wfn.org | Making disciples means changing hearts, bishop says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 21, 2002	News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71BP{121}

NOTE: Two sidebars, UMNS stories #122 and #123, are available for use with
this story. Head-and-shoulders photographs of Bishop Kenneth Carder and the
Rev. Karen Greenwaldt are available at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Making disciples of all nations involves
transforming communities as well as human hearts, a United Methodist bishop
told governing members of the denomination's discipleship agency.

Bishop Kenneth Carder, who leads the church's Mississippi Area, shared with
members of the Board of Discipleship the story of a once-prominent,
100-year-old United Methodist Church in his state. The church had dwindled
in size from 1,000 to 17 members, despite its location in a neighborhood
full of people and in a town with a population of 50,000. Now it was
closing. 

Noting that the church used official United Methodist resources, rituals and
curriculum, had won an award for evangelism and was Methodist to the core,
the bishop wondered why it was closing and what it had missed. The answer,
he said, was that the church was in a neighborhood in transition and had not
reached out to the people around it.

In every U.S. city where the United Methodist Church is present, the story
can be repeated "with varying levels of prejudice or with different 'who is
in' and 'who is out' criteria," Carder said.

"This is our challenge," the bishop told the discipleship members, "and if
what we do here does not attack that issue, then we have little reason to be
here." 

Carder, president of the Board of Discipleship, spoke during the opening
session of its March 13-17 meeting.

The board must interpret what it really means to make disciples of Jesus, he
said. "We must continue to move beyond exclusive personal experiences in
terms of what it means to make disciples of Jesus Christ." The congregation
he described had been making disciples, but something had been missing.
 
"Making disciples of all nations has to do with transforming communities, as
well as human hearts; the creation of communities of love, of grace, of
justice and hospitality that look like Jesus Christ," Carder said.

The Board of Discipleship provides resources to the church for making
disciples, and how the agency interprets that charge is critically
important, the bishop said. 

The board also is responsible for evangelism, "and one of the great
travesties of the last 100 years is that we have abdicated the gospel as
though there are two gospels, a social and a personal," he said.  The only
gospel that exists is the gospel that manifests itself in the totality of
cosmic existence, Carder said.

Spiritual formation must be involved in forming community as well as inner
life, Carder said. It must go beyond quietism to include what happens in
government, economics and community organizations. Spiritual formation in
the Wesleyan tradition includes acts of devotion, worship, mercy and
justice. "To leave either one out is to distort spiritual formation," he
said.  

The board's task, the bishop said, is to develop curriculum resources that
shape people in the whole tradition and enable the church to engage the
diversities of people and their cultures. Not since the era of Constantine
has the church faced a more formidable task of Christian education, he said,
stating that the generation of today does not know the basic Bible story.
The first strategy in addressing the issues of a church is to teach, then
teach and teach some more, he said.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will do," said the Rev.
Karen Greenwaldt, the board's top staff executive.  In her state of the
board address, she said, "God's people are not in the business of traveling
down whatever road the whims of church life might take us."  

She said the road adage seems to be the wisdom of ministry found in many
local United Methodist churches and annual conferences.  Following the
"whims" of programs, ideas, efforts and suggestions, "many pastors and laity
wander the back roads by traveling though the work of congregational and
conference life," Greenwaldt said. While noting that some souls are saved
along the way, she posed the question: "Who is calling the people to a road
of faith that will lead them to the Promised Land?"  

The Hebrew people had a pillar of fire and smoke to guide them, she said.
What are the people today following, and who are the people in local
churches and communities who are extending the invitation to follow Jesus?
"Are there pastors and laity who deeply know where the Promised Land is and
how to get there? Are there people who know the promises of God and how to
help others access those promises?"  

Yes, there are pastors and laity who know about the Promised Land, she said,
but "there are not enough pastors and people across our churches and in our
conference who know and follow the signs and promises of God, and follow in
obedience along the way, helping others do the same."

Because of that shortage, numerous United Methodist churches and people in
local communities "are wandering around, lost in a maze, looking at leaves
or whatever else gives them a sense of satisfaction. They truly are seeking
God," she said.

The board exists for the business of calling pastors and lay members to deep
knowledge and obedience to God on behalf of others, Greenwaldt said. Despite
all that the agency does to produce resources and materials that support the
work of pastors and laity, there is a clamor for more resources, more
training, more money to support ministry, and more leaders to teach basic
skills for ministry or address particular areas of ministry concerns.

The board must be about doing its business as usual and must also attend to
the significant needs for more focused Christian spiritual leadership among
pastors and laity, Greenwaldt said.

In other action, board members:
7	Awarded $120,000 in grants to 16 ethnic local church projects (see
UMNS #122).
7	Approved 12 projects for funding for 2002 through Shared Mission
Focus on Young People/Board of Discipleship grants of $120,500.
7	Established endowment funds for both the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship and the Upper Room as permanent funds of the United Methodist
Church Foundation.
7	Approved the Shared Mission Focus on Young People's concept of a new
centralized coordinating body for ministries with young people in the United
Methodist Church and expressed support for such a structure being linked to
the Board of Discipleship.
7	Adopted a Curriculum Resources Committee logo to distinguish United
Methodist-approved curriculum.
7	Celebrated the establishment of Africa Upper Room in Eikenhof, South
Africa, which will serve as a first step and base from which to develop
Upper Room publishing and distribution for the United Methodist Church
throughout Africa.
7	Affirmed the selection of Ronna Seibert as executive director of the
United Methodist Youth Organization.
7	Recommended the United Methodist Publishing House explore the
feasibility of printing all official United Methodist hymnals in large
print.
7	Recommended the Board of Discipleship explore the feasibility of
developing a lay speaking course for ministry with older adults.
7	Recommended the Board of Discipleship explore the feasibility of
developing Spanish and Korean versions of the advanced courses in lay
speaking.

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United Methodist News Service
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