Online Archives

May 27, 2011

Not that I have already obtained this
or have already reached the goal;
but I press on to make it my own,
because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

–Philippians 3:12

The Apostle Paul’s message to the Philippians challenged them not to rest on what they had received or accomplished, but to strive toward the greater goal that was before them.

For such a time as this, God’s goal for us is to press on to connect with the non-religious and nominally religious people in our communities and share with them the hope we experience in Jesus Christ.  It is not to ignore the technical problems of our congregations and our daily faith lives, but it is to recognize that the greatest hindrance to growing more vital congregations in The United Methodist Church is:

1. The lack of trust within the Church.
2. The need for more turnaround leaders.
3. The fear of metrics – setting goals and sharing in mutual accountability.
4. The inability to connect with the people in our communities that share different values and ideas. 

We overcome these challenges by rediscovering the hope in God’s Word, the hope that flows from going out into our communities and telling the Gospel story.

Yesterday we shared examples of congregations and individuals in the Baltimore-Washington Conference telling that very story and changing lives as a result.  We are achieving, and we are transforming.  God is active among us.

Today though, we urge you with the words of Hebrews 12:1, to run the race that is set before us with perseverance.  We must run that race looking to Jesus, the pioneer of our faith.  We must not waste energy and valuable gifts, but use every bit of God’s gifts and life to reach the goal. We must press on.

This morning, our conversation will be a bit different than yesterday.  We will talk candidly with one another about some of the opportunities before the Baltimore-Washington Conference and our congregations. We will talk about what it will mean for us to lean forward into our adaptive spiritual challenges—to press on toward making disciples of Jesus Christ. 

And we will talk candidly with one another about some of our technical problems, as an annual conference.  That includes the metrics and the numbers that do not always warm our hearts but are a reality with which we must grapple as one connection united in God’s love.

As we proceed into our conversation, it’s important we remember that we become more like Christ when we call, equip, send, and support spiritual leaders out into the world.  That must be our priority.  As we build on our past, we will become the great commandment and commission, a great disciple.  Let us proceed together to:

1. Worship passionately
2. Make new disciples
3. Grow faith through small groups
4. Serve like Christ through justice and mercy mission
5. Give generously to mission

Presenting today will be:

Robert Slade, Chairperson of the Discipleship Council
Delores Oden, Lay Leader
Charlie Moore, Chairperson of the Council on Finance and Administration
Katie Bishop, team leader for young adult ministry
Tony Love, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees
Joye Jones, Chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry
Paul Eichelberger, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer
Will Burnett, a former Conference Council Youth President

Yesterday, Bishop Schol highlighted a finding from the UMC “Call to Action” report that as a denomination, we are adverse to “metrics” and the measurement of the fruits of our discipleship.  Yet measurement is crucial to congregations, and indeed to vital Annual Conferences.

Today, every United Methodist congregation around the world is called to set goals in five areas by the end of this year, for the next quadrennium.  Those five areas are:

1. Worship attendance
2. Professions of faith
3. Number of small groups
4. Number of disciples engaged in mission
5. Amount of money given to mission

The goals of each of our congregations will be gathered with every other church’s goals in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.  Then Bishop Schol will take our goals to General Conference and, with every other bishop, offer these goals as a gift to the work of Jesus Christ by United Methodists for the next quadrennium. Imagine, churches in Mutare, Zimbabwe; Washington, D.C.; Veronezh, Russia; Smith, Bermuda; Manila, Philippines; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Paw Paw, W.Va; and Baltimore, Md. each serving in their communities and yet linked by the common goals of pressing on. 

Imagine the world transformation that is possible if each congregation commits to lean into the wind– to grow worship, make new disciples, grow disciples in small groups, engage disciples in mission, and increase how much we are giving to mission. It will be a powerful testimony to the ministry of Jesus Christ and a powerful witness to the world of a UNITED Methodist Church. United in common heritage and united in a common life-changing ministry that makes disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Often, we don’t like goals because of our dislike of numbers.  But these goals are not about numbers, they are about souls. Souls discouraged by mortgage foreclosure, souls bound by addiction, souls alienated by rejection, souls desperate over homelessness, souls weakened by malaria, souls torn apart by war, souls burdened by poverty, and souls lost by alienation from a loving, compassionate, grace-filled God.

