wfn.org | Bethany project does renewal by looking

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Date: March 21, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the web: http//www.disciples.org

97b-17

    INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- There's a move afoot in
the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to push
the mainline denomination forward by looking back
-- to Bethany.

    A new endeavor, "The Bethany Project," aims
to help revitalize Disciples congregations by
helping their pastors. The venture offers them
group support, help with deepening their spiritual
lives and leadership skill enhancement. A two-track 
approach will be used that involves training
regional ministers to work with church pastors.

    The renewal effort was developed by the Rev.
Martha Grace (Gay) Reese and is being funded by a
$260,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment.

    Reese, an ordained Disciples minister and
former attorney, brings seven years of personal
experience to the revitalization project. Until
1996, she was senior pastor of a suburban
Indianapolis congregation that doubled in
attendance and reduced debt by half during her
tenure. That experience led her to realize that
pastors need this kind of support.  

    The project represents a "radically new
approach to church renewal," said General Minister
and President Richard L. Hamm. "I believe it has
the potential for changing the entire perspective
of our denominational leaders."

    This kind of resourcing, Reese feels, is key
to congregations' survival. "My sense is that
we're at a very crucial time in our history," she
said. "Many of our congregations are really at a
point where they need to be revitalized or they
could miss evangelizing the next generation."

    "We have come to realize that renewal will
not come by changes in structure or program, but
by the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our
midst," said Ohio Regional Minister Howard
Ratcliff.  "Through the Bethany Project we are
genuinely and ardently seeking the leading of God
for our ministries and for the life of the
church."

    The specifics of the project involve
selecting groups of local church pastors to be
trained over a five-year-period to do
revitalization. This task is being approached
through a series of retreats for small groups of
regional ministers and later for local pastors. 

    The separate gatherings of regional ministers
and congregational leaders share a common agenda
of skills training, prayer and meditation, and
group discernment around congregational or
theological issues.

    Why spiritual retreats? They are a way of
helping church leaders deepen their connection
with God, and form the foundation from which
numerical and spiritual growth begins.  "If we can
become much more deeply connected with God, I have
the most profound confidence and faith that God
will show us where to reach out to people," Reese
said.

    The church has tried "so hard to make things
work that we may be missing the fact that God
really can provide a lot of the energy and joy
that will lead us as congregations and a
denomination," she added.

    In the process, Reese believes the Disciples
of Christ can be a model for other mainline
denominations whose memberships are aging and
declining. "The Disciples have a great deal to add
to the broader church. We have practical people .
together with other Christians, and an enormous
ability to reach out to help people." 

    "We have a rich heritage of faith that is
reasonable and passionate," said Arkansas Regional
Minister Barbara Jones.  "If we have had problems
with evangelism programs producing new members for
our churches, perhaps it has been due to our own
lack of passion, individuality and autonomy and
superficial spirituality."  

    The first retreat was held in January with
eight regional ministers in historic Bethany,
W.Va. Church founder Alexander Campbell
established the denomination's first higher
education institution, Bethany College, here in
1840.

    The involvement of regional ministers is key
to the renewal process, according to Reese. They
will shape the project's direction and determine
which congregations and pastors will be involved. 

    A second group of regional executives
currently is being formed and will have its
initial meeting at Bethany in October 1997. The
regional retreats are led by Reese and General
Minister and President Richard L. Hamm.

    Once participating congregations and pastors
are identified, these parties sign on for long-term 
commitments to support pastors' participation
in the project and ensure limited lay involvement.
Subsequent groups of regional ministers, pastors
and congregations would rotate in and out of the
project, ensuring a steady group of participants. 

    Within four years Reese anticipates that the
Bethany Project will be financially self
supporting. The project will have a total duration
of approximately eight years.  

    What are the possible results from the
renewal effort? Two current "spinoff" activities
include a web site on the Internet
(http://pages.prodigy.com/bethanyproject) and a
support group or "prayer circle" of 150 persons
who are praying for the project. 

    Reese eventually expects to develop a group
of 100-200 pastors with advanced training in
church growth, practical theology and
spirituality.  Further, the project could help
"slow the hemorrhage of sensitive and gifted
pastors into mediocre survival modes, or out of
ministry entirely." 
 
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