Church agency leaders continue work on Four Areas of Focus

By United Methodist News Service

In their first meeting since The United Methodist Church's legislative assembly, leaders of the denomination's general agencies continued cementing partnerships and planning their work on Four Areas of Focus.

The agencies' top executives, or general secretaries, met June 24-26 in Washington, D.C., two months after the 2008 General Conference affirmed the Areas of Focus as the emphases of the church.

Neil Alexander

Neil Alexander, chairperson of the General Secretaries Table and president of the United Methodist Publishing House, told UMNS that the agency leaders reiterated "shared strong commitment for investing staff and other resources to support ministries initiated and implemented across The United Methodist Church."

The group is fashioning ways to learn from local churches and annual conferences from every corner of the connection, and it is exploring innovative partnerships that will integrate those learnings and share them broadly, Alexander said.

"The general secretaries understand the Four Areas of Focus express the vision and yearnings of the people of The United Methodist Church. We are eager to continue work in place and also innovate by adopting new methods that will increase effectiveness and make a dramatic difference," Alexander said.

The agency executives met with Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the Council of Bishops, and Bishop John Hopkins, president of the Connectional Table, as they began concentrated work in joint planning and action strategies.

The four areas focus on:
.Combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.
.Creating new places for new people and revitalizing existing congregations.
.Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.
.Engaging in ministry with the poor.

The General Secretaries Table comprises leaders of the General Council on Finance and Administration, Board of Church and Society, Board of Discipleship, Board of Global Ministries, Board of Higher Education and Ministry, Board of Pension and Health Benefits, Commission on Archives and History, Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, Commission on Religion and Race, Commission on the Status and Role of Women, Commission on United Methodist Men, United Methodist Communications and United Methodist Publishing House.

Leaders focus on backbone of denomination: small churches

Chebon Kernell served Pawnee (Okla.) Indian United Methodist Church. Today, 76 percent of the denomination's churches have 200 or less members. A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)--The United Methodist Church must focus on small and rural churches and not simply go where the wealthy are to build new churches, says a small membership church leader.

"Small churches are the backbone of the denomination," said the Rev. Julia Wallace, director of ministries with small membership churches at the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

"It is no accident that we have a church every three to five miles. At that time we wanted to get the church as close to people as we can. Our job now is keep church as close to the people as we can," she said.

Today, 76 percent of the denomination's congregations are small churches, which are defined as those having 200 or fewer members and fewer than 120 in worship.

More than 40 people working with small churches across the country participated in three June 2 telephone-conference conversations to learn about revitalizing small churches and ministries from the Rev. Terence Corkin, a small church expert and top executive of the Uniting Church in Australia. The pastors, district superintendents, directors of connectional ministries, lay ministers and community developers also discussed emerging issues and challenges facing small churches.

"It is important that we have conversations with people who are trying innovative things and are learning leaders," Wallace said. Issues like deployment of pastors, budgetary constraints, the use of lay pastors versus ordained pastors, lay ministers and licensed local pastors are issues that the Australian church overcame to be effective in the towns across the countryside.

"I see the Uniting Church of Australia as being 10 years ahead of the curve from us because it is already dealing with some of the dire issues that we will be facing," she said.

Differences between countries
Corkin, who served for 20 years in rural ministries before he became top executive in the Uniting Church eight years ago, described the similarities and differences between rural churches in the United States and in Australia and the changes small churches are encountering.

"We have significant experience of congregations that are self-supporting with a very modest amount of external relationship with the wider church in ministry personnel," he said. The congregations are "stand alone" and are linked together in various ways for mutual support and resource sharing and grouped into about 30 presbyteries, comparable to districts in The United Methodist Church.

Corkin described the Uniting Church as a union church formed in 1977 with Congregational, Methodists and Presbyterian churches. "It is a church that understands itself as a national church in that it has a sense of place and presence across every part of Australia," he said.

The church's presence is expressed through indigenous ministries, remote area patrol ministries and community services and through the nearly 1,800 congregations and 1,500 ministers in active service. Some of the congregations are linked, with one minister serving more than one locale.

In many rural areas in the United States and in Australia, there is a drift toward reduction of services and diminishing capital, aging people and increasing poverty which impact the ability to sustain congregational life, he said. Rural areas also have itinerant populations of people who come in to farm the lands, work in the mines or other industries and then leave.

"I do think a characteristic of small churches at this present time is their morale is not very high," Corkin said. "They have a memory of being bigger or something else. Some have memory of another time and are conscious of the changed circumstances in which they live."

