Platform

Strengthening the Local Church

I believe the number one challenge facing our Zion is strengthening our local churches. The strength of African Methodism is not top down but bottom up. Our connection will only be as strong as our local churches. If our local churches are strong our connection will be strong. The bishop plays a major role in determining how strong local churches will be.

First, the bishop plays a major role by the appointments he/she makes. I believe the strength and well being of the local church, not the pastor must be the priority in making appointments. Many of our local churches are in decline today because bishops have waited too long to make the necessary adjustments to strengthen or stop the decline in our churches. Productivity matters and too many of our pastors are caretakers or are just maintaining churches. Pastors must be encouraged to be creative and trust God to enable the church to do what can’t be done unless God does it through them. In addition we must strategize and use demographics in planning and planting churches. Additionally, we must be willing to give our ministers who are just coming out of seminary, who are hungry and eager the opportunity to go to some of our churches which are in decline and revive these churches. It will be the opportunity for them to "make their ministry." Rather than ministers “being given a break” they must be encouraged and given the opportunity to "make their break."

Second, in order to strengthen our churches we must remove the emphasis from membership to discipleship. I do not like the word membership. It is a word we have to use for statistical reasons, but I do not like it. Membership does not require anything. It does not require that we know God or love Him. It does not require that we be faithful or committed. It does not require that we serve, give or even show up. In fact all we need for membership is our name on the roll. Nowhere in the Word is the church told to go get members, but it is commanded to “make disciples.” Disciples are followers or pupils of Christ. I fervently believe we must be about the task of "making disciples" in our local churches. Again, the bishop can play a major role in this effort. If it is a priority of the bishop at the Episcopal District and Annual Conference levels it will be a priority at the Presiding Elder and local church level. It entails teaching and training the people. When people are taught and trained they become empowered. They are empowered by knowing our doctrine (what we believe) our mission (what we are about) and our structure and organization (how we operate). You don’t have to worry about whether or not empowered people are going to be faithful and show up. You don’t have to worry about whether empowered people are going to serve and give. Episcopal District and Annual Conference meetings are ideal forums for teaching and training. Evangelism and Christian Education, winning them and teaching them, should be the number one and two priorities of the church.

Many of the people in our congregations don't do because they don't know. They join our churches but they are not effectively taught and trained. We are content to have them as members of the church, but they are not made disciples. As a result we often complain about “what our members aren’t doing.” But we shouldn’t blame people for not doing what they don’t know to do. Many of them have left our churches and gone to other churches and grown into productive disciples because they have been taught and trained.

Third, if we are going to strengthen our local churches we must develop leadership in our local churches. Good leadership develops other leaders. The pastor must not be the only in the church. We must teach, train and develop lay people in the local church, not only to be stewards and trustees, but also effective leaders of organizations in the church and just as well to serve in leadership in the community. Most of our congregations are made up mostly of seniors, and when they leave the scene we have not developed a new generation of leaders to take their places. As a result the persons who take their positions are not effective and the local church suffers.

The bishop must encourage developing leadership, but more importantly the Lay Organization, particularly at the local level must make leadership development its priority. I am concerned when I attend meetings across the church and see lay people who do not know the church in positions of leadership. This indicates a problem at the local church level where people are not being trained and taught. As a bishop I would be especially vigilant about each church having a local lay organization and seeing that they are effective in teaching and training lay people. The lack of developed leadership at every level of our Zion is a warning sign for the future of our Zion. As a pastor I encourage the lay organization in their teaching and training and include them in our new members’ class instruction process.