wfn.org | Church's Board of Higher Education extends top executive's term

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 9, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{456}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The governing members of the churchwide Board of
Higher Education and Ministry voted to extend the tenure of the Rev. Roger
Ireson by six months at their 2001-2004 organizational meeting Oct. 5-7.

Ireson, who has led the agency for 12 years, was slated to end his tenure at
the end of the year because church rules adopted in 1988 bar executives of
program agencies from serving longer.  

A search for a successor was to begin immediately at the conclusion of the
2000 organizational meeting. However, the Nashville-based agency has
experienced reorganization, an influx of new staff members, a high turnover
of board members and a change in episcopal leadership, said Hector Navas of
Tarpon Springs, Fla., who is chairman of the board's personnel policies
committee.  

"Our concern was how to respond for the good of the board, and we felt that
the good would be to have a time of transition and then begin an immediate
search for a new general secretary," he said. The board also believed that
an extension was necessary because both the agency's division of ordained
ministry and the division of higher education needed to be included in the
selection process to help shape the type of leadership that was required,
Navas said.

In light of all the developments at the agency and out of concern for its
stability, the 63-member board of directors recommended that Ireson's tenure
be extended until June 30 or until a new general secretary is nominated, not
to exceed Dec. 31, 2001. The nomination will be forwarded to the churchwide
General Council on Ministries for formal election this month.

Bishop Janice R. Huie of the Arkansas Area, who was elected president of the
board for the next four years, said the agency is planning for an orderly
transition for a new general secretary.  

"We are very pleased that Dr. Ireson will be remaining with us for at least
the first half of 2001," she said. A 13-member search committee will be
formed by Dec. 15 and "will move as expeditiously as possible toward the
selection of a new general secretary," she said.

Huie said the development of clergy and lay leadership for the 21st century
is one of the most important challenges facing the United Methodist Church.
"The mission of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry is to
meet that challenge, (and) we meet it not only for the United States but for
the whole world." 

The board will build on the strengths of its past and lead the church into
the future during 2001-2004, she said. "I am excited to be working with
colleges, universities, seminaries and in the global leadership development
for pastors."

Making his annual state of the board address, Ireson highlighted
accomplishments made by the agency and described challenges that lie ahead.

He centered his message around "Pilgrims through time and space" and talked
of the "dynamic tension between what emerges and what continues." He called
change the most certain factor about life.

Christians are asked to live in two time zones in their life and ministry -
God's time and ordinary time, Ireson said. "Change and eternity shape our
existence." Time, he said, presents a challenge of a new context, a new
space for understanding and a new challenge for belief.  

Ireson said people today are coming to church with no knowledge of the
faith, and that poses a new challenge or mission for the church. "Gone is
the triumphantalism of multiple choirs and grand buildings with burgeoning
members, to be replaced by a quiet faith question," he said.
 
A crisis of faith exists in many places, and it is made more critical by the
lack of depth in faith expression and knowledge, he said. 

"One of the great issues as we move into a new century is to rediscover
objectivity in life as well as subjectivity," Ireson said. He described how
many young people are anti-institutional and suspicious because of a belief
that institutions cannot be trusted to lead them to the sources of life. The
board faces a "tremendous ... moment of opportunity but does so with an
institution (the church) that is sluggish and out of touch with young
people," he said.

The question, he said, is whether the church can recapture the vibrancy of
faith with an openness that becomes engaging for young people. 

In addition to Huie, the board also elected Timothy D. Crawford, Frakes,
Ky., secretary; Brent L. McCumons, Midland, Mich., assistant secretary;
Charles L.  Johnson Sr., Columbia, S.C., chairman of the division of
education; and Rhoda A. Peters, Louisville, Ky., chairwoman of the division
of ordained ministry.
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United Methodist News Service
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