wfn.org | African-American Methodists focus on strengthening church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 28, 2000 Contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{172}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by two sidebars, UMNS #173 and #174.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church "needs a dose of
spiritual Viagra," an Atlanta minister proclaimed as he opened the 33rd
national meeting of the denomination's black caucus.

The Rev. McCallister Hollins, pastor of 9,000-member Ben Hill United
Methodist Church, gave participants at the March 22 opening ceremony of the
National Black Methodists for Church Renewal (BMCR) a blistering call for
renewal, both in the black church and the United Methodist Church at large.
He urged the members to return to their biblical roots in efforts to
strengthen the church and reclaim its true identity.

"We have labored under the identity of bingo, bake sales, fish fries,
concert extravaganzas and social clubs. It is imperative that our spiritual
existence is linked with the sociability of culture," Hollins said. He
cautioned those in attendance to "be careful not to become so heavenly bound
that we are of no earthly good."

The church has an identity crisis, Hollins said in his keynote address. "The
real church is not a rest home for the saints but a hospital for sinners."
Not only is the church languishing, but so is the community, he said. 

"The church is crippled, weak, impotent, ineffective and needs a dose of
spiritual Viagra," he said. "...The church is too busy on her own agenda,
while discipleship, saving souls and prayer have been placed on the back
burner."

Hollins, who pastors one of the largest African-American churches in United
Methodism, also talked about "moving from disgrace to dignity" and called
the church to stand against racism. 

Citing recent news events involving African Americans, such as the
6-year-old boy who allegedly shot and killed a 6-year-old classmate, and the
New York City policemen who were acquitted of murder charges in the death of
a black man, Hollins urged the BMCR members to stand up for others and take
up issues of social justice.

"The greatest danger to society is not evil people but good people who
choose to be silent," Hollins said. He told the pastors that they shouldn't
be afraid to speak out against racism from the pulpit, and he asked how many
of them were ready to step up, step out and be counted.

BMCR, which represents nearly 300,000 black United Methodists, was organized
in 1968 as a forum for black Methodists to define issues and develop
strategies for change within the now 8.4 million-member United Methodist
Church. It aims to empower black Methodists for effective witness and
service; involve them in the struggle for economic justice; and expose
racism at all levels of the church, including its agencies and related
institutions.

More than 750 African Americans from across the United Methodist Church came
to Winston-Salem March 22-25 to renew their spirits, recapture the vision
upon which BMCR is based and recommit their lives to winning souls for
Christ.

Under the theme "New Image: Same Mission - Greater Vision: Same God," the
Rev. Tyrone Gordon, pastor of St. Mark United Methodist Church in Wichita,
Kan., gave his final message as national chairperson of BMCR. 

"BMCR, we are standing on the threshold of a new future," he said. 

Reiterating a former call for BMCR to move from the mountain of inactivity,
Gordon said the organization must move to the land of promise, power and
prosperity. "We have been around this mountain too long," he said. For too
long, BMCR has been around the mountains of complacency and status quo
operations, doing things the way they've always been done and depending on
others for its survival, and engaging in backbiting and negative teaching,
he said.

"It is time to move into a new image, yet with a same mission, working with
a greater vision, under the direction of the same God who has brought us
along the way," he said.

Gordon said BMCR cannot move forward unless it does away with the negative
baggage and negative perceptions that some people in both the black
constituency and the church at large have about the organization.

"We must move forward fresh, energized, mobilized, empowered and spiritually
renewed," he said. BMCR must have an image of faith that reflects the
changing times, he said. "We need new wineskins. We cannot continue to place
this new wine that God is pouring upon us in old wineskins." BMCR's new
image must be relevant to the changing needs of the 21st century, he said.

"A new image ain't bad," he said. "A spiritual makeover is not negative, it
is positive."

Gordon said that while the image is changing, BMCR would maintain its focus
on advocacy and empowerment.

"We are not dead; we are alive and we need not fear change," he said. "Just
because you change the package, does not mean you change the content. Change
helps the mission become relevant to the times."

He said BMCR will remain the voice of justice within the United Methodist
Church; the voice of for those who have been marginalized in the house of
God; the trainer of African-American laity and clergy leaders, and future
leaders of youth and young adults; the undergirding for Strengthening the
Black Church for the 21st Century; and "divine troublemakers to the
powerbrokers" of the United Methodist Church. "We are still Black Methodists
for Church Renewal."

The mission of BMCR, Gordon said, is to break the yoke of oppression, build
the spirit of self-esteem among black congregations, empower those who have
no might and speak for the voiceless. 

