wfn.org | Director named for Shared Mission Focus on Young People

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 27, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn. 10-71BP{148}

NOTE: A photograph of Drew A. Dyson is available for use with this story. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Drew A. Dyson, associate pastor of youth and
young adult ministries at Bridgewater (N.J.) United Methodist Church since
1995, has been named executive director of the office of the Shared Mission
Focus on Young People in Nashville, effective May 1.

Dyson has served in two other New Jersey Area United Methodist churches and
directed the youth ministry program for the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
Association.  He is a deacon in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference,
where he has also served as the co-chairperson of the conference youth
ministry team. 

He succeeds Linda Bales, who directed the churchwide initiative for four
years after it was launched by the 1996 General Conference. During its first
quadrennium, the office was located in Dayton, Ohio, and was
administratively related to the denomination's General Council on
Ministries. The 2000 General Conference voted to continue the initiative but
to move the office to Nashville and link it administratively to the Board of
Discipleship.   

Dyson has a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary
and a bachelor's degree in youth ministry and psychology from Eastern
College in St. Davids, Pa.

Continuing the commitment of the 1996 General Conference, the Shared Mission
Focus on Young People serves as an entity around which the entire church
comes together to focus attention on the issues and needs of young people. 

The goal of the first four years continues: "To re-order the priorities of
the church to better respond to the joys and pains of young people." 

The initiative, with a four-year, $2.8 million budget, is guided by a team
of 26 elected members and 13 representatives from churchwide boards and
agencies. The team's primary role is to develop a comprehensive and
coordinated approach dedicated to enhancing the church's ministry with young
people. A transitional leadership team is meeting in April and July. The
entire team met late in 2000 and will convene again in September. 
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United Methodist News Service
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