April 28, 2004
Daily Wrap-up: Delegates Hear Restructuring Report, Laity Address
By Linda Bloom*

PITTSBURGH (UMNS) – How United Methodists relate to one another,
both structurally and spiritually, was a topic of discussion during
the April 28 session of the denomination's top legislative body.

Delegates to General Conference received a report from the churchwide
Council on Ministries called "Living into the Future," which proposes
merging the work of program and finance agencies into a "Connectional
Table." In that structure, leaders from around the church would
coordinate the work of most of the denomination's agencies and would
oversee ministries budgeted at more than $500 million per quadrennium.

United Methodists in all regions of the world, including Africa,
Asia, Europe and North America, would be represented at the table,
along with the Council of Bishops and agency officials.

Under the proposed plan, the General Council on Ministries and
General Council on Finance and Administration would fold into the
Connectional Table by Jan. 1, 2007. Ten other agencies would retain
their own board of directors but be accountable and represented at
the table.

"The plan is about bringing mission and money to the same table,"
said Darlene Amon, a delegate from the Virginia Annual Conference and
one of the voices in the video describing the benefits of "Living
into the Future."

Bishop Joseph Yeakel described the proposal in terms of "connecting
the connection." A rejection of the plan by General Conference would
amount to the church choosing to "retain a disconnected structure,"
he said.

Delegates will vote on the document during the week of May 3.

Gloria Holt, lay leader of the North Alabama Annual Conference, gives
the Laity Address In the General Conference Laity Address, Gloria
Holt told delegates that until each individual church member is
willing to let go of "me, myself and I" and make a concerted effort
to become "we, ourselves and us," the denomination will continue to
be involved in "power struggles, selfish decision-making and un-
Christian action toward each other."

Most troubling is the "apparent unwillingness" of laity and clergy to
be equal partners in ministry, according to Holt, president of the
United Methodist Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders.

"If clergy are singing their own song while the laity are dancing to
their own beat, how in the world are we going to get in sync with one
another?" she asked. "Unless we do, the church will not be creating
the music for which God gave us the notes."

She also urged the international assembly to move away from doing
things in the same old way and to realize that the absence of youth
and young adults in local congregations could be due to an
unwillingness to change in ways that would welcome that age group.

In the morning worship service, Bishop Bruce Blake of Oklahoma noted
the legislative concerns over budget issues.

"Our attitude is one of giving until it hurts, rather than heals.
Everything is focused on our limited resources when, in fact, if
United Methodists would give until it heals we would have so much
money to facilitate God's mission in the world that conferencing
would be a celebration of sharing rather than our experience of
divvying up a shrinking pie."

He suggested that United Methodists have lost the connection between
grace and giving, and he challenged the delegates to live a gospel of
giving until it heals.

*Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer.