Archive for March, 2009
Our Clergy are Ready for the Partnership, are You?
Monday, March 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Last Thursday, March 26, I spent the morning with the preachers from the Southwest District. They were gathered for their regular meeting which, I think, occurs quarterly. Being a guest at such a gathering, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was warmly welcomed by those whom I already knew and by new acquaintances. At the invitation of District Superintendent Gail Ford Smith, I was there to talk about what a partnership between clergy and laity will look like – my vision of empowerment of the laity and how it can strengthen all of us and our individual and collective relationship with God.
The meeting began with worship which, while not at all elaborate, was wonderful. One of the great benefits of hanging out with clergy is that every gathering, large or small, begins with a time of centering on God and God’s presence among us. Sometimes it is an organized order of worship with specific hymns or songs; other times it is sharing a devotional; and still others it is a time of prayer. When music is involved, the most amazing, spontaneous harmonies can be heard. Any music director would be proud! As much as I love to sing, sometimes I am tempted to just close my eyes and listen. Thursday we sang “Lift High the Cross.” As the voices joined in that stirring hymn, I could just feel the Holy Spirit in the room. It was an awesome way to begin our time together.
Whenever I speak to a group, my stomach feels like it is home to a small animal, jumping up and down on a trampoline. As long as I am well prepared I eventually calm down, but I have never been a comfortable public speaker. As I spoke to this gathered group of clergy, though, not only did I feel as if they were attentive to the thoughts I was sharing, I also felt an incredible outpouring of caring surrounding me.
As I shared my thoughts about how the laity need to stand up and “take over the church”, instead of feeling threatened, I could see heads nodding. When I spoke about a “revolution of laity,” someone in the crowd said, “Preach it!” As I finished my presentation, I was met with handshakes, hugs and a couple of invitations to share my ideas in local churches.
Friends, our clergy brothers and sisters are ready to be in partnership with us. They are ready to hear our ideas and think about doing church and being the church in different ways. The future is here now and we have responsibility for it! There is so much for us to do but the good news is that we are not alone. Not only is God our constant companion in all we do and everywhere we go, there are a lot of us to lift this burden – clergy and lay people alike. If we approach this with prayer and discernment, care and compassion, just think of the great things we can accomplish together!
Be blessed in all that you do!
Leah Taylor
Don’t forget to go to www.txcumc.org/laitysurvey to participate in the survey to choose a tagline for lay communications!
Partipate in Survey for Laity Tagline
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Dear Friends,
As the laity of the Texas Annual Conference we have one great advantage over our clergy friends. For the most part, our days are spent away from our churches. While most of you who are taking the time to read this probably spend more than just Sunday morning in your church, you are probably not there everyday. Because of this difference, we have many opportunities to interact with people who are unchurched or are not active in any organized church even if they grew up in one. Think about the possibilities we have to become evangelists as we go about our lives! Many of you are witnesses for Christ in the ways you live your lives before you even speak. Others of you may have found effective ways to evangelize in your communities.
My hope is that as we continue to live into becoming “vibrant, growing congregations changing lives and reshaping futures for Jesus Christ,” we will find ways to communicate what we are doing as lay people to make this vision a reality. As our churches fulfill the mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world to the glory of God,” I hope that we’ll all be telling our stories.
As we, the laity of the United Methodist Church, live our faith and become passionate about sharing our faith, I hope that we’ll find places, including this blog, to share our excitement! To do that, the Communications office in the Center for Connectional Resources has been working to develop some tools for us to use. One item that I want to draft you to help with is a tagline for our communications. Soon we will be sharing an email newsletter which will appear under the heading of “The Laity of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.” We have narrowed down the tagline to three possibilities:
1. Opening Hearts, Minds and Doors
2. Living our faith, sharing our hope
3. Being the Church wherever we go
I have my favorite and I would like to know yours! To participate in choosing the tagline, you go to http://www.txcumc.org/laitysurvey and answer a few short questions. Clergy can vote, too. The way the survey has been designed, we’ll know how many people voted and the break down between clergy and lay participation. The survey is ready now and we will leave it up for the month of April.
Since the blog was activated in February, more than 200 people have visited the site. If you have questions you would like to see addressed, let me know. You can contact me at tayleah@comcast.net.
Watch the blog for information about laity events at Annual Conference. Details will start becoming available next week.
