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 (3365 notes).

Note 3365 by UMNS on Jan. 8, 1997 at 16:18 Eastern (5951 characters).

SEARCH: young people, United Methodists, initiative, emphasis,
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Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
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CONTACT: Linda Green                              11(10-71B){3365}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              Jan. 8, 1997

Churchwide focus on young people 
has director, organizes for work

                 by United Methodist News Service

     ATLANTA (UMNS) -- Linda Bales, a part-time consultant for the
denomination's General Council on Ministries (GCOM), has been
named director of the churchwide mission initiative focusing on
young people.
     She was introduced here during the Jan. 6-7 organizational
meeting of the 19-member team organized to plan and administer the
four-year initiative, "A Focus on Young People -- Walking Together
in a Way that Leads to Life." 
     Bales was introduced by C. David Lundquist, top staff
executive for the GCOM, the agency responsible for administering
the mission initiative. 
     He told the team that it will be a "freestanding" and
"independent" group and not a committee of the GCOM. The team,
comprised of youth and adults from the United States, Africa and
Sweden will relate to the Mission Resource Ministry Team in the
new structure of the council.
     Prior to being chosen for this position, Bales was a part-
time staff consultant for GCOM and the churchwide Board of Global
Ministries. Her responsibilities at the council included providing
technical assistance for the new focus on young people and the
other churchwide initiative, "Strengthening the Black Church for
the 21st Century." 
     Her work with the mission agency included serving as adjunct
staff to the Communities of Shalom that involved training, Shalom
Zone sites and coordination.
     Earlier Bales was an urban planner addressing issues focusing
on "at-risk" youth, housing and homelessness, and substance abuse.
     "Supporting a team that represents the diversity of the
church and is fixed on transformation is more than exciting!" she
said about her new position. "The expectations are high and the
challenges are great. But this is a journey that God is calling us
(the church) to make, and it is one whose time has come," she
said.
     The Shared Mission Focus on Young People was mandated by the
1996 General Conference as a declaration for the denomination to
do more to address the spiritual, social and economic needs of
young people. 
     The $3 million initiative is funded through the Focus 2000:
Missions Initiative Fund, apportioned to United Methodist churches
at $750,000 annually during the 1997-2000 quadrennium. 
     The new churchwide undertaking is identified as a focus not a
program because it comes from and belongs to all entities of the
church. It calls on the church to reorder its priorities and
concentrate on the needs of young people enabling them to become
participants in its life and work. 
     The term "young people" as opposed to children, youth or
young adults is used in this missional emphasis to cover the
issues young people face regardless of age or school
classification.
     During the meeting, the team learned of similarities between
the shared mission focus and the Council of Bishop's Initiative on
Children and Poverty, which calls the church to a new level of
dedication and commitment on behalf of children and the
impoverished.
     According to Bishop Marshall "Jack" Meadors of the
Mississippi Area, chairman of the initiative, the bishops don't
see it "as a program for the church," he said. "We see it as an
opportunity for the council to offer vision and focus around two
issues that God is calling us to give attention to -- children and
the impoverished."
     He said both enterprises are timely and denote "an urgency
about our getting on board this moving train" and make the needs
of children a priority. 
     Meadors will represent the Council of Bishops on the team
throughout the quadrennium. A representative from each United
Methodist agency will serve as a resource person to the Shared
Mission Focus team.
     In the business session, the 19-member team elected Jeff
Quick of North Little Rock, Ark., and the Rev. Lillian Smith of
Washington as co-leaders. 
     Members also organized three ministry teams --
Biblical/theological Grounding, Interpretation and Training, and
Funding -- to carry out its heavy workload. The chairpersons of
the teams are respectively, the Rev. Dwayne Royster, Philadephia,
Pa., Danton Bankay, Bronx, N.Y., and Pat Callbeck Harper, Helena,
Mont.
     After his election, Quick told United Methodist News Service
in order for the focus to become a reality, each member of the
United Methodist Church will be asked to establish a one-on-one
relationship with a young person in his or her community.
     The two team members from the central conferences (outside
the United States) expressed concern that the initiative recognize
spiritual and physical realities that are different from those of
the United States. They said that problem-solving in their
countries should not be based on Western solutions.
     According to Celso M. Manuel, 22, of Luanda, Angola, West
Africa, youth in his country have similar problems to those in the
United States, stemming from economics and the lack of spiritual
understanding. Although youth read the Bible and attend church, he
said, they don't understand what God is calling them to do in the
context of their own lives.
     Elisabeth Tullhage of Sweden said it is time to raise the
awareness of young people so that they will rid themselves of the
mindset that they are the church of tomorrow and realize they are
the church of today. "We can't wait for tomorrow," she said. "We
are not a whole church if we leave out a whole generation. We need
everyone."
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