Our services are funded by your generous support of the World Service Fund, through the sale of products & services, and through individual gifts. Learn more about our stewardship.

Content reproducible for church use with our permission. Learn How

News

Spirit, Body, Mind = Healthy Connections

(October 5, 2006, GBOD) –– The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church will sponsor the 2007 Convocation for Pastors of African American Churches, January 3-6, 2007, at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

The four-day event, hosted by Saint Luke Community United Methodist Church, will focus on “Making Healthy Connections.” The theme is inspired by Ephesians 4:16: “…joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”

The event will help United Methodist leaders of African American congregations be intentional about focusing on healthy options that connect spirit, body, and mind.

“In light of the biblical mandate, pastors of black churches must confront some especially unique questions,” said the Rev. Vance Ross, associate general secretary of The General Board of Discipleship.

Ross says that pastors of black congregations encounter special challenges in a majority white denomination: How can we be authentic to black religious cultural norms that are often negatively critiqued? What must be done to maintain physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health? How does pastoral leadership remain prophetic within the black population when mainline churches expect no confrontation of political power? As these warring and paradoxical questions converge in the body and spirit of pastors, can they thrive? Can they even survive?

These are some of the issues that will be faced, even answered, at this convocation.

Plenaries, prayer times, worship celebrations, and workshops are fashioned for pastoral leaders to address these issues, connecting with one another for Holy Spirit empowerment that will assist in building the Commonwealth of God.

Workshop topics include clergy self-care, healthy congregations, depression, prayer, burnout, exercise, nutrition, healthy sexuality, and balancing ministry and family.

Among the plenary and worship leaders are:

• The Rev. Dennis Blackwell, senior pastor, Asbury UMC, Merchantville, NJ
• The Rev. Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, senior pastor, Windsor Village UMC, Houston
• The Rev. Joseph W. Daniels, Jr., senior minister, Emory UMC, Washington, DC.
• The Rev. Safiyah Fosua, director, invitational preaching, The General Board of
  Discipleship, Nashville, TN
• The Rev. Telley Gadsden, senior pastor, Saint Mark UMC, Sumter, SC
• The Rev. Hayes T. Gainey, Jr., senior pastor, Edisto Fork UMC, Orangeburg, SC
• The Rev. Frederick D. Haynes, III, senior pastor, Friendship-West Baptist
  Church, Dallas
• The Rev. Walter Kimbrough, pastor emeritus, Cascade UMC, Atlanta, GA
• The Rev. Geraldine McClellan, district superintendent, Gainesville District,
  Gainesville, FL
• The Rev. Dr. Pat McKinstry, senior pastor, Upton UMC, Toledo, OH
• Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, Iowa Area, The United Methodist Church
• The Rev. Safiyah Fosua, director, invitational preaching, The General Board of
  Discipleship, Nashville, TN
• The Rev. Rudy Rasmus, co-pastor, St. John’s UMC, Houston
• The Rev. Juanita Rasmus, co-pastor, St. John’s UMC, Houston
• The Rev. Kelvin Sauls, director, congregational development, General Board of
  Discipleship, Nashville, TN
• Bishop James E. Swanson, Sr., Holston Conference, Knoxville, TN

“This is a time of renewal for pastors to hear from God where God is leading in terms of spiritual, emotional, physical and mental health; a time to make healthy connections in all aspects of ministry,” said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive for the General Board of Discipleship.

Registration is $275 before December 4, 2006. To register online, visit www.gbod.org/pastorsconvo. For more information, contact Deborah J. Carvin at
877-899-2780, ext. 7051, or e-mail dcarvin@gbod.org.

This article was written by Jeanette Pinkston, Media Relations Director for the General Board of Discipleship.