Showers of Blessings,
Leah Taylor
Message from Lynda Byrd, Assistant Secretary, GBGM
Monday, March 16th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Greetings from Colorado! It is cold and bright here with the crystal clear blue skies I haven’t seen anywhere except in the mountains.
While I’m vacationing, I wanted you to have fresh food for thought. In Sacramento last month, Lynda Byrd, Assistant General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries, addressed the gathered group of Conference Lay Leaders. Her words were directed to us, the Laity of the UMC. These thoughts have stayed with me and I want to share them with you. Please share them with your friends – clergy and lay!
Remember you can access the blog from the Conference website or you can go directly to it by going to www.txcumc.org/laityblog.
Showers of blessings!
Leah
Greetings!
Thank you so much for this opportunity to share time with you.
Let me say a little about how my being here came about. Gloria Holt, a past president of this leadership body serves as a director with the General Board of Global Ministries. Gloria has also agreed to serve as chairperson of the Financial Development Task Force. This task Force is a component within the Board of Directors that serves in a variety of ways to encourage and facilitate greater commitment to the stewardship of mission. In this capacity, Gloria is also a member of the Development Committee; a completely autonomous group that serves in an advisory capacity to the Office of Development. During our fall meeting last October, much discussion was had around how deeply mission impacts the spiritual growth and stability of individuals and congregations.., and the on-going challenge of engaging our congregations more intentionally in the work of stewardship through mission.., but more importantly, the opportunity of receiving that spiritual growth that inevitably accompanies being a part of ministry beyond ourselves.
We recognize that across the church we are failing to reach those whose lives can be enriched by the spiritual transformation that is evidenced again and again… evidenced by persons and congregations who have come to know the empowering grace of God through being in partnership with others, at home and in our global communities… in the 10s of 1,000s of places around the world where the cross and flame heralds the presence of God through people called United Methodists.
It has been my privilege to see the church in mission. As I have met and heard mission stories from others who have seen or become more informed about the presence of the church in the lives of so many…, without exception, we have all been forever changed.
These are critical times financially in this country. I know I’ve never experienced anything quite like we are currently facing. And yet, in the midst of this financial crisis at home, in the bleakest of times for many of us.., we are rich compared with well over two-thirds of the world’s population.
As my present responsibility places me in a variety of settings across the church, I hear again and again about our diminishing numbers.., both in membership and in dollars. We accept and practice in far too many venues around the church, a contagious sense of scarcity. We plan from beliefs of weakness and not from the realities of strength. So much talk is about what we don’t have that we have become almost oblivious to seeing and affirming what we do have. Think about those meetings in our congregations, districts, and conferences. Think about the kinds of opposition that arises to refute new ideas.., new ministry.., new growth. Somehow this scarcity… can’t do mentality has gotten into our DNA… achieving a priority status in far too many heads and hearts across the church.
Let me hasten to say to you that gloom and doom are not what I want to share. This church does remarkable ministry everyday, in places and in ways too profound for most of us to even fathom. For each single expression of “can’t do”, there are a thousand actions of “can do.” I love this denomination because I see what it does do.., day-after-day-after-day. I’ve seen a refugee camp move away from the inconsolable grief of burying its youth dying from dysentery through the simple act of digging wells for clean water.., wells dug with equipment provided by small congregations from the United States.., congregations that by some estimations are seen as dying.., and yet congregations that we know are providing life sustaining ministry. I have seen children orphaned by war and disease, receive what by most standards would be considered as meager support.., and through that support are able to continue in school while caring for younger siblings.., and almost single handedly move themselves and their families out of lives of destitution and despair into lives of healing and hope.
When the tsunami ripped across Indonesia, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the lives of people here at home in Louisiana and Mississippi, I saw the remarkable generosity of United Methodists that exceeded more than $160 million, with no decline in regular gifts to the church.
This is an exceptional denomination. You make it possible for The United Methodist Church to be in ministry and mission in more than 125 countries. Persons serving in mission placements are in 63 countries… working as pastors, teachers, doctors, farmers, pilots, nurses, counselors, carpenters. As many of you know, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) arrives in places of disaster around the world.., in many instances before the Red Cross. This is a remarkable denomination.
