wfn.org | North Texas churches see broader ministries with Vision 2020

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Feb. 20, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-32-33-71BP{064}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

By John A. Lovelace*

As long ago as 1998, the United Methodist North Texas Annual Conference had
20/20 vision - or, more properly, Vision 2020.

That's the name conference members unanimously adopted that year for a $12
million program to be split three equal ways, $4 million each, to:
7	Create at least 100 new congregations by the year 2020.
7	Emphasize urban ministry.
7	Improve two conference-owned facilities, a retreat center on Lake
Texoma and a camp and conference center on Lake Bridgeport.

It's the largest financial endeavor in North Texas conference history and,
some say, the largest ever for any United Methodist annual conference
primarily for programmatic use as opposed to brick-and-mortar projects.

But even the 20/20 vision proved faulty. With a banker-led steering
committee and a professional fund-raising team, instead of raising $12
million, the conference received $12.5 million in gifts and pledges ahead of
schedule - 18 months instead of the expected 24. That set off a major
celebration during conference sessions in 2000, capped by a heat-inducing
message by a pastor from Houston who later gained most-favored pastor status
at the White House, the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell.

As of the end of 2001, Conference Treasurer Marvin Guier reported $5.8
million payments on gifts and pledges. Individuals and foundations have
three years to complete their payments; local churches have five.

Thirty-four churches achieved "Leadership Church" status by pledging in six
figures, and two from Dallas went to seven: Highland Park United Methodist
Church at $1.3 million and Lovers Lane United Methodist Church at $1.0
million. 

In all, 250, or 76 percent of the conference's 316 churches and 12
fellowships, pledged to Vision 2020.

So, ministries-wise, what's Vision 2020 doing?

Creating new congregations: A 12-person team reports 15 starts, the majority
expected to serve North Texas' increasingly non-English-speaking population.
 
Some are small-group fellowships meeting in homes, anticipating their first
corporate worship services. One is purposefully unorthodox, holding weekly
covenant services among artists, musicians, dancers and patrons of the vast
arts community of Dallas.

Another new congregation, primarily Anglo and English-speaking, is
unorthodox in another way. Even before its first worship service on Feb. 10,
it had borrowed $800,000 to purchase 27 choice acres in a dirt-flying,
home-building former rural area. Like several other Vision 2020 ministries
across all three $4 million emphases, it benefits from close mentor/partner
relationships with one or more established churches.

Promoting urban ministries: North Texas was the first annual conference to
take to the max the churchwide Board of Global Ministries' offer to
underwrite 10 urban missionaries' salaries for three years.

Three are stationed in the conference's three districts outside the
immediate Dallas area, indicating that as North Texas defines it, "urban"
means more than Big City.

The seven other urban ministries portfolios are: 
7	Restorative justice for released prisoners.
7	Shalom racial reconciliation ministries.
7	Hispanic ministry coordination.
7	Project Pentecost, or additional language (primarily Asian)
coordination.
7	ARTSPIRIT for the arts community.
7	Project Transformation, summer-long and after-school programs mostly
for Hispanic and African-American children.
7	A generalized assignment whose primary activity is an annual
home/community restoration project called Amigos Days.

Also under "urban ministries" but apart from the general-board funding is a
subset known as Foundry Churches. These take their name from the church that
John Wesley organized for London's last and least, housed in a former cannon
factory (foundry) and catering to the community's needs. As of Jan. 1, three
pastors are establishing United Methodist fellowships/congregations in two
"foundry" locations, one in a primarily Hispanic north Dallas area, the
other in a multi-ethnic east Dallas area.

Expanding camp and conference centers: Bulldozers and groundbreaking shovels
signaled recent activity at both locations. A $1 million Vision 2020 gift
from a familiar North Texas Methodist/United Methodist name, the
Perkins-Prothro Foundation, assured success for a $2 million adult lodge and
conference center at Texoma. It will include 24 double-occupancy rooms, a
conference room with four breakout rooms and a dining room seating 160. 

Bridgeport Center has three lakeside lodges and a pool house adjacent to a
new swimming pool under construction.

Bishop William B. Oden, in his sixth year as leader of the church's Dallas
Area, is generally cited as the principal visionary behind Vision 2020. But
he never lets the conference forget who and what this is all about.

In a recent weekly column in the North Texas Reporter newspaper, he hailed
the net gain of 2,266 members last year, from 157,763 to 160,029. Four of
six districts reported numerical growth.

"Let us be clear," he wrote. "This is only one way the church grows. It also
grows in the depth of discipleship of its members; in the prayer life of its
members; in its commitment to mission; in its hospitality to those outside
its fellowship. But without growth in numbers, the church would eventually
die."

No one's expecting anything like that in North Texas -- certainly not before
2020.

# # #

*Lovelace is editor emeritus of the United Methodist Reporter, published in
Dallas, and a 1998 inductee into the United Methodist Communicators Hall of
Fame.

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United Methodist News Service
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