Expanding the Table: Continuing the Mission
Yolanda Marquez-Lucar is not your ordinary minister. She is a new church planter, who has planted seven Disciples churches. Marquez-Lucar attended one of the first Disciples New Church Ministry training classes more than two decades ago and returned to training in 2010 to plant an eighth church, Primera Iglesia Cristiana, in Fresno, Calif. “The Northern California-Nevada Region has had a dream of planting a new Hispanic Disciples church in Fresno for close to five years,” said Ben Bohren, regional minister. “Yolanda is an answer to our prayers, so much so that she is now not only planting that new church, but also serving as regional minister for Hispanic Ministries. Hallelujah.”
Marquez-Lucar is working with Natalie Chamberlain, pastor of United Christian Church, to plant and nest Primera in United. “We envision a shared ministry that reaches out to our community with God’s love, no matter what language is spoken,” said Chamberlain. “We share space, we share members and we share a common zeal for loving our neighbors,” she said.
New church planters across the United States and Canada are finding unique ways to partner with other Disciples ministries and regions to expand the table and continue the mission. Since 2001, New Church Ministry has helped Disciples plant 692 new Disciples churches in North America, reaching more than 42,000 new Disciples.
These are exciting times for the Disciples new church movement as the commitment grows to partner in new ways to expand Disciples witness. New Church Ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) invites you to join our efforts by supporting the Pentecost Special Offering. This offering, divided evenly between your region and New Church Ministry, funds recruitment, training and coaching of new church ministers, like Yolanda Marquez-Lucar. With your prayers and financial support, together we will continue the Disciples mission of sharing the message of Jesus Christ from our doorsteps to the ends of the Earth.