"God is giving BMCR a mission. As we march into the 21st century, God has
even given us a greater vision. Vision is God's preferred future ... and God
has placed a greater vision before us, not a limited vision."

Returning to the mountain theme, Gordon said that BMCR cannot hang around
the mountain any longer. "It is time to move on to what God has placed
before us. The mountain was all right, and it served its purpose for a time.
It is time to go."

Members should not fear the caucus' movement or the future, he said. The
same God who brought BMCR from the past will propel the organization into
the future, he said. "Because God is on our side, we do not have to fear the
future, and we don't have to worship the past."

He said BMCR is being called to spiritual, political and social renewal in
the United Methodist Church.

During the meeting, participants also were able to attend the daylong
National BMCR University. Seminars were held for topics as diverse as
understanding computers and understanding the hip-hop generation, and more
than 30 workshops allowed participants to discuss critical issues related to
the black church and to share creative models of ministry.

The university was about growth, according to the Rev. Francis Guidry,
pastor of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church in Houston. The daylong
training was about expanding and getting a bigger picture of what it means
to be the church as a whole, she said.

"Ministry is no longer done in a box," she said. "We have to be willing to
do things that take us outside the normal bounds and yet bring us closer to
what God's kingdom will be. That is what this day -- and what BMCR -- is all
about."

Other speakers included the Rev. Darryl Ward, president emeritus of United
Theological Seminary in Chicago, and Violet Fisher, superintendent of the
Mary McLeod Bethune District in West Chester, Pa.

Ward encouraged BMCR to look at the Underground Railroad as a model for a
movement for leadership. Using the theme "Standing in the Gap," Ward noted
the disparities that exist between African-American communities and other
communities on a variety of issues, including education, economics and
justice and social systems. 

During the 1960s, African Americans participated heavily in the Civil Rights
Movement, he said. He challenged BMCR by asking why the church does not have
a movement today for justice, healing and physical change ministries. He
suggested that while the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was an excellent model
for that era and is still looked upon today, it is time for a "new
paradigm." He suggested that the black church look to the Underground
Railroad for new leadership models.

Fisher charged BMCR to move the church's ministries to a higher level and
offered a prescription to "awaken the sleeping giant."  

"The African-American church has the resources to move the church to a
higher level. We have to stop begging and acting like welfare children."  

Bishop Alfred Johnson of Pennington, N.J., Bishop Ernest Lyght of White
Plains, N.Y., and Marjorie Kimbrough, Atlanta, also spoke.   

BMCR participants also:
·	heard about the continuing search for an executive director and the
hopes that the position will be filled by Sept. 1;
·	affirmed a national plan by the Black Clergywomen of the United
Methodist Church to fulfill Bishop Leontine Kelly's dream of getting the
church to elect another African-American clergywoman to the episcopacy in
her lifetime;
·	presented Carolyn Johnson of West Lafayette, Ind., with the David L.
White Laity Academy Award;
·	elected by acclamation Ann Flemings-Williams of Philadelphia as
chairperson of National BMCR; the Rev. McCallister Hollins, Atlanta, vice
chairperson; the Rev. Cecilia Johnson, Seattle, secretary; and the Rev. Rosa
Clements, Cleveland, treasurer.

Before the annual meeting, African-American professional staff members of
churchwide agencies met for the annual National Black Staff Forum. This
organization, established in 1969, offers a supportive and interpretative
arena in which black staff members can discuss common concerns and the needs
of black United Methodists.

In the past, forum meetings were held semi-annually - the spring meeting in
conjunction with BMCR and a fall meeting at historic Gulfside Assembly in
Waveland, Miss., the only national United Methodist property owned and
governed by African-American church leaders. Because of a variety of
reasons, the meeting schedule changed and meetings have been recently held
only prior to BMCR.  

Participants at the March 20-21 session of Black Staff Forum decided to
return to the semi-annual schedule and conduct a spring meeting at Gulfside
Assembly. Forum participants also voted to establish a perpetual scholarship
at the assembly to honor the service of longtime executive director Marian
Martin. Staff members established the scholarship with $1,000 to send a
child or youth to the assembly each year to participate in the summer
program. 

Black Staff Forum officers elected for a two-year term are Marilyn Magee of
the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, Nashville, president; the Rev.
Hilly Hicks of United Methodist Communications, Nashville, vice president;
Cecelia Long of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of
Women, Evanston, Ill., recording secretary; Cynthia Haralson of the United
Methodist General Council on Finance and Administration, Evanston, Ill.,
corresponding secretary; the Rev. John Penn of the Upper Room, Board of
Discipleship, Nashville, chaplain; and Helen Allen of United Methodist
Communications, Nashville, treasurer.
# # #

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