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More than 450 United Methodists met July 31 through Aug. 5 in Orlando, Fla., and Grand Rapids, Mich., for the the School of Congregational Development.

This event is held annually to bring together United Methodist pastors, administrators and laypeople to become catalysts for church renewal and growth. The event is sponsored by the United Methodist Boards of Discipleship and Global Ministries.

Ministry tracks focused on new church starts, church renewal and outreach to ethnic and minority populations.

Church developers explore myths

BY LINDA GREEN

UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE

The notion that The United Methodist Church is dying has been repeated so often that it has become a belief, when in fact it is a myth, according to a church executive and author.

The reality is that the 11.5-million member denomination is poised for hope, the Rev. Craig Miller told church leaders attending the United Methodist School of Congregational Development.

Miller, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, is author of "7 Myths of The United Methodist Church." He said belief in the myths prevents many United Methodist churches from growing.

Turning a church from slow death to vitality requires discipline, motivation and faith that transformation can happen, Miller said. But the myth that the church is dying is contradicted by the denomination's official statistics, which show membership increasing worldwide.

That "we are connectional," is both a myth and a reality about United Methodist churches according to Miller. The church is connected institutionally, but its people are not connected with one another, he said.

The clergy at the school of congregational development were asked if they prayed for the United Methodist church down the street and if they knew the leader or leaders in that congregation. "It is about relationships with others," he said.

A third myth is that big churches are bad. The reality is that big churches - those 31 United Methodist churches that have 2,000 or more in worship - offer multiple experiences of grace, Miller said.

Of the 35,000 United Methodist churches in the United States, 47 percent have 50 or fewer people in worship. Thirty percent of the total have between 50 to 119 people in worship, and the rest have more than 120 people in worship.

"There is a suspicion about big churches," Miller said.

But the large churches are the ones used to learn the principles of creating new congregations and other discipleship-making strategies, Miller said.

In the last 10 years, megachurches, regardless of their denomination, have been growing because they offer opportunities that encourage people to come to them and develop their faith.

Churches that make disciples are those that know their context or area, have a discipleship process for newcomers and offer multiple experiences of grace.

Local churches that desire new members but cannot get them often verbalize a fourth myth that "there are no people out there."

The reality is that there are plenty of people in the neighborhood, but "they are just different from us," Miller said. A church must intentionally rebirth itself and re-envision itself to connect with people and help them connect with God, he added.

Historically, a Methodist church was planted every one to three miles and went to where the people were. That strategy still exists today, and while churches do close or merge with others, there is a fifth myth that "we have too many churches," Miller said.

It is not that there are too many United Methodist churches, he said. The reality is that there are too many churches in the "wrong places."

In the Western Jurisdiction, there is one United Methodist church for every 37,000 people, while there is one for every 6,337 people in the South Central Jurisdiction, one per 5,400 in the Southeast, one per 8,400 in the Northeast, and one for every 7,600 in the North Central Jurisdiction

Miller said there is tremendous potential for the church to connect with the population growth expected across the United States by 2030. The growth is projected to be greatest in the South Central and Western jurisdictions, at 27 percent, followed by the Southeastern Jurisdiction at 26 percent. The North Central and Northeastern jurisdictions are projected to grow at 8 percent.

The school of development is also an avenue to dispel the sixth myth, that "we don't know how to start new churches."

At one time in its history, The United Methodist Church or its predecessor denominations started a new church every day. Currently in the United States, the denomination averages one church start every 7.6 days.

The reality is that the denomination knows multiple ways of starting new faith communities, Miller said.

While some new churches do fail, others have been sustained or have grown because they connected their discipleship systems, like Sunday school and Bible study, with worship.

"It is a mistake to start a new church and not think of the systems to bring people in," Miller said.

The final myth is that people in local churches do not want to change. Often, the church does want to change, but "it is the pastor that does not want to change or pay the price," he said.

Effective congregations are led by leaders who welcome innovation and change, Miller said.

"As long as we live with this myth, nothing will change," he said. Churches that want change learn from others, learn with others and learn from mistakes, he said. They are passionate for God, for others and for God's vision.

UM plan emphasizes new church starts

By Linda Green

United Methodist News Service

Since the most effective evangelism is through new churches, The United Methodist Church wants to start 650 new congregations with 63,000 members by 2012 as part of a new emphasis on church growth in the United States.

Eventually, the shrinking denomination wants to return to its evangelistic heyday of planting a new U.S. church every day. It also wants to reach untapped frontiers such as western states where the church historically has not followed population growth.

