What is New Steams?

by Alice J Shirley

   What is New Streams?  First-- New Streams of Living Water is not another program!  It is, instead, what the Illinois Great Rivers Conference hopes will become a way of life for people called United Methodists in Illinois and beyond.

   New Streams is at least in part a vision.  It is a vision of God's abundant life flowing into the dry, defeated, anxious, and chaotic culture found in many of our local churches today.  Just as Ezekiel, by the power of God, envisioned and participated in the enlivening of parched, depleted bones, so does New Streams provide a means of experiencing God's Living Water in the desert of our modern religious experience and a promise of hope for seeds of faith which have waited dormant perhaps, for years.  The driest bones will live again! 

   Put in language more familiar to many, New Streams of Living Water is about revival.  It's about openness to new birth, hearts strangely warmed, spiritual renewal and growth, and transformation.  Some will be frightened by the prospect of God meddling in their lives, just as a seed surely shudders when the cooling, life-giving rain awakens it to the possibility that there's more to life than it might have imagined or expected in its dark, thirsty world.  Yet it is that very same source of life that enables the life within the seed to stir and swell and finally break out of the skin that once served to preserve it, but in retrospect actually limited its potential.  No one said revival is easy or painless, but every seed knows that it's what life requires of all living creatures.

   A practical description of New Streams of Living Water comes from the UM Board of Discipleship:  "New Streams is a process for local churches to initiate intentional leadership development and intentional disciple formation. New Streams is a response to the question churches are asking � �We really want to be about forming disciples for Jesus Christ, but how do we do that?

The two 'streams' help churches to:

  Develop leaders who practice the means of grace in their  

      own lives and teach others to do the same.

  Develop a process by which local churches can design a

      disciple-forming system within their own congregation that is

     contextually relevant to their situation

The IGRC New Streams Team, which has worked in cooperation with the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, has begun developing special New Streams of Living Water resources to help our local churches discern and prepare for the God's Spirit as it flows among us.  They also have a web site that describes practical steps congregations can take and links us with ministry resources that complement the New Streams initiative. 

Overview of Steps You Can Take -

1. Become familiar with the two New Streams resources now available.  A DVD, Opening Ourselves to Grace: Basic 

    Christian Practices, includes a six-week Bible study, leader�s guide, and other material, has been provided free of charge

    to each church in the IGRC (your pastor or lay member should have this in his/her possession). In addition, all lay and clergy

    members (in attendance at the workshops) received a copy of New Streams of Living Water: Charting the Course of

   Christian Discipleship, a workbook on disciple formation processes.  If you didn't receive the workbook or DVD, contact   

    ChristyBlickensderfer at the Office of Connectional Ministries, 217-529-2473. 

2.  Plan on attending an upcoming training event.  Click here to see the newest training events schedule.

3.  Use the resources provided (more can be ordered from Discipleship Resources after September 1) any way you are able.  It

     would be ideal to gather a group of leaders (not necessarily officers) in your congregation to do the studies together, but you  

     can use it for preaching, devotionals at church meetings, youth retreats, or Sunday School classes.  Just use it!

4.  Check out the IGRC New Streams web site for suggestions on how you might prepare your congregation for New Streams

     and for other resources that prepare God's people for renewal.

5.  Order a DVD copy of Tom Albin's plenary presentation and the two New Streams workshops at the last session of annual

     conference by contacting Michele Willson, 217-529-3122, mwillson@igrc.org. 

6.  Ask for help!  Contact the district superintendent or any one of the members of the New Streams team (these persons are listed

     in the web site) for assistance.

7.  If your congregation isn't interested, dare to prepare anyone you can find for God's gift of Living Water.  You don't have to be

     a church member or disciple of Christ to benefit from New Streams resources.  And you don't have to be a pastor to lead it.