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Congress on Evangelism inspires laity, clergy
By Amy Forbus

When the Rev. Tyrone Gordon, pastor of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church in Dallas, received a complaint that the congregation didn’t get to vote on whether to add a second campus, he was taken aback.

“I did not think we had to vote on the Great Commission,” he replied to the sender of the e-mail. “When we’re operating under our mission, we have all the permission we need,” he told the crowd at opening worship of the Congress on Evangelism, an annual event co-sponsored by the Council on Evangelism and the denomination’s General Board of Discipleship.

“Leading in the Wesleyan Way” drew nearly 1,000 lay and clergy participants January 6-9 in Nashville, Tennessee. The event focused on concepts outlined in the 2007 book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Abingdon Press) by Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase, one of the event’s featured speakers.

Fruitful ministry. Schnase told how churches can reach out and change lives through the practices he identifies in the book: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity.

He cautioned against studying the book without applying it to a church’s ministry—or even worse, simply re-naming committees to match the book’s topics but not making any real changes. If a church tags its annual canned food drive a “Risk-Taking” mission project, for instance, it’s missing the mark, Bishop Schnase said.

“Having everybody bring two cans of food for four weeks running is not Risk-Taking Mission and Service,” he said. “And a church that says, ‘That’s the best we can do,’ is a church that has written its own death warrant.”

Schnase highlighted the intentional use of the word “practices” in his book’s title, which has launched a denomination-wide movement. Practices help us improve over time, he said, noting that professional baseball players still practice the same routines they did back in Little League.

Workshop sessions were based on each of the practices. The Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey, executive pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, a congregation of 4,000 weekly worshippers in Tipp City, Ohio, and author of Ultimately Responsible: When You’re in Charge of Igniting a Ministry (Abingdon Press, 2006), spoke on Radical Hospitality.

“Everything Jesus taught about hospitality is all about going,” she said. “It’s not primarily about getting people into church, it’s about getting the church into the world.”

Kibbey interviewed the Rev. Dave Hood, pastor of Fort McKinley United Methodist Church in Dayton, a congregation that became a satellite church of Ginghamsburg and regained vitality by connecting with its surrounding neighborhood.

Fort McKinley members rake leaves for their neighbors and serve Sunday breakfast, complete with omelet and pancake stations. “We wanted to make this breakfast seem like you were at the best hotel on the planet,” said Hood. Table hosts start conversations with guests and invite them to worship.

Hospitality has helped increase worship attendance from 40 to 250, and the welcome is backed by opportunities for spiritual enrichment. But growth in numbers, says Hood, is “not the purpose, but the by-product” of extending Radical Hospitality.

Worship, mission. The Rev. Mike Slaughter, Ginghamsburg’s lead pastor, identified five dimensions of Passionate Worship: message, medium, mystery, music, and mission. Effective worship experiences that touch people, he said, tend to address each of these dimensions in a way that makes sense for a congregation’s cultural context.

Slaughter also preached at an evening worship service built around The Sudan Project (www.thesudanproject.org), a ministry of Ginghamsburg UM Church that has provided clean water, education, and agricultural development in the refugee camps of Darfur.

During worship, a screen displayed a running tally of the children dying in Sudan. The total stood at 887 at the close of the service, a silent but powerful message that mission cannot be overlooked.

In his session on Risk-Taking Mission and Service, Bishop Schnase called Slaughter an example of the type of people the church needs to identify: those who “really get it and are willing to carry some of the weight of change.”

Like The Sudan Project, mission projects that are effective tend to “skip the hierarchy,” Schnase said. Congregations form partnerships directly with each other, and conferences work together without going through denominational boards and agencies.

Schnase cited the Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign (www.nothingbutnets.net) as a prime example of successful grassroots mission: specific, concrete, image-driven, and appealing to both mind and heart.

“There are lessons in that about how we’re going to have to do missions in the future,” he said.

