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December 5, 2016
 
Friends,
 
Grace and peace to you on this day in Advent.  May the coming of the Christ Child move our spirits to thoughtful reflection on how we will receive him and our hearts to expectant hope. 
 
On this day it is my privilege to announce that our brother in Christ, and colleague in ministry, the Rev. Dr. Bener Baysa Agtarap, conference superintendent for congregational vitality, has been named associate general secretary at Discipleship Ministries in Nashville effective February 1.  Bener will head New Church Starts (Path 1), a unit of the agency. 
 
Bener has served the denomination for more than 30 years as a seasoned church planter, church administrator, project manager and executive officer of the church.  He has a proven and recognized track record for starting new churches, and a passion for sharing what God has taught him along the way. 
 
He became superintendent for congregational vitality in our conference in 2012 helping the conference launch 21 new faith communities in the first three years.  Bener also guided five ethnic faith communities that had been in existence for over 20 years to become chartered churches. 
 
Bener is no stranger to Discipleship Ministries.  Prior to coming to the California-Nevada Conference, he held positions at Discipleship Ministries from 2007-2012 as director of conference and ethnic church stewardship and New Church Starts recruiter. As a new church strategist, he led Path 1’s Lay Missionary Planting Network (LMPN) in collaboration with his colleagues.
 
Bener started his ministry in the Philippines at age 22 as a lay church planter, organizing a local church in five years with trained leaders and sufficient financial capacity to support its mission and ministry. In the following six years as a local pastor he led two congregations in planting five new faith communities that later became chartered local churches. He was associate pastor at Knox Memorial UMC in Manila and administrative pastor of Cicero and Seymour UMC in Seymour, Wisconsin.
 
We release brother Bener to the connectional ministry that we believe God is calling him to.  One good day he came among us bringing all the gifts God had blessed him with and the learnings he had gained from ministry in different settings including his learnings from serving at Path 1.  As he returns to Path 1 we pray that what he has learned from his service in our conference will go with him to bless the ministry of Path 1 as he leads from that place in our connection. 
 
Please join me in lifting up prayers of thanksgiving for the life and ministry of our colleague Bener B. Agtarap.  Let us extend to him and Clarita and their children our deep appreciation for sharing their lives and discipleship with us and pray for God’s blessings to be upon them as they enter this new stage on the journey of life and faith.
 
Peace,
 
 

Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño 

 

Get in touch

Bishop's Office
(916) 374-1510
bishopmc@calnevumc.org
 
CA-NV Annual Conference
1350 Halyard Drive
West Sacramento, CA 95691 (916) 374-1500
www.cnumc.org