wfn.org | Focus on Young People

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2923 notes).

Note 2922 by SUSAN PEEK on April 26, 1996 at 11:44 Eastern (3182 characters).

SEARCH: youth, young adults, ministry, focus, missional

060 {2924}                                          April 26, 1996

General Conference '96

General Conference approves
youth and young adult initiative

     DENVER, (UMNS) -- An initiative designed to increase and
enhance the involvement of youth and young people in the church
during the next four years was approved April 25 by the 1996
United Methodist General Conference here.

     "A Shared Focus On Young People," is an emphasis created by
the churchwide Council on Ministries in response to a 1992 General
Conference declaration that the church must do more to address the
needs of young people -- specifically, the spiritual, social and
economic needs that are critical to wholeness and achievement.

     The delegates voted 589-329 to accept this new missional
focus and recommended $3 million to fund the iniative.

     Considerable debate, specifically about the financial
implications of another priority, took a major portion of the
day's morning agenda.

     Before the delegates adopted the proposal, they first amended
the budget from its original quadrennial request of $270,000.

     Jeff Quick, North Little Rock, Ark., suggested the original
budget remain but requested the General Council on Ministries make
available another $230,000 to local churches to be used as "seed
money to respond to the needs and issues of young people in the
church and community."

     He also proposed that $2.4 million be provided to a shared
mission team to oversee and coordinate pilot programs in 10 annual

conferences and in 10 local churches. This money is to pay for the
salary of trained and qualified staff to establish a ministry with
young people for the future.

     Quick further recommended a grant of $100,000 to undergird a
fund to strengthen theological education in the area of ministry
with young people.

     He said the original quadrennial budget alone is "belittling
to a focus or to a priority of the church, especially on the
denominational level." He said that the amount "seems unfair" and
if it was not adjusted, the youth in the church would view
conference actions as "doing little more than speaking out of the
sides of our mouths.

     "It's time for us to ... dive into the ministry of youth and
young people in our denomination," he said. "We are not studying
it; we're deciding that this is going to be a priority and a focus
of our denomination."

     The Rev. Rebecca C. Carver, a campus minister in Cedar Falls,
Iowa, made an impassioned plea for the General Conference to
implement a focus on young people. "I have waited on my life to
see the United Methodist Church take youth and young adults
seriously and be committed to us," she said.

     After watching friends and students "walk away" from the
church "because they are not taken seriously," Carver said the
church cannot afford to spend four more years studying the needs
of youth and young adults. "We need to be supportive and keep
them, keep all of us in the church."
                              #  #  #
                                                    -- Linda Green

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