The strategy is all part of the aggressive vision of "Path One," the newly organized strategy team on new congregational development, coordinated by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

"We believe it's one of the most needed and time-sensitive national efforts in the denomination's recent history," said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive of the Board of Discipleship.

The initiative will be headed by the Rev. Thomas G. Butcher, who will work to foster a new wave of United Methodist evangelism by developing and coordinating training for 1,000 new church "planters."

"Path One" is named for the first of the "seven vision pathways" for church growth from the Council of Bishops. As part of the strategy, Path One will:

• Create a national assessment tool for use with church planters;
• Support new church pastors through regional training, internships, mentoring and Web material;
• Build a system for orienting and training bishops and district superintendents to support new congregational starts;
• Create a database and decision-making calculators that allow conference leaders to make effective decisions for church plantings and closures; and
• Develop modular curriculum for starting congregations that is biblically based and helps congregations prepare for their role in new church starts.

Currently in the United States, the denomination averages one church start every 7.6 days, according to statistics from the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration. That compares with the 50-year period beginning in 1870 when Butcher said Methodists "were at our best" and started one new church a day.

"I think we want to try to get back to that," he said. "It is going to take a couple quadrennia to do that, (but) the goal is to eventually start 350 new churches a year across the country in our denomination."

Initial strategies call for the new "planters pool" to begin approximately 137 new churches a year during 2009-2012. Within the same period, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries will help plant 400 new churches outside the United States.

Statistics suggest that while the population has grown, at least 35 percent of people in the United States do not attend church.

"The most effective evangelism we have is starting new churches," Butcher said. "Planting new churches means that we attract new people, younger people and more diverse people. There is a lot of excitement created around a new church start."

"We can no longer rely on people coming to us. That might have been good in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but now we have to go where the people are. That is what John Wesley did," Butcher said.

Since 1964, The United Methodist Church has experienced a 27 percent decline in U.S. membership despite a 54 percent population explosion. The percentage of youth declined from one in seven in 1964 to one in 21 in 2005, and 41 percent of the country's United Methodist churches did not receive a member by profession of faith in 2005.

Greenwaldt reminds that the ultimate goal of planting new churches is not to stem United Methodist membership loss or decline.

"The goal is to reach more people, more younger people and more diverse people for Jesus Christ. We seek to do that by focusing on identifying, training and equipping 1,000 new church planters by 2012,"she said.

As part of this effort, the School of Congregational Development offered a ministry track to help pastors discern if they might have the right gifts for the unique ministry of church planting.

Church must create space for wanderers

By Elliott Wright

General Board of Global Ministries

The fact that many Americans have little idea what "church" means or what happens there was a recurrent theme at the 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational Development.

Lack of knowledge of "church" is most acute among those under 35, prompting one pastor and author to focus her presentation on that population.

The Rev. Carol Howard Merritt is co-pastor of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and author of the 2007 book "Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation." She is a young adult and describes her generation as "wandering" when it comes to connections to God and systems of meaning.

"We have a huge opportunity with the wandering generation. What young adults are looking for is right there in our congregations," said Merritt, whose church is located across the street from George Washington University in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington.

However, church-as-usual to those over 40 may not be recognized by young adults as a place of caring or a repository of answers to life's questions.

According to Merritt, young adults don't need the church in its present form, but they do need a church interested in relationships and connections rather than programs. At its best, she said, the "church is a place where they can form connections - with God, the world and each other."

Based on media presentations of religion, many young adults do not know that "Christianity is not the Republican Party, its leader is not Pat Robertson, and its message is not what you hear on Fox News," Merritt said.

"We need to think about ‘church' a little differently," she said, picking up motifs from her book which uses "tribal church" as a metaphor for those who band together on a spiritual journey. The emphasis is on relationships.

Merritt invited her United Methodist colleagues to look at some of the realities of life for young adults today. "Yes, we may be used to getting what we want, but there is a great shortage for young adults when it comes to medical care, housing, community and other basics that are needed to make connections," she said.

Young adults, she continued, face difficult challenges with regard to employment, finances and a sense of stability. Many are deeply in debt, often from college loans, and find it necessary to live with parents.

Western Presbyterian Church is reported to be a progressive-minded, inclusive congregation that is growing. It engages in a variety of community ministries, including a feeding program that it successfully defended in court against some of its neighbors in Foggy Bottom.

