As many of you know, I recently traveled in the central Philippines, visiting churches in three
annual conferences (and preaching in two), learning from one of the fastest-expanding corners of United Methodiswhat is causing them to plant so many new churches so rapidly. There are many factors in the growth of the church in various parts of Asia - more than I can enumerate here.
But in terms of practical take-home ideas, the best idea I discovered for American Methodism in the Philippines is this: the pastor's tithes do not go to the local church - in at least one annual conference, they are pooling all of the pastors' tithes in order to support the salaries of mission pastors and to plant more churches.
