2009 State of the Church

Bishop Schol calls for ‘unbound and outbound’ church

Episcopal Address/State of the Church
June 4, 2009
John R. Schol, Bishop
Washington, DC Area
The United Methodist Church
Baltimore-Washington Conference

Thank you for the opportunity to be your bishop. The Baltimore-Washington Conference abounds with rich history, it has pioneered adventuresome ministry, created a diverse group of congregations, laity and clergy, wrestled with the difficult issues, and called together the most gifted and innovate laity and clergy the Church has to offer.

You have given your best, never shied away from the heat of debate, and valued making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. You call disciples to grow spiritually and engage in transforming lives. Because of your adventuresome spirit and prayerful determination, our communities and the world reflect more of the kingdom of God.

Thank you for your faithfulness, for carrying the mantle of Wesley, Albright, Otterbein and Asbury and for being a vessel of God's healing, justice and righteousness. I am blessed and humbled to serve with you.

God has blessed us to be fruitful and transforming. Together we:

• Gave more than $100,000 to purchase bed nets to prevent death due to malaria in Africa 
• Made 4626 new disciples of Jesus Christ in 2008
• Discipled 6500 youth and their leaders at ROCK, the most participants ever
• Discipled 12,995 persons through our camping and retreat ministry
• Organized Be the Change which provided radical hospitality for several thousand people during the inauguration weekend which received praise and appreciation from the Obama Administration and denominational leaders
• Reduced local church apportionments by 11% in 2009 and by 21% over the last three years which accomplished one of our goals three years ahead of schedule.
• Paid 100% of our General Church apportionments for the 12^th year in a row
• Increased professions faith, worship attendance, and apportionment payments on Annapolis Southern Region in 2008

Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. God is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. -J ohn 15:5 & 8. God has been glorified through our bearing fruit. I am encouraged through your ministry and give thanks to God for you and the way you are transforming the world.

The adventure we are on is both exhilarating and challenging. It has left us breathless and filled with the breath of the Holy Spirit. We have sung and danced and we have struggled and persevered. We laughed and we engaged in forthright conversation. Through it all God has made us stronger, wiser, and more ready to be the church.

A Pentecost Mission Season

We have been made stronger for what will be a season of Pentecost mission.

The past 40 years have been our wilderness journey, a season in which people joining The United Methodist Church slowed. Some wanted to go back to Egypt, while others wanted to melt down the Gospel's radical call to seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God for more palatable golden images of success and prosperity.

But today there are signs that we are entering a Pentecost mission season in which we are Spirit-filled and mission focused. In this season we will be anchored by tradition and freed to innovate, create, and take risks - a time in which the church will be unbound and outbound.

Two prominent examples of this Pentecost mission movement in church history are the first century church outlined in the book of Acts and the Methodist movement between 1870 and 1920.

Acts of the First Century Church, a Pentecost Mission

The first century believers lived a Pentecost experience and the Gospel's mission challenge to make disciples by loving God with all of their heart, mind and soul and by loving their neighbor as themselves.

The leaders were apostolic - called and sent. Spiritual leaders who took risks for the kingdom of God; they focused on making disciples, on raising up people, communities and new leaders, and gave their life for the cause of the kingdom of God.

The believers in Acts were sacrificial and committed to a daily walk with Christ Jesus. They lived purposely and recognized Jesus in the poor, the day laborer, the marginalized and the immigrant. They understood they were the church, the body of Christ and were to be in the world to glorify God. Their hearts were big enough to welcome all, their faith was deep enough to overcome adversity and their mission was clear and compelling enough to attract others to join the movement.

Methodism is Pentecost Mission between 1870 and 1920

The Methodist family between 1870 and 1920 also had a Pentecost experience and a mission minded determination. During this period, spiritual leaders, both clergy and lay were apostolic and members were disciples. From 1870 to 1920 we were the fastest growing denomination in the world. We started on average one new church a day, 365 churches a year, fifteen thousand new churches in 50 years. We started more colleges, universities, hospitals and service institutions than at any other time in our history. We were risk taking, innovative and adapted to a new and emerging world without losing site that innovative ideas are carried on the shoulders of those who served in the past. Laity and clergy worked side by side as they committed to teaching the scriptures, the common meal, and prayer. They were unified in their purpose and shared life together. They followed a daily discipline of study, prayer and met in small groups in one another's homes. They praised God in all things and in general, society liked what they saw so every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. An unbound and outbound church!

