Groups seek creation of agency division for young people
2/20/2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. *Tanton is news editor for United Methodist News Service.
MESA, Ariz. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's two top organizations for young people are joining forces to propose creating a division within one of the general agencies to coordinate ministries for youth and young adults.
Launching a division would be a vital step to empowering young people and drawing more of them into the life of the church, according to directors of the churchwide Shared Mission Focus on Young People.
"I'm drawn towards (a) division because I think it's the most realistic option we have right now," said Julie O'Neal of Scottsdale, Ariz., and co-leader of the Shared Mission Focus team. A division represents the best opportunity for bringing about long-term systemic change in the church, she said.
The Shared Mission Focus team and the steering committee of the United Methodist Youth Organization joined in supporting the idea during Feb. 15-18 meetings in Mesa. About 70 people, primarily youth and young adults from around the United States as well as Europe, Africa and the Philippines, attended.
Leaders of the Shared Mission Focus will present the idea to the denomination's Board of Discipleship in March. Both the Shared Mission Focus and United Methodist Youth Organization are housed with the board in Nashville, Tenn. The division would be created within an existing agency that has not yet been specified.
After the board meeting, work will proceed on draft legislation that will be circulated around the church for comment next year, with the goal of having a final proposal for the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh.
The Shared Mission Focus team also will present a proposal to the discipleship board for creating a global young people's conference, which would be the official voice of young people in the United Methodist Church, said the Rev. Drew Dyson, executive director of Shared Mission Focus. Concerns and advocacy issues could be raised at the global event and taken back to the central and U.S. jurisdictional conferences, and the gathering would be the voice of young people to the General Conference.
Details are still being worked out, but the possibilities include holding the conference every four years and bringing together 120 delegates -- 10 each from the five U.S. jurisdictional conferences and the seven central conferences outside the United States.
The proposed division would operate separately from the global conference and would be governed by its own board of directors. It would have a structure similar in key ways to the Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries. The unit would have the autonomy of the Women's Division, as well as a voice at the table when the top staff executives of the general boards and agencies meet.
The creation of such a unit is an idea whose time has come, people with the Shared Mission Focus team and the youth organization said.
The move was born out of the Shared Mission Focus team's realization last September that the denomination needs a centralized coordinating body for young people's ministries. The absence of such a unit was one of several problems the team identified, along with the lack of validation for ministries with young people; the dearth of young candidates for full-time ministry; the failure of the church to respond to the changing lifestyles of young people; the lack of a global context for much of the church's ministries with the young; and the departure of young people from the church "at an alarming rate."
The Shared Mission Focus leadership team began working with the youth organization's executive committee in September, and both groups endorsed the plan for creating a coordinating body for young people's ministries. In Mesa, the Shared Mission Focus team presented the idea to the youth organization's steering committee, which committed its support and appointed resource people to participate in the work.
During joint sessions, every member of the steering committee and Shared Mission Focus team had a chance to speak on the proposal.
"I think we can transform the church and give the youth a lot of power," said June Willson, a Shared Mission Focus director from Summerville, S.C.
Dyson noted that a division offers the greatest freedom and possibility for doing ministry at the top level of the church - the local level, where the real ministry of the church happens.
"It's a great step for our organization," said Meredith Humphrey of Fort Smith, Ark., chairperson of the youth organization's steering committee, after a late session. The goals of the Shared Mission Focus support the youth organization's mission of empowering youth and giving them an equal voice in the church, she said.
Another advantage: A division would have permanent status and funding in the church. The Shared Mission Focus, created in 1996, comes up for renewal every four years at General Conference.
In brainstorming the division idea, the Shared Mission Focus team considered several other options: a general commission, a national plan similar to the National Plan for Hispanic Ministries, a standing committee at an existing agency or an expanded United Methodist Youth Organization.
Of those alternatives, the creation of a general commission appealed most to the team members, in part because it would give young people's ministries a general secretary with equal voice among the top staff executives of the other boards and agencies. However, the team concluded that the church probably would not be receptive to creating a new commission, and that the idea presented financial challenges and other drawbacks.
The team discussed at length a proposal made last year by Daniel Church, top staff executive of the General Council on Ministries (GCOM) in Dayton, Ohio, to create a single governing board for all of the denomination's agencies except the United Methodist Publishing House and Board of Pension and Health Benefits. The full GCOM will consider Church's idea in April.
If the single-board idea ultimately received General Conference approval in 2004, then youth ministries would have their own portfolio, putting them on an equal footing with general agencies, Shared Mission Focus leaders said.
"We are now engaging the whole church in a conversation to reinvent the church," Benoni Silva-Netto, a GCOM staff executive attending the Shared Mission Focus meeting. Young people must be part of that process, he told the team. "We are losing (young people) in terms of the life of the church, and therefore what you are doing right now we commend highly. We want to be your ally also in restructuring the church."
The Shared Mission Focus team is committed to being a partner in ongoing dialogue on Church's idea, Dyson said later. "Our particular interest is how that new reality would address or encompass the needs and concerns of young people across the church."
Though members of the youth organization and Shared Mission Focus reached consensus on the division idea, some concerns were raised. Youth organization members wondered how their group would fit into the new division and whether their voice would be diminished. Emphasis also was placed on ensuring that young people in the central conferences are represented.
The creation of a division is part of a broader effort by the groups aimed at empowering and lifting up ministries for young people. The campaign, called "I Dream A Church," is focused on generating support at all levels of the denomination for such ministries and for giving youth and young adults a greater voice in settings such as General Conference.
"The I Dream A Church (campaign) is the biggest possible generation of a movement within the church to address the needs of young people," Dyson said. Its goal is to get the church, particularly young people, to share dreams for the future.
"It really is the product of a groundswell," said Jay Williams of Buffalo, N.Y., co-leader with O'Neal of the Shared Mission Focus team. A movement is under way in the church in support of youth and young adult ministries, he explained.
Work is under way on an "I Dream A Church" Web site, which will be online soon. Once the site goes up, the Shared Mission Focus team will invite people to join in conversation about the division proposal and what the church might look like, Williams said.
In other business, the team members heard updates on applications from around the church for Shared Mission Focus grants.
Dyson also told the group that his office is seeking someone for a two-year, full-time internship. The intern would be involved in developing a communications strategy and managing projects such as training and leadership development. The paid internship begins July 1 and would be based at the Shared Mission Focus office in Nashville.
Amid the long workdays, the Shared Mission Focus and youth organization leaders took time for worship sessions. Drawing on 1 Timothy 4:12 during an evening devotion, Arthur Jones, a Shared Mission Focus director from Highland Village, Texas, encouraged his listeners.
Young people, he said, have a right to be involved and have a say in the church. "We are the church of today."
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