Developing faith, generosity. “Ministry springs from faith formation itself,” said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, head of the denomination’s General Board of Discipleship, in her presentation on Intentional Faith Development. “Faith formation isn’t something we just hope for. It’s real; it’s something we work on.”

Greenwaldt said it makes a difference when we set time for God each day, and added that listening for God is crucial to ministry. “Leaders can’t ask people to go where they don’t go,” she said.

Explaining the concept of Extravagant Generosity, the Rev. Kent Millard, pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, told the story of his congregation’s “Miracle Sunday,” when an offering large enough to pay off their debt of $200,000 was collected. They prepared for the offering throughout Lent, and held it on Palm Sunday.

“The biggest challenge was getting people to believe it was possible,” said Mr. Millard. “I wonder how many miracles are not happening in our congregations because of our unbelief, our cynicism, our resentment?”

Christians must decide whether the church of Jesus Christ is a missional entity or an organization with a mission statement, said the Rev. Paul Borden, executive minister of Growing Healthy Churches (previously, American Baptist Churches of the West).

The major difference between the two, he said, is that a missional entity does whatever it takes to make new disciples. “The true definition of Christian sacrifice is being willing to sing music you don’t like,” Borden said.

Churches that are healthy and mature are able to reproduce by making new disciples, said Borden. He encouraged clergy to think more like missionaries than pastors.

Latino track. This year’s Congress included its first-ever Hispanic/Latino track of workshops, including simultaneous translation for the sessions. 

Among the workshop topics were ministry in multicultural settings, planting new congregations, and starting Hispanic/Latino congregations in partnership with Anglo churches.

The Rev. Nora Martinez, a district superintendent in the North Georgia Conference, outlined stages for launching such a partnership. “The ministry of Latinos is part of the ministry of the whole church,” she said. To become true ministry partners, she added, it is important for congregations to avoid a “landlord-tenant” model, and instead show the unity of God’s family in how the ministries work together.

Many participants said they also valued the networking opportunities the event provided.

“Right now I’m focused on the possible establishment of a national coalition of Latino ministers,” said the Rev. Edward García, a first-time attendee who serves El Divino Redentór United Methodist Church, a congregation in McAllen, Texas.

Denman lecturer. The Rev. William J. Abraham, Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, delivered this year’s Denman Lectures, named for Methodist layman and evangelist Harry Denman, a founder of the Foundation for Evangelism.

Abraham praised the work of Albert Outler and Chinese evangelist John Sung, both of whom cared passionately about evangelism, but approached it from different angles.

“The last thing we need to do is give our brain a holiday,” Abraham said, referring to Outler’s enthusiasm for the intellectual study of evangelism.

At the same time, he cautioned, we must trust in the power of the Holy Spirit: “There should never even be the distant appearance of wishing to avoid a belief in the supernatural.”

Abraham contended that Outler—who came up with the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” of Scripture, experience, tradition and reason—developed significant second thoughts about many of his own ideas toward the end of his life. The form of Methodism constructed under Outler’s influence “is the one that’s suffered drastic decline,” he added.

Dr. Abraham cited the denomination’s Four Areas of Focus—improving global health, developing and revitalizing congregations, developing new leadership, and engaging in ministry with the poor—but questioned whether they would help make disciples.

“It is an injustice to our mission statement if those are our only priorities,” he said, adding that we need to share faith even more than John Wesley did in his day.

Power of prayer. The Rev. Maxie Dunnam, chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary, emphasized in a sermon message that evangelism is the duty of every Christian.

“We don’t care enough,” he said. “We don’t believe that it’s a life or death issue... [but] our ministry and our witness have life and death implications.”

Dunnam closed his sermon by asking worshippers to gather in small groups and pray for individuals who do not know Christ. 

The Rev. Terry Teykl of Renewal Ministries continued the focus on prayer for the lost. “There are more lost people in your town than there are churches to put them in,” he said.

