wfn.org | Proposed church council could oversee programs, finance

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 5, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{504}

NOTE: Photographs of some of the people quoted in this story can be found at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - A group of United Methodist leaders is exploring the
idea of having one agency coordinate both the church's ministries and its
finances - a move that would mark a dramatic change from the denomination's
history of keeping the money handlers separate from the programs.

The idea of putting money and missions in the hands of a new general church
council is at the heart of a proposal to create a common table where the
United Methodist annual conferences, agencies and other entities could guide
the church's ministries. The common table would enable church leaders to see
the denomination's work around the world in a comprehensive way. 

Though this "Living Into the Future" proposal is very much a work in
progress, members of the General Council on Ministries hope their writing
team can produce a basic plan that the entire group can approve when it
meets in March. If so, the proposal would be refined further and sent to the
church's legislative assembly, the General Conference, which meets in
Pittsburgh in 2004.

The plan has changed markedly since last spring, when the council discussed
the idea of dissolving the church program agencies' governing boards -
including the council itself - and having the new common table assume their
oversight responsibilities. Instead, meeting Oct. 25-29 in Pittsburgh, the
group focused on dissolving both itself and the General Council on Finance
and Administration, and combining their functions into the proposed general
church council. The governing boards would remain intact, with the addition
of representatives from the new common table.

"The basic principle is (having) a table where holistically we can look at
our mission and the resources of money together," said Bishop Edward Paup,
Council on Ministries president and head of the church's Portland (Ore.)
Area.

All but about three of the 50 or so voting members present supported the
basic direction of the proposal during a show of hands Oct. 26. The council
later voted to request a 90-minute time slot early in the 2004 General
Conference to present the plan to delegates.

While members of the Council on Ministries favor combining money and mission
in one place, they acknowledge the difficulty of dissolving the finance
agency, as well as coming up with a membership formula for the new council
that the church would find acceptable.

"The devil's in the details of all of this," said the Rev. Thomas "Andy"
Langford of Matthews, N.C., a member of the council's writing team.

"Living Into the Future" is the latest manifestation of the United Methodist
Church's efforts to reorder its work for greater effectiveness. In the late
1990s, a Connectional Process Team spent four years coming up with a plan
for restructuring the church, but the take-it-or-leave-it proposal was
rejected by the 2000 General Conference. Five "transformational directions"
were salvaged out of the CPT plan and given to the Council on Ministries for
more work. The Dayton, Ohio,-based council, which would have evaporated
under the CPT plan, found itself with a new lease on life. 

Dan Church, the council's top staff executive, presented an initial "Living
Into the Future" proposal to the group in 2001, suggesting among other
things the idea of a single governing board for most of the church's
agencies. After wrestling with that idea last spring, the council turned the
details over to a writing team, which brought back an 18-point proposal to
the October meeting. 

At the spring meeting, some of the church's top staff executives had
objected to the characterization of their agencies as competitive with one
another, insisting that they work collaboratively. The writing team later
determined that the denomination's structure was the problem, finding that
it "impeded the ability to have a common table for a holistic view," Church
said. 

Council on Ministries members offered comments and questions about the
latest draft proposal, then directed the writing team to continue working.
The feedback included the suggestion that the United Methodist Publishing
House and Board of Pension and Health Benefits be included in the mix; those
are the only two church agencies that are currently excluded from the
proposal. Between now and March, when the council meets in the Philippines,
the team will hold meetings and consult with the church's bishops and top
staff executives at general agencies.

With an Oct. 1, 2003, deadline for General Conference legislation, Church is
optimistic that the council can get its proposal in shape and have time to
share it with the annual conferences. "I see a very aggressive timetable,"
he said. "... We've got enough time if we can get a (council) decision in
the spring." 

During their discussions in Pittsburgh, members used gentler language than
they had last April in Oklahoma City to describe the authority that the new
general church council might have. Several suggested dropping the word
"governance" altogether, saying it carried a negative connotation of power
and authoritarianism. Instead, members suggested words that evoke
cooperation, support, interdependence.
 
More work is needed in clarifying governance, Paup said after the meeting.
The new council would provide a "kind of oversight for the programs,
resources and life of the denomination between General Conferences," he
said. "Governance would be related more to the holistic stewardship of the
vision and the mission of the church rather than to micromanage the work of
the various agencies." 

Two of the thorniest parts of the proposal relate to the idea of dissolving
the finance agency and the makeup of the new general church council.

The denomination has historically kept the finance function separate from
its programs and ministries as a way of ensuring accountability. However,
some people inside and outside the general agencies say this has created a
situation in which the finance agency often wields too much clout over
programs. Sandra Kelly Lackore, top staff executive of the finance agency,
said her governing directors haven't had a chance to discuss the proposal
and she couldn't comment on it yet. 

The Council on Ministries writing team decided that the question of bringing
mission and money together had to be answered "before there could be any
other consideration about how our life would be ordered," Paup said. He said
he has sensed "a lot of support" for the basic concept of combining the
mission and money, but added: "I think there are questions people have about
how this will happen."

Noted Church: "Suggesting that what has always been at arm's length from
everything else should be brought into the common arena is a major, major
change."

Another basic element of the current proposal is that the new council's
membership would be directly linked to the annual and central conferences.
Of some 116 seats, the proposal would fill 85 with representatives from the
conferences - one each from the 64 U.S. annual conferences plus three each
from the central conferences in Europe, Africa and Asia. The draft also
provides for another five members for lay and clergy balance.
Representatives from the agencies and the Council of Bishops would round out
the table. 

Some GCOM members voiced concern about whether lay people or certain groups
and jurisdictions would be sufficiently represented. Paup explained in an
interview that the table would be built on the belief that the annual
conference is the basic unit of church life. "Persons are not coming
necessarily to represent their annual conference, but they are coming to be
a member of the council through their linkage to the annual conference."

The central conferences would have about 20 percent of the votes on the
proposed general church council, compared with about 10 percent on the
general agency boards currently, Langford says. "This is going to make us a
global church. The conversations that we'll have are going to be
fundamentally different."

That is a source of hope for central conference members. The council's
Marilina DeCarvalho of Angola sees potential in providing a place where the
physical and economic needs of Africa, Eastern Europe and other parts of the
world can be addressed. "This will help all the global church."

Though they differed on details, the Council on Ministries members affirmed
that need throughout their meeting.

"I yearn for a table that takes seriously conversation that is bigger than
any one of the agencies can grapple with alone," said the Rev. Karen
Greenwaldt, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship. For example, she said, Africa needs a strategy that calls for
more than the typical approach of building a school, a hospital or clinic.
"We need a massive presence of United Methodism," she said. 

Members of the council said they sense some progress in their work. "For me,
there's a greater feeling of trust than there has been in the past," said
Burnham Robinson of Fort Worth, Texas. He believes the council must work on
getting an official piece out to the church explaining the proposal "in its
truest form" as early as possible.

In other business, the council:

7	Elected the Rev. Randy Day to lead the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries as top staff executive. Day, a board executive, will
succeed the Rev. Randolph Nugent Jan. 1.
	
7	Approved a request from the church's Commission on Christian Unity
and Interreligious Concerns to extend the Rev. Bruce Robbins' term as top
staff executive of that agency for another year beyond the denomination's
12-year term limit. The commission has a search committee in place to find a
successor.
	
7	Celebrated the life of the Rev. Thomas Roughface, a council member
and superintendent of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, who died
May 9 from complications related to injuries sustained in a car accident.

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org