wfn.org | ABCUSA: Hunt, Medley Call for Action on Vision for Ministry

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (11/18/02)--In addresses to the General Board
this past weekend in Valley Forge, Pa., American Baptist Churches USA
President David G. Hunt and General Secretary A. Roy Medley called American
Baptists to seize and act upon a vision of life-changing ministry in the
name of Christ.

"God has given us a vision of new life," Hunt said.  "The question is, can
we see it?"  And if we do confront that vision-that includes overseas
ministry, discipleship and many other opportunities currently before the
denomination-we need to ask additionally, "What are we going to do about
it?" Hunt noted.   

Such specific areas as the potential capital campaign, considerations of
structure and process, discipleship and the future direction of Educational
Ministries, NEW LIFE 2010, the "Go Global" International Ministries
strategic plan and the general secretary's "Centered in Christ" emphasis
detail "the vision God has given us."  If we act upon the vision, Hunt said,
"We can do amazing things together."

Hunt, president of American Baptist Churches USA for the 2002-2003 biennium,
recently was elected a Democratic state representative in Oregon. 

Medley shared with the board that his first year as general secretary has
been "a year of confronting challenges and discovering the fullness of God
in the midst of those challenges."  American Baptists, he said,  "live in a
time when the world needs a sense of hope....  We are a people of hope, a
people who have a promise through the grace of Jesus Christ."

"Closure is needed on longstanding conversations" such as the budget
covenant and the structure and process consideration, he said.	As important
as these and other current concerns are, "we need to open up space for
vision and mission for American Baptist people...we need to create space to
have these conversations."  Medley said he hoped American Baptists are
"seeking to be a community of people who live not out of fear and anxiety
but people who are centered in Christ" through a renewed commitment to
"worship, Bible study and prayer." 

02ABN166
 
American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (610)768-2077; fax:
(610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org; richard.schramm@abc-usa.org