Teykl said he keeps a “Ten Most Wanted” prayer list, which contains the names of 10 people whose salvation he prays for daily. “The thing I want most in life is to take somebody to heaven with me,” he said. He challenged pastors to get out of the church world and talk with people who aren’t Christians.

The Rev. Bill Tate, an attendee from First United Methodist Church of Martin, Tennessee, agreed that it’s far too easy for pastors to sit in their offices and never engage in relationship with non-churchgoers.

“We have to force ourselves to make opportunities to find people,” he said.

Amy Forbus is a staff writer for The United Methodist Reporter. Reprinted with permission of the United Methodist Reporter (www.umportal.org).

 

Abraham on Outler

The following was excerpted from Dr. William J. Abraham’s January 7 address to the Congress on Evangelism in Nashville, Tennessee.

It is now time to get past…the appropriate praise [of the late United Methodist theologian Albert Outler] and to start coming to terms with the stark reality that lies at the core of Outler’s work, and the work of United Methodism insofar as it embodies Outler’s proposals…. The form of Methodism that was constructed under Outler’s tutelage and watch—it is that form that has suffered drastic decline over the last 40 years.…

Now, I’m not going to give you the catalogue of all the difficulties I see in Outler’s position. I think there are many problems in his position. I don’t think he took nearly seriously enough the radical offense of the gospel.… I don’t think that he took sin sufficiently seriously.…

That’s two of a number of items…[but] I want to focus in on two criticisms.

First, Outler’s proposals concerning the practice of evangelism are much more rhetorical than they are substantial.… [They fail to] deal head on with the pivotal need to bring the gospel to the world, and then proceed to make—and not just nurture—disciples.

Thus, Outler limits evangelism to proclamation or witness, and he sets his face against the critical need for initiation into a robust version of Christianity.…

Now, secondly, I think that the fundamental methodology [of Outler’s evangelism model] is superficially attractive but ultimately disastrous for the theory and practice of evangelism. [His strategy] was simple: develop a vision of the core of Christianity, then express that within the conceptual and intellectual norms of the host culture.

We did that in the modern period, and we’re about to do that in the post-modern period. We’re now in the throes, in fact, of a fresh application of that strategy—and I’m going to watch with a very close eye as to how that works itself out over the next 20 years.

Now, I think the Emergent movement…[is] very important.… But pay attention. We could end up 20 to 30 years from now in fact “giving away the store” because we make post-modernity the intellectual norms into which we’re going to translate the faith—and we will discover, in fact, that this has been a case of death by our own hand.…

There are two separate issues that need to be faced in evangelism.… First, there’s the issue of how we justify the core truth claims of Christianity in the face of concerted incredulity, if not outright hostility.

The other issue is the radically different problem of how we connect the claims that we advance and the practices we advance with the culture we currently inhabit.

These [two issues] are quite different.

Now, to be quite frank about this, Outler gave up on that first enterprise. He did not have in his day…the resources to deal with the massive intellectual attack on Christianity that was launched by David Hume, by Kant, by Nietzsche, by Freud, by Marx, by Russell, by Ayer, and by Antony Flew.…

What Outler did was collapse these [two issues of evangelism into one] by insisting that we translate the faith into “the language of the university common room, the couch, and the country club.”

This was precisely what he did when he turned to process philosophy and to psychotherapy. These represented the high-brow intellectual culture which Outler inhabited.…

This strategy…is a recipe for decline and death. It offers a woolly “Christianization” of contemporary high-brow cultural commitments in the name of faith. And we can be sure that the contemporary norms of thought will swallow up and devour the content of the faith.…

I don’t care whether you call it modernity or whether you call it post-modernity…, if we simply take [cultural forms] as the norms that are going to guide our reception of the Christian faith over the next 30 years, then we’ll have even less in the “hard drive” of United Methodism than we currently have.

