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Missouri votes for congregational choice in giving Fred Koenig, Apr 20, 2007
PHOTO BY FRED KOENIG
Bishop Robert Schnase explains the Pathways Task Force proposal.
By Fred Koenig Special Contributor
Missouri United Methodists overwhelmingly passed a proposal to restructure their conference in a way that gives congregations a greater voice in which vital ministries they will support and help them focus on core practices leading to fruitfulness.
The proposal, developed by the Pathways Task Force, passed during a special called session on March 31. During the session, Bishop Robert Schnase (Missouri Area) outlined how the plan would be implemented.
The Pathways proposal would restructure the Missouri Conference to be better aligned with its new vision and mission of "leading congregations to lead people to actively follow Christ."
Bishop Schnase said the conference needed a radical change because of declining membership, church closings and fewer younger clergy. And Missouri is typical of United Methodist conferences in the U.S., he said.
In the past 40 years in Missouri, United Methodist membership declined by 83,000 (32 percent) and 200 churches closed, while the state population increased by 29 percent. The average United Methodist age in Missouri is the upper 50s; in the state, the average age is lower 30s.
In 1985, 15 percent of the Ordained Elders in Missouri were under the age of 35; in 2005 it was only 3 percent.
To help turn this around, the Pathways proposal organizes the conference around two centers, a Center for Congregational Excellence and a Center for Pastoral Effectiveness.
"When you hear two centers, don't think that means we're talking about another building or more staff," Bishop Schnase said. "These centers both operate from our current Conference center office."
The plan for pastoral effectiveness, he said, focuses on recruiting young clergy and improving clergy probationary years. "We believe clergy are called by God into ministry, but it takes clergy and laity alike lifting before young people that what they are experiencing may be a calling to ministry."
Clergy Effectiveness
Beginning in 2008, the conference wants to develop a "menu" of self-directed peer learning opportunities for clergy. They can choose to participate with other clergy in the conference in a "culture of learning" and accountability, Bishop Schnase said. "Skills we learned 10 years ago won't carry us through things we have to do."
Amy Gearhart Sage, chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry, said the ministry context is changing. "Now, more than ever, we need a plan for professional clergy development," she said. "We are shifting from the notion of learned clergy to learning clergy, clergy who are continuing to learn throughout the years."
The Board of Ordained Ministry and cabinet will develop ways to evaluate and lead clergy to a higher level of effectiveness. The conference will also work out a way for congregations and pastors to report more meaningful numbers that reflect effectiveness. "Membership is a picture of past, attendance a picture of the present, and professions of faith is a picture of the future," Bishop Schnase said.
Congregational giving
The apportionment formula will change to reflect local churches' expenditures rather than their membership and attendance. "We don't need to be rewarding congregations for getting smaller," Bishop Schnase said.
The proposal calls for the 2008 apportionment budget to be less than in 2007 because most people think the percentage of church incomes that go to apportionments is too high, Bishop Schnase said.
The proposal changes the way congregations give to Vital Ministries. It would remove all 28 of the conferences' vital ministries from the budget.
"Our way of doing Vital Ministries has not been helpful to Conference or to these institutions," Bishop Schnase said, adding there were no vital ministries before 1968. Support for Vital Ministries has decreased through the years, while projects with growing support were not included in those ministries, including the PET project, the Mozambique Initiative and the Rainbow Network.
A new Pathways Partners task force will be formed to seek ways of funding the core ministries of the conference beyond an apportionment formula, including grants and donations.
Campus ministries
The proposal shifts away from Conference-sponsored ministries and toward a more congregationally based system to improve accountability and better gauge local fruitfulness.
Missouri now has 13 campuses with 150,000 students that have only 170-180 in worship and 300-350 meeting in small groups. Half of these are on two campuses. Yet there are 7,000 to 12,000 United Methodist students on these campuses, Bishop Schnase said. "When looking at 155,000 students, we need to think about how to reach 4,000-5,000 rather than 300," he said.
The conference will encourage direct support for Central Methodist University -- which recently announced a 50 percent tuition break to any United Methodist student who lives on campus -- from individuals and churches. A $200,000 budget item in the apportionments for Central Methodist University will be used for Conference trainings with CMU, such as clergy leadership development.
Dr. Marianne Inman, president of Central Methodist University, said the institution has a higher percentage of United Methodist students compared to other universities. CMU offers $1.2 million in scholarships.
"Many pastors are CMU grads, and over time we have prepared seven bishops and many lay persons who serve the denomination," Dr. Inman said.
The Rev. David Kerr, Pathways member and pastor of Salem-in-Ladue UMC, said the intent of the changes is to have college students be better served by the church.
Some of the campuses are already served by local churches who have no connection to the current Conference Campus Ministry structure. "Let there be a new day," he said.
Participants in the called session asked what might happen to ineffective clergy and congregations. "I know what happens to ineffective congregations," Bishop Schnase said. "It is already happening, and I hate that. It lays on me."
Connectional?
Deane Looney of Webster Groves was concerned about Annual Conference moving away from a connection to agencies. "I don't want to be Presbyterian, I want to be United Methodist. I believe in connectionalism, and I trust the conference to know the agencies are doing what's right."
But Patrick Yount, a member of Trinity UMC, supported the changes. "It will be good for the agencies to let them do their own fundraising," he said.
Steve Cox, director of connectional ministries for the Missouri Conference, said he knows some people fear this will create a "congregational denomination."
"It isn't hard to see the logic in the fear," he wrote in a column for the Review, the conference publication. "The annual conference is collecting less money for joint causes and is allowing individual congregations to distribute those gifts in more diverse ways."
At the same time, he said, congregations will also be expected to deliver on five core practices designed to make them "growing, fruitful and vibrant," and to work in closer collaboration with one another. Those practices, outlined in Bishop Schnase's new book, The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Cokesbury, 2007), are radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity.
"Rather than shifting toward congregationalism, we are shifting toward a connectionalism that is focused on shared values and expectations of one another," he wrote. "We expect the connection to grow stronger rather than weaker, and it should be harder to be the 'lone ranger' congregation that wanders off on its own."
The called session vote now gives the conference time to prepare a budget and appointments for the Annual Conference Session in June.
Mr. Koenig is editor of the Missouri Conference Review.
PHOTO BY FRED KOENIG
The apportionment formula will change to reflect local churches' expenditures rather than their membership and attendance. "We don't need to be rewarding congregations for getting smaller," Bishop Schnase said. 
But Patrick Yount, a member of Trinity UMC, supported the changes. "It will be good for the agencies to let them do their own fundraising," he said. 