Measures of viability
One of the biggest issues facing small churches is money. Many lack the resources to pay clergy salary, building maintenance, insurance premiums and other operating costs, noted the teleconference participants. Some churches already know they will not be able to pay the heating bills this winter and will not be able to open their doors.

In The United Methodist Church in the United States, self-sufficiency and financial vitality are sometimes measures of a congregation's viability.

Viability, Corkin said, is not measured by a congregation's capacity to raise enough funds to pay a minister. While church officials may use it as a strategy to discontinue churches, "it is not one that we believe is an adequate indicator of vitality," he said.

There are numerous churches that cannot pay a salary but are well-connected to one another and "are very effective in bearing witness to the hope that is within them and inviting people to respond to the Christ that they know," Corkin said.

The faithfulness of the church should be the measure, he said. The faithfulness is evident in how the church works in partnership with God and participates in the mission of God, he said.

Assets for evangelism
The reality in the United States and in Australia is that churches are different communities even if they are only 20 kilometers or 12 miles from each other. The churches, he said, regardless of where they are located, provide different missional opportunities.

Bishop Kenneth Carder tells the 2008 General Conference that "rural congregations are among our greatest assets for evangelical and missional renewal." A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

"Rural congregations are among our greatest assets for evangelical and missional renewal among the people called Methodist in the 21st century," said Bishop Kenneth Carder during a rural life celebration at the 2008 General Conference.

Corkin agrees. "God has raised people up to call his own in these communities and they are going to be there whether there is a roll of members or if we are prepared to support a building continuing to be there."

"We don't make the church," he said. The church exists because of the saving work of Jesus Christ to confront and call people into new life and those people are called into new life in community.

Wallace spoke of a church of eight people who feed 150 every day. The church's feeding ministry launched a partnership with others and caused all involved to think about ministry in new and different ways. "They have learned to be that community which pulls other faithful people together to be in relationship with the homeless.

"They had to figure it out. I think people today want to figure out how to be church," she said. "People want opportunities for ministry."

Using all gifts
The use of teams for ministry is critical in revitalizing small churches in the future, Wallace said. "We must move away from being dependent on one person, whether that is a clergy pastor or a lay pastor," she said. "We must begin to celebrate being the whole people of God in that place and use all of the gifts we have been given. The days of clergy dependency are forcing us to now rethink of the way we are going to be a church."

Revitalizing existing churches and planting new ones is the focus of Path One, an organized strategy team on congregational development under the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.
Path One seeks to help the church start 650 congregations by 2012. The emphasis on church growth aims to return the denomination to its evangelistic heritage of starting a new congregation every day.

"The time for revitalization is a reality," Wallace said. "We happen to have everything we need."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

Clergy effectiveness study will enhance training, says leader

A UMNS Report
By Vicki Brown*

An analysis of what makes an effective pastor will enhance training provided this summer to United Methodist annual (regional) conferences.

The Rev. Sharon Rubey, director of candidacy and conference relations at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, said the study would provide useful information for those who work with candidates for ministry, assign pastors to churches, and do clergy supervision.

Richard P. DeShon, a psychology professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., used focus groups to conduct the study. "The breadth of tasks performed by local church pastors, coupled with the rapid switching between tasks and roles prevalent in this job is unique," he reported. "It is remarkable how complex this job is."

The next step, according to Rubey, is to develop and distribute a survey about the underlying behaviors associated with effective ministry "to learn more about the amount of time and the value that is given to each behavior."

"Along with that, we hope to survey congregations… to find out the kinds of knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics (that) are desired in pastoral leadership," she added.

"Together, these studies will offer guidelines that can be helpful in matching pastors with congregations."

The study, completed last December, used focus groups of pastors who were identified as "high performing pastors" by boards of ordained ministry and district superintendents. The 20 pastors chosen were diverse in gender, racial/ethnic background and age and represented a variety of ministry settings and different sizes of churches.

Tasks contribute to effectiveness
A set of 13 clusters or groups of tasks that contribute to effective performance emerged from the discussions. Those are: administration, caregiving, rituals and sacraments, facility construction, communication, relationship building, evangelism, fellowship, management, preaching and public worship, self-development, United Methodist connectional service, and other development, such as performing activities to teach, train or mentor individuals and groups to improve their knowledge and skills.

"Every pastor is not going to be able to perform all these tasks well," DeShon said. He pointed out that "the people who are effective at very big churches could out-compete CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. The problem is there aren't that many of them."

The Rev. Tom Pace, senior pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston and focus group participant, believes there is one crucial element an effective pastor must have. "You have to know how to learn, and you have to like doing it," he said.

