wfn.org | Local congregations are key for Publishing House

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 11, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{155}

By Anne Dukes*

ATLANTA (UMNS) - Its financial results are strong, but the United Methodist
Publishing House must continue to improve its understanding of local
congregations and their needs, according to President Neil Alexander.

Sales are up and that's "great news," Alexander told the Publishing House's
board of directors. "However, the main story is not about us, but about how
what we're doing is used by the people in the congregations giving witness
to Jesus Christ."

The Publishing House needs to "understand the dreams of the congregations,"
he said in his report, given at the beginning of the board's April 4-6
meeting in Atlanta. Other key themes for the agency include responding to
small- to medium-sized congregations, securing new people to develop
products and building a fresh pool of authors, he said.

Those are key steps to addressing the challenges faced by denominational
publishing - challenges such as market segmentation, diffusion of power in
selecting materials and technology that provides easy access to competing
materials.

The emphasis on local congregations isn't new. Already, each unit of the
agency has a relationship with a local church. Since January, however,
visits with the congregation have become more organized under the leadership
of Ezra Earl Jones, former top staff executive of the Board of Discipleship.

"We're also taking some teams of people from the Publishing House to visit a
variety of congregations in order to learn more about their needs," said the
Rev. Judy Smith, a staff executive, after the meeting. "We're continually
struck by the wide variety of congregations, and there is no 'one size fits
all' for resources that serve them." 

In his report to the board, Alexander spoke of the 11,000 core products
currently available from the agency, citing the success of items such as the
Disciple IV Bible study series and the new Black History Month devotional,
which sold 12,000 copies. 

The Publishing House has high hopes for a new book entitled The Bible and
the Historian by Paul Minear, set for November release and designed to break
the barrier between the Bible and historians, Alexander said. Other strong
products include the United Methodist Hymnal and the new songbook, The Faith
We Sing, as well as Spanish vacation Bible school materials that are as
current as the English-language versions.

Through the six months ended Jan. 31, sales were up 3.4 percent, or almost
$2.1 million, at $62.36 million, according to Larry Wallace, senior vice
president of finance and chief financial officer. Revenues were boosted by
Disciple Bible study sales, retail store activity and online commerce
through Cokesbury.com.

Net operating revenue was $6.9 million, up 31.8 percent from $5.2 million
for the same period last year. A marked decrease in investment revenue
resulted in year-to-date net revenue being down 26 percent at $4.99 million.

In other business, the board members heard from Dan Church, top staff
executive of the General Council on Ministries, who outlined his proposal
for creating a single governing board for 12 of the denomination's 14
general agencies. The Publishing House and Board of Pension and Health
Benefits would not be included.

The denomination "is not optimally functional" with its current structure,
Church said. "There's a tremendous paucity of trust between general
agencies, and the episcopal leadership is not respected, and the
organization is structured for competition, not conciliation."

In addition to creating a single board, he proposes adding a second
legislative house, comprising the denomination's bishops, to the General
Conference, and changing the way the denomination works with churches
outside the United States.

The Publishing House board took no action on Church's proposal, but it did
break up into discussion groups and reconvene for a question-and-answer
session. "I applaud you for thinking outside the box," board member Ben
Alford of Nashville, Tenn., told Church.

The board affirmed the executive committee's earlier decision to give
$50,000 to support setting up a pension fund for clergy members in the
central conferences - regional units of the church outside the United
States. The churchwide Board of Pension and Health Benefits and the Board of
Global Ministries are also working on that effort.

The directors also recognized the Rev. Dal Joon Won, general editor of the
new Korean-English hymnal, Come Let Us Worship, and Donald Sherrod, who
recently retired as vice president of store sales. 
# # #
*Dukes is a staff writer for the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the newspaper
of the United Methodist Church's North and South Georgia annual conferences.

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United Methodist News Service
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