The challenge that I want to share with you today is to help us.., the laity… to know who we are as United Methodists. That $160 million dollars received in response to the tsunami and hurricanes came largely from the laity. When mission volunteers go to build homes in Mexico, or to clean up after earthquakes in China and Haiti, these folks are mostly laity. Laity writes the checks.., laity prepares the meals, laity pulls together teams to prepare flood buckets.., laity stays with the congregation when pastoral leadership is absent or lacking… laity is the lifeblood of this denomination.
Of the more than 35,000 congregations here in the US, did you know that less than 10% are actively participating in a covenant relationship with a missionary? The covenant relationship is the primary source of financial support that makes it possible to recruit, train, and send persons into mission service. What I have discovered is that congregations don’t participate because they are uncaring or self-absorbed. Congregations don’t participate because they don’t know. They don’t know that the very fiber of this denomination is living out John Wesley’s missional mandate to do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
If we don’t know and if we haven’t heard.., how can we respond? It is the nature of the itinerant system that pastors come and go. Pastors have tremendous roles to shepherd congregations and to be in so many places, responding to the vast needs and demands of ordained ministry. For most of us laity, we find a church that fits our needs, and if we’re lucky, we are able to stay in that place for a long time. Our congregations become home for us.., we raise our children, we go through life’s challenges and joys, and that congregation is integral to our journey. We share in the tragedies and triumphs of our fellow members.., and if we permit ourselves, we grow in faith and an understanding of what God calls us to be and do.
The sustenance of the church is on us. We may want to look elsewhere for the church’s growth. But we’re it! If the laity is not the foundation on which the church stands, the church cannot stand. Time and again, we have all seen our congregations rally to the need that was before us. The need has perhaps never been greater than it is now for the church to be all that it can be. And if this is to be accomplished, it’s the laity that will make it happen. While the structures may appear to dictate otherwise, the buck really does stop here.
My hope and prayer is that we can assume the roles of leadership in those places where leadership is sorely needed. Leadership manifests itself in multiple ways. It isn’t always from the person seated at the head of the table.., nor does it follow naturally as titles and responsibilities are given. Leadership is often quite quiet and unassuming; leadership is an encourager.., leadership is an enabler.., leadership is accepting the goal and trusting God to make the way known.
What I bring to you today is an urgent need to galvanize the laity of the church around its mission. Congregations that are in mission are growing, stronger congregations. It’s not always about numbers. We spend lots of energy and money on promotions about growing the church. We celebrate the large membership congregations and much of our resource materials are developed to help grow our churches numerically. But the very core of this denomination is the thousands of 200 and 300 membership churches that pay apportionments, support missionaries, know about the Six Special Sundays Offerings and participate in them, encourage their youth to participate at every level of the life of the church, affirm and value their older members, reach out to their communities, at home and abroad.
For your use, I have brought giving summaries for each annual conference. The summary includes all the gifts received in support of the Special Sundays Offerings, gifts to The Advance which includes all missionary support and support to individual mission projects and UMCOR. It’s important to see what we do to affirm the work of congregations and to help to better understand how much every gift matters. It’s important to see what we do in order to recognize the possibilities. It’s important to see what we do in order to move away from a belief in scarcity to embrace the reality of abundance.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to share with you. I hope that I can be a resource to assist you, in whatever way I possibly can, as we work to stabilize and enhance the contributions and potential of laity.., working together to be the church God calls us to be.
Lynda R. Byrd
Assistant General Secretary/Director of Development
General Board of Global Ministries
What is the Core Leadership Team?
Monday, March 9th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Last week at a meeting I was asked “What is the Core Leadership Team?” This question really highlights the communication links which have not been completely forged between the Conference, Districts and local churches. Communication is one of the priorities being addressed in every way possible – better information on the Conference website (txcumc.org), in the “Cross Connection,” between the Core Leadership Team (“CLT”), the District Leadership Teams (“DLT”), and the local churches. So, what is the Core Leadership Team?
The CLT is part of the sweeping changes adopted by our Annual Conference in 2006 as part of the “Bound for Greater Things, Building Our Future Together” document. The purpose of the CLT as set out in that document is “to implement decisions of the Annual Conference in accordance with the mission, vision and core beliefs of the Texas Annual Conference. It will:
1. Make decisions between sessions of the Annual Conference consistent with the mission, vision and core beliefs and directives of the Annual Conference and consistent with The Book of Discipline…
2. Have authority from the Annual Conference to hold Conference bodies accountable for action…
3. Create a culture of accountability within the Conference by conducting an ongoing process of strategic planning, goal setting, and annual reporting to the Annual Conference.
