USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Germantown > Minutes of the session of the Ohio Miami Conference, successor to Miami Conference, of the United Methodist Church, 1968 > Part 6
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It was not possible at the last Annual Conference to assign a regular pas- tor to the Wrightsville-Liberty Chapel churches. The churches are small and remote from the Seminary where part-time ministers are usually enlisted. Nevertheless, we have high regard for the people of this charge and have tried to fill their needs as well as possible. Early in the year, Jack Rankin, a layman of the Aley Church served this charge. Later Andrew Tucker served Liberty Chapel and Wyvonne Freeman served the Wrightsville Church.
Jack Rankin was assigned to care for the Rose Hill and Yorkshire Churches following the closing of Heistand Church of the former Trinity Circuit and the termination of the pastorate of Thomas Ramsey.
Edward Clarke a student from Western Pennsylvania, was assigned to the Clifton Church.
In the summer following last Annual Conference, Lester Grove, resigned the Lewisburg Church to return to West Virginia, and Ronald Keebler, a probationer of our conference, was assigned to this church.
Harry Sherry resigned the Lockington-New Hope Churches and Dr. Paul Price has served as the interim pastor.
A. Craig South resigned as assistant pastor at Vandalia to become an assistant pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Harley Brown is requesting superannuation and his name is referred to the Committee on Ministerial Relations.
The following transfers of credentials are requested and are referred
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for proper action to be voted by the conference. Lester Grove requests a transfer to the West Virginia Conference. Marvin McRoberts is requesting transfer to the Eastern Conference. We send our best wishes and high hopes with them both.
Robert Bullock, Carl Vorpe, Dale Smith, Robert Eschbach, A. Craig South, Raymond Merz, are referred to the Committee on Ministerial Rela- tions either for designation of itineracy without assignment or location, as each case may warrant or request suggest.
We wish to recommend admission into the conference of Fred Heath from the National Baptist denomination, James Kendrick from the Tenessee Conference and James R. Stewart from the Kansas Conference.
James Farrell (St. Marks), James Lowell Lakes, (Jacksonburg) and Paul Westbrook (Batavia) have completed their education, each graduating from United Theological Seminary, and are recommended for ordination and admission into the itineracy.
The probationers listed in our Conference Journal and Ministerial stu- dents fulfilling the educational and other standards are recommended for renewal of license or admission into the probationer classification as the Com- mittee on Ministerial Relations may determine by their research of the pro- gress made in each case.
It is perhaps a little surprising that this report should have progressed this far and little or no recognition of the most important event in the life of our church in its recent history. I refer, of course, to the recent Uniting General Conference which created the United Methodist Church. From this point on, we will construct our report to you in the framework of this fact.
When the United Methodist Church came into being on April 23, 1968, at Dallas, Texas, the Methodist Story Spotlight asked:
"It will be a new church in name and structure. But will it be really new? Will it be a renewed church?
The answer to these questions depends upon no conference or committees. It will be the work of the Holy Spirit-as men and women of the new church make room for the Spirit's work and submit themselves to his leading. New structures and new programs will be meaningful only as they serve this higher end."
Or in a slightly different context, the same question was asked in Albert Outlers outstanding address-"The Unfinished Busines of an Unfinished Church." "One thing is for sure: what has served till now as our status quo ante will simply not suffice for the upcoming future. For all its great merits -for all its saints and heros-the standing order is now to be nearly pre- occupied with self-maintenance and survival. The world is in furious and agonizing turmoil, incomprehensible and unmanageable. The church is in radical crisis, and in the throes of a profound demoralization at every level : of faith and order, life and work. In such times business as usual simply will not get our business done. Our own past golden age (the 19th Century)-the heyday of pietism in a pre-urbanized society-has faded. Frontiersmen for tommorow must be as dynamically adaptive to the new 'new world' as our fore- fathers were in theirs.
Let us really rejoice-glad for the new chance God now gives us, to be a church united, in order to be uniting; a church repentant, in order to be a church redemptive; a church cruciform in order to manifest God's triumphant agony for mankind."
