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BY JOHN COLEMAN
Special to the UMConnection

At Bethel UMC in Upper Marlboro, the Rev. Chris Owens sees a small congregation with a big future. Thanks to the Baltimore-Washington Conference?s five-year-old Academy for Initiative Leaders, he?s getting a view of what that future may offer and what it will require of Bethel?s leadership.

Owens is one of 28 local church leaders attending full-day academy sessions one Saturday a month from September to April. The conference Office of Congregational Development provides the training in congregational and leadership development for clergy-lay member teams from 14 churches. Session topics range from 'Discovering Your Ministry Style' to 'Casting an Effective Vision' to 'Communicating with a Media-Savvy Community.'

'The academy has done a great job of bringing in not just theorists to teach us, but real practitioners who are doing what they?re talking about,' said Owens. 'Also, the networking and sharing we do with each other, as we learn together, is important.'

For their first session, participants attended the three-day 'Keys to Growing Vibrant Churches' seminar, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, at Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist congregation in Leawood, Kan., that has grown to 13,000 worshipers in just 10 years. There they learned from senior pastor and author, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, and his staff.

'To see growth in a mainstream, United Methodist church like that is phenomenal,' Owens said. 'They know how to tap into where people?s hearts are and give a message people can relate to.'

Owens looks forward to the 'Churches Planting Churches' session scheduled for Jan. 21 because 'that?s something I see Bethel doing. The way of the future is to grow by multiplication, by starting new faith communities.'

That is certainly the future the Baltimore-Washington Conference has in mind, according to the Rev. Rodney Smothers, director of the Office of Congregational Development.

'We?re not doing any more parachute drops, where we drop a pastor into a community and tell him or her to start a new church,' he said. 'We want to help existing churches give birth to new churches and multi-site ministries.'

Smothers sees the academy as one resource, along with coaching and other training events, to help clergy and laity learn, adapt and use leadership skills together to 'courageously engage and bear fruit in the Discipleship Adventure.'

The faculty for this year?s academy includes respected, innovative leaders from across the denomination ? for example, Rudy and Juanita Rasmus from St. John UMC in Houston and the Rev. Sherry Daniels from the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. But it also draws on local talent, including pastors and program staff from the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

The Rev. John Wunderlich, pastor of Christ-Ballenger Creek UMC in Frederick, taught a session on discerning one?s leadership gifts, challenges and style for ministry. The Revs. Rod Miller and Helen Fleming, both conference staff executives, taught about principles for Christ-centered, life-changing leadership.

The academy is also requiring more accountability for implementing ideas and insights this year, according to the Rev. Herbert Watson, academy dean and pastor of St. Mark UMC in Hanover. He will teach a final session on developing and executing ministry action plans on April 1.

'We?re asking participants to process and utilize what they?re learning right away,' Watson said, 'and then to come back and tell us how they used it, whether it worked or not, and what they learned from their efforts.'

The Rev. Valerie Barnes and Alverta Gwynn, both from Sharp Street UMC in Chase, are using what they?ve learned to revamp a Christian education ministry that was all but defunct. After attending a strategic planning workshop at Church of the Resurrection and reading recom-mended books, they led a small cadre of church leaders into a lengthy, six-week ministry discernment process.

The outcome, Barnes said, was their decision that Christian education would no longer be about dwindling Sunday school and vacation Bible school classes, but more holistically, it would be about 'transforming people for discipleship.'

They plan to lead the larger Church Council in discernment and dialogue in January.

'I have to let go of my fears about this new approach because we?ve been doing church the same old way for years,' said Gwynn. 'But God is changing me. I realize now that this is not just a journey for our church; it?s my journey, too. It?s everybody?s adventure.'

SIDEBAR:

28 church participants from 14 churches participated in the Board of Congregational Life?s Academy, learning leadership skills to help make disciples in local churches. The churches involved include:

• Back River UMC, Back River
• Morgan Chapel UMC, Woodbine
• St. Matthews UMC, Dundalk
• Overlea Chapel UMC, Baltimore
• Susquehana Charge
• Locust UMC, Columbia
• Bethel UMC, Upper Marboro
• Lincoln Park UMC, Washington
• Ward?s Memorial UMC, Chesapeake Beach
• Salem UMC, Brookville
• Sharp Street UMC, Chase
• Leetown UMC, Leetown
• Mt. Zion UMC, Barnsville
• New Market UMC, New Market