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Editor’s Note: As the 2012 General Conference approaches,
United Methodist News Service is looking at details of legislation and
offering information to help readers better understand how the church
works. A number of proposals are aimed at restructuring the denomination
and its general ministries, so UMNS asked the top executives of each
agency to answer five questions about their agency's role in the church. This is the response from United Methodist Communications.
A UMNS Report
7:00 A.M. ET March 29, 2012
1. One issue to be debated at General Conference is
restructuring. What would the church miss if your agency no longer
existed?
First, the church would miss having a voice in the public arena.
Through media opportunities, messages encouraging audiences to Rethink
Church, news stories and features produced by United Methodist News
Service and UMTV, press releases and spokesperson training provided by
the Office of Public Information, United Methodist Communications
facilitates and sometimes leads the church’s participation in
conversations around issues of the day. It provides a window into the
breadth and depth of the church throughout the world.
Second, the church would miss the connection among United Methodists
worldwide that effective communication provides. Communications is the
link that connects people as we tell stories of United Methodists
living out their faith and making a difference. Offered through
multiple communications channels – websites, email, video productions,
apps, social media, brochures and magazines – the work of the agency
informs, engages and inspires people to renew their commitment to the
church and its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.
As one reader said, “This story was absolutely amazing. I wept,
I smiled, I felt sad and I felt encouraged. These people are the
epitome of what it means to be a United Methodist. Thank you for this
beautiful story.”
2. What is your agency’s primary mission? How do you accomplish this in the most effective manner?
United Methodist Communications serves the totality of the church.
We help advance ministries that change lives. We tell stories of need
and response and the challenge of living faithfully. Through the
denomination’s website, UMC.org, the continuing story of United
Methodists as a people and as a movement unfolds worldwide. We show how
the work United Methodists do together transforms the world.
We also provide local churches with helpful, easy-to-use tools,
resources and training to equip them for communications ministry.
Through print and electronic publications, such as Interpreter and
Interpreter Digital, el Intérprete, United Methodists in Service, MyCom
and Noticias, we highlight local church ministries that can be adapted
by other congregations and challenge leaders to consider new ways to
minister inside and outside the church.
For those in the church who might be marginalized by language or
geography, we provide information, tools and training to affirm unique
ministries and help develop the leaders of these groups. The agency
works to equip United Methodists in Africa, Europe and the Philippines
with needed technology so they can reach out to their communities with
information, education and inspiration.
For people seeking a spiritual connection, we offer relevant
messages that invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and a
life of faith. The Rethink Church movement serves as an authentic
living example of the church in action, offering seekers both digital
entry points (RethinkChurch.org)
and physical access points (local service events) which offer The
United Methodist Church as a community in which people can experience
connection to the body of Christ.
3. Name at least one exciting thing in which your agency has
been involved during the current quadrennium. How does it relate to
the Four Areas of Focus?
We have collaborated with congregations to engage both members and
non-members in mission and outreach and to provide new means to express
faith and constitute Christian community. First, through Nothing But
Nets and now through Imagine No Malaria, United Methodists have been
mobilized to save lives by helping prevent malaria deaths in Africa,
especially among children and pregnant women. Re-energized congregations
— as part of a worldwide, multi-organization effort — have been part
of helping to reduce malaria deaths in Africa from one every 30 seconds
to one a minute.
Through Rethink Church outreach events and the annual Change the
World weekend, more than 500,000 volunteers mobilized to serve more
than 4 million people over the past two years. Twenty-six percent of
volunteers were not affiliated with the church. The agency has done
strong storytelling online and in print and video lifting up all of the
Four Areas of Focus.
4. How does the average United Methodist pastor or member
benefit from your agency’s work? Social advocacy? Curriculum?
Scholarships? Please give a concrete example, ideally quoting a
testimonial from someone outside your agency.
We help churches and church leaders achieve their goals, whether it
is by helping churches become more welcoming, teaching them to create
web ministries, assisting with media buys, providing tools to create a
marketing plan, sharing successful ideas, supplying communications tips
or one of the many other ways United Methodist Communications supports
local churches.
As a young clergyperson said recently, “United Methodist
Communications has been a generational game-changer for The United
Methodist Church, providing amazing resources that have made a
significant difference for local churches (I still have Igniting
Ministry materials on CD-ROM), providing great resources to communicate
in a new age.”
We serve pastors directly through Interpreter and its Spanish- and
Korean-language counterparts, helping them to share best practices and
ideas as well as to tell their stories.
We encourage United Methodists to be generous givers through online
and print resources that promote understanding of connectional giving
and special Sundays with offerings. In 2011, that helped generate gifts
of more than $2.2 million for Africa University, nearly $10 million for
the Black College Fund, more than $17.3 million for ministerial
education and $1.8 million for interfaith ministries, just to name a
few examples.
5. How much money and how many employees does it take to maintain the work your agency is currently doing?
With staff cuts and a tight budget, we are operating with as much
efficiency and economy as we can without reducing our outreach or our
programming, so we will not be able to maintain what we are currently
doing if we sustain further reductions. We have cut our staff back to
77, and our budget was $66 million for the 2009-12 quadrennium. We are
seeking to develop ways to generate additional revenue to support
needed initiatives.
It is critical for The United Methodist Church to continue to
maintain its capacity to communicate inside and outside the
denomination. Over the past several years, mainline denominations have
reduced communications capacity by reducing staff and functions. As a
result, those other denominations have lost their voices in the public
dialogue and weakened their ability to reach out to people seeking a
deeper spiritual life and understanding of Christian faith.
Learn more: United Methodist Communications website
For more information, visit the 2012 General Conference website.
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