News briefing offers glimpse into assembly
changes
More than 200 delegation leaders and
church journalists attend the United Methodist
Pre-General Conference News Briefing, an informational
session on issues and processes of the denomination's
upcoming assembly in Fort Worth, Texas. A UMNS photo
by Larry Nelson.
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By Marta W. Aldrich* Jan. 30, 2008
| FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS)
When United Methodists convene this spring for their
worldwide assembly, they can expect wider international
representation, a denominational budget built around four new
areas of focus, and carefully choreographed opening sessions
aimed at fostering unity through common ministry instead of
gridlock over divisive social issues.
The 2008 General
Conference will meet for 10 days––two fewer than the 2004
gathering in Pittsburgh and with no break––but still must sort
through more than 1,500 petitions, which is about the same
amount of business conducted at the previous assembly. In
addition to hearing opening addresses from a United Methodist
bishop and lay person, delegates will hear the first-ever
Young People's Address––delivered jointly by six teens and
young adults who promise a presentation "different from
anything that's ever been presented to General Conference
before."
"You can expect us to be honest," says
Matt Lockett, who will help deliver the
first-ever Young People's Address. A UMNS photo
by Larry Nelson.
| The
new approaches are among a bevy of changes outlined during the
United Methodist Pre-General Conference News Briefing, an
informational session attended by more than 200 delegation
representatives and church journalists. The Jan. 24-26
briefing, sponsored by United Methodist Communications, was
held near the Fort Worth Convention Center, where General
Conference will open on April 23.
"This is going to be
an historic event," said Mary Brooke Casad of this year's
opening sessions, which will feature intricate staging and
multimedia effects in delivering a message of unity and hope
in mission and ministry.
"We've never done it this way
before. It's not going to be just business as usual," said
Casad, executive secretary of the Connectional Table––itself a
new entity formed by the last General Conference to coordinate
mission, ministries and resources for The United Methodist
Church.
A new agenda
Weary of decades of the church's top legislative meeting
being consumed by debate over homosexuality and other
hot-button issues, the Council of Bishops and other
denominational leaders have shaped a new churchwide agenda
with the overarching purpose of making disciples of Jesus
Christ for the transformation of the world. The agenda
includes four areas of focus: developing principled Christian
leaders for the church and the world; creating "new places for
new generations" by starting new churches and renewing
existing ones; engaging in ministry with the poor; and
fighting the killer diseases of poverty such as malaria,
tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
The Rev. Anne Burkeholder uses a visual
aid to caution church journalists against
oversimplifying their stories as debates between
liberals and conservatives. A UMNS photo by Marta W.
Aldrich.
| Church
leaders believe this new focus will help United Methodists
unite to address the world's core needs, reclaim the church's
Wesleyan heritage, start a movement and, as a bonus, reverse
decades of declining membership trends.
"This is about
alignment––with the Council of Bishops, the Connectional
Table, what's happening in annual conferences––and saying
we're going to coalesce (and) combine to make a difference,"
said the Rev. Jerome Del Pino, chief executive of the Board of
Higher Education and Ministry, which will oversee the church
leadership initiative.
It also is hoped that, when the
nearly 1,000 delegates leave General Conference to return to
their home districts and churches, they will know the four
areas of focus by heart and, with a new clarity about "what my
church is doing," spread that vision and sense of identity to
the people in the pews.
Delegates at the briefing said
it's time for Jesus Christ to "do a new thing with our
church."
"I'm not hearing as much about the more
controversial issues so far," said the Rev. Henry Frueh, a
second-time delegate from the Troy Annual (regional)
Conference in New York. "There's more talk about the church
positioning itself to be more effective in the world. I think
there's a sense that if we don't change the way we do church,
we're going to lose the opportunity," he told United Methodist
New Service.
Bishop Lindsey Davis briefs
participants on the denomination's proposed $642 million
spending plan for 2009-2012 while economist Don House
waits to speak. A UMNS photo by Larry
Nelson.
| The
Rev. Tom Berlin, a delegate from Herndon, Va., said many
people in his generation (ages 30 to 45) are disenchanted by
past General Conferences that have focused on discordant
social issues that "are so predictable in their outcome"––and
not enough on substantive issues of need in the world. The
result, he said, is that ordained and lay leaders are tempted
to cocoon themselves in their local churches "because it's
just not worth the emotional energy."
"Friends, we're
going to have to lay down our arms on these other issues if we
want to deal with the (new) ones," Berlin told one panel
group.
Building a better budget
The briefing featured a session on the $642 million,
four-year spending plan for the denomination beginning in
2009––and the new processes and criteria for developing the
budget proposal. For the first time, the plan was built on an
"outcome-based" model that much of the business world already
follows. Church agencies were asked to shape their funding
requests around the four new areas of focus. Also for the
first time, the General Council on Finance and Administration
shared the budget-building process with the Connectional
Table.
