In my morning devotional Bible, I have a laminated bookmark.

It’s more than a bookmark. It puts on paper the mission that helped launch the Global Methodist Church: To make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.

Before the first General Conference gathered delegates for worship and the business of the church, these three distinctives helped define this new movement.

And as someone who serves from a “third chair”—alongside staff and lay leaders, serving littles and their bigs—we’ve been designing methods of faith formation around what those distinctives look like in ministry with children and families.

Our team intentionally built them into our gatherings:

  • Worship passionately: helping littles practice worship with their whole bodies—singing, moving, praying, and celebrating Jesus.
  • Love extravagantly: giving children opportunities to love their neighbors through work and service, both at home and beyond.
  • Witness boldly: teaching littles to know and tell the stories of Jesus with confidence wherever they live, learn, and play—including at local community events.

We’re on a New Team

The Global Methodist Church is grounded in the historic theology and practices of John Wesley, but we are also on a new team.

And like athletes joining a new team, we need aligned tools to help us be effective and fruitful as we live into our full mission of “Making disciples of Jesus Christ and spreading scriptural holiness across the globe.”

Here’s the challenge for those of us doing ministry with children and families in a Global Methodist Church: There is no denominational publishing house. There is no single, central place to find resources. And in many GMC Conferences, there is not yet a collaboration network specifically for children’s and family ministry leaders. And Sunday keeps coming!

That’s where the R3 Gathering comes in. The R3 Gathering is North and South Georgia’s response to the need for connection, aligned resources, encouragement, and shared learning among the people leading and serving littles and their bigs in the Global Methodist Church.

Our first pilot gathering took place in South Georgia last spring. Now we’re bringing R3 Gathering: Fall 2026 to North Georgia!

Together, we’ll explore:

Ruts — Where have we been? What patterns have shaped our ministry? What has the GMC leadership already put in place?
Roots — What grounds us in Scripture, Wesleyan theology, and the distinctives of the Global Methodist Church?|
Rhythms — What healthy, sustainable discipleship patterns can we build for children, families, and the local church we serve?

Most importantly, what does it look, sound, and feel like to raise up Global Methodists in the local church and at home?

The Fall R3 Gathering will assist you to begin designing a discipleship pathway for littles while discovering and sharing resources that align with the GMC and equip families for discipleship at home.

R3 Gathering: Fall 2026
Thursday, November 5, 3:00 p.m. – Friday, November 6, 4:00 p.m.
Camp Collinswood, Buckhead, GA 30625
Register at https://tinyurl.com/fallR3gathering

Your registration includes Thursday dinner, a bunk for Thursday night, Friday breakfast and lunch, and light snacks. $96 per person through September 14; $126 per person beginning September 15

Are you on staff—or are you the layperson responsible for the discipleship and faith formation programming for littles and their bigs—in your local Global Methodist Church?

This is for you! Register at https://tinyurl.com/fallR3gathering

And This Is Just the Beginning

One gathering is wonderful. But the real value comes from what happens after we gather. We’re building toward the 4 Rs of a network:

R1 — Relationships – An intentional foundation of friends and ministry partners on this new team; we’re better together.
R2 — Resources – The fuel that helps us keep growing and serving effectively.
R3 — Residencies – Grounding leaders through intentional development and preparation for the future.
R4 — Reproducing – The fruitfulness that comes when effective leaders build teams, share what they’ve learned, and make a healthy handoff to the next generation.

As heard from the Exponential Conference this year: “Networks are to movements as groups are to churches.”

That’s what we’re building. Not just another conference. Not just another gathering. A network of Global Methodists committed to helping children and families know, love, and follow Jesus.

If you can get to Georgia and you serve on staff or in lay leadership of kidmin/family ministry in a Global Methodist Church, come join us at the Fall 2026 R3 Gathering!

Reach out to Allison Vandenbergh at avandenbergh@firstmethodistalbany.com or to DeDe Reilly at dbullreilly@gmail.com for more information.

Let’s worship passionately.
Let’s love extravagantly.
Let’s witness boldly.
Let’s spread scriptural holiness around the globe.

And let’s figure out together what it means to disciple the next generation as Global Methodists.

“The true value of networking doesn’t come from how many people we can meet, but rather how many people we can introduce to others.” Simon Sinek