wfn.org | Groups seek creation of agency division for young people

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Feb. 20, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{062}

By Tim Tanton*

MESA, Ariz. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's two top organizations for
young people are joining forces to propose creating a division within one of
the general agencies to coordinate ministries for youth and young adults.

Launching a division would be a vital step to empowering young people and
drawing more of them into the life of the church, according to directors of
the churchwide Shared Mission Focus on Young People. 

"I'm drawn towards (a) division because I think it's the most realistic
option we have right now," said Julie O'Neal of Scottsdale, Ariz., and
co-leader of the Shared Mission Focus team. A division represents the best
opportunity for bringing about long-term systemic change in the church, she
said.

The Shared Mission Focus team and the steering committee of the United
Methodist Youth Organization joined in supporting the idea during Feb. 15-18
meetings in Mesa. About 70 people, primarily youth and young adults from
around the United States as well as Europe, Africa and the Philippines,
attended.

Leaders of the Shared Mission Focus will present the idea to the
denomination's Board of Discipleship in March. Both the Shared Mission Focus
and United Methodist Youth Organization are housed with the board in
Nashville, Tenn. The division would be created within an existing agency
that has not yet been specified. 

After the board meeting, work will proceed on draft legislation that will be
circulated around the church for comment next year, with the goal of having
a final proposal for the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh.

The Shared Mission Focus team also will present a proposal to the
discipleship board for creating a global young people's conference, which
would be the official voice of young people in the United Methodist Church,
said the Rev. Drew Dyson, executive director of Shared Mission Focus.
Concerns and advocacy issues could be raised at the global event and taken
back to the central and U.S. jurisdictional conferences, and the gathering
would be the voice of young people to the General Conference.

Details are still being worked out, but the possibilities include holding
the conference every four years and bringing together 120 delegates -- 10
each from the five U.S. jurisdictional conferences and the seven central
conferences outside the United States. 

The proposed division would operate separately from the global conference
and would be governed by its own board of directors. It would have a
structure similar in key ways to the Women's Division of the Board of Global
Ministries. The unit would have the autonomy of the Women's Division, as
well as a voice at the table when the top staff executives of the general
boards and agencies meet.

The creation of such a unit is an idea whose time has come, people with the
Shared Mission Focus team and the youth organization said.

The move was born out of the Shared Mission Focus team's realization last
September that the denomination needs a centralized coordinating body for
young people's ministries. The absence of such a unit was one of several
problems the team identified, along with the lack of validation for
ministries with young people; the dearth of young candidates for full-time
ministry; the failure of the church to respond to the changing lifestyles of
young people; the lack of a global context for much of the church's
ministries with the young; and the departure of young people from the church
"at an alarming rate."

The Shared Mission Focus leadership team began working with the youth
organization's executive committee in September, and both groups endorsed
the plan for creating a coordinating body for young people's ministries. In
Mesa, the Shared Mission Focus team presented the idea to the youth
organization's steering committee, which committed its support and appointed
resource people to participate in the work. 

During joint sessions, every member of the steering committee and Shared
Mission Focus team had a chance to speak on the proposal.

"I think we can transform the church and give the youth a lot of power,"
said June Willson, a Shared Mission Focus director from Summerville, S.C.

Dyson noted that a division offers the greatest freedom and possibility for
doing ministry at the top level of the church - the local level, where the
real ministry of the church happens.

"It's a great step for our organization," said Meredith Humphrey of Fort
Smith, Ark., chairperson of the youth organization's steering committee,
after a late session. The goals of the Shared Mission Focus support the
youth organization's mission of empowering youth and giving them an equal
voice in the church, she said.

Another advantage: A division would have permanent status and funding in the
church. The Shared Mission Focus, created in 1996, comes up for renewal
every four years at General Conference. 

In brainstorming the division idea, the Shared Mission Focus team considered
several other options: a general commission, a national plan similar to the
National Plan for Hispanic Ministries, a standing committee at an existing
agency or an expanded United Methodist Youth Organization. 

Of those alternatives, the creation of a general commission appealed most to
the team members, in part because it would give young people's ministries a
general secretary with equal voice among the top staff executives of the
other boards and agencies. However, the team concluded that the church
probably would not be receptive to creating a new commission, and that the
idea presented financial challenges and other drawbacks.

The team discussed at length a proposal made last year by Daniel Church, top
staff executive of the General Council on Ministries (GCOM) in Dayton, Ohio,
to create a single governing board for all of the denomination's agencies
except the United Methodist Publishing House and Board of Pension and Health
Benefits. The full GCOM will consider Church's idea in April.

If the single-board idea ultimately received General Conference approval in
2004, then youth ministries would have their own portfolio, putting them on
an equal footing with general agencies, Shared Mission Focus leaders said.
 
"We are now engaging the whole church in a conversation to reinvent the
church," Benoni Silva-Netto, a GCOM staff executive attending the Shared
Mission Focus meeting. Young people must be part of that process, he told
the team. "We are losing (young people) in terms of the life of the church,
and therefore what you are doing right now we commend highly. We want to be
your ally also in restructuring the church."

The Shared Mission Focus team is committed to being a partner in ongoing
dialogue on Church's idea, Dyson said later. "Our particular interest is how
that new reality would address or encompass the needs and concerns of young
people across the church."

Though members of the youth organization and Shared Mission Focus reached
consensus on the division idea, some concerns were raised. Youth
organization members wondered how their group would fit into the new
division and whether their voice would be diminished. Emphasis also was
placed on ensuring that young people in the central conferences are
represented.

The creation of a division is part of a broader effort by the groups aimed
at empowering and lifting up ministries for young people. The campaign,
called "I Dream A Church," is focused on generating support at all levels of
the denomination for such ministries and for giving youth and young adults a
greater voice in settings such as General Conference.

"The I Dream A Church (campaign) is the biggest possible generation of a
movement within the church to address the needs of young people," Dyson
said. Its goal is to get the church, particularly young people, to share
dreams for the future.

"It really is the product of a groundswell," said Jay Williams of Buffalo,
N.Y., co-leader with O'Neal of the Shared Mission Focus team. A movement is
under way in the church in support of youth and young adult ministries, he
explained.

Work is under way on an "I Dream A Church" Web site, which will be online
soon. Once the site goes up, the Shared Mission Focus team will invite
people to join in conversation about the division proposal and what the
church might look like, Williams said.

In other business, the team members heard updates on applications from
around the church for Shared Mission Focus grants. 

Dyson also told the group that his office is seeking someone for a two-year,
full-time internship. The intern would be involved in developing a
communications strategy and managing projects such as training and
leadership development. The paid internship begins July 1 and would be based
at the Shared Mission Focus office in Nashville.

Amid the long workdays, the Shared Mission Focus and youth organization
leaders took time for worship sessions. Drawing on 1 Timothy 4:12 during an
evening devotion, Arthur Jones, a Shared Mission Focus director from
Highland Village, Texas, encouraged his listeners. 

Young people, he said, have a right to be involved and have a say in the
church. "We are the church of today."
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*Tanton is news editor for United Methodist News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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