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BY LINDA WORTHINGTON
UMCONNECTION STAFF

'You need to take a leap of faith,' the Rev. John Janka told 90 Baltimore-Washington Conference clergy and laity. 'You?re stepping into unknown territory, creating as you go.'

Janka is a United Methodist pastor, former district superintendent and Council on Ministries director from the Greater New Jersey Conference. He brought a message of encouragement to the participants at the first meeting of the Connectional Table, itself one of many changes happening as the churches of the conference pursue the mission of creating 600 Acts 2 congregations by 2012.

The Connectional Table, co-chaired by Bishop John R. Schol and Conference Lay Leader Delores Oden, met Nov. 28 to learn about and discuss the Discipleship Adventure and the way the conference has reorganized to implement that Adventure.

Bishop Schol spoke of new aspects of the conference restructuring and assured the leaders that the conference vision remains the same: to become like Christ and make disciples. The realignment in the conference, which was approved at annual conference last May, is designed to fulfill the conference mission: 'to call, equip, send and support spiritual leaders to grow 600 Acts 2 churches by 2012.'

Realigning is hard work, Janka said. 'It cannot be addressed once and for all time. It?s ongoing.'

Resources and structure
Part of the change involves providing resources to local churches to use in their individual Discipleship Adventures. These resources are part of a 'Ten-Point Plan.'

Many components of the plan are underway, the bishop said. Every church has received a DVD explaining the Adventure. The conference is creating a second edition of the devotional book, the 'Adventure Gbwc_superusere,' and the Discipler Groups, peer-to-peer coaching groups for all clergy, are meeting monthly. Clergy will soon begin forming Discipler Groups in their congregations to develop lay spiritual leaders.

In another part of the 10-Point Plan, the Rev. Andy Lunt is working on the Discipleship Adventure Academy to offer on-going training and leadership development to the laity.

Another substantive change is a new structure for the conference staff.

Within this new structure, conference ministries, departments and functions fall into two divisions: discipleship and stewardship, Bishop Schol said. He explained how the new alignment replaces the former Council on Ministries. Working with him as staff director of the Connectional Table is the Rev. Rod Miller.

One of the principle changes in the conference structure is the realignment into four regions, with conference discipleship staff assigned to each region.

The nine district superintendents continue to lead their districts, but the districts are grouped into regional teams: Baltimore, Western, Washington Central and Annapolis Southern. Each superintendent also has responsibilities in a specialty field that is separate from their role as a gbwc_superusere in the region.

The new structure enables people to respond to God?s call on their lives, contributing their gifts and energy where they can best be used and giving people more voice in decisions, the bishop said. 'We?re organized by participation ? where do your gifts fit in?'

Understanding change
Janka sought to help Connectional Table participants understand the changes taking place and how to cope with the disruption that might accompany it.

Change has always been present, he said, although 'the big difference now is that change is much faster.'

There are two kinds of changes, 'technical' and 'adaptive,' Janka explained. 'Most effective change is adaptive,' is harder and is often avoided. Our inclination is to deal with it in a technical manner, which causes problems. Dealing with adaptive change as if it were technical change, doesn?t work, he said.

Not only do the workers and leaders need to deal with change in the institution; 'the deepest adaptive work to be done is in the leader,' Janka said. Leaders, such as the people in the room at the Connectional Table, need to deepen their spiritual lives, make attitude adjustments and learn new skills to remain effective in a newly aligned situation or institution. 'You must invest intentional time for spiritual disciplines for your own sense of ministry,' he said.

In a question and answer session that followed, Janka suggested that 'the more explicit you can get on priorities, the better,' and he advised the leaders to 'listen, listen, listen.' Leaders need to 'sponge up' what?s going on in their congregations and neighborhoods, he said.

Small group discussion
The group broke into table-sized discussion groups and completed a questionnaire that reviewed what was working in their congregations and what wasn?t. Miller and other staff are compiling the information as gbwc_superuserelines for future work.

Several people present said they would like to accelerate the development of lay leadership. 'If you don?t have committed laity, nothing happens,' said one layperson.

Another laywoman expressed a need to 'pool resources,' saying that in one church there might not be enough resources to accomplish a task, but working with another church could benefit both, 'and release funds for something else.' She was especially responsive to the suggestion in her group by Jan Ihlo from Capitol Hill UMC, that 'churches need to do an audit of talents and resources every year.' There should be a pool of resources to draw from, Ihlo said.

That is part of the aim of the regional offices, said Delores Oden, to pool resources to service concerns and partnerships.

'We have to get out of the idea that an individual church is the end-all, be-all,' another layperson added.

'We have an amazing connection,' said Mary Baldridge of Baldwin Memorial UMC.

The idea of connectionalism and working together was reiterated at another table. 'The old paradigm says I?ll tell you and you do it,' said the Rev. Barry Hidey of Bel Air UMC. The new says we?ll do it together.'

In the future, the Connectional Table will meet twice a year. Its next meeting will be Feb. 24 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at which time members will prepare the reporting process and consent calendar for the annual conference session in May.