"I also think pastors have to be self-assured enough that they can be psychologically grounded," he said. "There is no work other than politics or acting where it is so much about whether people like you."

When he first came to St. Luke's - a church with about 2,000 weekly attendance at worship - some people left simply because he wasn't the former pastor, and they did not like him as much, Pace acknowledged.

Scope of responsibilities
The Rev. Sara Thompson-Tweedy, pastor of The Federated Church of Kerhonkson in Kerhonkson, N.Y., said she was stunned at the scope of the tasks identified by the focus groups.

"But really, it's the work of the church. It falls on clergy to do it or see that it gets done, but there is no way one person could do everything," she said. The church she pastors has about 100 members in a community of 2,000.

Both Thompson-Tweedy and Pace said churches teach their pastor things they need to know.

"When I went into ministry, I would have thought care giving was my strength," she explained. But now, she believes her particular strengths are preaching and public worship. "I feel so alive when I preach, teach, and lead worship."

Tweedy-Thompson said good pastors must learn to delegate and be willing to let people fail gracefully. "If you stand over someone with your foot in their chest, they are going to do nothing or get sick of you and leave. You may discover you've delegated to the wrong person. If they fail, you need to pat them on them on the back and say that's fine."

DeShon said all of the pastors in the focus groups talked about the importance of a strong call and also about finding a balance between life and being clergy.

In addition to a call, DeShon noted it was clear that good pastors have to be adaptable, intelligent, and have good social skills. "You must have a strong sense of call and nothing can substitute for that," he said. "A lot of other things you can work on."

To read the study, visit www.gbhem.org and click on Boards of Ordained Ministry.

*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

A UMNS Commentary by Jen Heald: Campus ministry claims God's call

Good campus ministers ask the best questions of anyone I know. And I know a lot of people—just count my friends on Facebook.

The campus ministers I encountered during my undergraduate years have discovered some of the secrets of communicating effectively with college students: we want to discover, we want to encounter, we want to be taken out of our boxes and told to stretch.

The act of asking empowers us to seek with the expectation that there is something to be found, to engage the questions because then the answers are more a part of us. Lately, I’ve felt the act of seeking might sometimes be the answer itself, but that’s another story.

It would be easy to make up a statistic right now about the number of senses the "average church member" uses to experience God. I will, however, take a page out of the Wise Campus Minister book and substitute some questions instead.

Do you hear passion in your worship services? When was the last time you used finger paint to create something blobby and beautifully imperfect that reminds you of your favorite psalm? Have you recently danced with the uninhibited joy warranted by the realization that Christ claims us? Have you sat in Elijah's silence and felt the still small voice somewhere in the expanse of soul inside you? Does the smell of a potluck meal mean warm and inviting community to you?

Perhaps these things give you an inkling of what it might be like to be a student in a Wesley Foundation. If they don't, just think about what it means to experience good church and you'll get there. There are Wesley Foundations and United Methodist student groups across the United States that do creative and Spirit-led ministry every day—hardworking missionaries and travelers on the front lines of a culture and population that so badly need to see Jesus' relevance to the world today.

I've only personally experienced the joy of the campus ministry at the University of Maryland, but through my work with the National United Methodist Student Movement, I’ve heard the inspiring stories of young adults leading their communities to be the dynamic, energetic, front line of hope that the church is called to be.

Over Memorial Day weekend, almost 400 members of the movement met at American University in Washington for Student Forum 2008. Our theme, "Be the Change," resonated through the event in joyful worship services, thoughtful Bible studies and 11 topical social justice immersion trips assisted by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society. As a member of the national steering committee, I had been part of planning this event since last September. It was so affirming and exciting to see students’ commitment to authentic ministry and honest dialogue as they participated in the events.

Perhaps it would not surprise you to hear that we asked some challenging questions derived from our mission and identity as a student movement: What does it mean to be transformative? To drive change? To inspire hope? To embody shalom? In short, to be a movement?

The conversation cultivated from these questions will define the direction of the student movement in years to come. Resourcing a movement that stubbornly refuses to be anything less than transformative is quite a task, but it's one that we welcome. Rest assured that these are the things on the hearts and minds of college students in The United Methodist Church today.

It seems to me that God has given us some fairly loaded questions in Scripture. "Whom shall I send?" comes to mind. When honestly answered by those who have encountered Jesus, that's one of the most transformative questions. It must be answered in a way worthy of the empowerment embodied in the question, with the humble, faithful and oh-so-vulnerable response, "Here I am. Send me."