"A New Church for a New World" the Quadrennial theme, is much, much more than a slogan-it is a new charter, an inspiring call to new life. Let us examine some of the aspects of our work in the light of this glorious new sense of call.
WORSHIP
Worship is the dynamo of all our Christian life and its activity. It es- tablishes relationships between ourselves and God and between men.
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One of the highlights of my Dallas experience was attending the Sunday morning Worship Service at the Lovers Lane Methodist Church. The mood and spirit of the worship was one of celebration: I found renewal of my spirit to enable me to confront life and its problems. There was nothing at all pretentious about the church or its ministry. It was not a spectacle in which I was an observer, it was involvement in the best sense of that idea.
During my visit I learned some of the facts about this amazing church. It is 22 years old as a congregation. It has more than seven thousand mem- bers, a staff of twenty-eight. It has had the same pastor during these years.
There was no sense of being present at a religious shrine, its ministry I learned has a remarkable record of rehabilitation of persons with alcohol problems, which certainly reflects its relevance to our generation.
During this worship and its after thoughts, I determined that I would lead and participate in worship as if indeed, I am in the presence of the Lord. This frees me from preoccupation with attendance as an objective, and all other conflicts which I must confess sometimes make worship barren and meaningless.
I do not wish to give the impression that the conduct of worship can be carelessly prepared; quite the opposite is true. I would like to challenge my brethren to become skillfuly leaders of worship. You will have the structure to provide an evaluation of your worship experience in the new local church Council on Ministries. The United Methodist Church will provide very practi- cal resources on the art and practice of worship. The resources will cover the questions which you will need to face all the way from Holy Communion to a "Guide to Church Ushering."
Worship properly experienced is the source from which we secure the fuller participation of persons to do the other tasks of our Christian witness.
"Automation has not yet caught up with church work. The machinery of the Church does not operate only with human effort. There are no push buttons and no computers designed to make the church run without manpower. In the church we still need people to serve as leaders and workers."
Adequate manpower for the ministries of the church spring from inspir- ing worship.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Given the driving power of worship, we must train and channel this force into tasks that enrich life. There is no aspect of our United Church, I suppose that has had more preparation than the task of Christian Education. The "New Curriculum" about which you have all heard is "those consciously de- termined plans and procedures whereby the church provides opportunities for teaching-learning experience through which persons become aware of God and are guided as they respond to him in faith and love."
Educational leaders of both former denominations were determined to have new resources available soon after church union. The reasons behind the new resources are as follows:
1. To explore our heritage and extend an informed faith into the modern world.
2. To understand and respond to God's call for Christian Unity.
3. To take account of the changing world.
4. To incorporate new insights into teaching-learning evperiences.
The development of the "new curriculum" was a cooperative project of sixteen different denominations. Certainly this widespread and dedicated prep- aration will bring to bear on our task the best that the contemporary church can offer.
"The objectives of the church as manifested through its educational min- istry are that all persons be aware of and grow in their understanding of God, especially of his redeeming love as revealed in Jesus Christ, and that they may respond in faith and love-to the end that they may know who they are and what their human situation means-increasingly identify themselves as sons of God and members of their Christian Community, live in the spirit
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of God in every relationship, fulfill their common discipleship in the world and abide in Christian hope."
The context of curriculum for Christian Education is the Christian com- munity, "the church." Some of the factors involved are settings, groupings, resources, equipment, leadership and supervision.
Nurture is possible through the regular Church School hour, but also whenever the congregation is gathered for activity.
The Bible is the basis and guide book of our entire program of Christian Education.
In September, 1968, we will have new curriculum resources for every age group in the church. These materials are graded in two year groupings for children and youth through high school. Adults will have a choice of uniform lessons or elective courses.
The principle times for such study may still be during Sunday Church School hour but a continual search must be made for other opportunities for education. Week-day groups, weekend retreats, home study courses and neigh- borhood discussions offer suggested means for fulfillment of this purpose. Flexibility in getting meaningful experiences into each person's life is a key to effective leadership.
Each local church will have the freedom to determine the material to be used. This freedom has concomitant responsibilty. It is not possible to take material, give it a quick glance in preparation and lecture during the class hour. Our teachers must take seriously the required time needed for prepara- tion and training.
