Higher education and ministry board keeps global focus
Oct. 20, 2006
NOTE: Photographs and related coverage are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Vicki Brown*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Seeking to discern God's will sincerely and truthfully is risky business, the Rev. Jerome King Del Pino told the directors of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
"We are privileged to do ministry in a truly defining moment in history," Del Pino said at the elected directors' Oct. 12-14 meeting in Nashville. "Africa, Latin America and Asia are emerging as the new 'heartlands' of Christianity."
Del Pino, the agency's top executive, asked directors to reflect on the implications of such change for the board's commitment to preparing global leaders for a global church. "Could anyone still believe that business as usual will do? We certainly do not," he said.
The United Methodist Church's full participation in "realizing rather than fracturing the body of Christ in the United States and around the world depends vitally on the quality and kind of leaders we are able to help the church recruit, educate, form, nurture and deploy," Del Pino said.
Three values
Del Pino stressed three key characteristics for such leaders and spelled out how the board is committed to those three values through its strategic plan and programs.
First, global leaders for a global world are guardians of the connection, he said. He cited the Women of Color Scholars program, the 2006 International Clergywomen's Consultation, the publication of Meeting God at the Boundaries: A Manual for Church Leaders, and efforts to support Dillard University in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina as examples of the board's effort to form lay and clergy leaders who "reflect the global community and strengthen the diversity of the denomination."
Second, global leaders must be bearers of a renewed vision of the church, he said. The agency is fostering that new vision in many ways, he said. He highlighted the work of the Commission on the Study of Ministry, which he said the board hopes will offer United Methodists "a vision for ordering our life and our leadership with the nimbleness, flexibility and creativity needed for faithful ministry in our day."
The report of the commission, now being written with the assistance of the Rev. Thomas Frank of Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, will be presented to the board and the church for study and decision in the next few months before being submitted to the General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, in 2008.
Del Pino also cited an April 19-22, 2007, gathering, "Celebrating Diakonia," to mark the 10th anniversary of the Order of Deacons; a criminal justice summit planned for fall 2008; EXPLORATION 2006 and a new Web site, www.ExploreCalling.org, both aimed at helping young people who are considering ordained ministry; and a Feb. 15-16, 2007, consultation to consider theological issues raised by a Judicial Council ruling in a case dealing with a United Methodist pastor's refusal to take an openly gay man into membership.
Finally, he said, global leaders for a global church must be advocates for a learned leadership. Board programs that assist in that include the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development; the agency's new publishing plan, which so far has resulted in the publication of five books with two more in production; and a redesign of the agency's Web site. He also noted continued support of church-related schools, colleges, universities and theological schools.
Del Pino's full address can be found online at www.gbhem.org/ResourceLibrary/GSAddress2006.pdf.
Salvation is central
Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo, resident bishop of the North Katanga Area in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Tanganyika Area in Tanzania, also highlighted the demands of a global church in his sermon during the opening worship service of the board's meeting.
"The salvation and development of mankind must be the center of all our agendas," Ntambo said. United Methodist-related Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, is one example of that, he said, describing the school as a commitment made out of love.
"Education to us is a treasure. Education is a salvation," he said. He spoke of the need to make campus ministry a priority, warning that "we neglect the church of the future if we don't focus on the young people."
"We need to reach out to the marginalized people, the unheard people," he said. "Finally, when we are planning to go global, we need to be ready to pay the cost, just as Jesus paid the price of dying on the cross."
During the meeting, the directors welcomed the board's newest member, 16-year-old Stephanie Deckard, a member of Fayetteville (N.Y.) United Methodist Church and a junior at Fayetteville-Manilus High School.
Before the board meeting, the Global Theological Education Committee approved the allocation $5,000 for the Cambodian Methodist Bible School; $2,000 for training pastors in Senegal; and $800 for the dissertation expenses of the Rev. Kazad Kadj at Africa University.
*Brown is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
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