Pilgrimage Ponderings
A Long Day at GC
The conundrum we are facing as a denomination:
The church is growing in Africa and other parts of the world. The church is declining (in numbers) in the United States.
Particularly in Africa, there are significant distance, transportation and communication problems that make having one bishop for 5 annual conferences even more problematic than it would be in the "developed" world. So they are asking for more bishops.
Which costs more money.
The United States funds perhaps 90+ percent of the budget for The United Methodist Church. Someone told me today that the Southeastern Jurisdiction alone funds 40 percent.
So the place in the world where fewer people are coming to church is being asked to come up with more money to fund leadership and training in places where there are many more people meeting Jesus Christ, but far less personal financial resources.
The suggestion I heard tonight that seems to make the most sense is to reduce the number of bishops in the United States in order to free up money for bishops in central conferences. The problem as I see it is that I'm not sure how we figure out how to do that in a few days.
And long term, if we in the United States aren't able to make more disciples and cultivate generous giving, and if the economic growth of developing nations such as Africa is too slow in coming, our efforts at a worldwide denomination could become difficult to sustain.
And yet, what else can we do if we are to be faithful to our Wesleyan understanding that the world is our parish? What else are we to do if we truly believe that Jesus Christ came that all might have abundant life?
Stephen Taylor: Kathy, how dare you name in your blog the elephant in the room at GC. It won't come up as we keep approving new episcopal areas outside the US, but one day we will have to deal with it. Let's pray for wisdom. (04/29/08)