wfn.org | Team Considers Future of Church

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (306
notes).

Note 306 by UMNS on Sept. 9, 1997 at 15:41 Eastern (5510 characters).

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CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally                       494(10-71B){306}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Sept. 9, 1997

Future of church requires basic shift
in thinking, says Connectional Process Team

     CLAREMONT, Calif. (UMNS) -- Members of a Connectional Process
Team (CPT) created by the 1996 General Conference believe that
nothing short of a basic shift in thinking is required for the
United Methodist Church to be faithful and effective beyond the
year 2000.
     The international, 38-member group has been asked to "manage,
guide and promote a transformational direction" for the church and
to make recommendations to the 2000 General Conference.
     Reflecting the sentiment of many in the group, the Rev. Jack
Loflin of Jackson, Miss., said transformation means a basic shift
from "this way of thinking to that way of thinking."  Another
member suggested that "business as usual" must be interrupted "so
that the Holy Spirit can work."
     Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, Springfield, Ill., president
of the group, suggested transformation means moving from the image
of the church as a "machine" to an "organism" as described by the
Apostle Paul when he spoke of the Body of Christ. 
     As the group struggled with what it wanted to say to the
church following its three-day meeting here, Aileen Williams of
Rochester, Minn., said, "It is not a question of a statement but
of belief.  Do we believe this beautiful United Methodist Church
can be a new creation of Jesus Christ?  Do we believe it and are
we willing to work for this and invite others to do the same?"
     Asked what shifts or transformations are required, individual
CPT members created a long list including:  from top-down to
collegial; representative to linking; parochial to global; our way
to God's way; centralization to decentralization; hierarchy to
networking; self-centeredness to Christ-centered; exclusive to
inclusive; competition to partnership; debate to dialogue; rules
to relationships.
     Continuing, individuals said transformation would require
moving from homogeneity to diversity; clergy-centered to
constituency empowered; structure-driven to function-driven;
talking to doing; and from an institutional focus to a mission
focus.
     The team has been plowing through information collected
previously by a Connectional Issues Study of the General Council
on Ministries and the Council of Bishop's committee working on the
global nature of the church.  A dozen of the 38 members are from
Central Conferences outside the United States.  They have also
participated in numerous listening groups and have others planned.
In November they will meet at Lake Junaluska, N.C., with bishops
and leaders of churchwide or "general" agencies.
     While the team has been asked by the General Conference to
make recommendations concerning organizational forms, it has
resisted being pushed quickly into a restructuring mode.  It has,
however, agreed that whatever the church looks like beyond the
year 2000 form must follow function and mission.  Regarding
organization, Dale Segrest of Tallassee, Ala., warned that
"renaming is not transforming."  The last major restructuring of
the church occurred in the early 1970's following the union of The
Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.
     Roland Siegrist of Austria, vice president of the team, said
transformation must start where church members are already at
work.  "It is not a question of how we might delegate this work to
others," he said.  The Rev. Richard Jones, Whitefish, Wis., said
the transforming work of the risen Christ is already active in the
world.  "We just need to join God's process." 
     The team has reached agreement that any decisions made about
the future of the church must involve as many people as possible
in an "interactive organizational design."  It is attempting to
model that openness and collegiality throughout the church.
"Wisdom does not reside with any one group or in any single
location," one member observed.  Consensual decision-making at all
levels of church life was a concept repeatedly affirmed. This
approach, stressed Williams, breaks down barriers "by bringing
people into relationship."
     The Rev. James King, Murfreesboro, Tenn., a CPT member who
was also on the Connectional Issues Study Task Force last
quadrennium, said too much emphasis has been placed on structure
and form but not enough on the "essence of faith."  Stressing the
importance of prayer, he said "We must teach people how to pray
because when you are in the presence of God you change."  Too many
churches, he added, behave like Rotary Clubs.  Others in the group
stressed the importance of a church that is spiritually centered.
     A timeline developed here calls for the team to produce an
initial report in September 1999 with a final report in December
1999.  The General Conference meets in the spring of 2000 in
Cleveland, Ohio.
     Many parts of the United Methodist Church have already begun
moving in a transformational direction, according to Christopher. 
"While the General Conference will be an important moment, the
intensification of our focus on God's transforming power will
occur well before and long after that time," she said.  
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