Day in the Life….United Methodist Student Day
November 23, 2010
Nearly 1,000 United Methodists who qualified for a scholarship this year walked away empty-handed, and even more students are expected to be disappointed in 2011 unless giving to scholarship funds increases dramatically. A number of factors have contributed to the problem, said James Harding, interim executive director of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s Office of Loans and Scholarships.
“First, the applications skyrocketed after we began accepting applications online in 2009,” Harding said. “At the same time, investment earnings were down due to the poor economy, even as giving to World Communion Sunday, United Methodist Student Day, and Native American Ministries Sunday continues to decline.”
Money for UM scholarships and loans comes from a variety of funding sources–donations to Special Sundays with offerings, earnings on investments of gifts from wills and annuities, and repayments and interest on student loans. Student Day offerings have declined from $602,309 in 2007 to $484,188 last year.
“We turned down 954 qualified United Methodist students in 2010 simply because we didn’t have enough money,” Harding said. In 2010, 2,411 students received scholarships totaling $3.3 million.
“Support for United Methodist Student Day is crucial if we are to honor the church’s commitment to educating a new generation of Christian leaders,” Harding said. Student Day is observed the last Sunday in November–Nov. 28 this year–or any other day a church chooses. And, anyone can give online at anytime at www.umcgiving.org/umstudentday.
Ninety percent of Student Day collections go to the United Methodist scholarship programs, while 10 percent is for student loans. Each United Methodist-related college gets money from the offering for scholarships, and each participating annual conference gets 10 percent of Student Day receipts to award to their own merit scholars.
“We understand that churches are struggling to pay their own bills and their apportionments, and we believe that because of that, fewer churches are observing Special Sundays,” Harding said.
Offerings for World Communion Sunday, observed on Oct. 3 this year, were $930,878 in 2009, down from $1.2 million in 2007. Half of the offering provides scholarships for international and U.S. racial-ethnic graduate students. Thirty-five percent of the receipts support scholarships for racial-ethnic undergraduate students, and 15 percent funds Ethnic In-Service Training Program scholarships for racial-ethnic persons seeking second careers in church-related vocations.
Native American Ministries Sunday, observed on the third Sunday of Easter or any other day a church chooses, nurtures mission with Native Americans and provides scholarships for United Methodist Native American seminarians. The 2010 offering for this Special Sunday was $241,892, down from $367,251 in 2007.
One of the scholarships that will be dramatically reduced this year is the Rev. Dr. Karen Layman Gift of Hope Scholarship, which is awarded to United Methodists who have been active leaders in their church but are attending non-United Methodist-related colleges or universities.
“In 2011, we will only be able to award 200 Gift of Hope Scholarships, compared to 500 this year and 715 two years ago,” said Allyson Collinsworth, GBHEM’s scholarship administrator. In 2007, GBHEM endowed the scholarship with $500,000 in earnings from loan funds, but that endowment currently only funds about 18 scholarships a year.
The Rev. Anna E. Layman Knox, daughter of the late Karen Layman, said she believes supporting education is foundational for every other cause. Layman Knox, a provisional elder, serves as associate pastor at Manning Road Mission Church in Durban, South Africa.
“Working now in a country where access to education dramatically defines peoples’ options in life, I am continually reminded that my education was a gift–an opportunity that I didn’t earn but one that has opened my mind and my spirit up to great possibilities,” Layman Knox said. “I would not be the person or minister that I strive to be now without the gift of that education.”
*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. This information is from the GBHEM website.
A Day in the Life…Thanks, but No Thanks?
November 18, 2010
For me, preaching at the Thanksgiving service has become a rarity. We five communities of faith take turns, and we invite the newest among us to preach, whenever such a person arrives on the scene. Okay, it’s kind of an initiation rite, but it has served very well. Nonetheless, I am eager to hear what my brother pastor, Joe Ward*, will bring to us Wednesday night. This column is a way for me to share a word of thanks–and now that I attach it to the weekly email, Flash Focus, it potentially has a wider readership than any of my sermons’ “listenership” (I hereby deem that a word, as of today).
At Sunday Night LIVE! these three Sundays, we have explored Thanks Giving, first in the framework of remembering and telling (Deuteronomy 26), then in the gospel story of the one of ten with leprosy who alone praised God (Luke 17), and tonight, how giving thanks is at the heart of holy communion (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
I return repeatedly to a passage in Deuteronomy, the 8th chapter, not because there is a lack of other thanks-giving-rich texts, but because the passage itself invites us to remember, to retell, and thus to live anew the ancient blessings.
Most regard Deuteronomy as Moses’ farewell speech. He recognized that he would not enter the promised land, but would only see it from afar. So there were some things he wanted to bequeath upon the Israelites, or better, on which to set them straight. In essence, he says, Remember! You did not come this far on your own. The Lord your God led you these forty years, fed you with manna, even the clothes on your back never wore out. So keep God’s commandments!
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. (Deuteronomy 8:7-10)
The portrait of bounty resonates with us, especially at this most bountiful time of year, the season of harvest and most tangible gifts of God. The text goes on…
Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God…When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. (Deuteronomy 8:11-18, emphasis added.)
It all sounds just fine, doesn’t it? But Moses concludes these thoughts by saying, if you do not do this, there are consequences: you will perish. Wow! You mean, our lives, our well being, our sense of self, our perspective, our world view, our very faith utterly depend upon remembering God, and doing so with thankful hearts? Moses? Is that what you’re saying? To them? To us?