Make no mistake, your “numbers” mean something.  Where there is decline and a lack of imagination of how to reach non-religious and nominally religious people or a lack of passion to serve our communities, it is a soul that is separated from the powerful adventure we share.

These goals are about saving souls – not a new business model or a church growth program or some “save-the-UMC initiative.”  We are all expected to lose our lives so that we gain life. To sacrifice for our church and ministry so that someone else might be resurrected. We must have congregational goals to challenge us to reach non-religious and nominally religious people.

To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, we become like the non-religious and nominally religious that we might win souls for Jesus. We become one with the homeless, the addicted, those whose homes are foreclosed, and those in prison that we might, one person at a time, transform the world.

Today, we the leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference pledge to become one with you, to come alongside of you and serve with you so that you become more vital in your ministry. As the Bishop said yesterday, we focus so much on our own congregations – what makes us unique and different – that we sometimes fail to focus on what unites us as United Methodists.  That is our joint heritage, and our commitment to respond to God’s goal for us … as one connection … one people.

But even as we endeavor to face what the Bishop explained as our “adaptive spiritual challenge,” we cannot pretend that our technical challenges do not exist. When one or more of our congregations face a profound technical challenge, we all do, across this Annual Conference, because we all are one. Just as vitality has no bounds, a church’s struggle transcends geography, race, history and other factors.

As many of you know, there are congregations in our annual conference that are struggling.  They are…

1. Not paying their full apportionments.
2. Not growing in worship.
3. Not making new disciples.
4. Not doing needed repairs to their building.
5. Not maintaining appropriate reserves.
6. Not living within their means as building and/or debt expenditures are higher than other churches of their size.
7. Not paying clergy pension and health benefits; currently, our benefit arrearage is more than $55,000 a month which will accumulate to more than $750,000 in 2011.

Indeed, these congregations are at profound risk.  Their future is uncertain. They need our prayers, our support, and our love.  

The reality is, we have approximately 50 congregations whose situation is so serious that it could take well more than $2,000,000 a year for a number of years to turn them around.  It is a daunting challenge.  Data and statistics suggest that they may not survive. 

But we have seen other congregations in these challenging circumstances face their technical problems and apply adaptive spiritual approaches that has led to vitality:

1. Some merged with another congregation and became stronger.
2. Some became a campus of a vital congregation.
3. Some repurposed their building, reduced building costs and became more mission focused.
4. And yes, some closed and their assets are being used to start a new congregation.

We are committed to partnering with churches in crisis but you need to take a step to be a turnaround church by connecting in a new way.

We have another 50 congregations that will find themselves in the same situation in 5-10 years if they do not take immediate steps to change their situation.

Later this year we will send letters to the congregations that are at risk of closing or have risk factors that put them seriously at risk of closing. We will work more closely to turn around churches that prayerfully and seriously want to change.

While 10 percent of our churches face serious challenges, most of our congregations are making new disciples, striving toward the Acts 2 fruit and engaging in life changing ministry in the community.

Ames Church in Baltimore has not completely turned their situation around, but they have taken steps in the right direction and are making good progress. This was a congregation faced with significant building problems, declining worship, and unpaid apportionments and pension and health benefits.

Today, they are growing, paying off their pension and health arrearages, completed some of their building repairs, and reinvigorated their Shalom ministry in the community. How, you ask? Prayer for sure, but also a commitment of lay leadership working with a new turnaround pastor. They are engaging with the community, connecting with non- and nominally religious people, beginning more small group studies, their laity are growing in faith and their ability to lead and they are enlivening worship.