The new materials are colorful and exciting. Records, films, paintings, posters, songs and other helps are included in the quarterly packet of ma- terials.
Perhaps nothing could more effectively gather the grass roots of our church to an understanding of the benefits of our United Church than a con- scientious use of these new resources. Hopefully they will help us make a giant stride to equip our people with the Christian faith.
Our former Evangelical United Brethren Church brings to the United Methodist Church an excellently developed Camp program. Camping is not extraneous, it is an integral part of the church fulfillment of its task. Camp Miami which has grown to be such an important part of our conference life is well equipped by tradition and facilities to make a major contribution to our new fellow churchmen.' By good fortune we are located near a strong concentration of United Methodist Churches. Not only will there be the con- tinuity of group camping for various ages but we can envision the develop- ment of flexible facilities on our large campus for local church camping, more family camping and a variety of retreats where persons or groups of persons may find surcease from life's pressures and restore the foundations of life's meaning. In this connection, we wish to urge a more diligent prosecution of the Camp Capital Fund program to improve our buildings and equipment.
MISSION, MISSIONS OR SOCIAL WITNESS
Missions have customarily had the connotation of Christian endeavor away from the local community. Often though not exclusively in foreign lands. We have wisely changed our notations and ideas. Mission is the practice of the scattered congregation. We cannot any longer confine our Christian witness as personal living apart from its constant relationship with other persons.
While this report has the aim of directing us to the future, we cannot refrain from commenting on some of our stewardship to our contemporary culture. We are making a genuine effort to respond to our situation. For ex- ample, when we closed the Willey Memorial Church last year, we not only donated the property with the approval of our remaining congregation to the development of an existing (formerly) Negro Methodist congregation of this community (whose building had been sold for an expanding industry), we
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did a still more important thing. We assigned David Schneider the former pastor of the Willey Memorial Church as a staff member of the Basin Minis- try in Cincinnati and provided the necessary funds to support him fully. The purpose is to provide a Christian presence in a most needy area of this great metropolis. David's ministry is to persons, individually, and to assist in collective community action to alleviate the problems of persons who are all too often forgotten in our modern society. Perhaps an equally imprtant task is for him to be a listening post for the rest of us who too often insulate ourselves from the agonizing cries of our brethren.
It is utterly essential for us to be interested. We hope that through the recent suggestions made for local church involvement in the urban crisis, in- cluding the receiving of a generous offering, has found every church doing its share. I have heard recently many evidences, not without sharp differences of opinion about organization, of the awakening of our people to the needs of the disinherited. I am certain that in spite of the emotional reactions which we may have to the protest movements which takes the various forms of marching, civil disobedience, and boycott, we are more knowledgeable and I hope more sympathetic to the problems of urban society. We cannot retreat from this commitment. As I reflect on this situation, I hear a clear call, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and re- covery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4:18
As we further reflect on these matters, I can see a march recorded as happening in an ancient city, where the person at the center of the march was not fully understood. Though the crowd in that march proved its fickle- ness, nevertheless, the Master was determined to fulfill his objective even though a cross loomed larger and larger in the immediate future of that event.
I can see also that a rebellious lot of men boarded a ship and, in dis- regard of property, dumped valuable tea overboard. They provided, at least, a dramatic illustration of their total rejection of tyranny.
At this Annual Confreence we will take still another look at the Urban Crisis. We will not only hear witnesses qualified to tell us about it, we will discuss how in the name of our Lord we will respond to it.
In a recent meeting in our Dayton Community of representatives of our churches, the Conference Superintendent was requested to appoint a Steering Committee who will prepare themselves for an appropriate response to op- portunities for service or assistance in a crisis which may arise. I would like the Ways and Means Committee to prepare a resolution to authorize the appointment of a similar Steering Committee in the Cincinnati urban area, and also a conference-wide committee to be responsible for the other urban areas such as Hamilton, Middletown, Springfield, etc. These committees will make themselves aware of the needs and call upon all the churches for parti- cipation. We cannot ignore this obligation.