What [we need in] evangelism is… a deep re-appropriation of the faith that is intellectually serious, that is sensitive to the situation in which we find ourselves, and that is going to reinstate the actual deep traditional practices of evangelism, involving…the communication of the faith by laity and clergy and initial catechesis and formation, which will enable people to survive in the world in which they’ve got to live.…

[The gospel] is the radical news of…the arrival of heaven on earth. It is the arrival of the Kingdom of God in and through Jesus Christ, in his death, in his life, and in his resurrection. And if we don’t have that at the core, we are dead in the water.…

[I]f we stick simply to the modern and post-modern world, [our evangelism] cannot be rooted and grounded in special revelation as enshrined in the [historic] faith of the Church. And the purpose of that revelation is to really disclose the truth about God.…

The whole point of revelation is to reveal. And if we do not know who our God is—and are able to defend that—then we are not going to have the gospel itself.

I think that the overall outcome of the Outler strategy across 40 years can be stated simply: the Church becomes an endless seminar in search of elusive and ultimately unattainable truth, rather than the carrier of the rich and salutary “faith once delivered to the saints.”…

United Methodist scholars and leaders have given up on any serious intellectual defense of the faith, opting instead for the quest for the culturally relative translation that will somehow take us through to another generation.…

Any effort to develop a concentrated church-wide united practice of evangelism is doomed to failure because in fact there is no common faith among us.

Any proposal to this end will be evaluated not—please hear me gently here—any proposal will be evaluated not in terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but in terms of the gospel as perceived in our current social, intellectual, and political location.

And Jesus will simply become a cipher for our own passions and desires.

 

Ethicist preaches hope for the pro-life cause
By Rebekah M. Sharpe

“There is a possibility that God may be up to some holy mischief, even here, even at this time, although there are some of you who believe that hope is lost,” Dr. Amy Laura Hall told a group of pro-life United Methodists during her sermon at the Sanctity of Human Life service on January 22 in Washington, D.C. “I think there’s a possibility that there is hope even for that cause which unites us here in this place; the possibility that each and every life will be esteemed and beloved.”

Dr. Hall is the Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at United Methodism’s Duke Divinity School. The service occurred two days after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, an event that many have perceived as a severe blow to the pro-life movement.

Every January 22nd, pro-life United Methodists meet in the chapel of the Methodist Building near the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, and to pray for an end to the practice of abortion. The Methodist Building is home to the denomination’s Board of Church and Society, a political lobby that generally defends abortion rights.

Sponsored by the Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion & Sexuality (www.lifewatch.org), the service occurs on the same day as the larger pro-life demonstration, called the March for Life, which gathers on the National Mall. Approximately 250,000 pro-life demonstrators attended the march this year, a handful of whom gathered in the Methodist Building’s small side-chapel on that Thursday morning. The Rev. Paul Crikelair and Lifewatch editor, the Rev. Paul Stallsworth, organized the service and led the congregation through prayers and hymns.

“This little story of Samuel’s calling comes right here at the beginning of the succession narrative,” said Hall, referencing her text of I Samuel 3. “[It’s] a story of God’s people yearning, yearning for a leader, for a judge who will help them decide disputes, who will help them avoid violence towards one another, and towards the most vulnerable.” She observed that despite the yearning of his people, God does not immediately provide a king; and when he does provide monarchs, they often prove corrupt. “We’re left without a solid, clear, definitive kingdom in which the most vulnerable will no longer be violated,” said Hall. “We are left without resolution.”

“So where is the hope in this little part of the narrative of the people of Israel?” Hall asked. “Is there room for hope in this story for those of us gathered here, a mere scrap of the body of Christ?”

The professor acknowledged that Americans were not unanimous in celebrating Obama’s election to the presidency. She recounted, “I have very beloved friends who are very clear that they think the apocalypse has started. I also have very beloved friends who believe that the kingdom is coming.” But Hall suggested that, as a mere political figure, Obama fits neither of these descriptions: “Now I’m pretty sure that Obama is not the anti-Christ, and I’m pretty sure that he’s not the savior.”

