A UMNS Commentary by Bishops F. Herbert Skeete and Ben Oliphint: Developing leaders through education

The United Methodist Church is faced with an unprecedented opportunity to help develop principled leaders for the church and the world.

Of all the world's Christian denominations, The United Methodist Church alone has the unique resources and depth of knowledge needed to help guide an emerging and powerful growth in Christian congregations in a way that can shape the future of communities, regions and nations across the globe for decades to come.

The church is poised to do this through a bold new initiative called the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development. Through the fund and our unique connectional system, we will both develop leaders and dramatically strengthen the role of 775 Methodist-affiliated secondary schools, colleges, universities and theological schools in 69 countries as a force for global stability and progress.

For the first time, the denomination will create an integrated strategy for leveraging its vast educational resources to promote global progress and stability. The initial steps are a drive to raise $1.5 million in 2007 and put structures in place in Africa and Latin America for the fund.

Structures for the other three regions-Asia, Europe and the United States-will follow. The three-pronged partnership approach calls for the fund to underwrite the costs of technical assistance to improve and strengthen schools, provide on-site mentoring for professional development and scholarship support for leadership development.

This is the right time. Christian congregations are growing rapidly in countries around the world, and churches are welcoming more than 1.4 billion members. Across the globe, Methodist congregations are also dramatically expanding, with more than 13 million members worldwide.

These thriving Methodist congregations will foster communities guided by tolerance, a concern for others and a profound commitment to building local, valued-based societies and institutions. They will create a powerful contrast to the conflicts filling much of the world, with political and social struggles defined by cultural and religious intolerance and violence.

If we can find a way to help guide these growing Methodist congregations-these new centers of faith-we also can help guide the wider social communities in which they are located. We can literally impact the future of our globe.

A powerful resource
Through the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development, we have the opportunity to foster a powerful sense of global "connectedness" that could allow millions of Methodists worldwide to share their knowledge, energy and faith. In turn, they can become the leaders of congregations, communities, businesses and eventually nations.

These new congregations do not want large financial handouts. They see themselves as members of a global Methodist family and are firmly focused on being equal partners, contributing in whatever way they can to strengthen the church's impact in the world. The fund will help these emerging Christian centers flourish with capable leaders, while expanding their regional education capacities.

The United Methodist Church's educational institutions are a powerful resource.

For more than 200 years, the church has played a key role in developing educational institutions around the world and spreading the Gospel through education. We brought new disciples to Jesus Christ by founding centers of learning that transformed communities and regions. The American educational landscape would look much different today without the hundreds of schools founded by Methodists. In Africa, United Methodist-founded Africa University has become one of the most dynamic educational institutions on the continent, graduating more than 2,000 principled leaders in the last 10 years alone.

These centers of learning form a network that can share information with an impact that will be without parallel, especially if leveraged to develop leaders who are guided by Christian faith and principles.

Such leaders would bring a unique perspective to any organization they help to direct, whether church-connected or secular. They would do so because Methodist-affiliated educational institutions have earned a reputation not only for high academic quality but also for the values they encourage. Such values are anchored in service to others, a commitment to justice supporting equality, and the power of reconciliation to overcome differences. In today's conflict-burdened world, the impact of such leaders will be critical to any effort to build a better future.

Imagine, for just a moment, the impact of new leaders in countries around the world who truly understand the famous dictum of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism:

Do all the good you can;
In all the ways you can;
In all the places you can;
At all the times you can;
By all the means you can;
To all the people you can;
As long as ever you can.

In today's world, we desperately need such leaders.

Learning and holiness combine
Wesley believed a child is born biased toward evil. "The bias of nature is set the wrong way: Education is designed to set it right," he said. "This by the grace of God, is to turn the bias from self-will, pride, anger, revenge, and the love of the world, to resignation, lowliness, meekness, and the love of God." And as his brother Charles Wesley's hymn so clearly defines it: "Unite the pair so oft disjoined, Knowledge and vital piety; Learning and holiness combine …"

This is what makes a Methodist education and Methodist-affiliated schools so distinctive and different. It is the right time and right opportunity to improve and strengthen the Methodist educational infrastructure, reshaping and developing an appropriate leadership development program by uniting with a common purpose and responsibility, sharing expertise and combining resources.

If we do that, every Methodist-related educational institution will serve as a vital instrument supported by the connectional system that the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development will fashion. By linking the enormous reservoir of knowledge available through Methodist-affiliated schools, colleges, universities and theological schools, we can create and fortify educational programs across the globe to train clergy, lay and community leaders whose wisdom and understanding can be transformational.

Through the fund, we will define an unprecedented model-local impact with regional direction, linked by a worldwide, interconnection of knowledge and expertise-that may well set the stage for a new paradigm of global connectedness with the global United Methodist Church as the facilitator.

Wanted: visionaries and partners
What is particularly exciting is that the 2004 General Conference established the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development, and it is now designated as a World Service Special Gift.

That means each of us, as Methodists and Christians, are free to make our own decision about this initiative. And that is as it should be. When God presents an opportunity, it is up to us to recognize its importance. It is up to us, individually, to take the action necessary to choose our response and, in doing so, demonstrate our commitment to a vision that will shape the future of the worldwide Methodist Church.

We can help develop the next generation of Methodist leaders around the globe, fashioning a better future for the church and the world. The possibilities are astounding. The opportunity and the knowledge are there. The support of visionaries like you is all that is missing.

Partnerships are about a shared sense of commitment to reach a goal. There are congregations and institutions and communities willing to partner with us in developing principled Christian leaders. All it takes to make that happen are partners who are willing to commit to this cause and provide the funding necessary to begin the process.

It is a rare opportunity. We invite you to join us in shaping the future of the global Methodist church and the leaders who will help guide its destiny.

*Both retired bishops, Skeete and Oliphint both served tenures as president of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Skeete served from 1984-1988, and Oliphint from 1988-1992. The above commentary was reprinted from Colleague, the newsletter of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.