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BY MALCOLM STRANATHAN

"Where's our church?" I muttered to myself.

The UMConnection arrived last May in the mail and as much as I scanned the list of the 272 Acts 2 congregations of the Baltimore Washington Conference, I couldn't see the church that I was serving listed.

We're doing great things, Christ-centered things. Why weren't we listed?

That Sunday morning, I shared my surprise that our congregation wasn't among the list of Acts 2 churches.

The room was filled with quizzical looks at the term, "Acts 2 congregations."

Acts 2 congregations, I told them, see a two percent rise in worship attendance annually, experience one profession of faith for every 25 worshippers annually and pay 100 percent of their apportionments each year..

"Raise your hand if you've heard of this before," I said. Nary a hand was raised. "Certainly you all have heard of the Discipleship Adventure - a relatively new initiative in the conference, I mean. I've read a previous pastor's letter to the Charge Conference and seen the Adventure referenced there."

I received more quizzical looks.

"Raise your hand if you've heard of the Discipleship Adventure."

I got a slightly better response than the first round. But how can we be so out of the loop of what the conference has been talking about for the last couple of years and been undergoing considerable realignment to support local churches.

Have I been so close to hearing about the Adventure that perhaps I've not effectively shared with the leaders and congregation of Mount Zion?

While still relatively new to the Mount Zion

community, I've found this congregation more than willing to step up to new challenges. I'd been

wondering what we needed to wrestle with during the summer. Well, at least the first half would focus on the Baltimore-Washington Conference's Discipleship Adventure.

The Adventure takes shape

Our series kicked off on the first Sunday in June with an introduction to the overall Discipleship Adventure comprised of five parts: Celebrate, Connect, Develop, Serve and Share. We talked about the Discipleship Adventure's history with our conference, the decision for all congregations to strive to become Acts 2 congregations and the audacious goal of the annual conference to have at least 600 Acts 2 congregations by the year 2012.

We spoke about accountability and the challenge to meet specific goals as a local congregation to become an Acts 2 church. We spoke about how inward changes result in outward

expressions. More specifically, I shared a personal challenge as I had recently noticed that my clothes were starting to get a little tight and I was more winded when doing physical activities.

I went online looking at resources and came across an online dieting service that was pretty enticing. It was all computerized, complete with exercise programs, recipes and grocery lists. It even had a BMI calculator (Body Mass Index). It tells you how much space you take up in the universe.

You can only imagine my shock when it spit out a magic number upon entering my weight and height and then called me a dirty, five-letter word - obese.

My option was to grow seven inches or drop 33 pounds - a weight I hadn't seen since being 25. Obviously an inward change is going to have to

happen so that a new outward expression is apparent.

So it is with the challenge to create an Acts 2

congregation. It is not wholly about numbers, as changes occur inside the church an outward

expression will become apparent: growth in worship, profession of faiths, and financial resources.

The goal isn't greater numbers, its changed lives for Jesus Christ.

Taking action on the Adventure

Each Sunday focused on one area of the Discipleship Adventure, concluding with a focus on the Strive for Five challenge. The bwcumc.org Web site is a great resource tool. We used the logos and photos of each of the Discipleship Adventure five areas directly from the Web site.

Because Mount Zion creates its own bulletin cover, we used the Discipleship Adventure logo with photos of the congregation participating in activities that exemplified the area of the Discipleship Adventure shared that Sunday.

For example, on the Sunday we talked about Faithful Celebrations, our bulletin cover included pictures of children and adult choirs, people in worship and the Discipleship Adventure logo.

On the Sunday we celebrated Faithful Service, we had pictures of our Mount Zion Camp Hope team. Much of the written material was drawn directly from the Web site.

Each week, Bishop Schol was given a spot in worship to share his thoughts on the Discipleship Adventure via the BWC resource "The Discipleship Adventure," handed out at the end of the 2007 Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.

This resource has over nine sessions that can be used in small groups. Each section would have been too long to use in worship, so we opened the Introduction to the Discipleship Adventure with a very flashy graphic presentation of zooming through the Discipleship Adventure's five areas and the bishop then issuing an invitation to join him and the Baltimore Washington Conference in the Discipleship Adventure.

Lay involvement is a strong emphasis in the Discipleship Adventure; therefore, it became important to get the laity involved.

One thing that became apparent early on in sharing the Discipleship Adventure is that currently 90 percent of the planning and implementation of worship at our church is done by paid staff.

Mount Zion sports three different styles of worship each Sunday morning and a lot of time and effort go into planning each worship experience but for the most part, we have kept the laity at arms length.

On the Sunday we focused on Faithful Celebrations, our bulletin included an insert to build worship planning teams in the church, These will be implemented this fall by our Music and Worship Team. We anticipate that each will bring new ideas as we gather more laity into the process of planning and implementing worship.

