| Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire unleashed at Leadership Days By Linda WorthingtonUMConnection Staff  How many of you are here for the first time, Bishop Felton Edwin May asked the congregation of nearly 800 at the second session of Leadership Days, Jan. 17, at Perry Hall High School. A third of the room raised their hands. Statistics show that more than 700 people registered this year for the Baltimore-Washington Conferences annual local church training events that had not registered in the past five years. Others returned for a second or third time to Leadership Days because they knew the classes and the training would make work in their local churches more meaningful. Folks come to this event for two major reasons, said the Rev. Vivian McCarthy, director of Leadership Days each year. They come to learn how to do their particular jobs as church leaders or to be inspi red and grow spiritually. In the plenary and worship session held at each location, Bishop May cited facts: 35 percent of the population in the conference region have no religion of any kind and 30 percent have lukewarm involvement. This leaves only a third of the population that attends church on a regular basis. Two-thirds are awaiting someone to invite them to know Jesus, the bishop said. Nearly half of our congregations have not received (in 2003) a single person on profession of faith, he lamented. He also offered assistance to change this fact. We can give you first-rate help, Bishop May said. We have everything you need to know about your region. Dont do church planning without it. In addition to demographic information, Bishop May offered resources through the new conference Stewardship Development Center, headed by co-directors the Revs. Charles Parker and Maynard Moore. They know everything there is to know about stewardship development, the bishop said. They are part of your resources. Parker, Moore and a third member of the Stewardship Center staff, the Rev. Terry Leckrone, taught classes at all sessions of Leadership Days. One class, led by Leckrone, gave attendees an opportunity to learn about the funding of mission and ministry through wise investments, planned giving programs and endowments. Bishop May urged the church leaders present to accept the invitation to explore another tool for church and spiritual growth: FaithFest, an adult version of Rock 2004 that will be held Feb. 20-22 in Ocean City. Stressing that the weekend retreat will be a heady time for individual spiritual growth that promises to catch on, particularly with young adults, the bishop said, It is a new thing emerging in our conference. Judging from attendance at Leadership Days, many churches are concerned about their young adult and youth populations, or lack thereof. David Burkes How to Reach the Missing Pew Generation and Chris Owens Young Adult Ministry, were surpassed in enrollment only by Bishop Mays class on Staff-Parish Relations. Together Burke and Owens had nearly 150 in attendance. Burkes evangelism course, How a Church and Individual Can Share Their Faith, taught only at the Baltimore region school, reached nearly 100 people. Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Relay the Faith was introduced as this years conference theme in the darkened auditorium as viewers enjoyed a video with the sights and sounds of blowing winds, blazing, crackling fires and moving personal testimonies that illuminated the theme. Meanwhile, viewers waved vivid, neon glow-in-the-dark sticks or wore them as necklaces and halos. I believe that there was a real sense of contemplation of what the theme really meant as the video imagery unfolded, McCarthy said. (It) helped our leaders experience the kind of healthy play that releases creativity. Often we take things, and ourselves, so seriously that we are not able to enter into that kind of creative process as leaders. Once youve encountered Jesus, your life is changed, Bishop May said as he preached in the darkened auditorium from the story of Nicodemus, a man who came in the dark, was radicalized by Jesus and took Jesus down from the cross. How many of you will speak on behalf of Jesus, he asked. We stand at the doorstep of revival, Bishop May concluded, calling upon listeners to experience the power of the Holy Spirit and to share that power in their churches and communities as they draw others to Christ. | 
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