When I came to
North Georgia in 1996, I inherited leadership of
what I consider to be the strongest conference
in all of Methodism.
Although we are
far from all that God calls us to be, we enjoy a
history of excellence in ministry, a wealth of
clergy and lay leader talent, a deep commitment
to Jesus Christ by over 950 congregations, and
we have record of membership growth unsurpassed
by any other area over the past 25
years.
We have rich
diversity of people in the rapidly growing
region of North Georgia -- and tremendous
institutional strength, with our United
Methodist colleges, Wesley Woods, the Children's
Home, Murphy-Harpst, Aldersgate Homes, Wesley
Community Centers, Action Ministries, Camp
Glisson, Camp Wesley, and all the other agencies
and ministries of our church. We are indeed
blessed people.
Our local
churches understand that making disciples for
Jesus Christ is our primary task -- but knowing
it and doing it are not always the same thing.
While we rejoice in our membership growth of
over 26,000 persons this past quadrennium, it
grieves my heart that one-third of our churches
in 1999 -- one-third of our churches -- did not
have a single profession of faith last year. And
it grieves my heart that 50 percent of our
churches had "one profession of faith or less"
last year.
So we rejoice in
our blessings, but have no reason to be cocky or
complacent. With the population growth in the 72
counties of North Georgia, this is truly harvest
time for the kingdom of God in our
area.
The
vision
So what is our
vision for the next 20 years? What is God
calling us to do? What is God's preferred future
for our annual conference? If the primary task
of the local church is to make disciples, what
then is the primary task of the annual
conference?
Working with
over 80 key lay and clergy leaders for the past
two-and-a-half years in the leadership forum,
and in consultation with the staffing task force
led by Warren Lathem, we put before you today a
vision for the future. I hope you have read it,
or will read it very soon. I will not insult
your intelligence by reading it to you, but let
me lift just a couple of critical points for a
minute.
The vision is, I
think, it clear: By the year 2020, every
congregation will be making disciples for Jesus.
Every congregation will be making disciples for
Jesus -- led by by effective and spiritually
maturing laity and pastors.
How can we
ensure this vision of 100 percent effectiveness?
Well, we believe that our human, financial, and
spiritual resources must be focused over the
next 20 years in three primary areas: leadership
development, establishing new faith communities,
and birthing a steady stream of transformational
mission efforts.
Areas of
focus
The first one:
leadership development. Weak leaders produce
weak churches.
Where we can
appoint effective, spiritually mature pastors to
churches and they have the opportunity to work
in partnership with effective laity, our
congregations always flourish.
Two:
planting new churches. The single most effective
evangelistic methodology under heaven is
planting new churches. All churches can lead the
lost to Christ, but new churches organized
around evangelism reach unchurched persons
better than established worshiping communities.
Much of our growth over the past 15 years has,
in fact, come from the new churches which have
been planted through church
development.
The challenge,
it seems to me, is to create 200 new,
biblically-based, vision-driven, mission-minded,
community-focused, culturally-relevant,
ethically-[grounded], cutting edge,
well-equipped, spiritually healthy, Holy
Spirit-vibrant United Methodist congregations in
North Georgia by the year 2020.
If you looked at
demographics and our growth patterns, it does
not take a rocket scientist to figure out that
almost 100 of our 950 congregations are
teetering on the brink of collapse. Many of
those congregations will not be with us 20 years
from now. If we're going to plant churches, and
if we're going to evangelize the 72 counties of
North Georgia, we have to not only replace those
congregations, but we have to build 100
more.
Many of those
will be done using a traditional route. Many of
them will be faith communities within larger
churches. Many of them will be faith communities
developed to reach new immigrant populations
within our region. But building new churches has
to continue to be one of our major priorities
over these next 20 years.
Third:
birthing new mission opportunities. In some
sense, we in North Georgia live of the
generational equity of parents and our
grandparents. What new United Methodist
ministries will be started by our generation?
What new United Methodist institutions of
service, and compassion, and caring, and love
will be built by our generation? What needs is
God calling us to meet in the 21st century here
in North Georgia and around the
world?
I can say it
another way: Who will be the Candler Budds of
this new generation in North Georgia?
A model teaching
conference
Just as there is
a need in our day for model teaching churches to
lead the way into new and dynamic ministry, I
believe that there is also within United
Methodism, a need for a model teaching annual
conference. An annual conference that is known
far-and-wide for its commitment to excellence in
ministry, not for the sake of pride, but for the
sake of Christ. A model teaching annual
conference, breaking new ground for
others.
Why should that
annual conference not be us? What annual
conference is better positioned to do that for
the whole church than us? I believe God is
calling North Georgia to give such leadership to
our denomination.
Give us
feedback
Well, the
document is before you for Christian
conversation. The last sheet, which is colored
blue, is for you to record your reactions and
responses, questions and recommendations about
this Vision 2020 document. The Leadership Forum
and our staffing task force will review each and
every comment as future visioning takes place
within the life of our church.
This is our
draft, and we dare not go any further without
your input, without your recommendations,
without your insight, and your
wisdom.
And so what I
want to ask you to do this afternoon, for about
25 minutes or so, is to gather together where
you are in groups of 3 to 5 persons. Just simply
gather together in those small groups and talk
to one another using the questions on the back
of the Vision 2020 document as your
guide.
There are three
questions. One has to do with leadership
development and training, the second has to do
with planting new churches, and the third has to
do with mission opportunities you would like to
see our conference embrace....
When you have
concluded with your group of 3 to 5, join hands
and have a prayer together....