Hall cited sources of hope, recalling her experience learning of Focus on the Family’s efforts to have children adopted out of the foster care system. At Focus on the Family, Hall said, “they are working hard to ask Anglo congregations to wade in the water, to get into the water that God has troubled. Part of what they’re talking about is how they can support a family willing to get into those troubled waters, and bring into their midst a child who may not ever be healed.” Often such adoptions require families to take in traumatized children, sometimes from racial backgrounds different than their own.

Discussing her role as an Obama campaign volunteer over the past year, Hall observed with mixed feelings, “But yet, campaigning for Obama opened up conversations for me that the cross didn’t.” While she admitted, “This man is not our expiation, he’s not our savior, he’s just our President,” Hall still challenged her pro-life audience to be hopeful. “Maybe I find that if Bill Cosby can desegregate the United States by way of television, and Focus on the Family is trying to desegregate by adopting children out of the foster care system, I think there’s a possibility that God may be up to some holy mischief.”

While Hall did not specifically reference abortion in her sermon, she has repeatedly written against the eugenics-based background of abortion, as in her November 2004 Christian Century article entitled “The Eugenics Temptation.” “Christians must disentangle the fundamentally ‘utilitarian considerations’ that have come to define procreation in the United States,” she wrote. “To view each child’s presence on this earth as an unconditional if also complicated, blessing seems an apt way to begin.”

Hall’s message of hope came in the face of the United Methodist Church’s limitedly pro-choice stance on abortion, which states: “Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child. We recognize tragic conflicts of life with life that may justify abortion, and in such cases we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures. We call all Christians to a searching and prayerful inquiry into the sorts of conditions that may cause them to consider abortion” (Paragraph 161.J, The United Methodist Book of Discipline 2008).

Her sermon was delivered the day before President Obama issued a January 23 executive order to rescind the “Mexico City policy” and ended “Sanctity of Life” week with a major policy disappointment for the pro-life community. The Mexico City policy prevented federal funding from going to international health groups that perform abortions, and was rescinded just three days after the new president took office.

Rebekah Sharpe is the administrative assistant at UMAction in Washington, D.C.

 

Church and Society withdraws support for Freedom of Choice Act

The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society has withdrawn its support from the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and has removed itself as a signatory to the controversial “Interfaith Call to Action on Reproductive Health” — an “open letter” to President Barack Obama calling for expanded access to “comprehensive sex education, abortion services and contraceptive information and options.”

The legislation, which Obama has promised to sign, would establish “a fundamental right” to an abortion and abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on the practice, including parental consent and notification laws for minors.

Now, Linda Bales, director of the Louise and Hugh Moore Population Project for GBCS, says the board has changed its position.

“After further examination of the ramifications of this bill and considering the most recent statement on abortion approved at our 2008 General Conference, the legislative arm of our denomination, we have withdrawn our support of this bill due to language added by the General Conference….

“[O]ur Social Principle on abortion [in the United Methodist Book of Discipline] now contains a statement supporting parental, guardian or trusted adult notification in cases of minors seeking abortions. Several states have notification laws which would be overturned if FOCA was passed.”

The 2008 UM General Conference passed legislation acknowledging “the sanctity of unborn human life” and noting that United Methodist are bound to “respect the sacredness of life and well-being of [both] the mother and the unborn child.”

Further, the Conference “support [ed] parental, guardian, or other responsible adult notification and consent before abortions can be performed on girls who have not yet reached the age of legal adulthood.” As in previous years, the General Conference stated that the UM Church “cannot affirm abortion as an acceptable means of birth control.”

By Joseph Slife, a certified lay speaker in the North Georgia Conference. He blogs at MethodistThinker.com.

 

Searching for gray on abortion
By Terry Mattingly

When it comes to abortion, the vast majority of Americans know what they want—and what they want isn’t going to please Planned Parenthood or the Vatican. 

