wfn.org | Teleconference Explores Structure

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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 (3362 notes).

Note 3360 by UMNS on Jan. 6, 1997 at 16:32 Eastern (3442 characters).

SEARCH: United Methodist, organization, structure, mission,
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Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
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CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker                           6(10-71B){3360}
          Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             Jan. 6, 1997

Teleconference explores new freedom
of churches to organize for ministry

     NASHVILLE, Tenn.  (UMNS) -- Participants in approximately 90
teleconference downlink sites sought to understand actions of the
1996 General Conference allowing United Methodist churches to
organize as needed to carry out their ministries.
     During the Jan. 5 teleconference, "Ministry for a New Day:
Organizing for Ministry & Mission," sponsored by the
denomination's churchwide Board of Discipleship, Timothy E. Moss,
director of conference leaders for the board, said that the
General Conference action is "not to say you cannot use the
[current] administrative board-council on ministries or
administrative council structures if they are working for you."
     Every congregation will be expected to see to nurture,
outreach and witness for its members and its community, he said. 
"There will be some sense of abandonment with the old 'thou
shalts' of church structure pulled away from you."  The
denomination's Book of Discipline no longer contains detailed
sections on those structures, he said.
     Some of the administrative committees in the church still are
mandated by the Discipline, however -- pastor-parish relations,
nominations and personnel, trustees and finance.
     Marilyn Magee, board director of congregational leaders,
explained that the 1997-2000 quadrennium is a time of transition,
"a time to re-evaluate what we are doing in the areas of nurture,
outreach and witness."  It is a time to "focus on where hearts and
minds are strangely warmed," she said.  "We need to view the
change as a process rather than an event."
     According to Moss, everything a church does in ministering to
its people should be judged by the mission statement adopted by
the General Conference last April in Denver. The statement says,
"The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples
of Jesus Christ."
     The Rev. Timothy L. Bias, board director of congregational
leaders said, To have a structure before you have a vision is
going at it backward. "The gift of General Conference is that now
we all have the same mission." The pastors are not out front, but
are working beside the people, he said.
     Magee summarized the steps of the recommended process as:
     * explore where you are;
     * assess your church's ministry against its mission
commitment;
     * discern and decide how your mission and ministry will take
place;
     * then, organize to bring that about.
     According to the Rev. James R. King Jr. of Nashville, Tenn.,
a member of the denomination's General Council on Ministries, the
process is not dictated by "the upper levels of the church," but
is driven by the needs of the grassroots. "It is a return to the
fundamentals."
     Magee called the process "a wake-up call" to be ready for
what the General Conference of 2000 does with church restructure.
     The teleconference was produced by United Methodist
Communications in its studio here.
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