Discipling consultant to help Southwest Texas churches

Heavner

6-month test to see
if deployed staffers
can better serve UMC

Southwest Texas congregations wanting to improve disciple making can get expert help through Sept. 30.
The Rev. Betsey Heavner, a dis-cipling consultant from the General Board of Discipleship, began working in the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas conferences April 1 as part of a six-month pilot program.
“I will be helping leaders of congregations refocus on what they are there for—making disciples of Jesus Christ,” Heavner said.
Congregations often face unique—but sometimes unrecognized—obstacles to disciple making, Heavner said. Part of her mission is to help local leaders identify those obstacles and overcome them.
“If a church is struggling to pay bills, for instance, that takes all its energy,” she said. “Church leaders are not focused on disciple making. They are trying to survive.
“I may be able to help them look at stewardship more holistically, not as just paying bills.”
Besides helping congregations, Heavner noted, she hopes to learn successful disciple-making techniques from congregations that are effectively transforming their communities.
“We want to identify what is really working well in this day and age,” she said. “To identify emerging trends in disciple making, you have to be on the ground.”
For the past five years Heavner has been director of congregational leader formation at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn. Before that she served congregations in the Northwest Texas Conference and worked on that conference staff.
Heavner said she began making contacts in Southwest Texas this month with congregations that already used General Board of Discipleship resources. She wanted to find out, among other things, how they were using those materials.
Heavner met with Southwest Texas Conference district superintendents April 14 to get suggestions of other congregations that might benefit from her expertise.
Heavner’s time in Southwest Texas is part of a six-month test by the discipleship agency. The goal is to see if having staff members deployed around the country can help the board respond more quickly and effectively to local needs.
“The General Board of Discipleship is very clear that if it wants to get different results, we have to do things differently,” said Heavner, a deacon in the Northwest Texas Conference.
The board decided to run its test in the Rio Grande and Southwest Texas conferences, she said, because:
> Both conferences were willing to work with the agency.
> Many congregations are already familiar with General Board of Discipleship resources and programs.
> The multicultural population reflects the emerging U.S. population mix.
> Both conferences will have stable leadership during the six-month test period.
Church leaders can contact Heavner toll free at (877) 899-2780, Extension 7295, or bheavner@ gbod.org.