On the Sunday in which we spoke about Developing our Faith, I asked Sam Hergert, our chairperson of Adult Education, to preach. When asked how many folks should be involved in some sort of Christian education experience, Sam replied, "One hundred percent." He was a natural to share God's word to us that day.

Generally people see the back of Sam's head as he also helps run the PowerPoint presentations on Sunday mornings.

This day they saw Sam's face as he shared the new Adult Education brochure that provides a plan for the upcoming year of educational opportunities.

People expect the pastor to challenge them about learning more but when quiet Sam stood up and spoke to the congregation, many were convicted.

We are now seeing some of the fruits of Sam's message with more variety and larger class sizes in our adult education program.

On the Sunday we talked about Faithful Connections, we included a list of every member who hadn't been to church in the last year (more than 500) and we asked folks to let us know what's up. Initially we were going to have staff gather the information together (hard to break old habits) but then in a God moment, I asked people to contact folks and let them know we miss them.

On the last Sunday of sharing the Discipleship Adventure, we spoke about the Strive for Five: understanding that the Conference, local church, pastors, leaders and every person in the church has to be active in all five areas of the Adventure.

Postcards were handed out in worship with a sticky square on the back, folks were encouraged to put them on their refrigerators and to ask themselves, "Am I Striving for Five?" Goal examples of the Strive for Five might be:

Celebrate: I will attend worship each week I am in town, excusing myself only if I'm ill.

Connect: I will attend at least one fellowship event at the church each month.

Develop: I will participate in Sunday School each week.

Serve: I will help out on a local mission project at least once a quarter.

Share: I will model the life of Christ in such a way that people will be curious and I can tell them my story and that of my church community.

Seeds planted produce fruit

We are now starting to see the fruits of some of the seeds planted in the first half of the summer.

When asked, several members of Mount Zion shared how the series challenged them to look at more than just worship as part of their Christian walk; rather the series gives them a framework for their faith walk.

Church Council Chairperson, Robert Fischer, shared, "Our family has always worked to do the right things associated with our faith, the series helped to put a framework around our efforts."

Many, like Louise Sehman, use the Discipleship Adventure like a check list, "I feel that I have always done #1. I have been doing #2 and enjoy it very much. # 3, I am not doing Sunday School because I like the 9:45 service, but I am taking a class on Wednesday night. #4, I have in the past been on a Mission Trip. At present, I am not

planning on going on another, but.who knows? #5, I strive to live a Christian life, and like to help others in need. I ask God each day to help me do what he would have me do."

Worship chairperson, Carol Hill, said, "Each week I found a new way to extend a hand, be more forgiving for things done or said to me, and see how I can help the community and Mt Zion's members. I see the Strive for Five postcard hanging on my refrigerator and I am reminded of the commitment I've made to be at Church each week I'm in town. That makes me get moving more than anything else."

Sam Hergert shared that, as he was preparing for his sermon on Faithful Development, in his discussions at home, his wife Mary realized that she needs to be more active at St Louis Catholic Church, where she attends.

Mount Zion Lay Leader, David Norton. summed up the series this way, " I definitely agree with the (Discipleship Adventure) message and approach. I believe as we grow in our own spiritual awareness and God centeredness we can't help but realize that our focus must be different. I think that's the beginning of a self awareness that we must go and make disciples of Jesus Christ, as the Great Commission says.

Through our growth in the Holy Spirit there is an inward change and urge to do something that then manifests itself in an outward, Christ-like expression. I hope and pray that many of us will take the journey and make Mt Zion an Acts 2 congregation."

Adventure comes to life

The Next Step for Mount Zion is to continue a regular focus on the Discipleship Adventure. We've challenged each team beginning at the church council level to implement Holy Conferencing,

focusing the conversation on the various areas of the Discipleship Adventure.

Chairperson of Family Ministries, Laurie Norwood, shared during one such conferencing session that on that past Sunday in her senior high Sunday school class, she asked the youth what are the five areas of the Discipleship Adventure and she said they named them all. "It stuck with the youth," she said.

Barbara Jacques, youth director for Mount Zion, is now gearing the Youth Ministry program to include a regular focus on each of the areas. Instead of a focus on food, fun and fellowship, they will

celebrate once a month with a Friday Night Youth Worship Service, provide connecting fellowship events, develop their faith through topical studies, serve through local mission projects and find opportunities to share their faith with other youth.

Mount Zion is now sponsoring a Community Ministry Fair in September as a means to really put the Adventure into action for both the congregation at large as well as an invitation to the community.

Intentionality on living the Discipleship Adventure will be our focus. Staff will no longer be solely responsible for doing

ministry, rather they are being challenged and will be evaluated on how well they equip the laity for ministry.

This is only a start, there is much to be done and many opportunities to live our faith, but we trust and hope that through our faithful efforts people will see God moving in and through us. We hold onto the promise at the end of Acts 2, "People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved."

The Rev. Malcolm Stranathan is pastor of Mount Zion UMC in Highland.