In the 29th chapter of Jeremiah, the prophet said to the exiled people in Babylon that God has plans for you, plans not for your destruction but for a future of hope. The exiled people pressed on and planted gardens, built new homes, began to have families, and sought the shalom of the community in unfamiliar surroundings and circumstances. God blessed them with a future.

When we embrace the love and hope presented to us by Jesus Christ, we accept the power to inspire and rejuvenate.  We accept the power to be the Great Commandment and Commission in the world.

It is the commitment of the Baltimore-Washington Conference to help our struggling congregations transform as we help our thriving congregations lead the way for our denomination in pressing on to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Let us tell you about eight key ways that the conference is committing to meet the needs of the passionate congregations committed to overcoming challenges and pressing on toward Jesus’ goal for us.

1. We are committed to assisting you in setting metrics or goals. A planning document has been developed that many will use across the denomination. This summer and early fall, our guides will be holding workshops for churches to help them set goals that are appropriate to their context and based on their gifts and accomplishments.
    
2. We are committed to assisting you in developing a comprehensive leadership development program. We will strengthen the spiritual leadership of our laity and clergy through a comprehensive leadership development program. We will have a plan in place by the end of 2012 that will build on the Discipleship Academy, leadership days, certified lay ministry training, discipler groups, and coaching.

   We want to have one of the best clergy and lay development programs in the world so that we can be the best for the world. The program, while being comprehensive in nature will also take into account church size, church location, ethnicity and style of ministry when providing resources for your congregation.

3. We are committed to reducing the benevolence factor from 19.5 to 16 percent. We will recommend to the Baltimore-Washington Conference strategic planning team to adopt goals to reduce the benevolence factor to 16 percent by 2017.
   
   That will be a 35 percent reduction in the benevolence factor since our peak rate of 24.8 percent in 2005. With a benevolence factor of 16 percent, the apportionments will be approximately 10 percent of the total income of our congregations. In other words, by 2017, we want the apportionments to be equivalent to a tithe of the grand total of our congregations’ total income. We believe a tithe is appropriate for a disciple’s giving and should be appropriate for our apportionments.
   
   We plan to do this while we increase conference mission and ministry by 3 percent or more a year. We can do this because we have stabilized operational costs, reduced costs through technology, increased the apportionment collection rate, and are better stewards with the resources you share with us.

4. We are committed to assisting congregations with repurposing their buildings for mission and ministry. We recognize that some of our congregations have buildings that were built for a former generation, but now we need to be wise stewards and re-imagine and re-size our buildings for a new generation of ministry. We have done this with Mt. Vernon Place in Washington and will repurpose the Casa Calvary building in Washington. This building will become 79 units of permanent supportive housing for the homeless and it will offer space for a new church start for mission-minded disciples with an evangelical spirit.
   
   We are committed to personal and social holiness as we transform the world. This project will focus on ministry with homeless veterans. We will begin with veterans because they have served our nation valiantly and now that they need someone, we the Church need to step forward and offer grace.

5. We are committed to supporting your growth through Immersion series resources. We will create or identify Immersion Series that will make and grow disciples, increase worship attendance and small groups, and engage disciples in mission.
   
   We also pledge to train congregational leaders in how to use the Immersion Series for maximum disciple making. There are several immersion series that are available to you online which include A Welcoming Life, Green Church, Fully Alive and others. Today we also announce to you a Faith-Based Finances resource which will assist you with fall stewardship campaigns. Please check out the Immersion Series table to learn more about these resources.

6. We are committed to strengthening the Gateway system to make it easier to use and to identify trends in your congregation. Gateway has enabled us to be better stewards of the resources you have shared with us. We understand it is not as user-friendly as we would like but we are working to make this a seamless system for you that will help you with providing necessary reports, accessing valuable information about your church, and understanding discipleship ministry.

7. We are committed to helping you improve stewardship in your congregation. Through our new Mid-Atlantic foundation, we are providing vehicles for growing your investments and are now working on resources that will improve stewardship in your congregations.