Voting members of the CLT are: one member from each District (half clergy and half laity), three at-large members, one Cabinet member, the Conference Lay Leader, and the Bishop or the Assistant to the Bishop, who chairs the team.
The CLT meets monthly, usually on the third Friday of the month, at the Conference Service Center. You can see the agenda for each meeting and the documents which will handed out and discussed at the meeting on the website. If you go to the heading “Administration” you will be able to see the portion of the “Bound for Greater Things” document which describes the purpose of the CLT as well as the current members.
Although the CLT has been meeting regularly since May 2006, it wasn’t until later in the process that it became clear that the CLT was not linked well to the District Leadership Teams. Since then, the District representatives on the CLT have become members of each DLT and the DLT’s have met with the CLT in an effort to be part of a flow of information from the local churches and districts to the Conference Centers and in the other direction as well. The process is starting to work but there is still much room for improvement.
If you have other questions about how things work, or at least how they are intended to work, send me an email (tayleah@comcast.net) or contact your district representative on the CLT. The more we all understand how things are supposed to work, the easier it will be for all of us to make them work!
Showers of Blessings to each of you in the work you are doing!
Leah Taylor
Appointment Season – Role of the Laity
Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Dear Friends,
As I walked along the bayou Friday morning with my constant companion, Sabrina (she’s a five year old yellow Labrador retriever), I saw the first tiny bluebonnets blooming. Then, turning into my neighborhood I got the first tantalizing aroma of blooming shrubs. All of a sudden spring has sprung!
At my house, thoughts of spring bring with them plans for Spring Break. Family time has always been cherished around here and traditionally we spend the first part of the week of Spring Break skiing together. We’ll begin planning menus for our time away from home and deciding which games we’ll play in the evenings. This year is no different except for the fact that our time together as a family has become even more cherished since our daughter went away to college.
For our clergy friends, spring may have an entirely different focus. Already the Cabinet has begun discussing and making appointments for the coming year. For many clergy, I suspect, spring may bring a sense of apprehension rather than the anticipation I feel. Not only are our pastors deeply involved in the Lenten season and planning for Easter celebrations, some of them may be wondering where their ministries will be next year at this time.
As a lay person, traditionally I viewed my role in the itinerancy of clergy as being to make sure that the transition from one pastor to the next was made smoothly. That is to make sure that as a congregation we celebrated the ministry of the pastor that was leaving so that his or her departure was a positive experience for the clergy family and our congregation. While that was being accomplished, we also needed to make certain that the parsonage was cleaned and ready for our new clergy family to move in, and, finally, I have always believed that it was important to be an immediate, visible supporter of the ministry of the pastor who was arriving.
I still believe that all of those items are important, but after hearing about how appointments are made, I now realize that we, as the laity of the United Methodist Church, have a much larger responsibility. The whole idea of clergy appointments being made to the mission field has made me think much harder about where my own church is in our ministry and, when we are in a position to be receiving a new pastor, will we be prepared to be in ministry to the mission field along with that person? Do we know the mission field in our present location? Do we understand who the people are who are living around my church? Are we trying to understand their needs and thinking about how God is asking us to reach out to those who are not yet here?
Right now my own church is actually engaged in this very conversation. Not because we are expecting new pastoral leadership but because we have realized that these questions, and more like them, are the way for us into a future of successful ministry. The Church Transformation project provides the participating churches with much of the information necessary to get started in having this discussion. The “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations” is another path your church could follow to facilitate the conversation.
As spring comes upon us in all of its glory, I urge you and your congregations to begin this dialogue — in your Staff Parish Committees, in your Church Councils and in Sunday School classes and other small groups. Even if this is not a year of pastoral change in your church, work that you do now will prepare you for the time when you are facing that change. It will position you to in positive ways to be in conversation with your District Superintendent when the time comes. And, maybe most importantly, it will prepare you to be in deep and meaningful ministry in your mission field.
For now, please lift up our Cabinet as they work through this season of making of appointments. Keep our clergy in your prayers as well as individually and collectively they answer God’s call.
Showers of blessings!
Leah Taylor