CHURCH HEALTH TEAM

SUMMARY OF WORK

1.  Facilitated 35 Refocus/Vitality Seminars across the country.

2.  Hosted 20 Evangelism Workshops, training approximately 700 people in building an evangelistic culture using the “3 Circles” evangelism tool.

3.  Conducted three Transitional Pastor training events that trained 45 people

4.  Newly engaged 73 churches, representing ~4,000 people, with our Church Health resources.

5.  In partnership with Grove City College’s Center for Rural Ministry, worked with Effective Biblical Leadership to pilot a Rural Ministry Cohort.

6. In partnership with Knox Theological Seminary, worked with Effective Biblical Leadership to develop a program for Certification in Commissioned Pastoring.

7. Re-established a working relationship with Alpha USA, a ministry that equips churches to host conversations that explore the basics of the Christian faith in an accessible, discussion-based format.

8. Created the Church Health Tools resource repository on the EPC website, providing churches with a centralized collection of practical church health and revitalization resources; special thanks to Ritchey Cable for his work in making this available. https://epconnect.org/churchhealthtools/

9. Filmed the Transitional Pastor training content to create opportunities for broader equipping of transitional pastors & churches.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The Church Health Team has no recommendations to present to the 46th General Assembly. 

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WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

The Church Health Team continues to build on the foundation of the last several years, coming alongside our 600+ churches to help them become more inwardly strong & outwardly focused. Our sixteen Church Health Coordinators have been serving each of our presbyteries specifically in the areas of Transitional Pastoring, evangelism training, pastor search assistance, and the Refocus vitality process. A deep-dive into the specifics of that work can be found in the attached report.

While continuing this work, our team has also been engaged in a deliberate season of reflection and evaluation as relates to the Kingdom fruitfulness of our efforts. In an effort to clarify the missional markers of healthy EPC churches, we’ve entered into some listening work in our presbyteries and even at this current General Assembly. Out of this listening we’re prayerfully planning to make use of these missional markers to deeply evaluate & refine our Refocus process and related tools.

This is all to say, we continue to learn about how to best accompany our churches and leaders toward bearing a faithful Great Commission witness in their communities!

2025 Annual Report to Lilly Endowments Inc.
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Grant Number 2023 2274

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RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

The Church Health Team has no recommendations to present to the 46th General Assembly. 

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COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Mark Farrell
TE, Presbytery of Florida and the Caribbean

Ben Tzeng
TE, Presbytery of Mid-America

Martha Schartner
RE, Presbytery of the Alleghenies

MEETING DATES

July 9, 2025: Video Conference
August 13, 2025: Video Conference
September 10, 2025: Video Conference
October 1, 2025: Video Conference
November 19, 2025: Video Conference
December 10, 2025: Video Conference
January 14, 2026: Video Conference
February 3-5, 2026: Office of the General Assembly, Orlando, FL
February 11, 2026: Video Conference
March 4, 2026: Video Conference
April 8, 2026: Video Conference
May 13, 2026: Video Conference
June 13, 2026: Greenwood Community Church, Greenwood Village, CO

Respectfully submitted,

Marc de Jeu, National Director of Church Health
June 2026

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