| The call to rediscover our Christian witness goes on By  Kenneth Lyons The following are excerpts from the district superintendents report delivered June 13 at annual conference. What the church shall be tomorrow depends on how well we build today. We have built well in the past, but cracks are appearing in the foundation and repairing the breach that is ever widening needs our immediate attention. In order to secure a prosperous future for the Church, we must have a vision. Vision, in a practical sense, means having the ability and skills to apply our new world outlook to the changing times and culture in which we live. We, on the Cabinet, are aware that our congregations are faced with aging buildings, which are expensive to operate, and faithful aging members who are on fixed incomes. Most of these members are commuting to their churches, and those in the surrounding neighborhoods have no on-going relationship with the church. The members of our churches, and our Conference staff, are recognizing that we need to reconnect with our neighborhoods. We can rejoice that many of our churches are rediscovering our Christian witness in our surrounding communities. In January 2002, Centennial Memorial UMC, in downtown Frederick, began a new outreach ministry. Centennial inaugurated a contemporary worship service to reach out to the neighborhood poor and those struggling with addiction. The contemporary congregation began Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered drug and alcohol recovery program meeting every Wednesday. The needs of the neighborhood homeless are also being met by the United Methodist Churches of Harford County. They are united to provide the leadership, $60,000 of funding and the labor to build a Habitat for Humanity House. This is the first time on the Baltimore-Harford District that the congregations have worked together and built a home. The Annapolis District has reached out to the community recently by organizing a district prison ministry and an HIV/AIDS ministry. District churches are also growing and expanding their facilities. This year 11 churches on the Cumberland-Hagerstown District, 18 churches on the Baltimore West District, and over the last six years, 60 percent of the churches on the Washington East District have bought property, made significant renovations, or built new facilities. Churches on the Washington-Columbia District are involved in more than $20 million in new building projects. With the world as our parish, the Washington West District, on Christ the King Sunday November 2001, made a commitment to build St Johns Chikanga UMC in Mutara, Zimbabwe, and tennis courts and a track field at Africa Universitys complex. They have totally met their goal one year ahead of schedule. The Baltimore West District is also meeting the challenge to raise $20,000 for the Mablereign UMC in Zimbabwe. The Washington Columbia District sponsored two fund raising mission celebrations for their mission project in Zimbabwe. Monies raised during these celebrations support the St. Marys church and parsonage in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Hancock UMC on the Cumberland-Hagerstown District has raised several thousand dollars at their annual May Missions program for Zimbabwe. Our most basic United Methodist sharing of the riches of Christ with others flows through our apportionment giving. The Cumberland-Hagerstown District, though geographically distant from our Conference Center, has connected faithfully in service to others by paying over 100 percent of its apportionments. Every church on this district paid 100 percent or more. While we celebrate these expression of Gods love, the Cabinet and all who are assembled here are alarmed at the lack of young people entering ordained ministry. The fact is that unless young people first walk through the door of the church, the call to ordained ministry will never be heard. Why does that door loom so large for the young when we are a friendly church? Have we taken the time to ask that question of the youth? And when they answer do we listen? And when we listen are we willing to change? Its not always about us, but sometimes it has to be about them, their attire, their music, their fears and hopes, their values, and their faith. They are searching for the old, old story, but in a different package. Many of our churches are having seek and search activities where the fancy clothes come off and the jeans and flannel shirt go on. Not surprising since GQ Magazine reported that 75 percent of the adult males in the United States dont own a suit or a sport coat. There are people who are knocking at our door, yearning for Jesus. When we meet and greet them where they live and move and have their being, we very simply show that we care. A little girl, whose father was in the World Trade Center when it collapsed, asked her mother what happened to her daddy. Her mother told her that Gods hands lifted her daddy up into heaven just as the building collapsed. The childs reply, when she heard this and thought of all the other thousands of people who were in the building, was; Does God have enough hands? Your hand in mine, and my hand in yours, stretched out across this auditorium, covers the vast territory of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Together we can grab hold of this world and snatch it out of the hands of sin and despair, and into Gods shining light of peace and love through Jesus Christ. The Rev. W. Kenneth Lyons, Jr. is superintendent of the Cumberland-Hagerstown District . | 
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