Connectional Table adopts 4 goals for UMC ministry

United Methodist News Service
FORT WORTH—The Connectional Table, a 60-member group responsible for coordinating the UMC’s mission, ministries and resources, has proposed four goals for the 10 million-member denomination.
The group selected the four from 54 “provocative proposals” considered during an Oct. 22-24 meeting. The four proposals will be further developed and presented to the 2008 General Conference.
Proposals selected:
> Address the leadership crisis in the church in the United States.
> Create a strategy to develop new congregations.
> Partner with the poor.
> Launch a global health initiative.
The first proposal would ask the 13 denominationwide agencies to address the leadership crisis in the U.S. church through commitments of time, money and staff.
Statistics show that the average United Methodist is 57 years old, and United Methodists under age 18 account for only 4.6 percent of church members.
Only 850 ordained and commissioned elders are under age 35, and U.S. membership has slipped below 8 million for the first time since the 1930s. In contrast, congregations in Africa, Asia and Europe have seen membership increase.
The second proposal addresses how the denomination’s general agencies, annual conferences and local congregations can rethink the way the church recruits, trains and supports clergy and laity leaders.
The group set a goal of 350 new churches a year in the United States, with 80 percent of those churches averaging 250 people in worship within five years of their launch.
If the initiative is successful, the denomination would welcome 87,500 new members in five years.
Five action steps were suggested for the third proposal—strengthening ministries with the poor:
> Each agency would survey its works with the poor and report on the findings by January.
> Each agency would review the findings and form a team to plan collaborative initiatives.
> Each team would create a proposal for consideration by the 2008 General Conference.
> Each team would develop six pilot projects between 2009 and 2012.
> Each team would develop multilingual education resources.
The fourth proposal involves a global health initiative to engage all levels of the denomination in a campaign to prevent and treat diseases that result from poverty.
One element of a global health plan would involve the “Nothing But Nets” campaign, an effort to raise funds for anti-malarial bed nets.
The General Board of Global Ministries, General Commission on Communication and the Division on Ministries with Young People at the General Board of Discipleship are teaming with the United Nations Foundation, the Millennium Promise, the Measles Initiative, Sports Illustrated magazine and the National Basketball Association to promote the program.