Conference leaders take more steps to ‘offer Christ to all’

Southwest Texas Conference leaders took three more steps this month in Corpus Christi toward the vision of “offering Christ to all”:
> They kicked off a $5 million capital fundraising campaign to finance new churches.
> They adopted four initiatives to guide the transformation of existing congregations.
> They added $150,000 to the 2008 annual conference budget for a yearlong regional advertising campaign.
Those three actions—taken between ballots for General and South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegates—topped the list of policy decisions made during the June 6-9 Southwest Texas Annual Conference session.
The “Offering Christ Today for Tomorrow” capital campaign has already secured more than $2 million in pledges toward its $5 million goal, the Rev. J. Michael Lowry announced June 7.
“We began very intentionally with prayer,” said Lowry, executive director of new church development and transformation. “We will pray this (effort) through, or it will not happen. What’s at stake isn’t institutional survival but (the fundamental question of) will the next generation know Christ.”
Additional pledges are being collected over the next 12 months, Lowry said. From June through November the focus will be on major gifts. From January through May 11 (Pentecost Sunday), the campaign will seek support from congregations.
The fundraising effort is to end next June with a celebration during the 2008 annual conference session, Lowry said. Contributions are to be collected through Dec. 31, 2011.
The Council on Ministries proposed the “4 Partnership Initiatives for Transforming Congregations and Offering Christ to All.” They call the conference’s 344 existing congregations to:
> Become evangelistic in faith sharing.
> Strengthen evangelistic presence in the community.
> Call forth younger people for service in ordained ministry.
> Develop disciples and leaders.
“These are not a program from on high,” council chair Carol Loeb told the 1,354 conference members—half clergy, half laity. “They are for you to take back to your churches and determine how best to do them in your communities.
“We strongly believe that adopting and addressing these initiatives as a conference will give us direction together as we look to transform our churches and offer Christ to all.”
Jim Calloway, a member of First UMC, Harlingen, and the New Church Development Commission, proposed adding $150,000 to next year’s $9.26 million conference budget for a regional advertising campaign. The goal was to have enough money to qualify for up to $150,000 in matching grant money next year from the General Commission on Communication.
The conference, he noted, had foregone up to $150,000 in matching ad grants annually since 2001.
The addition made the proposed spending total 5.6 percent higher than the 2007 budget. Before Calloway’s amendment, the proposed budget would have been 3.9 percent higher than the current spending plan.
“We are involved in three major initiatives: Welcoming Congregations, congregational transformation (in the Austin, Corpus Christi and McAllen districts) and the capital campaign for new churches,” Calloway said in arguing for his amendment. “But who are we welcoming? Why are we transforming? Who will fill those new churches?”
A yearlong regional advertising campaign would be a “great tool of evangelism that will cement these three initiatives together and finally let us offer Christ to all,” Calloway said.
“We no longer have the name recognition we used to have,” Calloway said. “People need to know who we are and what we are.”
In the debate that followed Callo-way’s motion to amend the budget, two people spoke for the addition. One spoke against. One questioned how the money would be used.
“Setting aside $300,000 on a $9 million budget is nothing,” said Bill Ault, a member of Coker UMC, San Antonio, and a retired advertising executive. “But with $300,000 you could have some impact. I think we should do it.”
Pastor Charles Purnell Jr. of St. Paul UMC, Columbus, and Wesley Chapel UMC, Altair, said he opposed the addition because Calloway’s proposal didn’t define advertising.
The Rev. George Lumpkin, pastor of First UMC, Lampasas, said he also wanted more details about how the campaign would be carried out.
The conference directed the Commission on Communications to design “a plan to most effectively utilize the new advertising line item and matching grant from the general church.” That work is to be done in consultation with the Rev. Austin Frederick Jr., assistant to the episcopal office.
In other actions, the conference:
> Approved a policy from the Commission on Communications authorizing electronic mail as an official mode of conference communication.
> Adopted a resolution from the Board of Church and Society saying that the policies and procedures of the conference and its affiliated congregations “aspire to welcome into membership all confessing Christians without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, social status or economic condition.”
> Accepted a recommendation from the Board of Trustees to close Scott’s Chapel UMC, Kingsville, July 1.
> Defeated a proposal to increase support for Texas Impact, an ecumenical lobbying group in Austin, from $4,000 to $10,000 in 2008.