Welcome to the Ashland District

Welcome to the Ashland District web site.  We hope you will find something of interest here.  But more important, we pray that you will find a family in one of our many vibrant churches across the Ashland District.

A Word From Your District Superintendent

On Monday, June 16, 2008, while meeting in Roanoke Civic Center, the 2008 Annual Conference meeting of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church approved All Things New.

All Things New is the name for the vision of the Virginia Conference to start 250 new faith communities in 30 years. More than anything else, I believe All Things New is an invitation to change our way of doing church from maintenance to multiplication.

All Things New is about starting new faith communities and about renewing existing churches. Early in our work on the 250 Task Force we recognized that if we are going to start 250 new faith communities everyone – lay and clergy and every church – of all sizes and shapes were going to be invited to move from maintenance to multiplication.

All Things New is:

  1.  A proclamation of faith in the abundance of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
  2.  A reclaiming of our United Methodist heritage as a missionary movement of God’s Holy Spirit.
  3.  A vision for spiritual renewal through an invitation for all churches to be fruitful and to multiply.

So let’s get started … Here is one way regarding renewal of our existing churches:

October 3-4 Evangelism Training at Duncan Memorial UMC. “Authentic Outreach” taught by Stuart Holt was offered this past winter at Blackstone and comes highly recommended. The Ashland District Council on Ministries and the Ashland District Board of Laity will co-sponsor this event. Each church is asked to send two representatives who will be trained to repeat this at your local church. The cost for individual books is $25 per person. Registration will be through the Ashland District Office. 

See you there!

Mark