John Louk

Our church’s mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Our Annual Conference, the connection of United Methodist congregations in Iowa, has set the goal of every church developing a process for intentionally forming disciples of Jesus by 2020. At Salem we began this process with our Healthy Church Initiative consultation back in September 2013. We were given a prescription to develop a discipleship pathway for all ages. Therefore in 2014 we created and implemented a path for people to follow in order to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, to become like Jesus. As an aside,  John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist movement, defined a disciple as having a heart habitually filled with love of God and neighbor, and having the mind of Christ and walking as Jesus walked. At Salem we imagined our discipleship pathway as a meal, offering just a bite, a more filling portion, the entrée, and dessert. Each part of the meal has it’s place. So we cr