The Local Church Ministries (LCM) board of directors voted at its spring meeting March 21 to allocate $385,000 for new and renewing congregations in the United Church of Christ.

The funds are administered by LCM's Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team (CVD), which provides training and support services for new church planters and leaders of renewing churches in the UCC.

During the meeting, CVD team leader the Rev. David Schoen challenged board members to "reclaim church multiplication as part of our denominational DNA."

"Historically, our most successful church starts have been planted by an established congregation," he said. "If you know someone in your community who's a potential church planter, tell us!"

Schoen reported on the upcoming "Birthing Churches" conference May 29-31 at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas. The event is "designed to train and network pastors and lay leaders in the process of birthing new congregations out of your existing church," he said. "Facilitated by successful parenting church leaders, this conference will inspire and equip you to begin this journey."

The conference will be followed by an intensive course for new church developers and pastors of renewing churches Aug. 4-7 in Atlanta. Registration for these events is at <growtheucc.org>.

Also at the board meeting:

• Scott Ressman, the UCC's music minister, introduced songs from the new inclusive-language praise song book titled "SING! Prayer and Praise." Published by Pilgrim Press, the resource will be launched at General Synod in July.
• Pilgrim Press and UCC Resources have successfully launched a unified e-commerce site for local churches at <ucc.org/buy-it>. For the first time, the site provides one-stop shopping for all United Church of Christ products, including Stillspeaking resources, and allows customers to request a live chat with resource specialists during business hours.
• The UCC's first "Web University" will provide basic and advanced training for local churches Aug. 28-30 in Chapel Hill, N.C. With workshops on low-cost solutions for website design and hosting, strategies for effective e-newsletters and training in myUCC and other social networking sites, the conference is the first step in a program to provide mentoring services for congregations that aspire to use websites and social networking as effective tools for evangelism, church growth and ministry.

Registration for the event will be available April 1 at <ucc.org/vitality>.