| Evangelism a priority in cradle of Methodism BY MELISSA LAUBERUMCONNECTION Staff 
The Baltimore-Washington region is the cradle of Methodism in the United States. The church was officially organized in the New World at the Christmas Conference in Baltimore in 1784. Today the Baltimore-Washington Conference continues to create and nurture new ministries and mission. Newly released 2002 statistics indicate that there are 206,143 members in the 696 United Methodist churches in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. On any given Sunday, there are 80,861 people worshipping in United Methodist churches in this region, which in 2002 had collective budgets totaling more than $106.5 million. These churches and other ministries are served by the conferences 1,105 clergy and district superintendent hires. The new statistics show that the membership of the conference fell by 638 members from the year before. Twenty-four percent, or 164 churches, did not bring in any new members on profession of faith. This seeming lack of evangelistic effort has become a concern of conference leaders, and Bishop Felton Edwin May, bishop of the Washington Area, has declared evangelism his number one priority. In an innovative ministry to reach the unchurched people in this region, the conference has created 20 Initiatives, faith communities and programs designed to bring Christ to the community in a creative manner. The Initiatives, like the conference, are ethnically and economically diverse. They include a Russian Fellowship in Washington, D.C., new church starts in Southern Maryland, a transitional home for drug addicts in Baltimore, conferencewide Hispanic ministries, and a satellite faith community geared toward youth and young adults in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. Nine of the conferences 12 equitable-compensation churches, which receive assistance to pay their pastors salaries, are also provided with the same training and resources as Initiative churches. When churches with challenges begin behaving like new-church starts they begin reaching the unchurched in exciting ways, said the Rev. Edwin DeLong, associate council director. In Baltimore-Washington Conference churches, DeLong said, the average age of United Methodists is 56. In the region, the average age of the population is 34. In the conferences new church starts, the average age is also 34. According to DeLong, there are 5.6 million residents in the conference region; one-third have relationships with faith communities, one-third attend church at Easter and Christmas and one-third are unchurched. Reaching the two-thirds of the population who are essentially unchurched is a priority, said DeLong. But the conference is not limited to this geographical region. It is also connected to Marsden First UMC in Bermuda, and the conferences nine districts have relationships with United Methodist churches and projects in Zimbabwe. The conference also operates three camping and retreat centers: West River, near the Chesapeake Bay south of Annapolis, Camp Manidokan, near Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and Camp Harmison near Berkeley Springs, W. Va. The conference center, which employs 60 people to equip local churches for mission and ministry, is located in Columbia. The conference Web site is www.bwcumc.com. | 
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