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By Erik Alsgaard
UMCONNECTION STAFF

In 2004, the United Methodist General Conference created the 'Connectional Table' with a mandate: Be the place where the denomination?s ministry and money come together 'to coordinate the mission, ministries and resources' of the church.

In other words, to shape the future of the denomination by deciding where money and resources will flow.

That?s a tall order, especially when you think that only 47 people are voting members. One is from the Baltimore-Washington Conference: Sandy Ferguson.

Ferguson, director of social justice ministries for the conference, was the first elected lay person to the 2004 General Conference from the Baltimore-Washington Conference. She has extensive experience and expertise in social justice ministries, programs and trainings.

'We?re not a decision-making body,' Ferguson said in an interview about the Connectional Table. 'We are there to discern and to help direct decisions.'

The key component of the Table, Ferguson said, is to help shape the future direction of the church.

To achieve this, a wide variety of people, agencies and groups are represented around the Table, including bishops, general secretaries, a youth and young adult representative, clergy and laity.

'This is a new way of being in relationship,' Ferguson said, 'because we were not doing this quite to this level before. We really do come together and share.'

Ferguson said that the Connectional Table model is the same one being introduced by the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

'This is similar to what I see us doing here,' she said. 'By sitting around that Table and the way we?re doing things here, seeing how it is that we fit together as a team, asking how do we move forward and work in harmony for the betterment of the church.'

The Table meets twice per year. Still in its infancy, the group is just now staring to jell, Ferguson said.

'With all those people sitting around the Table, there is some healthy tension,' she said. 'The Table is global in both its scope and composition; we?re actually a very complicated body. My main job is to just listen to everybody.'

A critical issue for the Table, Ferguson said, is the discussion around what it means for the church to be truly global. In the past several years, membership in the denomination has decreased in the United States but grown in the Central Conferences, especially in Africa. Central Conferences are those annual conferences that are geographically located outside the United States.

'We are not global in our structure,' Ferguson said, 'and the question has to be asked, ?Are we equal?? While most of the growth occurs in the Central Conferences, most of the dollars are here in the United States.'

Ferguson says that the church is going to have to recognize that it?s a global community, even if it arrives at that decision 'kicking and screaming.'

To address the globalization issue, the Connectional Table has already met outside the United States, meeting in Varna, Bulgaria, last May. The Table will also be giving a report on this topic to the 2008 General Conference, held in Fort Worth, Texas.

'We?ve certainly not arrived at any consensus on this issue,' Ferguson said, 'but we have had some very open, very frank discussion around the global nature of the church. It?s been a rich experience.'

As direction is set and plans made, Ferguson said that no one around the Table approaches their work as an 'expert.'

'We?re all equals sitting around the Table,' she said. 'Lay people who represent jurisdictions, such as myself, have just as much say and are listened to as a bishop or a general secretary. It?s amazing to sit around that Table.'

MAKE THE CONNECTION:
Do you have a thought or opinion about the future direction of The United Methodist Church? Let your thoughts be heard by e-mailing Sandy Ferguson, member of the denomination?s Connectional Table, at