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A UMNS Report
By Heather Hahn*
3:00 P.M. April 2, 2012
Jay Brim, the Rev. Kim Cape and the Rev. Tim McClendon
UMNS photos by Linda Green, United Methodist Board of Higher
Education and Ministry and Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
“More than we need a new organizational chart, we need a new Pentecost.”
The Rev. Kim Cape, top executive of the United Methodist Board of
Higher Education and Ministry, shared that thought as part of a larger debate on proposals to restructure United Methodist agencies.
Joining Cape in the three-hour debate March 31 were Jay Brim,
Southwest Texas Annual (regional) Conference lay leader, and the Rev.
Tim McClendon, Columbia (S.C.) District superintendent and candidate to
be bishop.
Each of the debaters has been involved in some way in developing
restructuring legislation and dealing with the ramifications. All three
agreed that The United Methodist Church needs to change, and all
agreed that restructuring alone would not achieve the goal of renewed
disciple-making.
But, they differed greatly on what good a new structure would do.
Brim spoke of the need for structural change and greater nimbleness
in decision-making. As chair of the Connectional Table’s legislative
task force, he helped draft legislation to consolidate agencies under
the Call to Action proposal that launched the discussion.
The Call to Action proposal urges a 10-year focus on sustaining and
increasing the number of vital United Methodist congregations — that
is, congregations on a trajectory of growth and engaged in their
communities.
“There isn’t a plan out there that’s going to accomplish the Call to
Action,” Brim said. Still, he quickly added, a new structure can help.
“What we’re trying to do with that legislation is find a more
efficient and economical way to run our general church staff and to
ensure that the way we run that staff will make it easier for us to be
the global church we hope to be and are at this moment with tenuous
connection,” he said.
McClendon echoed Cape’s desire for a new “Pentecost” for the
denomination, which has been steadily losing members in the United
States for more than 40 years.
United Methodists “would have to be blind and unconcerned” not to
know that local churches need more vitality and that too many people do
not know Christ, he said. However, he disputed the effectiveness of
agency reorganization.
“I don’t think we can solve a spiritual problem with a structural
solution, and I think we have a spiritual problem,” he said. “I know
that’s a simplistic answer, but I think we would be better off if we
did a lot of repentance and have a lot of revival rather than tinker
with structure.”
The United Methodist Men of the Southwest Texas Conference sponsored
the gathering at Windcrest United Methodist Church in San Antonio. Gil
Hanke, the top executive of United Methodist Men, moderated the
discussion, asking the debaters questions submitted by the audience
there and online.
The proposals under discussion
Most of the conversation centered on the Call to Action Interim Operations Team’s
proposal, which would merge nine of the denomination's 13 general
agencies into a new United Methodist Center for Connectional Mission
and Ministry.
The plan would replace boards now governed by more than 500 unpaid
volunteers with a 15-member board of directors who also are volunteers.
Those 15 board members of the new center, in turn, would be
accountable to a proposed 45-member General Council for Strategy and
Oversight, which would replace the Connectional Table.
The Connectional Table, which coordinates the denomination’s
mission, ministry and resources, refined and approved the Interim
Operations Team proposal. Brim as well as McClendon, another
Connectional Table member, helped to draft the restructuring
legislation, though McClendon has since become a vocal critic of that
plan.
Brim said the proposal would reduce confusion between sessions of
General Conference, the global denomination’s top lawmaking body, which
convenes every four years.
“What we do right now is we have about 600 people who between
General Conferences reinterpret what General Conference did in 13
different ways,” he said. “Part of what the (Interim Operation
Team/Connectional Table’s) petition will do is to take away that
complexity of governance and simplify it significantly. It is radical
change.”
Since submission of the initial restructuring legislation Sept. 1,
2011, other alternative plans have followed. These include legislation
titled “A New UM Administrative Order”
submitted by the Methodist Federation for Social Action, an unofficial
progressive caucus. An ad hoc group also has put together an
alternative called “UMC Plan B,” for which legislation is still being drafted. McClendon was a consultant on Plan B.
The 2012 General Conference
will take up the proposals when it meets April 24-May 4 in Tampa, Fla.
Brim, McClendon and Hanke are all General Conference delegates who
will serve on the General Administration Legislative Committee, which
gets first crack at the restructuring proposals.
Impact on the local church
One of the main questions the debaters discussed was whether any of
the restructuring proposals would make a difference to local churches.
“That is the question we’ve all been asking,” McClendon said.
He pointed out that about 2 cents of every dollar given to the local
church goes to support general church operations, including the
bishops, Africa University and general agencies. Most of every dollar,
he said, goes to the local church, the annual conference and support
for clergy pension and health benefits.
“I am not sure we can fix the system by which we see more of the
general church resources coming to the local church except making sure
that more and more clergy and laypersons read their emails and call up
general boards and agencies,” he said. “It takes initiative. We need
leaders — lay and clergy — who are willing to be proactive and willing
to do church in new and vibrant ways. ... I am not sure any of these
proposals help the local church be more vital.”
Cape acknowledged that many large churches do not need the resources general agencies provide.
“It’s the mid-sized and smaller churches that need the general
agencies,” she said, “although bishops and district superintendents
call the Division of Ordained Ministry almost every day.”
She added that the Interim Operations Team’s proposal to allow the new center’s board to redistribute up to $60 million of general church funds during the next four years could drastically reduce resources agencies provide to local churches.
Brim countered that the question about local churches presumes the general church does not make any difference now.
“We believe the general agencies make all the difference in the
world globally in who we are as a United Methodists,” he said. “Within
the U.S., which funds the vast majority of operations at the general
church level today, this will make a significant difference if each
local church ... feels a greater confidence that the apportionment
dollars are being used in ways that make a difference for Christ.”
Beyond restructuring
The three debaters also discussed ways to foster vitality beyond restructuring.
McClendon said that United Methodists need to participate more in
what he called “friend-gelism” — reaching out to friends, relatives,
acquaintances and neighbors.
Brim echoed that sentiment. He and other laity, he said, “are the ones who must go out and ask people to come.
“We’ve got to be ready to talk to people in our workplace and every place. We’ve lost that.”
Cape explained in detail what she meant by a new Pentecost. She
cited Ephesians 4:11, NRSV: “The gifts he gave were that some would be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.”
“I think in the past generation, the church was asking us for
pastors and teachers, and pastors and teachers are great ... But pastors
and teachers take care of the folks you have. It’s the apostles, the
prophets and the evangelists that go out after the folks you don’t
have. That’s why I’m talking about a new Pentecost. God is calling
these people, and we need to help them discern their call.”
She added that when visitors do show up at United Methodist worship because they have been invited, “Please don’t say you’re sitting in my seat. Say instead, ‘Come sit by me.’”
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 newsdesk@umcom.org.
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