Pastor Steve
* The Rev. Dr. Patrick Joseph Ward has been at West Raleigh Presbyterian for nearly 20 years.
Day in the Life…Laity Sunday, November 21
November 11, 2010
From time to time I come face to face with a stark reality: ours is a clergy-centric movement. That is much in evidence when we gather for annual conference, and we are nearly distracted by the weight of matters of minimum salaries, pensions, health insurance, retirement–all as they relate to clergy. Don’t get me wrong. Some of my favorite people are clergy – I’m in my 36th year of being one. We are set apart by our community of faith, prayed over and blessed, and sent forth, tasked with some special functions within the life of congregations. But as helpful as it is to have wonderful (!) and gifted (!) clergy leading congregations, they/we are not the whole story–not by a long shot.
John Wesley’s reforming movement that came to be called Methodist (it was methodical, after all) was marked by the strength of lay leadership. That was a departure from his Anglican roots, and was among the things that cast suspicion upon his efforts to effect reform in his beloved communion.
The brilliance of Wesley’s movement to “re-form” the church was in small groups, or class meetings. Week by week, “bands” of ten people met together for inspiration, instruction, and what we would call mutual accountability. How would you like to be in such a group, knowing that each week your leader would ask each person, “Have you sinned?” and then ask for details! Yikes! It worked remarkably well, especially in that when a group got bigger than ten, it was time to start a new group. David Lowes Watson has written eloquently about class meetings, and has even transmogrified* it into modern day experience, Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation Through Mutual Accountability, The Early Methodist Class Meeting: Its Origins and Significance. Those class meetings were lay-led.
When ten people step forward and say, “I want to do that!”, we’ll do that!
In our Discipline (the book that guides our denominational and congregational life), in the section entitled, “The Ministry of All Christians,” it says this:
The heart of Christian ministry is Christ’s ministry of outreaching love. Christian ministry is the expression of the mind and mission of Christ by a community of Christians that demonstrates a common life of gratitude and devotion, witness and service, celebration and discipleship. All Christians are called through their baptism to this ministry of servanthood in the world to the glory of God and for human fulfillment. (P125).
So that is hardly the exclusive realm of ordained clergy! That is the call to us all, one that we answer as God gives us gifts to do. And on Laity Sunday, November 21, we will mark that common calling.
Laity Sunday calls the Church to celebrate the ministry of all lay Christians, as their lives are empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit. (The 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline, Abingdon, Nashville, 2004, p. 187). I always look forward to that celebration, and trust you will as well. There is much to celebrate, for we have been empowered by God’s own Holy Spirit to express “the mind and mission of Christ” in this community of Christ followers.
See you church.
Pastor Steve
* That’s today’s outrageous word – occasionally I just have to check to see if anyone reads these things!
Day in the Life…Music, Music, Music
November 11, 2010
The morning after charge conference has offered an unexpected time of reflection. My usual custom is to file the folders and move on, but I’m still contemplating…
We were asked to present a significant area of our life, not only for our enjoyment but for that of leadership from three other congregations. And we were asked to do it in four minutes. I’m proud to say that we were the only one of four who accomplished that. I guess four sounds like fourteen, sorta.
When thinking on life at Fairmont, there is much to tell: outreaching mission, nurturing one another, offering our witness of our faith experiences, embracing the community around us and the world beyond. In talking with our church council, we had agreed that lifting up a segment of our vitality in worship would “fill the bill.” Worship is at our heart, and our music is our lifeblood. John Lewis did a great job in pulling that together, a work you just might see again.
As Walter introduced the video, he referred to our foundational document, “70|07,” from our Fairmont Vision Task Force, and red from one of our”vision strategies:”
Our vision is to become a sanctuary of excellence for…Musical ministry, creativity and development by enhancing the variety of music in worship, providing a place for musicians to gather, experiment, practice, and perform.
The video bears that out, with a range of our musical experiences. As I held the remainder of the task force’s working document, I realized a pattern in which worship and music are continually articulated. Consider this “set”:
Fairmont Mission: The mission of Fairmont United Methodist Church is to love God, worship joyfully, advocate peace and social justice, embrace diversity, and serve with Christ-like compassion.
Fairmont Values include: Joyful Worship. We celebrate the presence of God in our lives through a blend of traditional and contemporary worship, artistic expression, a wide range of musical offerings, personal and communal prayer, gather of the children, lay participation, imaginative messages, and plenty of humor.
Fairmont Vision: The vision of Fairmont United Methodist Church is to become a sanctuary for passionate worship, musical creativity, personal and spiritual renewal, mutual nurture, racial diversity, and social justice.
One more Vision Strategy: …become a sanctuary of excellence for passionate worship…
So the case could be made that at the heart of our mission, our values, our vision, and our vision strategies are a myriad of matters of music and worship. To me, that is significant.
When other faith communities give their perception of life at Fairmont, they most often respond about the wealth of missional outreaches, the welcoming spirit that opens our building to dozens of ministries, and our visible presence in causes for social justice. But from inside the church, we know we cannot do those things outside without worship, and for us, we cannot worship as we do without the music. That part of who we are cannot be seen from the outside, one must come inside, like Jesus’ own invitation to “come and see.” Movements come and go, causes rise and fall, but the church persists–I believe it’s because of worship.
Thanks be to God for the gift of music, a gift that enlivens our lives of worship, and our lives when we move back into the world to serve our Lord. Thanks be to God for every “joyful noise” made unto the Lord! (Hey! That’s a compliment, ala Psalm 100!)
Pastor Steve