Five Questions With the Rev. Richard Brown-Whale, the new conference mission secretary.
1. How many of the congregations in the Baltimore-Washington Conference support United Methodist missionaries?
A: Approximately 100 of the 677 churches.
2. What is the one thing that tends to surprise people about missionaries?
A: That they are not all pastors and that they are not all white Americans.
3. When you served as a missionary, what was the one Bible passage that made your life and work seem to make more sense?
A: The same one that still works for me: "But Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26, NRSV)
4. Do United Methodists still believe that "the world is their parish?"
A: Some do and some are very parochial. Among both groups, however, are those who act like that phrase means that we, American Christians, have been given dominance over the rest of the world. The biggest challenge to us today will be to learn to share power with Christians in the emerging churches around the world. Membership-wise, the center of United Methodism is moving out of the United States. Financially, it still remains here. Will we move with it or will we insist that "they who pay the piper get to call the tune?"
5. If you could provide our conference missionaries with two gifts - one practical and the other just for fun - what would those gifts be?
A: I'm afraid that this would be very unique to each missionary's setting and personality. The one gift I think that addresses both is the simple gift of caring. I want to encourage every church to be in a covenant relationship with a missionary. That should not be understood as only a financial relationship, but a real relationship wherein they get to know their missionary and learn how to answer this question for them.
For more information on supporting a missionary, visit http://new.gbgm-umc.org
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