• By Paul Thomas, Detroit Conference Director of Communications •
The Rev. Dirk Elliott has been named the Director of New Faith Communities and Congregational Development for the Detroit Conference, it was announced today (Wed., March 23) by the Rev. Dr. Jerome (Jerry) DeVine, Director of Connectional Ministries, and the conference’s Personnel Committee.
Elliott will officially begin his duties on July 1.
The Director of New Faith Communities and Congregational Development is a new position and is part of the conference's focus on starting new churches and redeveloping existing congregations.
The responsibilities of the position include creating partnerships within the conference and ethnic and multicultural communities in the area of new faith communities and the development of existing congregations, and partnering with the New Church Development Committee to train clergy and laity in starting new churches and developing existing ones.
In addition, the position will be responsible for resourcing districts and existing local churches for forming new churches and congregational development. Funding for the position was included in the 2011 budget that was approved at the last annual conference session.
“It was extremely important to this work that we recruit someone that had significant experience with equipping a strong team for developing new faith communities and strengthening existing congregations,” DeVine said. “We are realigning our conference structure and resources to make this a priority, and are fortunate to have drawn in Dirk Elliott to lead this team. He has a decade of training, application and collaboration in this field, along with substantive pastoral experience. He is a key leader in the jurisdiction and national church developers’ network. We gain access to all of those innovative, entrepreneurial insights as Dirk joins our conference staff.”
Elliott joins the program staff of the Detroit Conference after serving as the Director of Congregational Development, Redevelopment and Evangelism for the East Ohio Conference since 2001. During those 10 years, he established the New Church Start Academy that trained pastors in church planting ministries. He also oversaw the starting of new churches in East Ohio and developed a process for identifying and recruiting church planters. Elliott also developed a coaching program, trainings and programs for the redevelopment of congregations, and coordinated the implementation of the conference's Healthy Church Initiative process of church redevelopment.
As part of his portfolio in East Ohio, Elliott also advised and assisted in developing a conference-wide Urban Plan and conference-wide Hispanic Plan. He also developed and implemented the Path 1-sponsored Lay Missionary Planning Network in the Cleveland, Ohio, area to plant new racial ethnic and multicultural faith communities.
Before his position on the East Ohio Conference staff, Elliott spent five years as the senior pastor at Bellpoint UMC in Delaware, Ohio. He also served appointments at North Lewisburg UMC in North Lewisburg, Ohio from 1991-97 and at Thurman and Vega UMCs in southwest Ohio from 1983-91.
Elliott is a member of the General Board of Discipleship's Path 1 team, which is responsible for church planting throughout the denomination, and serves on the advisory board for the Bishop Rueben Job Center for Leadership Development.
He is a Path 1 endorsed mentor coach, an associate certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and is a registered Natural Church Development coach. He also represented the West Ohio Conference as a delegate to the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in 2000 and 2004.
Elliott is an ordained elder and member of the West Ohio Conference. He received his Masters of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in 1990 and earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Rio Grande (Ohio) in 1986.
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