The Urban Church Collective Initiative (UCCI) is hitting the ground running with new opportunities for growth, discipleship, and restoration across Metro Nashville. As the cohort forms deeper relationships and shared purpose, an awakening is emerging—an honest reimagining of what mission, outreach, and church culture can look like in a post-pandemic world.
At the heart of this work is a partnership with the Ministry Leadership Center, which is helping participating clergy and lay leaders discover, imagine, and develop tools that strengthen both the culture and operations of their churches. Through this collaboration, leaders are exploring innovative ministry models that respond directly to the needs of their neighborhoods.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Handy, District Superintendent for Urban Churches, emphasizes the significance of this shift. “We are appointed to our communities, and changing that mentality—breaking the walls of the church to expand into our communities—will change how we calculate metrics for church growth,” he said. “The focus of measuring ministry should shift from membership attendance, baptisms, confirmations, and mission trips. How do we measure behaviors as measured results for discipleship? How do we measure someone’s spiritual performance as a disciple?”
These questions are shaping the cohort’s work as they consider new possibilities for community development and congregational renewal. Through devotionals, contemplative exercises, prophetic conversations, and strategic planning, members are examining both the strengths and the growing edges of contemporary church culture. Alongside these reflections, conference leadership is naming this moment as one of hope and transformation.
Rev. Jerry Wallace, Cumberland River District Superintendent, shared, “The launch of the Urban Church Collective marks an exciting chapter in our Conference’s ongoing work of renewal. As we journey forward, we do so with conviction that the Holy Spirit is already moving in our Conference, stirring new hope, deepening relationships, and awakening possibilities for discipleship and transformation.”
Their reflections echo a broader question facing United Methodists everywhere: What does the church look like in the wake of General Conference 2024? For many, this moment represents a turning point—a chance for The United Methodist Church to lead boldly as a denomination committed to dismantling racism and discrimination while building new pathways toward equity and inclusion. The UCCI is leaning into that opportunity with courage and imagination.
Designed as an experimental cohort, the Urban Church Collective Initiative seeks to create replicable ministry frameworks not only for urban congregations within the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, but potentially for churches well beyond its boundaries.
Over the next two months, cohort members will participate in a Community Discovery Package created by the Ministry Leadership Center. This phase invites pastors and lay leaders to actively engage with people in their surrounding neighborhoods—listening, observing, and mapping the needs of the community. Through this process, teams hope to identify concrete opportunities to revitalize ministries and cultivate a culture shift grounded in a Christ-centered awareness.
The cohort will reconvene in February to share insights, assess the results of their discovery work, and begin developing customized church culture initiatives tailored to the specific context of each participating congregation.
What emerges from this season of listening and learning may well become a model for how urban churches across the connection can thrive: rooted in community, shaped by discipleship, and led by a Spirit-driven openness to transformation.
Information and photos submitted by Rev. Shannon White
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