What they want are shades of gray.

In a new Harris Interactive survey, only nine percent of the participants agreed that abortion should be legal for any reason at any point during a pregnancy. On the other side, only eleven percent wanted a total ban.

In between were plenty of citizens who back legalized abortion but, to one degree or another, want to see restrictions. The sponsors of the national survey were amazed.

“We remain opposed to abortion, which means we oppose any procedure that seeks to destroy the life of an unborn child. That isn’t going to change,” said Deirdre McQuade, speaking for the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “But what we are seeing is growing evidence that most Americans do want to see abortion restricted and limited.”

That’s why the USCCB is hailing these results, even though most of the numbers point toward compromises that fall short of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Looking at the extremes, the survey asked if abortion should be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.” But in between, participants could say that abortion should remain legal to “save the life of the mother,” or legal in cases involving rape or incest. They could also say that abortion should be legal “for any reason” during the first three months or the first six months of pregnancy.

In addition to the eleven percent who wanted a total ban, 38 percent backed efforts to restrict abortion to cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life. Another 33 percent endorsed limiting abortion to the first three or six months of pregnancy.

When asked if they opposed or supported specific policies restricting abortion, 88 percent of those who stated opinions backed “informed consent” laws requiring abortion providers to “inform women of potential risks to their physical and psychological health and about alternatives to abortion.” Also, 76 percent of those expressing opinions favored laws that “protect doctors and nurses from being forced to perform or refer for abortions against their will,” and 73 percent supported laws that “require giving parents the chance to be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion decision.”

These numbers resemble those in a 2006 survey on politics, faith, and social issues produced by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. It found that “majorities of Republicans (62 percent), Democrats (70 percent), and political independents (66 percent)” favored some form of compromise on abortion, as did more than 60 percent of both white evangelicals and white, non-Hispanic Catholics.

Digging deeper, that Pew survey even found that 37 percent of liberal Democrats and 71 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats supported some compromise, backing abortion restrictions that would not be allowed under current interpretations of Roe v. Wade and other U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Still, it’s hard to seek middle ground in an era in which both major political parties have been defined by polarized, black-and-white stances on this life-and-death issue.

Tensions will also rise if President Barack Obama keeps a campaign pledge he made on July 17, 2007, when he told Planned Parenthood leaders: “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.” Obama was a co-sponsor of this bill, which, according to the National Organization for Women, would “sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws (and) policies” that are already in effect.

In response, abortion opponents argue that there is broad support in the middle of the political landscape for policies that restrict an absolute right to abortion, including laws that are on the books and others that have been proposed by many Republicans and some Democrats.

This can be seen in the new Harris survey data, said McQuade, and in other polls in recent years—especially those charting the beliefs of young Americans.

“There is political capital there and we must stress that,” she said. “We will have to seek the changes that we can make, while being realistic. We will also have to defend the laws that we already have that protect the right to life. This issue will not go away.”

Terry Mattingly  (www.tmatt.net) directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.

 

Ginghamsburg comes again—and again—to Gulf Coast
By John Gordon

As soon as the winds of Hurricane Katrina died, a United Methodist church in Ohio was among the many groups sending work teams to help.

For members of Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, however, the 14-hour drive from the Dayton area to New Orleans would become an especially familiar path.

In the three years since Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, the congregation has sent 42 work teams to the Gulf Coast—and it’s not finished yet. Church leaders pledge to keep dispatching teams until the work is complete.

“You realize that at any given moment, you could be in the situation that these people were in,” said Jim Meyer, a church member helping rebuild a home flooded by the storm.

Ginghamsburg draws more than 4,500 people weekly to its campus and has an active mission ministry ranging from local food pantries to international mission experiences in Africa, Europe and Asia.

