Page 32 - 2018 Annual Report | Catalyst Magazine

The vision for the U.S. Ecumenical Churches is to raise a generation of disciples who live the CrossStyle life of bleeding, su ering and even dying to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.Our vision is the purchase 20 church- es in 13 states modeled after the Little Prayer Chapel we have established in Columbia, SC. The Little Prayer Chapel (LPC) is a small church building seating less than a hundred. It serves as a com- munity center, hosting programs and activities, a place to serve the poor, the homeless, latch key children, and senior citizens. The Little Prayer Chap- el is home to 15 separate incorporated churches who meet, worship and serve from the one church building.The churches are the First Ecumen- ical Church, Nehemiah Ecumenical Church, Epiphany Ecumenical Church, Victory Ecumenical Church, Sacred Word Ecumenical Church, Crucible Ecumenical Church, Esther Ecumeni- cal Church, Abundant Life Ecumenical Church, Citylight Ecumenical Church, Cross Style Ecumenical Church, Cross Over Ecumenical Church, Catalyst Ecumenical Church, Evangelical Ecu- menical Church, Citadel of Hope and Community Ecumenical Church.The building serves as a church incuba- tor to disciple, teach and train pastors, lay leaders and church members to ful ll the call of the Great Commission. Each church is started from a prayer group of a leader and 12 members modeled after Jesus and the 12 disci-ples. This group receives training from the Ecumenical University on how to be the church in the 21st century.By having more than one congrega- tion sharing the building it shifts the focus from the notion of ‘our church” to being a part of the whole body of Christ “where the disciples held all things in common.” The plan is for each congregation to grow in service to their neighbors, membership, - nances and maturity where they can leave the little Prayer Chapel and es- tablished themselves in another loca- tion in the city. Each congregation will broadcast their services on radio, tele- vision and on digital media. The week- ly messages will be taken from the annual scripture outline of the com- mon revised lectionary. Each Little Prayer Chapel will produce 15 broad- casts of ministers preaching from the 4 scriptures assigned for that week. All of these broadcast are archived at the Ecumenical University and made available worldwide for pastors, stu- dents, lay members, church o cers, ministers and unbelievers.OurplanistopurchaseaLittlePrayer chapels in a major city in 13 states; West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Okla- homa, Texas and Louisiana. The original Little Prayer Chapel is in Columbia, the capital of our home state of South Car- olina. We will establish a Little Prayer in the other 7 metropolitan areas of the state; Greenville, Aiken, Rock Hill, Flor- ence, Myrtle Beach, Orangeburg and32 CITYLIGHT | CROSS STYLE | ECUMENICAL CHURCH & UNIVERSITYVISION FOR THE ECUMENICAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES