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Bishop challenges BWC churches to adopt schools,

By Maidstone Mulenga

Washington Area Bishop Marcus Matthews has challenged churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference to adopt a school, bring at least one person to Christ and to become prayer stations.

Giving his inaugural sermon as the resident bishop at the opening worship of the 229^th Session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference on May 30, Bishop Matthews said he was inviting churches join him and the Cabinet over this next year in doing the three things.

Firstly, Bishop Matthew is asking that each local church become a prayer station. “I am inviting all of our members daily to be anchored in a strong disciplined prayer life where we deliberately and consciously pray for each other, our churches, and our connectional ministry as United Methodists. “

He said there is nothing “like the power of prayer in preparing good soil for the Master Sower to sow the seeds of the gospel. We each need to discover for ourselves how prayer can change even the coldest hearts, the most challenging churches, and the thorniest soil.”

Secondly, he challenged each local church to bring at least one person to Christ in the coming year.  “If our mission is ‘to engage and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,’ then through our outreach efforts; our visitation evangelism campaigns; our each one bring one Bible studies and small groups; our Confirmation Classes—surely we will be able to help at least one person to make a connection with Jesus Christ.”

Thirdly, the bishop is inviting all local churches to adopt a school in its zip code. “Our children and our youth need to know and experience the love and support of the faith community in action in order for them to begin to connect with the grace of Jesus Christ.”

He said the children don’t necessarily need sermons preached at them, but they do need to see the sermons being lived out daily “in the way we support our communities and our schools. And our teachers and school administrators need to know that we exist in the community not merely to criticize our teachers and our public schools.”

He said the Baltimore-Washington Conference was prepared to offer specific directions and concrete suggestions as to how this may be done.  But no child in reach of our churches should be left out.

The opening worship service was graced by the presence of retired Bishop Forrest Stitch, West Virginia Area Resident Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball and Bishop Thomas Hoyt, the senior bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The music was provided by Emory Men’s Ensemble.

Bishop Matthews called on churches to watch all those of those who are hurting. He named those as immigrants, those bullied at school, those who have not been fully welcomed into the church.

“It is specifically for these individuals that the Church can never afford to give up. It is for these individuals that we must always remember that Jesus first softens the soil by loving people just where they are. For these are people just like us, before we first came to know Jesus for ourselves. “