wfn.org | Karen Greenwaldt nominated to lead Board of Discipleship

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 29,2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{441}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph is available.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The Rev. Karen A. Greenwaldt, a staff member in
the United Methodist Board of Discipleship for 19 years, has been nominated
to serve as the agency's top staff executive.

She will begin her responsibilities as general secretary of the
Nashville-based agency Jan.1 following her formal election by the churchwide
General Council on Ministries next month.  

Greenwaldt, 49, was nominated Sept. 28 by the 52-member board of directors
meeting in Nashville.   One of four program agencies in the 10
million-member church, the Board of Discipleship has as its mission to
provide resources and services to enhance the ministries of annual
(regional) conferences, local churches and individuals, to help people grow
in faith, witness and service.  Greenwaldt has served as head of the board's
discipleship ministries unit since 1996.

She succeeds the Rev. Ezra Earl Jones, who led the agency for 20 years. He
was honored for his service during the board's 2001-2004 organizational
meeting Sept. 26-30. First executive of the Board of Discipleship, created
in 1972, was Bishop Melvin Talbert, who served from 1973 until he was
elected a bishop in 1980.

Announcing the nomination, Bishop Kenneth Carder of Jackson, Miss., said the
search committee had "been intentional in identifying someone who is
passionate about the board's mission to support the church in making
disciples of Jesus Christ." 

Greenwaldt brings experience and knowledge of the board and its work, as
well as the ability to build on foundations already laid while moving in
some bold new directions, Carder said. "She is committed to working with the
agency in giving priority to grounding in the historical disciplines of
evangelism, biblical/theological study and reflection, Wesleyan disciplines
of spiritual formation, vital worship, stewardship and mission," the bishop
said.  

Greenwaldt said she was humbled and grateful for the confidence shown in her
by the nomination.  Leading the agency "is an awesome task . . . The mission
and ministry of this board are so important. We do vital things for the
church, and we can do marvelous things in the future if we have the will and
the courage and the determination to make ministry in and through local
congregations matter."

Like John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, Greenwaldt expressed hope that
the United Methodist Church would be a movement around the world, not just
an organization.  "United Methodists have always gone to the edges of
society, gone to the edges of wherever people were, and they preached the
Gospel ... to make disciples."

The board's discipleship ministries unit, which Greenwaldt has been
directing, has responsibility for the leadership needs of annual conferences
and churches, supporting their efforts as they "lead and walk with others
into a journey of faith and discipleship in the community."

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Greenwaldt is an ordained member of the
church's Central Texas Annual Conference.  In Nashville she is affiliated
with East End United Methodist Church.  She is a member of the Christian
Educators Fellowship and has been a long-time supporter of Alternatives, an
organization devoted to "non-consumerist celebrations of Christmas and
Easter."

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United Methodist News Service
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