8. We are committed to starting 20 new congregations over the next 10 years. Starting new congregations has been demonstrated as the best way to make new disciples. On July 1 we will launch a new congregation in Anne Arundel County that will focus on reaching young adults and engaging them in small groups and mission.
   
   We are inviting congregations throughout the conference to partner with us. As a partner, the conference provides salary and benefits for an associate pastor to your congregation for 18 months. During that time, the associate pastor is starting new small groups, starting a new worship service and connecting with new people in another community. After the 18 months, the associate starts a second site ministry and your congregation seeds this second site with 10-20 disciples from your congregation.
   
   We are also looking for clergy and laity with the gifts for starting new congregations. You can learn more about being a new church start champion by contacting Andy Lunt, Director of Congregational Development.

Your congregation is not alone.  None of us are.  We are diverse strands of thread and textures and colors.  But our strength – our capacity to comfort and transform the world around us only comes from us being woven together, like a tapestry.  We become this tapestry as we unite in our mission, trust one another and support each other in achieving ministry goals. 

Let us all commit to pray for and work side by side with all of the congregations and communities throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference, in hope that we all succeed in experiencing the joy of passionate worship, radical hospitality, and spreading God’s extravagant grace.

One of the ways we grow our ministry with you is through our budget. Our budget is a theological and missional document that is a road map for how we plan to be like Christ as we call, equip, send and support spiritual leaders to make disciples and grow vital Acts 2 congregations for the transformation of the world.

Today we present to you the 2012 apportionment budget of $15.1 million ($15,154,223) and an overall budget of $18 million ($18,484,406). This is an increase in the apportionment budget of 2.4 percent. Between 2010 and 2011, the apportionment budget did not increase and in 2009 we reduced the apportionment budget by 10 percent.

We have sought to be faithful with you and we want to keep as much money in the local church as possible so that you can faithfully carry out mission and ministry at the local level. We know that in order for you to meet the Bishop’s charge to face our adaptive spiritual challenges, you must have the resources to do vital mission and ministry through your congregation.  We want to help.

The 2012 budget represents an 18 percent benevolence factor, down from 19.5 percent. As already mentioned, we are recommending that we continue to reduce the benevolence factor to 16 percent by 2017 but grow mission and ministry by at least 3 percent a year. This will be possible, as we:

1. Stabilize and as appropriate reduce operational costs. For instance our new mission center costs less than the previous conference center.
    
2. Grow the apportionment collection rate from 91 percent to 94 percent.
   
   
3. Grow our apportionment base by 3 percent through healthy local church stewardship. In the last two years during difficult economic times we grew the apportionment base by 10 percent.
    
4. Practice good stewardship and focus our resources on growing vital Acts 2 congregations that make disciples and engage disciples in the transformation of the world.

We present to you a budget that we believe is courageous and forward leaning.  It is in alignment with our mission and is faithful to the gifts that you generously give through your apportionments. It is a budget that will enable us to press on for the high calling that is before us. 

Among the highlights are:

1. 3 percent increase in salaries and benefits.
    
2. 4.9 percent increase in mission and ministry.
    
3. 18.6 percent of our budget is for general church apportionments.
    
4. 13 percent is for retiree health benefits.
    
5. 16 percent of our budget is for operational costs.
    
6. $304,000 to support a self-sustaining process for starting 20 new congregations over the next 10 years.
    
7. $250,000 to provide associate pastors to four African American congregations, Westphalia in Prince George’s County, Asbury in Shepherdstown; and John Wesley and Epworth Chapel in Baltimore. We have no African American congregations with a full-time associate appointment. Our goal is to grow four congregations over 400 and eventually 500 in worship.
    
8. $110,000 for urban ministry, particularly for Baltimore as we rebuild our United Methodist ministry in Baltimore.
    
9. $208,000 for youth ministry, in addition to the funding for our camping ministry. These resources are generated by and support ROCK, our winter retreat for youth that makes new disciples and trains youth and their leaders for stronger youth ministry in their congregations.
   
