Interview with Tom Herrick: The Mission & Ministry of the Great Commission Committee

Editor's Note: We're kicking off a special series over the next several months in the Mid-Atlantic Messenger where we'll be focusing on the mission and ministry of church planting and church health in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. This work is led by the Great Commission Committee (GCC) of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. To launch the series we asked Tom Herrick, Canon for Church Planting for the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic and chair of the GCC, to give us some background on the formation of the Great Commission Committee, its mission and goals as well as introducing us to the members of the GCC team. We will be hearing more from the GCC team over the next few months as they share their testimonies, mission stories, and lessons they've learned in their own ministry as part of the Into the Harvest Series in the Mid-Atlantic Messenger.

Here are the members of the Great Commission Committee:

• The Rev. Dr. Tom Herrick, Chair (Canon for Church Planting)

• The Rev. Rick Wright, Vice Chair (Director, Congregational Care, The Falls Church Anglican, Falls Church, VA)

• The Rev. Joe Acanfora (Rector, Church of the Apostles, Fairfax, VA)

• The Rev. Jay Baylor (Vicar, Church of the Apostes in the City, Baltimore, MD)

• Desiree Barker (Resource Director, The Titus Institute, Centreville, VA)

• The Rev. Alex Leighton (Associate Rector, All Saints' Church, Woodbridge, VA)

• The Rev. Nathan Dickerson (Associate Rector, Restoration Anglican Church, Arlington, VA)

• The Rev. Pamela Meeks (Associate Rector, Church of the Epiphany Anglican, Herndon, VA)

• The Rev. Clancy Nixon (Rector, Church of the Holy Spirit, Leesburgh, VA)

• The Rev. Tim Howe, Executive Assistant (Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic)

What are the origins of the Great Commission Committee—how did it get started and what is its mission?

A group began to meet monthly in the early nineties to study together, learn from others about church planting, and begin to plant churches. This group started by planting a church every few years and progressed to planting three to four churches each year. During those early years, we became convinced that God was asking us to make a deep commitment to this work. We came to believe that God was using church planting to renew the culture of the church and make it more evangelistic and missional in nature. As we deepened our commitment to this work, God blessed it and expanded it. Over the past 25 years, God has sent some of our group to other places and brought new members join the work. 

The GCC has four canonical responsibilities:

1. Plant new churches;

2. Strengthen and revitalize existing missions and congregations;

3. Raise up and equip lay leaders; and

4. Provide oversight and stewardship of the funds made available to the GCC through the diocesan budget to accomplish their mission.  

What gifts and experience do the members of the GCC bring to the table?

The team members of the GCC are a diverse group composed of clergy and lay members of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. Some are planters, some are rectors or associate rectors of established congregations. All are leaders. Here are some of the gifts that are present in this talented and committed group:

• Evangelism: Jay 

• Pastoral Care: Rick

• Spiritual Formation: Desiree

• Cross Cultural Evangelism & Missions: Pamela, Joe, Jay

• Finance and Organization: Tim

• Strategic Planning: Nathan

• ReMissioning: Joe

• Healing & Prayer: Alex

• Vision: Tom

What are the priorities of the GCC?

The GCC begins every new year with a day-long retreat with Bishop John Guernsey to pray, evaluate our work in the year just concluded, and dream together about what God is asking of us in the year to come. We set goals and establish priorities for the year to come and design strategies to accomplish those goals. For 2017, we have 3 primary goals:

1. To establish a diocesan-wide leadership pipeline to provide a pathway for new leaders to emerge and receive training and equipping for ministry;

2. To establish a group of Incubator churches who will work together to consistently plant daughter churches throughout the diocese in strategic locations; and

3. Establish a separate fund to provide the capital to plant 50 churches by 2027.

How can we pray for the work of the GCC?

We would love for people to pray for the work of the Great Commission Committee! Here are five areas to support in prayer:

• For the growth and development of all of our new and young church plants and missions;

• God to send us church planters who will plant new churches;

• God to send us donors who will provide the funding we need to plant new churches;

• God to send us new members of the GCC who will help us to expand our work; and

• Existing churches to become Incubators for daughter churches.