Bishop tells church leaders to Get in Gear! By Mary Cahill
UMConnection Correspondent If they want to tell the story of Jesus, United Methodists must get in gear, their bishop told more than 2,200 church leaders at recent Leadership Day events. Bishop Felton Edwin May spoke in front of a large wooden model of gears at three Leadership Day events in Beltsville, Baltimore and Hagerstown on Jan. 12, 19 and 26. The gears were built to resemble those on the events program cover. The gears, as they were pictured, would not turn.
Using the gears as a parable, Bishop May explored the difficulties that keep the wheels of denominational, conference and local church ministries turning. Pointing to the uncooperative mechanism, he referred to it as the weve-never-done-it this-way-before wheel, and the wheel of negativism and half truths. We know all about that wheel, and some of us continue to expend energy to get it to go, said Bishop May, who said he believes every church could do meaningful ministry. Im just crazy enough to believe that God wants every church to be a home, a saving station, every church to be empowered in the name of Jesus the Christ, he said. He applauded the clergy, who in the wake of Sept. 11, are his heroes, he said, and the laity, who are among the most trained in the denomination. Bishop May encouraged his audience to get rid of any gears that separate them from the will of God. In his Baltimore and Hagerstown sermons he suggested that the gear clogging up the works might be self. Removing the stubborn gear from the wooden model, he called for radical surgery to remove the obstacles that keep the church from going forward. Sometimes we have to bury self so that we can be risen with Christ, he said. Participants at the event then came forward to turn the wheel and to pledge to take the message back to their churches and communities. Leadership Days, which have been held annually every January for the past decade, are a ministry of the conference Council on Ministries. Classes are offered on almost every aspect of the churchs ministry, said the Rev. Vivian McCarthy, the associate council director who serves as Leadership Days coordinator. This year, 16 members of Marsden First UMC in Bermuda attended the Baltimore session of Leadership Days at Western High School. Craig Tucker, a leader at Marsden, was enthused about the workshop on mens ministry he had taken that morning. He was delighted that men in the conference were willing to help Marsdens men get organized, he said. We wanted to get more focused on ministry, said the Rev. Joseph Whalen, the churchs pastor. For us, leaving to become a United Methodist Church was especially helpful, because the church affirmed the approach Ive been about. Marsden First UMC officially became a United Methodist church and a mission church under the care of the General Board of Global Ministries on July 1. Previously the Bermuda church was a part of the United Church of Canada. The enthusiasm of the Marsden First UMC leaders was shared by many others who learned about a vast array of topics from evangelism to basic training for leaders, grant-writing, small groups, prayer, stewardship, and the Internet. Everybody said it (Leadership Days) was really good and to just sign up, so I did, said Althea Hill, who came with 33 people from A.P. Shaw UMC, Washington, D.C. Its been a real experience for me. I hope now to have more insight. Melissa Lauber
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