Laity leaders hear how they can help transform churches

150 attend ‘soon’ event;
another 80 go to ‘later’
assembly in Kingsville
By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
More than 200 Southwest Texas laity leaders considered over two recent weekends how they could help transform their congregations.
Some 150 leaders heard a presentation about improving the witness and ministry of a local congregation by the Rev. J. Michael Lowry during the “sooner” Laity Assembly Feb. 23-24 at Mount Wesley Conference Center, Kerrville.
Another 80 leaders saw Lowry, executive director of new church development and transformation, repeat his message during the March 2-3 “later” assembly at First UMC, Kingsville.
At the “later” event, Sam Fugate, mayor of Kingsville and lay leader at First UMC, presented Lowry with a key to the city for all his transformation work.
Denny Jewell, lay leader for the southern portion of the McAllen District, preceded Lowry’s talk by urging laity leaders to encourage youth participation on church committees.
Congregations would face the same concerns in the future that they face today if they don’t get young people
involved, Jewell said.
Lowry stressed the importance of worship as the No. 1 way to transform churches.
“Worship needs to be done well and with a passion,” he said.
He encouraged laity leaders to make sure their pastors had enough time to study scripture and prepare meaningful sermons.
When pastors don’t deliver great sermons, laity leaders should ask them how they could help improve future messages, Lowry said. That’s because many pastors are overextended.
Music, Lowry added, is one of the core ways that Methodists do their “faithing.”
If the music in a church service is rated by attendees as a 6 and the pastor’s message merits an 8, people will leave worship rating the entire experience as a 6, Lowry said. Likewise, if the music is rated an 8 and the sermon a 6, people will leave rating the entire experience as an 8.
Children and youths are very important to church transformation, Lowry said.
“I have a deep conviction that one of the reasons God called The Methodist Church into being was to reach children,” he said. “Sunday School is not a Baptist invention.”
The church today is in a time of “adaptive change,” he said. Leaders need carefully to recast their vision, mission and core values.
“Adaptive change is change when we’re not sure where we’re going,” Lowry said. “I’m convinced that nobody really knows what they’re doing.
“But that will humbly push us back to God. We’re at a time closer to the time of Acts and the time of Exodus than we’ve ever been in the last 1,500 years.”
Lowry encouraged churches to become welcoming congregations. He said he believes in the program and its success in opening the doors of the church.
Fugate said the assembly provided essential information to local church leaders.
As Kingsville mayor for the past three years, Fugate said he had visited many churches in the area and seen many of them successfully doing what Lowry discussed.
“I think we, as a church, have to transform and get out into the communities and do things better,” Fugate said. “A lot of our churches are in equilibrium or are past that now. We’ve got to have the rebirth. We’ve got to get out and do something.”
Bill Ault, a member of Coker UMC, San Antonio, said he believed laity assemblies were important for unifying local leaders’ mission in the churches.
“I feel there’s a new awakening movement of the laity to turn the church around,” he said. “There’s a groundswell. I want to be on the leading edge of that.
“We’ve got to start evangelizing and recruiting these young people.”
Carol Loeb, chair of the Council on Ministries, briefed participants at the “later” assembly on four initiatives that the council would consider March 17:
> Becoming evangelistic in our faith sharing.
> Strengthening our evangelistic presence in the community.
> Calling forth younger clergy.
> Developing disciples and leaders.
Ault and Southwest Texas Conference Lay Leader Jay Brim discussed the four initiatives at the “sooner” assembly.
Thirteen candidates seeking election as laity delegates to the 2008 General and South Central Jurisdictional conferences briefly spoke to the “sooner” assembly in Kerrville.
Seven candidates met participants in the “later” session in Kingsville.
Four candidates attended both gatherings.