The Four Focus Areas of Ministry
The Connectional Table, together with the Council of Bishops and the United Methodist general agencies, has named four key initiatives to focus the Church’s mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The broad representation of The United Methodist Church at one table led the work summarized below.
These four areas of focus for churchwide ministry are:
- Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world. The church must recruit young people for ministry and provide them with the skills
How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?
1 John 3:17
necessary to be effective in this new time of opportunity. That includes women and people of color the world over. Similarly, we must offer leadership training for lay people who are in ministry in countless ways.
- Creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones. If we are to remain faithful to our commitment to transform the world, we will reach out with genuine hospitality to people wherever they are. We will make them feel welcome as we start new faith communities, seek to renew existing ones and inspire faithful discipleship.
- Engaging in ministry with the poor. As an expression of our discipleship, United Methodists seek to alleviate conditions that undermine quality of life and limit the opportunity to flourish as we believe God intends for all. As with John Wesley, we seek to change conditions that are unjust, alienating and disempowering. We engage in ministry with the poor, and in this, we especially want to reach out to and protect children.
- Stamping out killer diseases by improving health globally. Conditions of poverty cause illness and death. The lack of access to doctors, nurses, medications and appropriate facilities is deadly, especially among those who live in conditions of poverty. But the diseases of poverty are not inevitable. We believe the people of The United Methodist Church can play a significant role in educating others about diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, and treating and preventing their devastating effects.
Focused work on these areas of churchwide ministry has already begun through such initiatives as the Nothing But Nets campaign, a grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, and Path One, a program whose goal is to start new churches in the United States.
Learn more about the Nothing But Nets campaign.
As disciples of Jesus Christ and people of The United Methodist Church, we are called both corporately and individually to work toward making this vision reality.
(From the offical website of The United Methodist Church, UMC.org)
