General Council struggles with tenure for agency executives
5/11/2001
PHOENIX (UMNS) - Should the top executives of United Methodist agencies be allowed to stay in their positions beyond the recommended 12 years, and if so, for how long?
That was the question facing members of the General Council on Ministries (GCOM) as they gathered for their semi-annual meeting May 5-8 in Phoenix.
The church's Book of Discipline directs the council to elect annually the top executives after they have been nominated by their respective agencies. The issue has become a hot one for the council because of a rule that "no elected general program agency staff shall hold the same position more than 12 years." However, another sentence in the Book of Discipline says the agency responsible for the election of such staff "may annually suspend this provision by a two-thirds ballot vote."
The issue hasn't been as difficult for the council in previous years because time of service for executives before Jan. 1, 1989, was not counted. "We are in new territory," said GCOM's president, Bishop Ed Paup of Portland, Ore. "We have not been here before."
Adding to the council's tension is a recommendation made in April by governing members of the Board of Global Ministries, asking that the agency's top staff executive, the Rev. Randolph Nugent, be kept on for another year. Nugent has served in the position since 1981.
Nugent has been asked to continue his leadership until a successor is named. The board's personnel committee plans to elect a new general secretary in April 2003. A search committee will be formed at the board's next meeting in October.
GCOM members will not vote on the extension for Nugent until they meet again in November. However, the nomination of Nugent for service beyond 12 years clearly prompted the council members to discuss the Book of Discipline provision during their meeting in Phoenix.
A GCOM elections sub-committee, which is to bring recommendations to the council in November, called on the entire body for guidance. Committee chairman Larry Powell, of Las Vegas, asked members if they want to strictly enforce the 12-year rule or allow annual extensions. If extensions are allowed, he asked members for their guidance about the number of years involved.
The council's lack of consensus quickly became evident. Some members argued that the Book of Discipline clearly allows for an annual extension of time, something GCOM can't change. Others argued that General Conference delegates intended for 12 years to be a norm and that extensions should be allowed only in rare situations. Several members called for "grace" in enforcing the 12-year limit and consideration of each individual case on its own merits.
The Rev. Andy Langford, of Matthews, N.C., pushed for the council to act. He suggested that the elections sub-committee bring some proposed criteria to the entire council later in the meeting. The recommendation was rejected after Powell said such a report would be impossible before adjournment.
Langford said GCOM's future hangs on the issue. "Will we claim the coordinating and leadership function it has been asked to perform, or will we rubber-stamp the recommendations of the general agencies? Will we do what the Book of Discipline tells us to do?"
Mary Silva, a lay member from San Marcos, Texas, said the GCOM is called "not only to coordinate but to facilitate the work of general agencies and the mission of the church."
Carolyn Johnson, of West Lafayette, Ind., said the issue isn't about the 12-year rule or the number of years one could serve beyond it. "The issue, in my opinion, is how will GCOM proceed when it decides not to confirm the nomination of a general agency. If that scenario happens, then what?"
Bishop Alfred Johnson of New Jersey suggested the issue be approached with grace and flexibility. "I hope whatever the policy, it is not a cookie-cutter, a one-size-fits-all approach."
The Phoenix meeting was the first regular gathering of the council since its organization last fall. Members of church boards are elected for four-year terms. A four-year Connectional Process Team (CPT) had recommended that the GCOM be eliminated, but General Conference delegates voted in May 2000 to continue the Dayton, Ohio,-based agency. Among other things, the council was asked to guide the church in considering five "transformational" directions identified by the CPT.
The transformational directions were affirmed by the Council of Bishops, meeting in the Phoenix area immediately before the GCOM. In an address early in the bishops' meeting, Dan Church, GCOM's new top staff executive, surmised that the delegates had referred the transformational directions as a "consolation prize," since most of the team's recommendations were rejected. However, after study and reflection, Church said he had concluded that the transformational directions are "gifts from Almighty God ... sturdy enough to change our church."
Paup said it is common for two letters to be transposed in the denomination's name, making it the "untied" Methodist Church. He said the five transformational directions can frame the direction for the council's future and allow members to "envision ways we can become untied for mission in the world."
The transformational directions call for centering on Christian formation, calling forth covenant leadership, empowering the connection for ministry, strengthening the church's global connection and ecumenical relationships, and encouraging doctrinal and theological discourse. The council plans to focus on one of the directions during each of its first meetings of the quadrennium.
Responding to one of the directions, GCOM members took action to "strengthen our global connection" by voting to hold their spring 2003 meeting in the Philippines, one of the fastest-growing regions of the church. Members also agreed that the agency's 18-member Servant Leadership Team will meet in Africa in July 2002. The team operates much like an executive committee between semi-annual meetings of the full council.
The 80-member council accepted a challenge to raise additional Advance gifts equivalent to the cost of the meetings. The money will go to specific Advance projects visited during the meetings outside the United States. Cost of the meeting in the Philippines is estimated to be $247,000.
The GCOM was the first churchwide agency governing body to hold a regular meeting outside the United States. In 1998, the council sent 22 teams of members to various locations throughout Europe, the Philippines and Africa to explore with local congregations, as well as with church and community leaders in seven central conferences what it means to be a global church. These teams then met in Switzerland to share and reflect on their experiences as part of a council meeting.
During the Phoenix meeting, a three-session Bible study, led by the Rev. William B. "Bobby" McClain, focused on the first of the five transformational directions: Centering on Christian formation. "If we are confused about our identity - who we are - we will be more confused about our purpose - why we exist - and will be most confused about our mission - what we ought to be doing," McClain said.
Christians are people formed by a story of grace, he said. "It is that story that claims, names, shapes and possesses us." If Christians forget the story, he said, the church "fragments and falls apart."
Evangelism calls people to respond to God's grace, McClain continued. Recalling his childhood in Alabama, he said people would say "thank you and much obliged."
"The response to God's grace is more than 'thank you, Jesus,' " he said. "It is gratitude plus obligation. ... A love so amazing demands more than a nod or confession. It demands my life, my soul, my all."
During business sessions, the GCOM heard a report from the Advance for Christ and His Church, a program that has collected more than $866 million since its inception following World War II. The committee has approved more than 2,000 projects for funding during the 2001-2004 quadrennium, totaling $210 million. Bishop Johnson is leader of the Advance Committee, which is linked to both the GCOM and the Board of Global Ministries.
GCOM members approved six projects for support from a World Service Contingency Fund, established for emerging opportunities and to enable churchwide agencies to respond to unanticipated General Conference assignments that are not in their regular budgets.
The Board of Discipleship was given $101,025 to explore the feasibility of a Young Adult Ministries Organization and $116,400 for a Science and Theology Task Force. The Commission on the Status and Role of Women was given $39,250 for a training event and forum for annual conference response teams, which will focus on healing following clergy or ministerial misconduct of a sexual nature.
The Commission on United Methodist Men was given $30,000 for Transformation Quest, a small-group approach designed around a model described in Post-Modern Pilgrims, a book by the Rev. Leonard Sweet. The Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns received two grants: $195,950 for four "Dialogues on Homosexuality and the Unity of the Church," and $120,000 for efforts to "make real and visible the commitments made by the United Methodist Church in the Acts of Repentance for Racism liturgy at the 2000 General Conference."
Members urged that a GCOM Web site be created. Among other things, they asked that it include a position paper or study document and possibly a chat room on "A Theology and Philosophy of Restructuring." The GCOM has been asked by the General Conference to study connectional structures and to recommend legislative changes to the 2004 General Conference.
The council's next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 26-30 in Miami.
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