Your Council of Bishop's is calling you to rethink what an unbound and outbound church looks like today. [Play Rethink Church Video.]

An outbound, unbound, church

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference we have already been rethinking church. We are creating 1000 doors for people in our communities. We are becoming more about Monday through Saturday. We are a verb. Here are a few examples.

• The Mt. Oak congregation in Southern Maryland served by Rev. Ray McDonald and his lay leadership team doubled its worship attendance through a variety of new ministries, one of which has been to turn part of the building into a café that is reaching youth and young adults.
• The Mount Carmel congregation in the Western Region led by Rev. Jenny Smith and her lay leadership team uses multi door evangelism that periodically sends their entire worshiping congregation out into the community to do mission. In 2008 they had 24 new professions of faith - that is one new believer for every five worshipers.
• Mt. Vernon Place Church, led by Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol and her lay leadership team is completing a major development project in the heart of Washington, DC that will be a place for training and housing seminary students, offering faith and politics workshops, and reaching new generations of young people in the heart of Washington, DC.
• Only blocks away, the Randall Memorial Church where Rev. Eva Clark and her lay leadership team serve is leading the congregation to parade in the street and baptize in the sanctuary. Recently after parading in the street, they baptized 28 people in the sanctuary. The baptized found Randall to be a faith home where love and action come together through a partnership with the government to offer a wide variety of ministries to children and youth. One day, Pastor Clark found one of the young people crying under a table. The girl said she was crying because she was worthless. Rev. Clark told her God loved and invited her to church. She came and she accepted Christ and came to be baptized with tears streaming down her face.

These are unbound, outbound congregations - Pentecost mission churches. Walking through their doors is an act courage. Maybe your congregation is on its way or trying to get started to be unbound and outbound. We commit to walk with every church that wants to become a church of 1000 doors, a church that is a verb, a church that is about Monday through Saturday. A church that is described in Acts 2:42-47:

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe - all those signs and wonders done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

We have hundreds of congregations that are demonstrating this type of Pentecost mission. They are building up the body of Christ in the sanctuary and extending the body of Christ to the streets. They are a verb.

A significant portion that are living Pentecost mission, are also demonstrating the Acts 2 fruit we seek. Today 300 churches, halfway toward our 2012 goal had one profession of faith per 25 worshipers, grew worship attendance by 2%, engaged worshipers in mission and gave 100% of their apportionment. A sign and wonder.

We also are blessed through the Annapolis Southern Region which accomplished an increase in professions of faith, worship attendance, mission giving and membership. The Annapolis Southern Region is 144 congregations, large and small, liberal and conservative, multi racial and multi cultural which through the power of the Holy Spirit met the challenge. A sign and wonder.

We will meet this challenge in other regions as well because we are spiritual leaders and Pentecost mission congregations that are unbound and outbound witnesses to the power of Jesus Christ. We are making disciples who:

• 1. Celebrate in passionate worship,
• 2. Connect as one through radical hospitality,
• 3. Develop through intentional faith formation,
• 4. Serve like Christ in risk taking mission, and
• 5. Share God's extravagant story of grace.

I also believe through the power of the Holy Spirit and your giftedness, we will see at least 600 of our congregations grow new disciples, increase worship attendance, engage worshipers in community mission and give 100% of their apportionments. This will be a sign and wonder of the movement of God throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

I am also glad we are not working alone on this, but other conferences throughout the connection are committed to the same fruit. Your bishops and General Secretaries have agreed that making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world is our number one priority. We are working together to:

• Grow spiritual leaders
• Grow new and existing congregations
• Grow disciples, and
• Grow mission that will end poverty and killer diseases

We Are Growing Spiritual Leaders

The General Board of Global Ministries is equipping and sending new lay missioners around the world including new generations of young adult leaders. They are engaged in global health initiatives, proclaiming the Gospel and ending disease. There are new generations of mission leaders in our congregations and communities, waiting to be challenged, waiting to be called. I challenge all of our congregations to be calling and supporting the next generation of mission leaders to go into the world to heal, teach, feed, and make disciples around the world.