In campus ministries, people are claiming the call that God places in each heart, and I have come to understand that as the essence of ministry.

Brothers and sisters, the church is perpetually at the intersection of the past and the future. The grace of the present prepares the way for the reconciliation, relationships, movements and ministry that will define what the church becomes. It is this grace that is recognized, celebrated and realized on the nation’s campuses. Ask us about it. We welcome your questions.

*Heald is chairperson of the United Methodist Student Movement Steering Committee.

Indiana United Methodists approve unity plan

By Daniel R. Gangler*

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (UMNS)--With shouts of joy and prayers of thanksgiving, members of The United Methodist Church's South Indiana and North Indiana annual conferences approved a plan to merge the two regions into one new Indiana Annual (regional) Conference.

Bishop Mike Coyner

Bishop Mike Coyner of Indianapolis announced the results of votes by each annual conference during the closing session of the South Indiana legislative gathering June 7 at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington.

South Indiana members voted 616-185 on June 6 to unite with the North Indiana Conference. North Indiana members, meeting May 30 in West Lafayette, voted 730-192 for the merger.

The votes conclude 62 years of Methodist annual conference sessions at Indiana University and 40 years of United Methodist annual conference sessions at Purdue University.

In a June 9 letter to leaders of both conferences, Coyner thanked all who helped in the process.

"Thanks to all who have prayed, discussed, disagreed, and worked together to shape the plan to date," he wrote. "There are many 'next steps' to follow, but I sense the strong affirmation of both conferences for us to continue on this journey together. I pray that it will all be to the glory of God and to the ministry of Christ here in Indiana."

Coyner called for a special session of both conferences Oct. 4 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds to finalize amendments, elect committees and begin plans for the first combined Indiana Annual Conference session, scheduled for July 24-27, 2009, at Ball State University in Muncie.

Unified voice
The merger is designed to streamline administration of the Indiana Area to bring resources closer to congregations for their support. The new structure will have five district resource centers across the state. Currently, having two annual conference centers in Bloomington and Marion and an area office in Indianapolis has resulted in administrative duplication and a need for better communication and recordkeeping. Proponents say uniting the conferences also will give Indiana United Methodists a single statewide voice.

The bishop will appoint a transition team to implement design plans. Features of the new annual conference, which was two years in design, include:

.Forming clergy into covenant groups and all 1,200 congregations into ministry clusters for the support of and accountability to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world;
.Dissolving the 18 districts across Indiana and establishing five resource centers to support the work of 10 districts; and
.Creating a new conference structure and establishing a new conference center in Indianapolis.

The only major amendments to the 50-page unity document added youth and young adults to the discussion-making process of the statewide church and added more staff in youth and young adult ministries to the five resource centers across the state.

Largest Protestant group
The last such structural change of this magnitude in the state occurred in 1968 when the former Methodist Church and former Evangelical United Brethren Church voted to become The United Methodist Church.

With 225,000 United Methodists and 1,200 congregations in Indiana, The United Methodist Church is the largest Protestant denomination in the state. Methodists first established churches in Indiana in 1801.

The denomination also is related to three Indiana hospitals, three universities, three children's homes, six residential facilities for seniors, one halfway house and seven retreat/camps. All of these will be part of the new Indiana Conference.

*Gangler is director of communications for the Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church.

UMCOR assists local partner for Zimbabwe aid

Students at the Mount Makomwe United Methodist Mission School near Marange, Zimbabwe, line up for a cup of the nutritional drink mahewu.UMNS file photos by Mike DuBose.

NEW YORK (UMNS)-The United Methodist Committee on Relief is providing humanitarian assistance in politically charged Zimbabwe.

UMCOR responded on June 4 to a request for aid and will assist a partner organization working on the ground in distributing food and medicine to communities and clinics serving the most vulnerable.

Because of the high cost of fuel, UMCOR will help pay to transport the goods to areas most affected by food shortages and politically related violence.

The agency also is working with Bishop Ivan Abraham and the Methodist Church in Southern Africa to help provide shelter and food in the Johannesburg area for refugees there, many of them from Zimbabwe. UMCOR sent a $10,000 emergency grant and may provide a staff member there for several months.

Methodist and other churches in the Johannesburg area are attempting to care for as many as 30,000 people, some of whom were caught up by violence in May aimed at refugees.

Both inside and outside the country, Zimbabweans are suffering from economic hardship and political strife, particularly in the wake of disputed results of a presidential election involving President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader. A runoff election is set for June 27.

