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BY MELISSA LAUBER

The Baltimore-Washington Conference is in the midst of an 'adventurous discipleship renewal movement' that echoes the beginnings of the Methodist movement. To continue moving forward its members must further reawaken the spirit of 'practical piety,' said Bishop John R. Schol.

Practical piety, explained the bishop in his State of the Church address last night, is the spirit-filled combination of faith and works. It was lived out in early Methodist class meetings, in which Methodists held each other accountable as disciples, and today it is lived out in the Discipleship Adventure.

The Discipleship Adventure, Bishop Schol explained, is 'an inward journey in which disciples celebrate in worship, connect as one, and develop their faith;' and 'an outward movement to serve like Christ and share the faith.'

When the Methodist movement began to stall 100 years into its history, Methodists became divided, lost their evangelical passion and became lukewarm. 'Our zeal faded as we stopped being hungry for souls and thirsty for justice,' said the bishop. 'We became exactly what John Wesley feared most, ?the form of religion without the power.?'

Today, the church is faced with similar issues that it must address if it is to address the decline in membership it has experienced for the past 40 years.

At last year?s annual conference, members adopted 'End the Trend by 2010' goals and one 'big holy adventurous goal ? to become more like Christ as we call, equip, send and support spiritual leaders to make disciples and grow 600 Acts 2 congregations by 2012.'

Acts 2 congregations bear fruit. These fruit include:

• bring in one new believer by profession of faith each year;
• grow in worship attendance by 2 percent;
• support missions by paying 100 percent of apportionments.

While many churches are bearing fruit (600 congregations have evidenced 1,173 fruit toward the goal of 1,800 fruit) at the current rate 'even with positive gains, we will fall short of our 2012 goals,' Bishop Schol warned.

One of the greatest challenges, he said, is attracting new believers.

'While we are seeing healthy movement within more than 400 of our congregations, 280 churches continue not to win people and continue to decline. Those losses more than offset the growth in the other 400 churches,' said the bishop.

Another challenge is that 50 percent, or 300 conference pastors are scheduled to retire within the next 10 years. If things remain as they are, we will only be able to replace 120 to 140 of those pastors, the bishop said.

But the bishop also highlighted cause for hope. 'Each of these numbers represents a person. The numbers represent real people whose lives are being changed by the power of the holy spirit.'

Members of the conference told their stories of living out the Discipleship Adventure. They included: the worship ministries of Mt. Zion UMC in Bel Air; members of the conference dialogue team who are bridging theological and lifestyle differences to connect with one another; John Rudolph who started a Bible study in a UPS store, Elizabeth McKee who is leading an international effort to end malaria, and the 2,705 volunteers from our conference who provided 15,720 days of Christ-driven labor in Katrina relief efforts.

'Spiritual movements are not easy. Engaging people in a practical piety of personal holiness and social holiness is a challenging adventure,' Bishop Schol said. 'If we are going to be a sustainable movement, we must recommit regularly. Will you recommit yourself with me to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?'

Members of the conference then joined together in groups of two and three to dedicate themselves to the renewal of the church.

The full text of the State of the Church Address will be available on the conference?s Web site at www.bwcumc.org.