"We're trying to do something different," said
Bishop Lindsey Davis of the North Georgia Area, a member of
the council's board. "We're trying to do something in a more
collaborative fashion together."
Davis said the
previous budget process was "more competitive than it should
have been" among various groups within the church contending
for their "fair share" of the pie.
"What we're trying
to do … is to begin to align this budget not only with the
areas of focus … but with a church that is beginning to think
very specifically about outcomes, about being productive and
effective and actually changing the world," he
said.
The $642 million plan represents a 1.2
percent annual increase for a total increase of 4.8 percent
over four years. "All of us know inflation is more than that,"
Davis said. "In terms of real dollars, it represents less
money for all our boards and agencies and less money for the
general church at large."
The Rev. Gere Reist urges U.S.
delegates to understand the challenges faced by
overseas delegates. A UMNS photo by Marta W.
Aldrich.
| He also
emphasized that the budget represents only 1 percent of the
net spending of the entire denomination and cautioned against
skimping on mission and ministry done at the denominational
level. "Ninety-nine percent of all the resources of our
denomination are spent at the local, annual conference and
jurisdictional level," he said.
New faces, new rules
With United Methodist membership shrinking in the United
States and growing in Africa and the Philippines, the makeup
of General Conference delegates will reflect those trends.
Central conference delegates (those in annual conferences
outside the United States) will have 278 delegates, 100 more
than in 2004. Annual conferences in U.S. jurisdictions have
elected 714 delegates.
Church leaders who oversee
delegate training asked the U.S. delegates to show patience
and understanding in working with overseas delegates who need
time for translation services and are unfamiliar with
parliamentary procedure used in the United States.
"If
we're going to be a global church, we need to hear each
other's voices, and we need to be attentive to each other's
voices, and we need to be understanding that the American way
is only one way," said the Rev. Gere Reist, secretary of the
General Conference.
Reist urged delegates to carefully
read proposed rule changes that will be voted on at the
beginning of the assembly. "There are significant changes this
time around," he said. He cited proposals to elect all
subcommittee chairs by ballot, merging the Commission on
General Conference with the Committee on Rules, and using
parliamentarians in all legislative committees.
Emily DeSalvatore, 19, a lay delegate
from Amsterdam, N.Y., says she will have "a voice and a
vote" at General Conference. A UMNS photo by Larry
Nelson.
| The proposed
rules also prohibit talking on cell phones and using laptop
computers on the convention floor.
The Rev. Gary
Graves, petitions secretary, reported that more than a quarter
of the 1,564 petitions filed are related to the Board of
Church and Society, the church's social action agency.
Delegates will get their first look at all the petitions after
receiving The Advance Daily Christian Advocate, which
publishes petitions and other information related to General
Conference and is scheduled to be shipped Feb.
7-8.
Graves thanked petitioners for "making the
transition to digital submissions."
"I know that it
was like pulling teeth for some people, and others can't
figure why it took us 20 years to catch up with everybody
else," he said. He noted that the change saved money and trees
and shaved about two months of production time off the
petitions process.
Educational setting
The news briefing was designed to be informational, not
legislative in nature, said the Rev. Larry Hollon, chief
executive of United Methodist Communications, who welcomed
participants to Fort Worth. "We are taking a conversational
approach," he said.
Briefing participants tour the Fort
Worth Convention Center. A UMNS photo by Marta W.
Aldrich.
| Briefings ranged from
hot-button issues such as Middle East-related divestment to
strategies encouraging healthier lifestyles by pastors and
church employees. Other panel discussions included ethnic
initiatives in the church, proposals to change United
Methodist structure to reflect the worldwide nature of the
church, a new Social Creed up for consideration, the State of
the Church report and how to navigate General Conference.
Breakout sessions for delegates addressed "holy
conferencing"––practices designed to set a more civil tone of
discussion and listening in the legislative
process.
Participants also toured the convention center
and received an update on the challenges of housing all
delegates in downtown Fort Worth's tight hotel market. Many of
the 1,500 delegates and staff members will be housed in
outlying hotels and must commute daily to the convention
center. Thousands of visitors also will attend parts of the
meetings and worship services.
"These (hotel
problems) are nitpicky little things that seek to distract us
from the work that we're called to be about at General
Conference," said the Rev. Alan Morrison, business manager for
the assembly.
*Aldrich is news editor of United
Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Marta
Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video Highlights
Bishop
Sharon Brown Christopher: “We offer connection in a
disconnected world.”
Bishop
Lindsey Davis: “We’ve tried…to see that our budget
underwrites the mission of the church.”
The
Rev. Fitzgerald (Gere) Reist: "They have felt that U.S.
conferences have had an unfair advantage." Related Articles
United Methodists explore divestment
proposals
Fort Worth hotel changes challenge church
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Church budget tightens around four areas of
focus
Unprecedented unity builds for mission
initiatives Resources
Pre-General Conference News Briefing
General Conference
2008 |