wfn.org | UMNS# 05149-Joe Harris, churchwide men's leader,

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Joe Harris, churchwide men's leader, returns to conference ministry

Mar. 11, 2005	 News media contact:   Linda  Green * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05149}

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)-The man who moved United Methodist men forward
for more than eight years is leaving his post to return to ministry in
the annual conference.

The Rev. Joe Harris, top executive of the churchwide Commission on
United Methodist Men, is leaving to become assistant to Oklahoma Bishop
Robert Hayes and director of communications for the Oklahoma Annual
(regional) Conference, effective Sept. 1.

Harris, who has led the men's commission since it was established by the
1996 General Conference, said he is "extremely excited about the annual
conference position I am going to, and am excited about where the
commission has come from and is headed."

Hayes said he is appointing Harris as his assistant and as
communications director because he has proven himself "worthy to get the
best position the annual conference can offer him." He cited Harris'
experience as a pastor, district superintendent and general secretary.

"Joe Harris has the skills and tremendous gifts in being able to
communicate with people, build bridges of understanding and preach the
gospel to the people in the Oklahoma Annual Conference," the bishop
said. "I am excited about his coming and look forward to working with
him."

The commission became an independent organization in 1996 after being a
division of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville. Its
mission is to assist men to know Jesus Christ, serve him, grow
spiritually and seek daily to do his will. The agency develops programs
of recruiting, training, and supporting and implementing men's
ministries in the United Methodist Church. It also coordinates the
denomination's scouting ministries.

"The commission is a lot stronger today than it was when it began, and
it is getting stronger in affecting men and scouting ministry for Jesus
Christ," Harris said. He looks forward to his new position and "to being
part of the itinerant ministry which moves ordained elders from one
location to another for the sake of the entire church."

The denomination's 12-year limit on the tenure of top staff officials of
churchwide agencies was an important factor in Harris' decision to leave
the agency, said Gil Hanke, president of the commission and a layman
from Nacogdoches, Texas.

"Dr. Joe Harris is in his final quadrennium, as he became our general
secretary after the GCUMM was created in 1996. Joe is also an elder and
therefore is under appointment of his bishop in the Oklahoma
Conference," Hanke wrote to United Methodist Men across the church.

"As you know and have experienced, Joe has provided outstanding
leadership and has assembled and refined this new commission from its
very beginning," Hanke wrote. "Joe has taken a vision, a hope, a prayer
and a vital need within the United Methodist Church, and has been the
servant leader that birthed and nurtured the GCUMM to its present
vitality. He has been a blessing to the GCUMM and to the entire church."


While feeling the time is right for the change, Harris said he didn't
want to leave until after the 9th National Gathering of United Methodist
Men in July. He also has other duties to complete, including helping
Bishop William Morris get acclimated as the interim general secretary of
the men's agency. Bishop James King is leading a search committee to
find a new leader for the commission.

Harris said he is confident the search committee will "find the
strongest general secretary, who along with a strong staff, will
continue reaching men inside and outside the church and in strengthening
scouting ministry." He added that he has appreciated working "with the
finest laypeople in the church, whose hearts are in strengthening the
whole church through the ministry of United Methodist Men."

Men across the church can be proud of where men's ministry is today
because of Harris' work during the last nine years, said Robert Powell
of Dothan, Ala., president of the United Methodist Men's Foundation.

Powell noted that Bishop Morris has been a longtime supporter of men's
ministry. "He, along with a committed staff, will hold our work and
ministry together until a new general secretary is hired."

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News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org