Bishops affirm church’s four areas of ministry focus
The Rev. Karen Greenwaldt and Bishop Lindsey Davis
give a presentation to the United Methodist Council of Bishops on the
denomination’s four areas of ministry focus. UMNS photos by Ronny Perry. |
By Linda Green*
Nov. 7, 2008 | ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (UMNS)
The four centerpieces of United Methodist ministry for the next four
years were affirmed by the denomination’s bishops as "God’s call to us"
to lead the church into a new day.
Bishop John Hopkins responds to an outpouring of support from fellow bishops for the church's ministry priorities.
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The four areas of ministry focus—developing principled Christian
leaders, creating new churches and renewing existing ones, engaging in
ministries with the poor and stamping out killer diseases of poverty by
improving global health—"give us the leading edge of a plan for living
out faith," said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship.
"The four areas of focus are moving the church into the urgent work
that Jesus wants us to do," said Kentucky Bishop Lindsay Davis.
The ministry priorities are the result of four years of study,
collaboration, partnerships and discernment among the bishops, the
Connectional Table and top executives of churchwide agencies. The 2008
General Conference, the church's highest legislative body, approved the
plan last spring to guide the denomination's future work.
During their semiannual meeting, the church's Council of Bishops
heard examples on Nov. 6 of how the four focus areas already are
transforming the denomination and the world and discussed how they as
global church leaders must lead by example.
Presenters emphasized that, in order for the church to make disciples
of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, the bishops must
find ways to help the church embrace the ministry priorities and show
the global church how to break through institutional walls.
Ministries already being done in the four areas "fill us with hope,"
Davis said, urging the bishops to encourage similar ministries that are
localized but in alignment with the church's mission.
"Make them your own," Davis told the 69 active and 91 retired bishops that serve on the council.
Greenwaldt called the ministry areas "our great opportunity to spread
the Gospel" and "generate a new United Methodist movement."
Pittsburgh Bishop Thomas Bickerton called them "the tie that binds
all of us together, reconnects us to our Wesleyan DNA and once again
opens us to God’s will."
During the presentation, the bishops:
- Learned of the work of the Rev. Adam Hamilton of Leawood, Kan.,
who brought together 80 large-church pastors to establish an eight-year
plan to create 370 new faith communities, recruit 1,000 young people
from those communities for seminaries and raise $256 million for
ministries with the poor;
-
Bishop Thomas Bickerton speaks on developing principled Christian leaders.
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Reviewed how the church's Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference is
impacting the people of Liberia by sending more than $1 million to the
West African country for scholarships, pastoral salary support, church
and school reconstruction and malaria bed nets;
- Celebrated that the Detroit Conference sent more than 600
school and health kits to the Methodist Church of Haiti; the Texas
Conference shipped 800,000 bed nets to Côte d’ Ivoire; and Mary Watson
of Atlanta provided a $400,000 gift to a fund established to start 400
new churches outside the United States;
- Applauded partnerships being created among church agencies,
annual conferences and initiatives to impact communications, distance
education in Africa, global health and global leadership;
- Reviewed progress by United Methodist Communications to raise $75 million for the global elimination of malaria;
- Learned of the continued momentum of Nothing Buts Nets, an
anti-malaria campaign of the people of The United Methodist Church and
other partners to buy and distribute $10 insecticide-treated sleeping
nets for families in Africa.
The bishops were encouraged to address any confusion between the four areas of focus
and the "Seven Vision Pathways." The focus areas, in part, grew out of
the pathways, which serves as the bishops' blueprint for leading the
church in making disciples for Jesus Christ.
The pathways focus on developing new congregations; transforming
existing congregations; teaching the Wesleyan model of forming disciples
of Jesus Christ; strengthening clergy and lay leadership; reaching and
transforming the lives of the new generations of children; ending racism
and authentically expanding racial/ethnic ministries and eliminating
poverty in community with the poor.
"These are not competing but rather complementary principles and vision," Davis said. "Let’s teach to show how that is so."
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Four Areas of Ministry Focus
Council of Bishops |