On June 3, The New York Times reported that CARE--one of the largest nonprofit aid groups working in Zimbabwe--was among groups ordered by the government to suspend all operations in the country. The Times quoted Mugabe's charge that money was being channeled through western organizations to the opposition and that food was being used "as a political weapon" against his government.

UMCOR is working with partners in Zimbabwe who "are coordinating with their local network to provide humanitarian assistance," according to the Rev. Sam Dixon, UMCOR's top executive.

"As in Myanmar, where politics intervened in a humanitarian crisis, we are poised and ready to respond fully when the government releases its restrictions," he said.

The agency continues to support three hospitals in the region that serve mothers and vulnerable children. Because of their location, however, many people are too frightened to visit the hospitals and healthcare providers are discouraged from assisting those affected by the conflict, according to UMCOR.

Donations to UMCOR Advance No. 199456, Zimbabwe Emergency, can be dropped into church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, N.Y. 10087-9068. Write the Advance number and name on the memo line of the check. Credit card donations are accepted online at http://www.givetomission.org/ or by phone at (800) 554-8583.

Risk of disease multiplies Myanmar disaster

Survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar construct a temporary shelter. A UMNS photo courtesy of Church World Service/ACT.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

A prolonged lack of access to relief supplies has created a "second wave of disaster" that is poised to strike the people of Myanmar, according to Church World Service.

CWS staff and partners are concerned that many survivors of Cyclone Nargis are at risk of disease because of contaminated drinking water. "This is, unfortunately, one of the downsides of a delayed response," said Matt Hackworth, communications officer for CWS, in a May 28 interview.

The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million people have been impacted by the May 3 cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing. Following the cyclone, the government of Myanmar (Burma) blocked most foreign aid workers from assisting the survivors. Those restrictions seemed to be loosening in late May after Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, reached an agreement with the chief of Myanmar's military junta, and U.N. and other relief workers began to travel into the cyclone-ravaged delta region.

CWS has been able to provide some assistance through its long-term partnerships with four different local organizations operating within Myanmar, Hackworth told United Methodist News Service. The United Methodist Committee on Relief has given $60,000 to CWS for that work, which includes providing clean water, water containers and water purification supplies, along with emergency shelter and food to survivors.

Both CWS and UMCOR are part of Action by Churches Together International, an alliance supporting and coordinating with the local organizations in Myanmar. ACT members have assisted more than 100,000 cyclone survivors.

UMCOR also allocated $35,000 through the Methodist Church in Singapore to Bishop Zothan Mawia, leader of the Methodist Church of the Union of Myanmar (Lower Myanmar).

Mawia, who was a delegate to the April 23-May 2 United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, was still in the United States when the cyclone struck. He returned to Myanmar on May 23 and was planning to assess relief needs for both Methodist and non-Methodist cyclone survivors in his area.

Death by diarrhea
Clean water and sanitation are top priorities for the work in the Irrawaddy Delta, the low-lying region on Myanmar's west coast that was most impacted by the cyclone. According to the Asian Times Online, the delta has the highest population density in Myanmar, and about 4 million people there actually could have been affected by the disaster.

"Some of our people on the ground in remote villages have seen children as young as 4 and the elderly die of diarrhea," Hackworth told United Methodist News Service. "We've seen deaths from cholera and other waterborne diseases."

Local aid teams are delivering lightweight, 975-liter water baskets made of a collapsible, cloth-like plastic that can provide drinking water for 450 people a day when filled with purified water or rainwater. "The more of these baskets that we can get out into the Irrawaddy Delta, the more people will have access to clean water," he said.

"Logistics remain a key challenge," Hackworth added. "All of the indications we find from our local partners on the ground are that even trucks … aren't going to be much good. It's going to require small boats and other means to get relief to the hardest-hit areas."

The relationships that CWS had in Myanmar has allowed for a quick response, with supplies purchased within the country. "These local organizations know where the smallest, hardest-hit areas are," he noted.

Cautious optimism
Even for insiders, the relief effort has been "very difficult" due to government restrictions, according to Hackworth. There is cautious optimism about the U.N. agreement. "As the days have gone on, it seems as if more aid is being allowed into the country," he explained. "For groups like Church World Service, that's a big hope."

Future food security also remains a concern for Myanmar, since the Irrawaddy Delta is considered the country's rice bowl. Rice seeds need to be planted within the next month to six weeks.

Donations to UMCOR Advance No. 3019674, Myanmar Emergency, can be made online at www.givetomission.org. Checks also can be dropped into church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, N.Y. 10087-9068. Write the Advance number and name on the memo line of the check. Credit-card donations are accepted by phone at (800) 554-8583.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.