Members Gather to Focus on Church Planting

Story by Evan Knott

Chesapeake Conference recently hosted two “Seeds” church planting conferences, bringing together pastors, elders, ministry leaders and church members for inspiration, training and reflection on the importance of planting new Seventh-day Adventist congregations in unentered areas.

The Spanish language conference, held at the Annapolis (Md.) Spanish church, highlighted the dynamic growth of Hispanic Ministries within the Chesapeake Conference. The gathering celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first Hispanic church in the territory—Baltimore Spanish church—established in 1984. Although the second Hispanic church was not planted until 2001, the past two decades have seen remarkable expansion, with 40 Hispanic congregations now actively worshipping and serving throughout the conference.

“We thank God for the growth of our Hispanic congregations,” says Orlando Rosales, Chesapeake Conference Hispanic Ministries director. “With His help, we will continue to expand His kingdom and reach more communities.”

The English “Seeds” conference, held at the Ellicott City church, featured a series of presentations by leading Adventist voices in evangelism and church planting, including Pavel Goia, editor of the Ministry magazine, and Tim Madding, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute. Both “Seeds” conferences were held as part of Chesapeake Conference’s “35 x 25” goal of planting 35 new churches by the end of 2025. Since the project’s launch in 2019, 26 churches have been planted so far toward that goal.