Bishop Palmer offers vision for areas of focus
By Linda Green*
May 4, 2009 | BETHESDA, Md. (UMNS)
|
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer
|
The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops called on thousands of church leaders May 4 to each gather 30 people in prayer and conversation to care for the sick, develop Christian leaders, renew churches and serve the poor.
In an address at the council’s spring meeting, Bishop Gregory V. Palmer also proposed designating a bishop solely to oversee the four areas of focus affirmed by the 2008 General Conference.
The four areas of focus – developing principled Christian leaders, creating new churches and renewing existing ones, ministering with the poor and improving global health by stamping out killer diseases of poverty – provide hope to a world hungry for God, food, health, justice, peace, community, hope and love, Palmer said.
He specifically challenged the top executives of churchwide agencies, bishops and every delegate to the 2008 General, central and jurisdictional conferences to create 30-member groups to develop ways to capture the hearts and imaginations of people around the world in each of the four areas.
“When you bring people together around a common conversation and agenda,” Palmer said, “we hear more deeply the jarring realities that people are facing, but (we) also hear the opportunity that God is giving the church to engage people where they are hopeful and where they are hurting.”
Church members cannot do nothing in the face of war, poverty and a global financial crisis, trusting that the market and church will correct themselves, Palmer said.
“We are in the business of calling men, women, boys and girls and communities to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ to the end that they will participate with God in God’s new creation,” he said.
Sharpening leadership
Palmer also called on the council to designate a bishop in addition to the president to give leadership and oversight to the areas of focus for at least two years, effective Sept. 1, 2010. That bishop will convene a table of 12 to make a fresh assessment of the church’s connectional life and generate proposals for improved planning, effectiveness and accountability.
Identifying the bishop and committee would be a prelude to two things: having a set-aside bishop for the presidency of the council for four years and creating a denominationwide steering or executive committee that could respond to opportunities and challenges in the church between meetings of the General Conference. The legislative assembly convenes every four years.
The United Methodist Church does not have the structure or mechanisms for responding to things that happen in church life more quickly than every four years. “We must find an additional path,” Palmer said. “We must grow an additional artery to get blood to the heart in between the sessions of the General Conference.”
The church, like the world, is anxious and uneasy about money and finances. “There is a great unevenness about what we are hearing, and most of it is not good news,” Palmer said. However, he said, there is also hope in the church’s capacity to see, within many of our lifetimes, the elimination of debilitating diseases related to poverty.
He encouraged the council to embrace strongly the church’s commitment to raise at least $75 million for the denomination’s Global Health Initiative by 2012. “God does not want this world to be weighed down with the killer diseases of poverty,” he said.
The economic crisis notwithstanding, United Methodists are under capacity in their giving and generosity, Palmer noted. “This is about growing more bold and radical disciples of Jesus Christ who are willing to put it all on the line in service of the mission.”
Time for action
He said his suggestions about the areas of focus and the reordering of church life are not about creating frenetic activity but are an invitation to find a path to radically realigning the church’s life.
Answering the call will take bold, imaginative action, including changing how meetings are held, money is spent and work in the churchwide agencies is done, he said. The reordering will require rethinking assumptions, policies and practices at every church level to promote effective ministry and mission.
“We can wring our hands, we can hide in a cave or start writing our own institutional funeral, or we can take bold, imaginative action.”
–Bishop Gregory V. Palmer “The life of The United Methodist Church is going to be reordered,” he declared, and the question is whether it will be done with a hacksaw or a scalpel – that is, whether or not it will be done in a way that reflects thoughtful planning.
“We live in a kairos moment, a hinge moment,” Palmer continued. “We and the world are in crisis.” Crisis moments are opportunities for radical action, he said. “We can wring our hands, we can hide in a cave or start writing our own institutional funeral, or we can take bold imaginative action.”
It is time for disruptive innovations in the church’s systems, Palmer said. He cited 2 Kings: 6-7, describing how the people of Samaria were dealing with a war and famine, and the result would have been death if they chose to do nothing.
The church, he said should be stirred by the question: “Why sit here until we die – or worse yet, until the world dies?”
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related Articles
Be not afraid of swine flu, bishops say
Compassion, caution urged in response to swine flu
United Methodist Web site opens church doors
Church to help eradicate malaria in Sierra Leone
United Methodists in Liberia take aim at poverty
Agency will help develop leaders in Brazil
African bishops discuss health needs
Resources
Bishop Palmer Urges Common Sense Precautions Around H1N1 Flu
Four Areas of Ministry Focus
Council of Bishops |
RSS Feed
Korean News