Our General Board of Higher Education and Ministry is creating the materials to help us call and equip new clergy for ministry. There is a new generation of clergy waiting to be called and challenged to pick up the mantel of ministry. I call our clergy, lay leadership and campus ministers to use this material in our churches and on our university campuses to recruit the next generation of clergy.

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, our laity are fully engaged in their development as spiritual leaders. Our conference lay leader, Delores Oden and Adventure Guide, Rev. Helen Fleming have teamed up with district lay leaders and lay speakers, and with United Methodist Men and United Methodist Women leadership to equip laity to be spiritual leaders in our congregations, the community and the conference.

In the past year, 1055 laity were trained through the Discipleship Academy, 100 participated in the Certified Lay Ministers training, and several hundred were trained and recertified through the lay speaking classes.

Conference United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men provided on the job spiritual leadership training as they worked on the Mount Auburn Cemetery, worked with the American Cancer Society, and partnered with the Susanna Wesley House.

Laity operated the Conference Prayer Center and responded to 7500 prayer requests by phone and e-mail.

Laity are also preparing to form and lead lay Discipler groups similar to the clergy Discipler groups and lead Disciple Bible study across the conference.

Clergy are also growing their skills through workshops and classes and by completing doctor of ministry degrees. The average clergy in the past year spent 40 hours in study and learning through discipler groups and other workshops because they are committed to serve the church faithfully and with excellence.

We will remain committed to calling, equipping, sending and supporting spiritual leaders within the Baltimore-Washington Conference. As we grow spiritual leaders, lay and clergy, we grow congregations who make disciples for the transformation of the world. We will remain focused on our three strategies for equipping spiritual leaders for Pentecost mission: 1) clergy and lay discipler groups, 2) the Discipleship Academy, and 3) coaching/guiding pastors and congregations.

We Are Growing Congregations

Forty years after the Viet Nam War, The United Methodist Church through the General Board of Global Ministries started in the last four years started 100 new congregations in Viet Nam. New birth and a renewed relationship is developing between people who use to be at war with one another. This is a sign and wonder.

A little over forty years ago some of you and I were hiding under desks or going down to the basement of our elementary schools during air raid drills. In my recent visit to Russia, I learned they too were hiding in their schools practicing air raid drills. Now, instead of fearing one another, we are planting churches and sharing a common mission. One of the new Russian Church planters, Irena was an atheist until 1993. At age thirty-three she received Christ into her life while translating at a revival. As Irena tells her story, I had everything, a good job, a beautiful family, a nice home. But I was missing something. That night as she was translating, she realized it was God she was missing, and that night she gave her life to Christ. She is now a pastor in Varonish, Russia growing a new generation of believers. This is a sign and wonder.

Over the next four years, our denomination has committed to starting 400 new congregations outside the United States through our General Board of Global Ministries. This too will be a sign and wonder.

In the Baltimore-Washington Conference we are engaging in starting new churches by forming new partnerships with congregations and denominational agencies. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians (1:5) that it was a joy to be in partnership with others in spreading the good news of Christ. New churches reach new disciples and revitalize the Church. Will you and your congregation share in the joy as a new church start partner?

A partnership to start a new Korean-American congregation in 2008 is forming in Baltimore-Washington between National Korean Church in Rockville, MD, the Korean National Plan, and the conference's Community and Parish Development. We are also in conversation with the Philippine-American community to discuss a new church start to reach Philippinos.

We are forming a new partnership with Path One, the new church start team of the General Board of Discipleship to meet our goal of starting four new churches a year. To meet our goal, we will assess and train a pool of potential new church planters among laity and clergy.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference in partnership with the Virginia Conference, Path One, and Wesley Theological Seminary will provide lay missioner training for Latino/Hispanic leaders and organize teams in both conferences to start new churches.