   We will begin additional ROCK experiences in each region during the summer and there are new online services through our youth ministry. Our youth ministry is one of the largest and most successful in the denomination.
    
10. $90,000 for lay ministry that will assist in training laity, recruiting and developing the lay speaking ministry, hold Days Apart with the bishop, and grow our certified lay ministry. We continue to grow vital Acts 2 congregations through lay ministry.
    
    Throughout the denomination, United Methodist Men have committed to making prison ministry a priority and United Methodist Women support women empowerment and ministries with children and youth in poverty. Today we thank God for the laity who press on to strengthen our congregations and engage in mission around the world.
     
11. $38,000 for young adult ministry. The young adults have organized themselves to strengthen ministry in our congregations and now publish a young adult magazine called Shift.
     
12. $182,000 for recruiting, assessing, and developing new clergy for ministry.
     
13. $110,000 to be placed in a maintenance fund for the Conference Mission Center. We are on a pace to develop a fund that will maintain and replace equipment and property so that we will never have to raise the apportionments or have special appeals for our building.
    
    The Conference Mission Center is a gift to the present and future ministry of the conference as it will save us money. It will do so while broadening our witness and generating income through the Cokesbury Book Store and the African Art Museum of Maryland. These mission partners further our values and generate income for ministry.

Also in 2012, there will not be an increase in health benefit costs to local churches. We hope this relief during 2012 will strengthen your resources for ministry.

In your churches, you have witnessed fellow disciples who have experienced financial challenges which has impacted your congregations. Also, in the midst of rising costs, declining membership, Annual Conferences, and the entire General Church is under strain, not just for a season but this is now a new way of life for us. 

At the conference level, we are forced to make tough administrative decisions that no one wants to make.  Yet we must be filled with hope that tough decisions serve only to strengthen our resolve to press on to make a difference with the resources we have. 

So, today we present a recommendation that we eliminate the retiree health care benefit for any clergy or conference lay staff who begin serving the conference starting in 2012.

This recommendation is made by our Board of Pensions in recognition that few retirees in society receive such a benefit today and that if we continue to offer this benefit we will have an unfunded liability of $1.5-2.0 million dollars and that the retiree health benefit will grow to 20 percent or more of our budget in the future.

All clergy who are presently serving the Baltimore-Washington Conference will not be affected. They will receive a retiree health benefit based on their years of service when they retire.

Finally, we present to you the nominations report. We recommend a group of disciples who have demonstrated that they press on as leaders and models of faith in Christ. They have demonstrated their ability in local church ministry, community ministry and service to the conference.

They represent every region of our conference and together with those who have been elected in previous years, they represent the ethnic and congregational diversity of our conference. They have agreed to serve and look forward to strengthening our ministry in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

All of the great ministry over the last two days shared in the State of the Church report is because you have given yourself faithfully to the ministry of Jesus Christ here in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. You have grown in your faith, given generously, and taken risks to further the cause of Jesus Christ. Thank you for being faithful and fruitful United Methodists.

As we seek to serve and resource your congregation, we need the following from each of our congregations and each United Methodist disciple.

1. Save souls. To be bold in engaging with the nonreligious and nominally religious souls in your community and connect them with the transforming love of God that we experience in Jesus Christ. To save souls by engaging with the homeless, the addicted, those in prison, the poor, and the children and youth in our communities and love them until their souls are healed and strengthened for the great Discipleship Adventure we share.
    
2. Grow mission. We are called to live outwardly, to see the community as our mission field. This year on October 8-10, during our Change the World event, we will have the opportunity to reach out to our communities when we unite to do mission across the region. Imagine 15,000 United Methodists, all lending hands and hearts to change the world. You can visit the conference Web site to learn more and register.
    
