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News NOTE: Photographs are available at http://photos.gbod.org
That's what's happening with the "Four Areas of Focus," adopted by the 2008 General Conference and rolled out in earnest at the quadrennial training event for annual conference leaders Jan. 29-Feb. 1, in Jacksonville. More than 1,200 leaders gathered for the "Living the United Methodist Way: Turning Worlds Upside Down" event to learn how their respective places of ministry can connect with others to transform themselves and the world.
The Four Areas of Focus are: developing leadership, starting new churches and renewing existing ones, ministry with the poor, and global health. Each area was highlighted in a plenary session during the four-day event, followed by workshops that offered insight into that specific area of focus. Practical approaches for annual conference leaders to address the plenary topic in their area of responsibility and opportunities for annual conferences to partner with general program agencies or other annual conferences were also presented.
Area One: Leadership During the first plenary, Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of the Texas Annual Conference illustrated how each of the Four Areas of Focus came into being through intense Bible study and prayer.
Bishop Huie invited the leaders to "move out…of our little boxes" and follow "where we believe the Spirit is calling us." If the church did that, she said, United Methodism would once again become a movement. "But we have to have three things to make this happen," she said, "desire, capacity and courage." Bishop Tim Whitaker of the host Florida Conference led participants on a trip down memory lane, noting that a loss of memory may lead to a loss of one's identity.
The bishop showed how John and Charles Wesley -- Methodisms' founders -- articulated a clear theological vision, often encapsulated in their hymnody. The Wesleys' strong Trinitarian roots, Whitaker said, forged a theology that said that the living God is acting in history for our sake; that transforming the whole creation starts with transforming the individual; and that a theological vision without a community in which to live it out is no good. "Early Methodists had a connection with each other," the bishop said, "through the societies, classes and bands…Our congregations need to fall in love with their communities again. If our people will learn how to put together an intentional, holistic system of making disciples of Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit give them the energy to fall in love with their communities again, then there will be congregations that turn the world upside down." Jay Williams, a 27-year old seminarian from New York, offered his thoughts on developing church leaders from the perspective of one who is being developed.
Williams, who chaired his conference's delegation to the 2008 General Conference, stated three theses on living the United Methodist Way. "First, death is not always a bad thing," he said. "It's time to let deadly practices die. Some of our churches have been struggling to die for decades. "Second, our primary task is to be a Christian, not United Methodist," he said. "Too many of us can talk about strategic plans but too few of us can give a witness. Too many of us know the Book of Discipline and the rules of polity, but not the Bible." And the third thesis, he said, is that in order to lead, one must follow. The church needs to develop a culture of apprentices and followers of leaders, he said. Area Two: New Places for New Faces; Renewing Existing Churches
"From 1870 to 1920," he said, "the Methodist Church started one new church every day. Starting new churches is the most effective evangelism tool we have. We want to get to the point in the future where we are starting one new church every day." That's the vision of the Path1 team, the group charged with recruiting, training and providing resources for 1,000 new church planters to start 650 churches in the next four years. One-half of those churches are targeted to be racial/ethnic congregations. The Rev. Candace Lewis, pastor of New Life United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, started her church in a store front in 1996. Lewis was fresh out of seminary and knew only two people in Jacksonville. "And neither of them joined the new church," she said with a laugh. The new congregation started in an urban community and its parking lot was its mission field, the pastor said. "When you're committed to reaching new people for Jesus Christ, you have to try just about anything," she said, and that included carnivals in the parking lot, concerts, picnics, fellowships, a health fair and "heavenly harvest," an alternative to Halloween trick or treating. "Most of the people who came were not part of a church or the United Methodist Church," she said. "We had contemporary, excited worship with people lifting hands; they weren't getting arrested, they were just excited to be praising God." After being in the commercial space for almost nine years, Lewis said the congregation discovered that leasing worship space in a community with slow population growth and increasing monthly expenses made it difficult for them to save money for their first building. But just four years ago, they put in a contract on a new building…and moved in. A former Baptist church is now proudly United Methodist with more than 200 members.