We need you to pray for these partnerships and pray that potential church planters and church partners will hear God's call upon their life.

The second important link in growing congregations is our multi-site parish strategy. This strategy links a healthy congregation with congregations that seek to become healthier. We have learned that linking health and strong leadership with those who desire to become healthier is more effective than linking struggling congregations together. Health comes from strength and desire and so we create multi-site parishes where there is desire for healthy disciple making ministry. It is a matter of choice for congregations. We have a number of congregations that have chosen health as we pilot this model.

• A.P. Shaw/Congress Heights Parish which is growing in worship and ministry opened the Brighter Day Family Life Center that houses a food pantry, clothes closet, addiction counseling, job training and GED classes. This appointment season we will add two additional campuses to this parish, Bradbury Heights and Ryland-Epworth Churches.
• Northwest Washington Parish with two campuses, Metropolitan and St. Luke's Churches is growing in ministry and worship has merged its SPRC and trustees; cooperated in their respective homeless shelters; shared administrative support staff; and started a new Saturday contemporary service. This appointment season we add an additional campus to the parish, Wesley Church.
• Community Church in Crofton and Trinity Church in Odenton are serving as one ministry on two campuses. Trinity, previously on the verge of closing has increased its Sunday school, worship and youth programming. Community has deployed lay speakers for worship leadership at Trinity.
• This appointment season we are starting the Silver Spring Parish with two campuses, Woodside and Marvin Memorial Churches and the Ellicott City Parish with two campuses, Bethany and Emory Churches.
• The First Saints Parish, our first model multi-site parish ministry continues to grow in ministry and worship. The congregation has three campuses and in the past year First Saints started a new offsite after school ministry.

In each of these multi-site parishes we are seeing the fruit we are hoping for: increased health in all of the campuses, new disciples, greater risk taking mission and engaged laity in broader ministry and leadership.

In addition to starting new churches and the multi-site parish model, we are growing congregations through our immersion series. The Three Simple Rules and the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations have been widely used by congregations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference and has resulted in increased worship attendance, additional small groups, more outreach ministry and daily spiritual disciplines by worshipers. We are presently working on two new immersion series that will include resources for worship, sermon preparation, small group studies and outreach ministry. The two series will focus on discovering your call and gifts and renewing your baptism.

We Are Growing Disciples

To make and grow disciples we need strong lay and clergy spiritual leaders serving in healthy congregations.

In an informal survey of the Connectional Table, we asked conference leaders to identify at what strength we were operating in our four key areas. The following is their assessment:

Conference leaders believe we have room to grow our capacity for disciple making. It is understandable that we are not operating at our full potential. Prior to 1920 we were the fastest growing denomination in the world. From 1920 through the 1950's the church became comfortable. Disciple making was not as urgent and we lost the ability and passion to make new disciples. It takes time and commitment to redevelop a gift and a habit, but we are doing it. I am confident that in the next couple of years we will see our gifts and passion for disciple making grow. Right now, 53% of our congregations make one new disciple for every 25 worshipers. Another 20% had one or more professions of faith in 2008. Two thirds of our congregations are making disciples. This is Good News. Together we will grow our disciple making.

In the coming year under the leadership of Rev. Wade Martin and the board of laity we will reinvigorate Disciple Bible Study. This program created new disciples, new leaders, and disciples passionate for ministry, mission and giving. We expect the same results only this time Disciple Bible Study will be unbound and outbound. In addition to holding it in churches, it will be held in homes, senior centers, community centers and prisons. Yes prisons. Disciple Bible Study unbound and outbound, the church becoming a verb.

We Are Growing Mission

Mission is Baltimore-Washington's strongest area of ministry. I give thanks to God for the way you seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. As I travel across the conference and around the world on your behalf, I meet people whose lives have been changed by God because of the witness and service of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Patricia Chikaka, a resident outside of Mutare, Zimbabwe, received two of the 7,125 mosquito bed nets that we distributed in June 20007, our most recent mission trip to the country. Her first child died of malaria two years before we came. But thanks to the generosity of our conference, her two other children our alive and well and sleep under the protection of the nets that we provided. Thanks be to God!

