I’m proud of what we’ve done; God calls us to do more

Offering Christ to all

Friends, as we begin a new year together, we “press on toward the high calling that is in Christ Jesus.”
We are pleased to share that our new Web site is up and running: www.umcmcdistrict.com. Please check it out. I think you will find it inspirational and informative.
If you have something you would like to put on the Web site, send it to Linda Jewell, and she will see that it is included.
I admit it. I am proud of our McAllen District. We had churches extend themselves and their resources to meet their apportionments in full. Our district met our covenant commitments at 97.2 per cent. That is a sign of excellent pastoral and lay leadership.
Bruni, with a membership of 20 and average worship attendance of 12, gave $10,000 for hurricane relief to Florida, and another $10,000 to the United Methodist Committee on Relief for aid following the Dec. 26 tsunami. YOU GO, BRUNI!!
I attended the Bishop’s Initiative with New Church Development last week. The facilitator was Bishop Joe Pennel Jr., recently retired from the Virginia Conference.
The event was focused around Mike Regele’s book Robust Church Development, which Harry Kahl had recommended. The retreat provided us a wonderful time to focus on our own process for new church starts and was a time to listen to each other and come to some common understandings.
First, new churches are absolutely necessary for reaching people with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We as United Methodists emphasize the grace of God as the place we start in interpreting Christian experience. Grace, not judgment.
Do you think the world needs grace? The truth is, we United Methodists need to share our understanding of a gracious God with a hurting and lost world. The best way to do that is to go where the people are and start a new church.
If you disagree with me, think about your church. What percentage of your membership is over 65? How many people were baptized in your church last year? How many people made a confession of faith? What percentage of your annual income is received from people over 65?
The answers to these questions are painful for some of our congregations. The gospel call and our own Southwest Texas Conference call is to “Offer Christ to All,” not “Offer Christ to Some.”
I have sat in more than one charge conference and heard laypeople and pastors say, “We need children in our church.” And I look around the circle, and I see no one of childbearing age.
But that doesn’t mean the older church can’t help the churches serving neighborhoods full of children. What would it look like if your church were called by God to parent or grandparent a new church?
Second, it well may be that there are no new people in your community; it may be that people are moving out. But those people are moving somewhere. Is there a vital United Methodist church ready to connect them to Christ where they are moving?
The beauty of the United Methodist Church is its connectionalism. We are present all over the world helping our neighbors in the name of Christ.
Our connectionalism reminds us that the “world is our parish.” The gospel and our own tradition call us to look beyond ourselves. We do it well with disaster victims of tsunamis. What would it look like for our churches to look around our communities with the same compassion and say, “Who is offering these people the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?”
True, our communities mostly have electricity, running water, city services. And it is also true that many in our communities have the “necessities of life” but lack the one thing necessary for “fullness of life”—a God who loves them, a Christ who saves them and the Spirit to fill their lives with meaning.