Forming a New National Church

The United Methodist Church of Venezuela is still in the formative stages after 8 years of work. However, we are moving "poco a poco" (little by little) toward our first formal annual conference, the adoption of a Discipline, the election of a Bishop, and recognition by the secular Venezuelan government.

Pictured here are the United Methodist Pastors and Spouses who attended a two-day conference following the August session of seminary. There are 4 or 5 other UM pastors who could not attend.

The purpose of the conference was to begin to finalize the Discipline of the United Methodist Church of Venezuela. After much disscussion, two major issues emerged. The group self-divided into two task forces to deal with these issues and reconvene in October to hammer out the details.

The hope is to have our first formal annual conference in January when Bishop Lindsey Davis is in Venezuela teaching in the seminary. Please pray that we can complete all the tasks necessary to make this happen, if the Lord wills.

More importantly, pray for the over 25 United Methodist churches and missions and their pastors as they reach the lost of Venezuela. Among these pastors and lay leaders are some of the most spiritually mature, faithful servants of Christ one can ever know.

While it has taken a long time to get to this point (and we are not there, yet) it is in God's timing. This autonomous church will be a blessing to the greater United Methodist family.

Wesley Seminary of Venezuela - Future Home

Progress is being made toward the acquisition and development of a campus for the Wesley Seminary of Venezuela. Currently housed at the Assembly of God Bible Institute, the Seminary has outgrown its rented space and after four years desperately needs a space of its own.

Toward that end, the officers of Wesley Seminary have negotiated the purchase of the 32 acres, more or less, shown in this post. The land is located 16km west of the landmark Obelisco Monument in Barquisimeto. It is about 8km from the new Bus Terminal currently under construction. This will be the largest bus terminal in South America. The land is being donated to the Lugar Altissimo United Methodist Church and is now the home of the church and the Orphanage under construction (see the photo with the church and orphanage indicated).

Once the land is formally in the name of the church, The Wesley Association of Venezuela, the parent of the seminary, will begin the legal process to purchase the land and obtain the title in the name of the Association.

We are currently in the process of securing the services of a site engineer and architect in Venezuela to provide us with a boundary survey and a topographical survey. This is necessary to get the land properly deeded and titled to the Wesley Association. It is also necessary for the development of a site plan. The aerial photo in this post showing building footprints is just given for illustrative purposes and in no way represents what the actual master plan may detail. (Thanks to Doug Crosby and FlyingFotos of Roswell for the photos).