“We don’t call them volunteers at Ginghamsburg,” said Nate Gibson, a team leader who is the church’s chief financial officer. “That’s part of our DNA. We call them servants.”

Erika Manis, 22, a church member and medical student, enjoys stepping out from her circle of friends at college.

“Often times, going to school, you’re surrounded by a lot of very similar people, and you don’t often see what’s outside of your own window,” she said. “I’ve also learned more about teamwork. It takes all of us and all of our different talents to come here and to finish this house.”

Ryan Stammen has made three mission trips to the Gulf.

“It’s hard not to be overwhelmed and to think the work will never be completed,” he said. “But people like us keep coming and that’s how it will get done.”

The teams bring their own tools, trailer, and generator to paint, hang sheetrock, and lay ceramic tile and wood flooring.

Those tasks are signs of progress. When the first teams arrived in 2005, the work centered around cleanup—tearing out walls, hauling debris, and gutting houses.

For Slidell resident Margaret Russell, 75, volunteers such as the Ginghamsburg crews have become her only hope after the assistance from FEMA, the Red Cross, and her own insurance was not enough to cover rebuilding costs.

A retired nurse, Russell plans to live in the resurrected house with her grandson, whom she has cared for since her daughter’s cancer death in 2002.

“If you could just see my heart, how much I thank God for every last one of you all for coming out to help us,” Russell said. “My children, they’ve been coming over and seeing and they say, ‘Ooh, mama, the house don’t look like the same house.’ They’re just beautiful people.”

Work on Russell’s home was coordinated by Northshore Disaster Recovery, organized by the United Methodist Louisiana Conference and the United Methodist Committee on Relief to help people whose homes are uninsured or underinsured. Established in October 2005, Northshore has helped more than 7,500 residents and coordinated more than 23,000 volunteers.

Frustrated by government red tape, Russell finally sought help from Northshore. “Everybody has been so nice and so wonderful to me. They have been so beautiful to us, in helping us out in every way they can,” she said.

Meeting Russell was a highlight of the mission experience for Jeremy Greth, who was installing tile at her home. “It kind of raised my spirit a little bit, seeing how happy she was,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine going through it.”

Gibson estimates recovery efforts in the New Orleans area could continue for another four to seven years. Meanwhile, homeowners like Russell say the volunteers are a godsend.

“They gave me new hope and new faith,” she said. “I thought I had a lot of faith, but they gave me new faith—and a new home.”

John Gordon is a freelance producer and writer based in Marshall, Texas. Distributed by United Methodist News Service.

 

Young clergy numbers rise
By Linda Green

For the first time this century, the number of United Methodist clergy under age 35 has surpassed five percent, a sign of the emergence of new ways of engaging young adults in church leadership. In 2008, the number of young elders increased from 876 to 910, and the percentage grew from 4.92 to 5.21 percent.

The increase is “modest good news” for the church, said the Rev. Lovett Weems, coauthor of an updated study, “Clergy Age Trends in The United Methodist Church from 1985-2008.” Weems and the Lewis Center for Church Leadership released the original study in 2006. Weems is executive director of the center at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.

The number of clergy under 35 fell from 3,219 in 1985 to 876 in 2007, but it increased in 2008, according to the study. The consistent decline in under-35 elders as a percentage of all elders seemed to hit its low point in 2005, when it sank to 4.69 percent, the study noted.

“It is encouraging to see an increase over the last few years and to know that many people—including young adults—are working to keep this trend going,” said the Rev. Meg Lassiat, who works with young adult pastors and those exploring ministry vocations at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tennessee.

The increase in young adult clergy is one indication that many groups are focusing on this issue and finding new ways to engage young adults in leadership for the denomination, she said. Additionally, “we are seeing a growing interest with young people in answering a call to Christian vocation,” she said.

It’s not enough. Shalom R. Agtarap, 25, who is working toward ordained ministry and serving as the local pastor of Rainer Beach United Methodist Church in Seattle, is thrilled that the number of her peers entering the ministry is increasing. “But it’s not enough,” she said. “Sadly, the few tenths of a percent increase pales in comparison to the percentage of clergy either retiring or leaving our church.”