Agtarap spoke from his Philippine background and how the church in his home country learned to grow again. "Prior to the 1980s, most congregations in the Philippines had no program on mission or evangelism," Agtarap said. "Most pastors had no training in mission evangelism. We had more clergy employees than clergy evangelists; more local pastors and fewer mission pastors." Further, he said, there was no clear policy at the annual conference level to promote mission evangelism. "What if every annual (regional) conference had a policy that every local church had a mission to start a new church?" he asked. That was the question asked in the Philippines, and the church responded. In 1984, the church declared the province of Cavite as its mission field. Churches in metro Manila started 30 new churches in Cavite between 1984 and 1999. "We were a new mission field in 1984; a new district in 1999; and a new annual conference with two new districts in 2008," Agtarap said. "Today we have 600,000 members from a membership of 100,000 in 1984."
The Rev. Diane Presley, the church's pastor, told the seven-year story of this church that could be almost anywhere in the United States. She said there are three things to look for that any transforming church needs to have: a stable financial base; nurture the vision; and "You gotta have people." "The question was, 'do you want to live or do you want to die?' It was put to the congregation. and they said they wanted to live," said Presley. "So, then, are you willing to change drastically?" The congregation did, and through the chaos and change reached out to its neighboring community and found its purpose and mission again.
Area Three: Eliminating Poverty and Ministry with the Poor
"As we begin this new quadrennium, it cannot be business as usual if we intend to make ministry to and with the poor a priority," he said. Reminding participants of our Methodist roots among the poor of 18th century England, Paup said that, today, by and large we are not poor. "More than 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 a day," he said. "The poorest 40 percent of population accounts for only five percent of income." How do we, as United Methodists, seriously go about ministry with the poor today, Paup asked. The answer is by looking it in the face. "There are 26,000 children who die each day in poverty. They are invisible," he said. "There are more than 72 million children of primary age who are not in school due to poverty; 350 to 500 million persons living with malaria; the billions who have no ready source of drinkable water." Poverty is a highly complex reality, Paup said, and requires new ways of interaction. "We need to do three things," he said: Hear the poor -- listen to the poor themselves, not just to the stats; accept the poor -- which implies seeing them and acknowledging that they exist; and serve the poor -- responding to needs, spiritual and physical. Both Jesus and John Wesley, Paup said, placed the poor at the center of their ministry. "The value of souls and the depth of faith are determined neither by economic status or breadth of taste," Paup said, quoting Wesley.
"If we do this in a way that I believe God calls us, we will see a renewal in The United Methodist Church and a new sense of relevancy in the world," Paup said. "The transformation will take place individually, then in our congregations, and then in our conferences An offering taken at the beginning of this session raised more than $8,000 for the North East District Outreach Ministries of the Florida Conference. Participants placed money and checks on a table at the front of the stage as the praise band from New Life United Methodist Church offered music. Area Four: Global Health From the very beginning of our movement, John Wesley recognized the correlation between poverty and health, according to the Rev. Larry Hollon, general secretary of United Methodist Communications. "Wesley's holistic theology led him to engage with individuals and systems that dealt with health-care systems," Hollon said, and one of his first ministry areas was a health clinic for the poor. Preventable diseases are taking a terrible toll on people around the world, Hollon said, but we are a people of hope. "We believe we have the power to make and create change." A central partner and inspiration behind the denominational effort to eradicate malaria using bed nets, United Methodist Communications has begun creating wide-ranging conversations on the global health initiative. "Bed nets save the lives of children in malaria-affected areas of the world," said Hollon. "But it is not only about bed nets. It is about training community health workers in participatory health care… it is about providing life-enhancing education through radio, mailings and other communication tools…it is about enlisting and deploying new missionaries for global health…it is about enlisting health champions and parish nurses in each annual conference." The Rev. Gary Gunderson, senior vice president for Health and Welfare Ministries for Methodist Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., sounded a hopeful note in his presentation: namely, we're already winning. "We have science to drastically reduce, if not eliminate, the worst offenses of justice and poverty globally." He said. "In just 100 years, the average human life span grew 37 years, a miracle John Wesley would not been so bold to pray for. God's abundance is far greater than imagined. In most of the world we are already winning and we have hardly gotten our act together. In Africa and South Asia, we have only begun to fight."
