtable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"WorshipA combined worship team led Friday evening worship, representing three Covenant churches \u2013 Life Church.tv, Westmoore Community, and Journey.tv. The accompanying photo shows four pastors sharing the stories of their congregations during the evening worship, including (from left) Ed Lee, pastor of Mosaic Covenant; Josef Rasheed, pastor of Crossroads Covenant; Allan Serrano, pastor of Iglesia Evangelica Misionera del Pacto; and Clark Mitchell, pastor of Journey.tv. Garth Bolinder (at right), superintendent of the Midsouth Conference, served as moderator.<\/p>\n

Delegates to Saturday\u2019s business session welcomed the two new churches as conference members \u2013 both will be officially welcomed into the ECC during the 123rd Annual Meeting in Green Lake, Wisconsin. They are Mosaic Community Covenant Church<\/a> in Missouri City, Texas, an intentionally multicultural congregation pastored by Ed Lee, and Crossroads Covenant Church<\/a> in DeSoto, Texas, pastored by Josef Rasheed.<\/p>\n

Prayers were offered for two churches that were officially dropped from the conference roster \u2013 Brazos Covenant Church in College Station, Texas, which was started in the late 1990s, and One Covenant Church (also known as Cornerstone) in Midwest City, Oklahoma, which was planted in 1998-1999.<\/p>\n

Average attendance at weekend worship services throughout the conference has shown marked growth during the past seven years the conference has been officially operating, going from 3,000 individuals to more than 25,000 individuals, reported Bolinder, who reflected on this year\u2019s conference theme \u201cWhile It Is Day \u2026\u201d in presenting his annual conference report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learn, both from the Bible and life\u2019s experiences, that there are times and seasons for good work to be done,\u201d Bolinder notes, using as his text the John 9:4 passage. \u201cThis is the \u2018day\u2019 of which Jesus was speaking. There are also times and seasons when it is much harder for work to be done. This is the \u2018night.\u2019 As we look back on 2007 and ahead to 2008, it seems clear that the Midsouth Conference is still in the bright light of the Lord\u2019s \u2018day\u2019 when we can do the work Jesus sent us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolinder shared numerous examples of the way in which God continues to work through the conference:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0More than 4,000 people made first-time decisions for Christ throughout the conference
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Combined weekend worship attendance grew from 24,254 in 2006 to 28,109 in 2007 \u2013 an increase of 16 percent \u2013 making the Midsouth the second largest conference.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Combined Midsouth giving to the denominational shared mission grew six percent, showing an increase of two percent to the conference shared ministries.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The conference camp, which uses rented facilities in Crockett, Texas, set a record attendance with strong support from new church plants.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Two new church plants were started last year \u2013 Rain Covenant in Dallas, a multiethnic plant reaching out to the growing Latino community, and Access Covenant on the west side of Houston, reaching an emerging multiethnic population. Four to six new plants are on the drawing board for 2008-2009.<\/p>\n

An update on shared ministry at the denominational level was presented by Don Meyer, executive minister of the Department of Communication, with Dan Pietrzyk, director of the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence initiative, sharing highlights of that ministry.<\/p>\n

It was announced that next year\u2019s Midsouth Conference Annual Meeting will take place April 17 and 18 at Crossroads Covenant Church in DeSoto, Texas.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NORMAN, OK (April 21, 2008) \u2013 Welcoming two new churches and a roundtable including pastors of three of the largest congregations in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) were among highlights of the just-concluded annual meeting of the Midsouth Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMidsouth Conference Welcomes Two New Churches - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/04\/21\/6234\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Midsouth Conference Welcomes Two New Churches - 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