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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 the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.
A UMNS Report
7:00 A.M. ET March 21, 2012
1. One issue to be debated at General Conference is restructuring. What would the church miss if your agency no longer existed?
The United Methodist Board of Discipleship provides resources and
services that assist clergy and laity leaders in annual conferences and
local churches as they seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.
These leaders call on Discipleship for:
- Weekly worship planning in music, liturgy and preaching
- Study standards for children, youth and adults
- Spiritual formation
- Stewardship education
- Evangelism education and counsel on reaching people representing diverse demographics
- Christian education to build age-appropriate, small-group teaching and learning experiences in local churches
- Tips, resources, learning events and coaching for leaders forming new faith communities
- Transformation of existing local churches through tips,
resources, links to success stories and models of ministry, coaching
and learning events
- Counsel and support for leaders of Emmaus and Chrysalis and other spiritual formation events
- Access to thousands of web pages, webinars and downloadable ministry support for local church ministry
- Contact with thousands through social media to provide ideas,
resource links and connections to ministry-formation sources and to
churches successfully reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ
- Provision of central conference ministry resources through local publishing teams in Africa and the Philippines
2. What is your agency’s primary mission? How do you accomplish this in the most effective manner?
The United Methodist Board of Discipleship trains and supports
church leaders to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We collaborate with
clergy and laity leaders in the church, engage these partners, relate
to their specific needs for ministry support and nurture these
relationships.
Discipleship makes its services, resources and network support
available through various ways — print, print-on-demand and
downloadable materials; on-site coaching and learning through
workshops, seminars, and national and international events; telephone
consultations; and webinars, web pages and social media linkages.
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?
Discipleship strives to reduce the distance between levels of the
church through embedded staffing structures. Staff members serve as
ministry trainers, coaches, local church ministry developers and
editors/publishers. We deploy our staff in the five U.S. jurisdictions
and around the world. Our Young People’s Ministries staff has increased
the number of people Discipleship serves by 839 percent!
New places for new people and renewing existing congregations
Discipleship works primarily with this area because it forms the
basis for local church response to the other three focus areas.
The Path 1/New Church Starts effort is meeting promises made at the
2008 General Conference. By Dec. 31, 2012, this initiative will exceed
its goal of starting 650 new churches and faith communities. Nearly
half focus on reaching people of color. Also by year-end, the effort
will exceed its goal of training 1,000 new-church-start planters. We
have trained more than 125 lay people for this specialized ministry.
Discipleship links with the Path 1 Team of the Council of Bishops, a
network of congregational developers, district superintendents, all
racial ethnic national plans, United Methodist Communications and the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries to provide coaching,
resources, training events and specialized agreements with U.S. annual
(regional) conferences to support the formation of new churches and
faith communities.
Discipleship also strives to transform existing local churches. We
provide booklets on evangelism, Christian education, small groups,
worship, preaching and stewardship and address ways to increase
effectiveness in congregational ministry in these areas. We also offer
focused training through partnerships with annual conferences.
Discipleship has trained conference leaders in four weekend retreats
over the past six months. This 22-week program for lay and clergy allows
churches to reshape their ministry using vitality goals. Through
another opportunity — the Route 122 Network — conference staff guide
local church leaders in building vitality in existing congregations.
Toward Vitality is a short-term project funded by Discipleship, the
General Council on Finance and Administration, United Methodist
Communications and the United Methodist Commission on Religion and
Race. This project works with the Council of Bishops and supports the Vital Congregations ministry effort.
This initiative provides online tools, resources, research and
inspiration for people who seek to transform existing local churches.
Through Discipleship Resources International, we have been
implementing the Central Conference Sustainable Resourcing Initiative
since 2009. This expanding global publishing network serves United
Methodists in the central conferences. Materials range from basic
liturgies and hymnbooks to Bible studies and scholarly work by Africa
University professors. Currently, eight publishing teams across Africa
and the Philippines work with three- to four-year publishing plans to
develop contextual, affordable resources for discipleship,
congregational ministries and pastoral leadership. These teams are
progressing toward financial sustainability.
Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world
Discipleship believes leaders are best formed through vibrant and
effective local churches. With our guidance and support, youth, young
adults and adult leaders from the global connection gather to learn,
work and lead ministry for young people throughout the connection. We
work in partnership with the United Methodist Board of Higher Education
and Ministry and Commission on Religion and Race and United Methodist
Communications to develop and deploy young leaders for ministry in
local churches.
Our Young People’s Ministries division sponsors a quadrennial Global Young People’s Convocation and Legislative Assembly,
involving 500 young people from around the world. The purpose of the
event is twofold: to provide young leader formation and to offer a
venue to create legislation for the upcoming General Conference.
For more than 75 years, a worldwide prayer movement through The
Upper Room Daily Devotional Guide has reached into more than 100
countries in 40 languages, calling people daily to meditation. A new
Nepali edition will launch in July 2012.
In addition, Upper Room programs develop multicultural leadership
through The Academy for Spiritual Formation and Walk to Emmaus. The
Academy for Spiritual Formation had a bilingual experience in Florida
and the first Korean five-day academy in South Korea. There were 638
weekend Emmaus walks in 2011. New international Emmaus communities were
launched in Ukraine, Romania, St. Maartens and the Philippines.
Stamping out killer diseases of poverty by improving health globally
The Upper Room provides Prayers of Encouragement for people affected
by and afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Discipleship is assisting in the
development of global health/Imagine No Malaria materials for study and
reflection.
Engaging in ministry with the poor
Africa Upper Room Ministries, located in South Africa, provides outreach on that continent. Tanika’s story demonstrates one of its many ministries.
Africa Upper Room Ministries is working to expand its reach with a new Zimbabwe initiative.
Discipleship is assisting in the planning for lunchtime and other
serving experiences with the poor planned for 2012 General Conference
delegates.
4. How does the average United Methodist pastor or member
benefit from your work? Social advocacy? Curriculum? Scholarships?
Please give a concrete example, ideally quoting a testimonial from
someone outside of your agency.
While thousands of people link to Discipleship’s learning networks
through onsite experiences, thousands more link to our work via the web
and social media. Hundreds of thousands of people use Discipleship’s
online worship materials each month. Millions more participate in
prayer and meditation daily through The Upper Room Devotional Guide.
Bishops, congregational developers, clergy and laity teams find a
multitude of resources created specifically for new church development
work in the United States. These resources help annual conference
leaders find, assess and equip more than 1,300 lay and clergy
new-church planters. One said, “I have a better understanding of being a
Methodist, being an Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference layperson
and … what it means to be a new church planter.”
A reader of The Upper Room Devotional Guide said, “Not a day goes by
that God does not speak to me through the devotional. Thank you for
being an instrument of God’s peace delivered to me.”
Discipleship provides support for the Walk to Emmaus. About a
million pilgrims have completed a weekend Walk, a 72-hour retreat.
Pilgrims commit to ongoing study and action that will assist them to be
more active and vital leaders in their local churches. Open to all
denominations, Emmaus communities empower Christians in the United
States, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Ukraine and the
Caribbean. “I was getting burned out doing church work,” a participant
said, “but I came home energized and on fire with a new attitude.”
Discipleship works with central conferences to develop publishing
teams that produce contextual resources for leaders and laity in all
areas of local church ministry. “This publishing partnership … is so
important because our goal is to create a culture of reading, writing
and learning,” said the Rev. Daniel Mhone, superintendent of the Malawi
Missionary Conference. “We have faith, but we need to add depth of
understanding to our faith.”
5. How much money and how many employees does it take to maintain the work your agency is currently doing?
The United Methodist Board of Discipleship currently has 160
full-time staff members and numbers of part-time and short-time
contract workers.
The dollar amount for Discipleship’s World Service income is
$11,809,886 annually. [Note: When the former Board of Evangelism
created Upper Room Ministries more than 75 years ago, the expectation
was that this prayer and daily devotional ministry would be
self-supporting. Upper Room Ministries continues as a self-funded
division, contributing millions of dollars annually to this completely
self-sustainable ministry.]
Learn more: Website of the General Board of Discipleship
For more information, visit the 2012 General Conference website.
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