wfn.org | Helping the Church Reach the World

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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 (3482 notes).

Note 3478 by UMNS on March 11, 1997 at 16:14 Eastern (6420 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                             124(10-71B){3478}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            March 11, 1997

First African staff member
authorized by discipleship board

     NASHVILLE (UMNS) --  As part of an emphasis to transform the
world, the governing body of the United Methodist Board of
Discipleship meeting here March 5-8 authorized the agency's first
staff member in Africa.
     At the request of Zairian Bishop Fama Onema, the 58-member
body agreed to place a Board of Discipleship staff member in Zaire
as a liaison to the 700,000 people there who are seeking to be
loyal to Christ in the midst of the poorest of circumstances.
     The new staff member, a native of Zaire, will be trained by
the Board of Discipleship to assist the United Methodist Church
there with evangelism, Christian education and formation.  The new
staff member also will acquire and distribute the agency's
resources.
      How the board can help the United Methodist Church become a
Christ-shaped community that reaches out and transforms the world
was the overriding agenda during the board's four-day meeting
here.
     Working with staff members, board members sought to find ways
to help the agency hone its work and mission for a new day.
     Stated purpose of the board is to assist annual conferences,
districts and local churches in their efforts to make disciples of
Jesus Christ and to help individuals grow in the understanding of
God so that they may respond in faith and love. The agency
attempts to win people to Jesus Christ by providing faith and
spiritual formation guides through its units of discipleship
ministries, the Upper Room and curriculum resources.
     During his "state of the agency" address, the Rev. Ezra Earl
Jones, chief staff executive, expressed his belief that the board
needs to understand the nature of a transformational community it
is seeking to help the church become. The primary task of the
church, he said, is to invite people in, encourage them by
bringing them into settings where they can be formed by God's
power and sent out to make disciples.   
     He said the struggle faced by the board is determining "how
to drop a plumb line on the spiritual center of the church and
focus on what God is doing in the world and how God is
transforming the world." He said an outer crust has been created
so high that there's no clarity about what's at the center. Jones
said congregations and annual conferences must find a way to crack
the crust open, go to the center, see what is there and make sure
the center follows the word of God.
     As Jones talked about the church and how the board of
discipleship must respond, board chairwoman Bishop Sharon Brown
Christopher of Illinois, talked about "pragmatic" shifts that are
occurring in the agency, the church and the society.
     Using imagery contrasting a machine and an organism,
Christopher, said society is at an evolutionary moment and is
moving toward a major shift in self-understanding, or what it
means to be a human being.
      In the machine understanding of the world, Christopher said,
emphasis is on hierarchy and on a top and bottom. In the organism
understanding of life, she said there is a "web that builds from
the center out."
     People are shifting their mindsets from "me to we," she
continued, focusing on community and people and how life is
energized.
     According to Christopher, the Christian movement "is not
dying, but shedding its skin and missing its protection." 
     She said the 1996 General Conference clarified making
disciples of Jesus Christ as the church's central mission and at
the same time let go of uniform structures. Annual conferences and
local churches were given permission to organize in a variety of
ways to achieve their goal of making disciples. 
     Christopher said the shift taking place between the
mechanistic world view and the organismic world view has to do
with focus. In the mechanistic world, the thing that bound
organizations together was structure, rules and regulations, she
explained. In the post-modern organization, the "thing that binds
us together is a common sense of  mission and identity."
     Christopher offered three ways for the general church to
"break from its boxes" so that the whole church is fueling
organisms of leadership for a new way of life. 
     First, she said leaders need to learn about identity and help 
reflect who and what the United Methodist Church is so that its
mission and vision can become a reality.
     Second, she said the general church needs to create a
learning environment and framework for learning in the life of the
church and community. "I need to know how to shift from knowing to
learning and be open to God in our midst," she explained.
     Third, she said leaders must become catalysts for making
connections and establishing networks.
     In other actions, the board celebrated the accomplishments of
the Upper Room and said goodbye to Janice Grana, publisher of the
Upper Room since 1984. She is moving to North Carolina but plans
to continue working with the Upper Room in a different
relationship. 
     Among teaching and study resources approved from the board's
Curriculum Resources Committee was "The Doctrine, Ministry and
Mission of the United Methodist Church," to be written by
Tennessee Bishop Kenneth Carder.  To be released in September 
1998, the study can be used by church members and those coming
into the United Methodist Church as a way of understanding the
particular emphases of the denomination.
     The board also:
     * welcomed Gabrielle Bonaiuti, a member of the Methodist
Church of Italy who is visiting the General Board of Discipleship
for two months to learn about Christian education;
     * celebrated the first anniversary of Devo'zine, a magazine
for youth that already has a circulation of 65,000;
     * approved a policy statement for childcare to be used by
local congregations, United Methodist Councils and agencies;
     * explored the episcopal initiative on children and poverty;
     * celebrated use of the Walk to Emmaus program in South
Africa and other parts of the world.
                              #  #  #
     

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