Agtarap said the denomination’s ordination process has been disingenuous to those under 35. “The United Methodist Church needs to recognize the fact that so many young people do feel called and many more want to serve! Traditional understandings of what it means to be ordained clergy, however, have restricted many of these ways of serving,” she said.

The Rev. Justin Halbersma said the increase in young adult clergy “who are responding to God’s call on their lives is something to celebrate.” However, he said it is hard to respond fully without taking into consideration all the other factors, such as the total decrease in the number of clergy, along with any demographic shifts in other age groups.

While young elders have represented 15 percent of elders in the church, the overall number of elders continues to decline each year. In 1985, the number of elders in the church was 21,378, and the number decreased to 17,480 in 2008. During that time, the average age of clergy increased from 46.8 to 52.1. The greatest growth continues to occur in the 55-70 age group.

The declining number of young clergy deprives the ministry at both ends of the age spectrum, according to the report. “The new ideas, creativity, energy and cultural awareness often exhibited by the young are lost. And with more persons entering ministry with fewer years to serve, the wisdom and experience that can come with long tenures in ministry are also in jeopardy.”

The United Methodist Church wants to begin 650 new churches by 2012 to stop its annual membership decline and reconnect with its past by planting churches that reach more people, younger people and diverse people.

Young clergy have certain advantages in reaching out to their own generation through forms of communication, including language, and cultural realities, Weems noted. “Just as important, the mere presence of young clergy in a church symbolizes that younger persons are valued as leaders and participants.”

The five conferences where young elders were highest as a percentage of elders in 2008 are Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama-West Florida, North Alabama and Oklahoma. The largest number of young elders was found in Western North Carolina with 60.

Young clergy are “vital to the vibrancy of the church, as well as its ability to attract younger congregants and form new congregations,” Weems and Michel wrote. “And it is essential for developing the long-term experience in ministry necessary for the most challenging assignments. Young clergy do, indeed, matter.”

Linda Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

 

Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller dies at 74

Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, died February 3 after a brief illness. He was 74.

Fuller won the 2004 World Methodist Peace Award awarded by the World Methodist Council in recognition of his contributions to peace, reconciliation and justice. Accepting the award, Fuller said no other honor has been “more meaningful” since it is a peace award and comes from Methodists, who are involved in larger numbers in Habitat than any other faith group or denomination.

Fuller led Habitat from its founding in 1976 until his separation from the organization and his founding of the Fuller Center for Housing in 2005.

“Millard Fuller was a force of nature who turned a simple idea into an international organization that has helped more than 300,000 families move from deplorable housing into simple, decent homes they helped build and can afford to buy and live in,” said Jonathan Reckford, chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity International.

By the time Millard Fuller turned 29, he had earned his first million dollars as an entrepreneur and attorney. But as his finances flourished, his health and marriage crumbled. To save their marriage, the Fullers decided to begin anew. They sold all that they owned, gave the money to the poor and in their searching, landed at Koinonia, a Christian farming community in rural southwest Georgia. The Fullers began soaking up the teachings of farmer, theologian and community founder Clarence Jordan.

In time, Jordan and Fuller launched a program of “partnership housing,” building simple houses in partnership with rural neighbors who were too poor to qualify for conventional home loans. The first house was dedicated in 1969 and others soon followed. In 1973, the Fullers took the concept of partnership housing to Africa. Within a few years, simple concrete-block homes were replacing unhealthy mud-and-thatch homes.

In 1976, the Fullers returned to the United States and launched Habitat for Humanity International. By the organization’s 25th anniversary, tens of thousands of people were volunteering with Habitat and more than 500,000 people were living in Habitat homes.

Adapted from United Methodist News Service and Habitat for Humanity news stories.



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