Merritt encouraged congregations new or old not to base their entire appeal or plans for growth on nuclear families or the pattern of getting children involved so they will bring their parents to church.

Those are good models, she said, but there is also a large population of unmarried young adults among the unchurched, and the church has a responsi-bility to that wandering generation.

Developers urged to think and act like Jesus

By Linda Green

United Methodist News Service

Christian leaders attending the 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational Development were urged to live and act like Jesus Christ as they seek to transform lives by expanding and revitalizing the church.

Bishop Minerva Carcaño, delivering the keynote address on "the spiritual life of the Christian leader," also urged attentive listening to the move-ment of God and surrendering self to impact the church and the world.

"The spiritual life of a Christian leader is a life that thinks and acts like Jesus," Carcaño said.

She juxtaposed the teachings of her grandmother, which helped her become who she is today, with guidance from the Apostle Paul on relying on Jesus Christ. Paul, in his writings from jail, focused on the joy that comes from the name and presence of Jesus.

Carcaño asked the crowd to stand and sing the hymn that declares "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! There's just something about that name."

Paul, she said, was able to keep his focus in the midst of spiritual confusion, physical affliction and alienation from family, culture and society. He suffered for the sake of serving God.

"Those in power had imprisoned Paul, attempting to chain his heart and mind and beat him down into submission to their will. But Paul knew that their kingdoms would pass away," Carcaño said.

Paul also knew that proclaiming the name of Jesus would put Christians at odds with the world, but he admonished them to "do it anyway" and "let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ."

Christian leaders, she said, are responsible for holding one another accountable for having the mind of Christ. "Do we dare have the mind of Christ, thinking and acting as he did," she asked.

"We have no better teacher, no better guide, no better shepherd, than Christ Jesus who calls us forth out in the world to live as he lived, as spiritual leaders grounded in him, that the world may be transformed," she said.

Carcaño stressed that Christian leaders who think and act like Jesus are not always in prominent positions in the church, but rather are sometimes grounded in servant leadership.

"When serving each other is ignored, our Christian living - and even more so our Christian leadership - becomes a sham," she said.

The bishop urged Christian leaders not to get caught up in the "self-care" movement that reflects the priorities of a narcissistic society.

"Self care," she said, "is pretty common sense. ... Take care of your life, for it is a gift from God. ... Sleep, exercise, eat right and spend time with your loved ones."

The importance of our lives is found in our relationship with God who created us for holy purposes, she said. "We find the significance of our lives ... through relationships of love with others. In knowing that we belong to Christ Jesus who has redeemed and reconciled us with God and with each other, we are enabled to respond to both the joy and the demands of love."

CAPTION:

Cassandra Heller/United methodist News Service

Bishop Minerva Carcaño challenges church developers to live as Jesus would.

‘Change is necessary'

By Mary Beth Coudal

United Methodist News Service

In a video, the face of a pastor is pasted onto the dancing body of Napoleon Dynamite, the title character in a 2004 cult comedy movie.

People under 30 would appreciate the image; those over 40 might not, said the Rev. Mark Beeson, who used the clip to introduce his address to the 2008 United Methodist School of Congregational Development.

His topic: "Innovate or Die."

The point throughout the animated presentation was that the church should not fear changing ministries to reach young generations. "Change is good," he said.

The pastor of Granger Community UMC in Indiana, Beeson spoke to two audiences: one gathered in Grand Rapids and one by satellite link in Orlando, Fla., as part of the six-day school.

"It's unbelievable the changes in technology and what it has done to us," Beeson said. "We no longer learn in a linear fashion. ... Everything is story and image."

The Gospel and the mission of the church never change, he said, but the church must find strategies that will engage postmodern people to help them take the next steps toward Christian discipleship.

Punctuating his point that change is good, Beeson said the church expects people to change when they accept Christ.

"The whole world doesn't go to church," he said. "You have to give them a reason (to come). Give them a why. ... Help people take their next steps toward Christ. ... Is your cause worth the price of change - because you're asking people to change."

Beeson founded the Granger church 22 years ago, and the congregation now has a membership of about 5,000 and weekly worship attendance of about 6,000 in multiple services. He encouraged others to challenge members to use their best talents for the Gospel.

"Most of the people in our churches are under-challenged," he said, recalling a woman who led a multimillion-dollar

company but was only asked to usher once a month by her church.

"We do not challenge high-capacity people enough," Beeson said. "Most people would rather be swallowed by a whale than bitten to death by small fish."