"We are the 262nd edition of Methodist global health, an unbroken line of creative efforts that evolve deeper and smarter as both science and faith mature. Creating an epidemic of good health is what we are all about." Comparing the United Methodist efforts at impacting global health to the roots of the banyan tree -- a tree with roots that grow down from the branches into the ground to form new, secondary trunks, according to the dictionary -- Gunderson said that global health is also a justice issue. A girl born today can expect to live for more than 80 years if she is born in some countries," he said, "but less than 45 years if she is born in others. Differences such as this should not happen." Stating that the most important assets on the assault on global health were right there in the hotel ballroom, Gunderson said we have to know what we have to work with and go from there. Dr. Cherian Thomas, a physician who is executive secretary for the Hospital Revitalization Program of the General Board of Global Ministries, said that like the issues of poverty, the issues of global health require partnerships. "We have United Methodists in Pittsburgh who are helping fight cholera in Zimbabwe," he said. The most important function we have is to connect people, he said. Without people, there are no programs. At the General Board and through its United Methodist Committee on Relief agency, their strategy is to strengthen the governing hospital boards by training the boards on their responsibilities. "The second strategy is to have full-time coordinators of global health in Africa," Thomas said. "In each of the African countries, we have a coordinator on global health. We then bring the partners together -- from the United States and from Europe -- with people in Africa, to hear their dreams, their visions, and then to make plans." Global health is not something new to United Methodism and not something that's going to be done in one four-year time span, Thomas said. The key to moving forward is investment in ideas and people. "We have to train people in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. We have to have people to move forward. We need to develop programs as well as people. It's not money we need; it's ideas and investment in people. This is my dream for today and for years to come." Melba Whitaker, the wife of Bishop Tim Whitaker from Florida, took the stage to share the story of her experience in Brazil and how a "mother" church began a ministry in the slums of one large town by investing in ideas and people. "This mother church went in and asked the women of the slum what they needed," she said. "The women said a dental clinic. So the mother church located a dentist who was willing to come work in the slum, a dental chair and other items, and they set a date for the opening of this clinic. They also selected a woman, Salina, to receive training on community-based health care." When the new clinic opened, more than 100 children and women were served that first day. "This is a story about a community deciding what they wanted to do," Whitaker said, "and about someone willing to invest in them with education and training… and then letting them do it." Today, she said, they have opened up a new clinic on the outskirts of the slum, serving even more people from the surrounding community. "When we invest in people like this, a community is totally transformed. For my money, I would rather invest in a poor community like this than a rich bank here in the United States," she said. "I know where my money is going and what it's doing." Finally, the Rev. Gary Henderson, Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative for The United Methodist Church, challenged the participants on not just the global health area, but all four areas of focus. "If we are going to turn the world upside down, this will require resurrection faith," he said. "We hope that the clear ministry areas of focus would ignite a passion in you…a resurrection faith." Saying that the four areas of focus give United Methodists an opportunity to live out their resurrection faith, Henderson said the church has a "healing ointment" to offer the world.x "Why are we starting with malaria?" he asked. "It's a God thing. It began with the journey with Nothing But Nets. Those steps gave birth to what we are calling the global health focus. We were forced to understand the need for partnerships…it forced us to examine our own internal partnerships. "Are we able to choose hope over fear? I say, 'Yes we can.' "Are we able to choose the four areas of focus? I say 'Yes we can.' "Are we able to raise $75 million? I say, 'Yes we can!' "Will you hear the challenge of Jesus?" Henderson asked. "Freely, freely you have received. Heal the sick. Will you freely, freely give?" "This is not a four-year plan. The four areas of focus will be around for the long-haul. In 20-30 years from now, we should still be talking about these four areas. In 2050, we ought to still be working on them, though the language we use to talk about them may be different." Greenwaldt said. The General Board of Discipleship's mission is to support annual conference and local church leaders for their task of equipping world-changing disciples. An agency of The United Methodist Church, GBOD (www.gbod.org) is located at 1908 Grand Ave. in Nashville, Tenn. For more information, call the Media Relations Office toll free at 877-899-2780, ext. 7017.
Jeanette Pinkston is director of Media Relations for the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn. Erik Alsgaard is director of communications for the Florida Conference in Lakeland, Florida.
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