November 12, 2007

“857 plus One, Two, Three,
Four, Five, and Seven”

I have just returned from a wonderful event at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, which was called the “Extended Cabinet Convocation.” As a follow up to our regular meeting of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, we gathered District Superintendents, Lay Leaders, and other Conference leaders from all over the world to join us in this special weekend to focus upon the future of our denomination. 857 persons were registered, and including spouses and guest there were nearly 1,000 persons present.

This is the first such gathering which has occurred since 1969 (just after the merger of the former Methodist Church and the former Evangelical United Brethren Church to form The United Methodist Church), and really it is the first such gathering for this purpose since 1808. What did we do? We had wonderful worship, we gathered in small groups for prayer and support, we met in joint Cabinet meetings (our two Indiana cabinets met with the West Ohio Cabinet since our Indiana Area is just about the same size as West Ohio and we wanted to learn from each other), and we focused upon getting ourselves into alignment to lead this denomination.

Here are the other numbers which we all agreed upon:

One mission statement: “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”

Two breathing lessons – the church and all Christians must breathe in the Spirit of God, and then breathe out in service to the world.

Three simple rules for living as United Methodists: “Do no harm; do good; and stay in love with God.” Those “Three Simple Rules” are available in a wonderful book by Bishop Rueben Job (former World Editor of The Upper Room) which carries that title. We bishops and leaders have committed ourselves to teaching those rules of our United Methodist way of living. I urge all of our pastors and lay leaders to get that book, to reach it, and teach those three simple rules for our United Methodist way of living.

Four focus areas for our United Methodist Church in the next quadrennium. The whole denomination will be asked at General Conference to affirm a budget and a plan which aligns our church in these four areas: Starting New Churches, Developing Leaders, Ministry with the Poor, and Global Health. For the first time, all of the general agencies of our church are aligning themselves to a major focus upon these areas of emphasis. Of course those agencies and all of our local churches and conferences will continue many other good works, but we have agreed and are asking the General Conference to focus on these four areas.

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. We heard an excellent presentation by Bishop Robert Schnase from his book by that title, in which he emphasized that effective congregations engage in: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity. Again, I urge all pastors and lay leaders to get that book and to learn from it. Our two Cabinets have even discussed making those Five Practices the focus of all Charge Conference reports in 2008 – doing away with much of the current paperwork and asking each church to report on how well they are doing with these practices.

Finally, these efforts are all a part of what we in the Council of Bishops have adopted (and the Connectional Table of our UMC has also adopted) as our Seven Vision Pathways to the Future. These on-going pathways include:

1. Developing New Congregations
2. Transforming Existing Congregations
3. Teaching the Wesleyan Model of forming Disciples of Jesus Christ
4. Strengthening Clergy and Lay Leadership
5. Reaching and Transforming the Lives of New Generations of Children
6. Eliminating Poverty in Community with the Poor
7. Eliminating Racism as we expand Authentic Racial/Ethnic Ministries

I doubt that these numbers or this brief report can fully convey to you my enthusiasm for this past weekend’s event or my hope for the future of our denomination. For the first time in my life and ministry, I sense that the leaders of our church are coming together to lead and guide and model for our church a common and united effort in ministry. You will hear more about these efforts to align our church for the future, and hopefully the numbers will all add up to a faithful and effective United Methodist Church. Please join me in praying that it may be so.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner

Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church
"Making a Difference ... in Indiana
and around the world"

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