In a tough economic year we paid 100 percent of our apportionments and led the Northeastern Jurisdiction in our commitment to second mile giving to mission. This in part has enabled the General Board of Global Ministries to set up a program of global health missionaries, with the pilot work being carried out in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, there are 14 Missionaries of Global Health-mostly physicians.

Last year, the Baltimore-Washington Conference sent 262 teams, made up of 3,546 Volunteers on Mission trips, an increase of 20 percent over 2007. That is 1/3 of all of the Volunteers in Mission that were sent from the Northeastern Jurisdiction.

The conference's environmental justice ministry broke new ground this year by focusing its efforts on the urban landscape. This spring they held a Green Festival that brought together city, civic, school and church groups.

Hope for the City, the Baltimore City initiative is making a difference.

• Seven new Communities of Shalomwere started and an additional five sites are preparing to begin training.The St. James Shalom site in partnership with othersopened the "Turnaround-Turnabout Community Center" in west Baltimore, a one-stop center with a Job Readiness and Training Program including Pre-GED and GED classes, computer training, a job placement and retention ministry, and Certified Nursing Assistant Courses.
• In collaboration with the Board of Child Care and Conference Camping and Retreat Ministries, Camp Life was established through which 46 children affected by violence in Baltimore went to summer camp. The goal is to send up to 100 youth this summer.
• Hope Counseling Ministries offers pastoral care and counseling to family membersaffected by violence in Baltimore.
• "It Takes a Village - A church and school partnership in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University offered a symposium that equipped leadership from our churches to work with schools in their community.
• The Mt. Winans-Westport Shalom is a partner in the community development project with area churches, hospitals, schools, construction companies, industrial firms, civic and governmental leaders to reconstruct/redevelop the former Mt. Winans Elementary School into a center that provides premier health care, affordable housing, a multi-purpose recreation center, and child and adult day care.

Hope for the City is bearing fruit as lives and communities are being transformed. We are also seeing another fruit, worship attendance growth. The Baltimore Metropolitan District had an increase in worship attendance in 2008. This is the church unbound and outbound.

Based on our success in Baltimore, we will expand our Hope for the City initiative to Washington, DC. It will grow out of the Be the Change initiative and will be based on the unique gifts and needs in Washington.

Let us adventure together

We have the opportunity to become even more unbound and outbound, to rethink who we are and how God is challenging us to be the powerful, redeeming, healing church of Jesus Christ. Let us be the unbound and outbound church from the Nation's Capital to the mountains of Alleghany County, from the streets of Baltimore to the shores of the Chesapeake, from the court house in Frederick to the beaches of Bermuda.

At this time, your conference leaders feel the pain and uncertainty of these economically challenging times. That is one reason we reduced the apportionments by 11% in 2009. The present economic uncertainty raises the question of what will happen to our ministry and churches. I am hopeful that God will see us through this time.

Realistically though, we will lose ministries and churches. Congregations worshiping between 5 and 30 people who are not able to afford a level of ministry make new disciples, or building maintenance, apportionments and pastoral salaries may need to close.

While their season of ministry will conclude in their place new ministries and congregations will take root. Look at the progress of Hope for the City, the daring of the National Korean Church to start a new congregation, the collaboration of new multi-site parishes, the fruitful growth in Annapolis Southern Region, the growth in worship attendance in the Baltimore Metro District and the growth in the number of professions of faith in the Cumberland-Hagerstown and Greater Washington Districts. These are signs and wonders that God has a plan for us. As Jeremiah wrote to the exiles so God encourages us: I know the plans I have for you, plans for you to prosper, not your destruction, to give you a future with hope. -Jeremiah 29:11. We prosper when we become unbound and outbound.

You, the spiritual leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the congregations you serve have been called for such a time as this. We need you to face the hard challenges with hope and daring, courage and determination. An unbound and outbound church! This is God's time. A time when the church can be the church, the Pentecost mission and capture the imagination, the hearts and souls of a world trying to find hope, daily bread, meaning and salvation. Come, let us adventure together!

Thank you and may God bless you and your congregation.