Last evening, 95 churches in the West Ohio Conference received more than $650,000 in grants celebrating innovation in ministry. The Bishop’s Go Awards recognized over 120 new ministries throughout the conference.

Music filled the air. “God is on the move in West Ohio,” said Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, who greeted each award recipient.

“When we care, when we love, when we really relate to each other, when we are confident in Christ Jesus, we can be the hands of God. We can be ambassadors of Jesus Christ. We can be seed planters in the world,” he said.

Daniel Yang, author of Becoming a Future-Ready Church, was the keynote speaker. Yang previously served as the director of the Church Multiplication Institute at Wheaton College, a think tank for evangelism and church planting. He has pastored and helped plant churches in Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth, Toronto, and Chicago.

“The real challenge, and perhaps our greatest responsibility, is to tell the story of mission in a way that is beautiful and life-giving to a generation that sees the world through a lens of anxiousness and division,” Yang said. “If the Christian mission is not a part of healing their own anxieties and the ailments inside the church, then it will not be a mission worth pursuing for Gen Z,” he concluded.

Grants were awarded in six categories: Building Bridges, Community Engagement, Green Church, Emerging Generations, Greenhouse New Church Starts, and Leadership Development.

The Breakout Vision of the Year Award was presented to York Street UMC in Cincinnati for their Intergenerational Bonds Ministry, called Bridging Generations: Storytelling Through Technology, which aims to foster meaningful intergenerational relationships by connecting youth and elderly community members. This award was given by the United Methodist Foundation of West Ohio.

The Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer Award for Justice and Social Impact was awarded to Mosaic Church in Dayton for their ministry called Embrace, which creates a space for developing authentic relationships with foster, adoptive, and kinship care families.

The Christian Family Credit Union District Award, recognizing the district with the highest percentage of churches receiving grants, was awarded to the Western Lakes District. This is the third time Western Lakes has received this honor.

“Because of fear and other social phenomena, sometimes we are frozen, sometimes we are paralyzed,” said Bishop Jung. “But the Holy Spirit is defrosting us. Oh, come, Holy Spirit, defrost us. Free us to love God. Free us to love people. Free us to be the church,” he said.

Special thanks to the Ginghamsburg Praise Team, New Covenant UMC Ghanaian Choir, and Abby Gonzalez, who provided inspiring music for the event.

The event was sponsored by Ohio Health, Christian Family Credit Union, Wespath, the United Methodist Foundation of West Ohio, Discipleship Ministries, Path One, Cokesbury, eChurch, Toledo Ticket, and Cameron Mitchell.

For more information about the 2025 Go Grant recipients, click here.