3. Grow spiritual leaders. As you grow the faith, skills and number of the leaders in your congregation you create greater opportunity to provide more and better ministry to save souls.
   We need both lay and clergy spiritual leaders to take responsibility for growing their gifts to better serve the church and the world. As in nature, when plants and trees are not growing they not only stop producing fruit, but they are more susceptible to disease. Laity and clergy that are not growing and sharpening their skills are making their congregations susceptible to conflict and decline.
    
4. Grow disciples. Biblical illiteracy is unacceptable in mature Christians. Faith that is not grounded in Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience is an immature faith that weakens the ministry of the Church and the power of the body of Christ in the world.

   What is your system for growing disciples? Are you increasing the number of small groups that study the scriptures and engage disciples in mission? Do you offer Disciple Bible study? Do you make deep faith and participation in worship, Bible study and mission a prerequisite for leadership in the congregation? Until you do, you limit the transforming power of God in your congregation and reduce your ability to save souls.

5. Grow your congregation. The heart of The United Methodist Church is its congregations. But congregations that do not see growing the quality and number of people in worship have lost sight of the great commission, lost their connection with the Psalms, lost a vision of the great worship on the day of Pentecost.
   
   In the last five years, more than 70 percent of our congregations grew worship attendance in at least one of those years. That is commendable. But the world needs you to be consistent in growing and making new disciples.

   We recognize that there will be some years without growth, but over five years, we expect growth. We know growth occurs as you provide spirited and quality traditional and contemporary worship that connects with the non-religious and nominally religious people in your community.

6. Give generously. In 2010 we collected $14.8 million in apportionments and an additional $1 million was collected through the advance and other mission giving, of which $647,000 was directed to Haiti Relief efforts. This is a 90.51 percent collection rate, which has continued to rise over the last several years.

   Apportionments strengthen our ability to provide quality services in the Baltimore-Washington Conference and to do justice and mercy around the world. Most of our congregations have been exceptional in their giving.

   We now have more than 80 percent of our congregations paying 100 percent which is up over 10 percent six years ago. We recognize that a congregation may encounter a difficult year which impacts their budget but it is not acceptable to not commit to pay 100 percent of your apportionments.

   We also can no longer appoint clergy to churches that do not pay all of their pension and health insurance. It is not being faithful to our shared ministry and to one another when a church does not pay its obligations. We have and will continue to merge and close churches and not appoint full-time clergy to churches that are not meeting their obligations.

7. Practice the Wesleyan Means of Grace. Courageous and forward-leaning mission congregations practice spiritual disciplines. Our vital work is a spiritual adventure based in John Wesley’s means of grace. John Wesley taught that God’s grace is unearned and that we are not to be idle waiting to experience grace but we are to engage in the means of grace.

The means of grace are ways God works invisibly in disciples, hastening, strengthening and confirming faith so that God's grace pervades in and through disciples. As we look at the means of grace today, they can be divided into works of piety and the works of mercy.

Works of Piety – reading, meditating and studying the scriptures, prayer, fasting, regularly attending worship, sharing in the sacraments, healthy living, sharing our faith with others, Christian conferencing (accountability to one another), and going to Bible study.

Works of Mercy - doing good works, visiting the sick, visiting the prisons, feeding the hungry, seeking justice, ending oppression and discrimination (for instance Wesley challenged Methodists to end slavery), and addressing the needs of the poor.

Over the next year we will work with you to set and accomplish goals, make disciples, grow your congregations, seek justice and serve your community. As we humble ourselves, rely on the Holy Spirit and run the race that is set before us, God will bless our ministry and our congregations.

We know we are calling you to a greater challenge, but these are challenging times that require deeper faith and greater acts of service. This is a time to give ourselves to a higher calling and increase our commitment so that we become like Christ as we make and engage disciples for the transformation of the world.  We must lean into the wind.  We must press on.

Not that we have already obtained it
or have already reached the goal;
but we press on to make the goal of making disciples, growing vital Acts 2 congregations so that we transform the world, because Christ Jesus has made us his own.

–Philippians 3:12