Young clergy evangelize in cyberspace
The United Methodist Young Clergy network is taking up the challenge of
recruiting younger clergy and members through social media. UMNS photos
courtesy of the Board of Higher Education and Ministry. |
A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Aug. 28, 2009
Young United Methodist clergy see the elephant in the sanctuary –
the fact more ministers are headed for retirement than the pulpits –
and they are grabbing the mops.
The concerned under-35 crowd is doing what comes naturally. It is
using social media – Facebook, Twitter and blogs – to form an online
community to search for ways to draw more young people into ministry
and into the pews.
Jenny Smith
|
A core group of 10 young clergy met with the United Methodist Board
of Higher Education and Ministry in February. As a result, hundreds of
young clergy are now talking and creating relationships in cyberspace
through their own Web site, www.umcyoungclergy.com.
Throughout the denomination, young adults are responding to the
evangelism challenge in several ways, from sharing their own stories
about the ordination process to creating campaigns such as “40 Days of
Prayer,” and “6 Questions for The United Methodist Church.”
The need is critical, research shows. The number of people under 35
ordained or on the track to be ordained dropped from 3,210 in 1985 to
910 in 2008, according to a study by the Lewis Center for Church
Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. The average
age of elders is 52; for ordained deacons it is 51.
“I decided I owed it to the church that raised me, paid for my
college and seminary to ask the tough questions,” blogged Jenny Smith,
a 26-year-old master of divinity student at United Theological Seminary
who took part in the February meeting. “We decided it was time to name
the elephants in the room for young clergy. When you know where the
elephant is, it’s easier to clean up after it.”
Prayer first
The idea of calling young leaders to pray for 40 days for The United
Methodist Church came from something God placed on the heart of Ben
Simpson, 29, an ordained Baptist minister married to the Rev. Molly
Simpson, an associate pastor at The United Methodist Church of the
Resurrection in Leawood, Kan.
Ben Simpson
|
“God took me by surprise,” said Simpson, also a member of
Resurrection Church. “I was responding in obedience. I didn't have any
grand or lofty expectations when I put that project out there.”
He e-mailed 17 friends and colleagues and posted a blog spelling out
his vision. In two weeks, Simpson had 30 volunteers to write prayers,
and at the end of six weeks he had more than enough to complete the
campaign.
“40 Days of Prayer for the United Methodist Church” began May 18.
Prayers were posted every day through June 25. An average of 550 people
visited the Web site during the first several days. A prayer guide was
published.
The prayers are deeply personal, and from day one, there was no mincing of words.
“Today we confess our sins as a denomination,” wrote the Rev. Andrew
Conard, associate pastor at The United Methodist Church of the
Resurrection, on the first day. “We confess that some of what we have
done and some of what we have left undone has contributed to the mess
in which we find ourselves and our denomination today. The United
Methodist Church in North America has become a shell of what was once a
vibrant movement spreading scriptural holiness across the land.”
The 40 days ended with hope.
“We’ve laid everything out before you,” Smith concluded on day 40. “It’s not pretty. We’re broken. But hopeful.”
Asking the right questions
The next inspiration came to Conard, who wondered: What are the right questions?
“6 Questions for The United Methodist Church” was inspired by a
quote from the Rev. Lovett Weems, author of “The Crisis of Younger
Clergy.” He said, “Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the
right questions.”
A 44-second YouTube video explains: “Our church has one mission, 3 simple rules, 4 areas of focus, 5 practices and now 6 questions.”
Conard said the purpose of the campaign is to raise important
questions for next steps in the life of the church, provide guidance
for future gatherings and shape the discourse across the denomination.
The campaign started June 25 and will end Sept. 30. He said the
project “seeks to shape a conversation, not produce immediate action
steps.”
So far, some of the top questions include: In what ways do you feel
responsible for the ministry that happens through your church? How are
you equipping the members of the church to live more faithfully,
integrating their faith into their daily lives and work? How can we
help (eliminate diseases of poverty) in this area in a way that is more
than just giving money?”
More than 200 people have submitted more than 500 questions and cast 11,000 votes for their top questions.
Signs of encouragement
And the effort keeps expanding.
Smith has launched a project to help young people interested in
ministry discern their calling. She has asked bloggers to publish a
post on what it feels like to have a call into ministry.
The Rev. Andrew Conard
|
One of the contributors is the Rev. Becca Clark, an ordained elder
in the Troy Annual Conference and pastor of Trinity United Methodist
Church and Grace United Methodist Church in Vermont.
“The hardest part of discerning a call to ministry for me was
believing it was possible,” she wrote. “I really didn’t think I was a
good candidate, spiritually speaking. At the time I heard my call, I’d
never read the whole Bible. I wasn’t much of a churchgoer. I was pretty
new to that whole taking-religion-seriously thing, and I had a lot of
doubts about a lot of the things I thought Christians Are Supposed to
Believe.”
For his part, Simpson is working with the United Methodist
Publishing House on a new book on “Becoming a Praying Congregation,” a
collection of inspiration and ideas for encouraging prayer throughout a
congregation.
“Historically, the prayers of the church have been formed by our
worship, through times of private devotion and in consultation with
trusty printed resources,” Simpson said. “But with recent advances in
Web technology and social media tools, new forms have become available
to us that enable us to come together in prayer in new and innovative
ways.”
One of the images on the young clergy Web site seems to sum up the
conversation among young leaders. It depicts a young man on the side of
the road, holding up a sign: “Hope ahead.”
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
United Methodist Young Clergy
6 Questions for The United Methodist Church
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