The Quadrennial theme, "A New Church for a New World" embodies a goal of $20,000,000 to meet the responsibilities of our changing world. Every church will be required both by our gospel and by action of the General Con- ference to participate. In practical terms it means an investment of at least $71,216.00 for our conference if we do our share.
Although money vitally expreses our stewardship, we cannot over-look the call for the investment of life. The giving of substance, however, does not by any means exhaust the potential of United Methodism for addressing it- self to this crisis. We recommend also the establishing of a United Methodist Voluntary Service for which persons from age 18 to 30 may offer themselves for periods of direct service as a part of Task Forces organized for specific works of reconciliation or reconstruction wherever they are needed. This would be on a subsistence basis supported by the Fund for Reconciliation. We believe that there is a readiness among young people to render the kind of service that the hour requires. As St. Paul said long ago regarding offer- ings: "But first they gave themselves." (II Cor. 8:5.)
Funds have been committed in the Dayton Community, by our Board of
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Missions, the General Program Council of the Denomination, the United Theo- logical Seminary and the Division of National Missions to an organization known as "FORCE". This is an organization of Negro leaders in Dayton gathering the community groups together to more "forceably" press for change and justice.
This organization has elicited a great deal of bad press and has some ob- jectives to which many of our people take hearty exception, but one bit of counsel I would urge upon all our people is that, while we may not be pleased with every effort or protest which this group expresses, we cannot gainsay that this group lives and works at the heart of the problem and speaks to people with whom we do not have ready access. Some of the conditions in the ghetto which have festered for a hundred years may not always be easy to eradicate. I, for one, am willing to give this group a chance and some of my support.
Our conference this past year joined Dayton First Church in a ministry to another forgotten community in Parkside Homes, a low rent public housing installation. Dr. George McAhren, cannot always satisfy himself nor us by the traditional measurements of achievement, but he is there in our behalf and that he communicates to us what we need to know is urgently required.
Other important missions such as providing housing for a Migrant Minis- try Center in Darke County and the disposition of property for a more rele- vant use is part of your ministry to our time.
EVANGELISM AND STEWARDSHIP
I think sometimes our purposes in Evangelism are regarded as selfish, that its motive is to strengthen the institution. Perhaps we ought to be smart enough and honest enough to admit this. I make no apology for the desire to build strong churches, increasing in membership and improving in stewardship.
I would like, however, beyond this admission, to appeal to the importance of evangelism to the persons toward which we always must center our work.
Can you possibly estimate the barrenness of your life without Christian commitment? Without a continually purposeful effort to order our lives by the teaching of our Lord? Evangelism which was one of the original motives in the forming of all the predecessor denominations of the United Methodist Church. It must be a vital part of our future life.
Evangelism is aimed at developing the disciplined life for every indi- vidual. To know the "Word of God" and to be able to communicate to God in prayer is its aim. To get answers to life's deepest questions can come only with a lively faith. One of the practices of the Methodist Church which I have observed is a more regular invitation given at the services of the church for admission to the Christian life and the church.
I would not advise nor urge a careless admission of persons into member- ship of the church without prior or subsequent training in the meaning and responsibility of the Christian life and church membership. I think, however, we are too reluctant to open the door often enough to take advantage of the visitation of the Holy Spirit to lead seekers to make this step. We must not overlook the fact that membership in the church itself sometimes sharpens our sensitivity to the obligations of Christian living.
Everyone who has made himself a student of the various aspects of our church union will get some temptation to pride about our Evangelical United Brethren better stewardship record. The per capita giving of former Evan- gelical United Brethren members was better than the former Methodist, but let us not kid ourselves-the record is not anything upon which to rest. The fact that we were a smaller group confronted us with the urgency of doing as well as we did if we were to conduct ourselves with an effectiveness at all in our modern world or indeed to stay alive as a church. Don't misunder- stand me-I am very grateful for your stewardship-you as a people in Ohio Miami Conference have done well. Our churches which are not fulfilling their obligations are in serious trouble in other ways. There are only a few penur- ious churches, a stewardship program properly and faithfully conducted will
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keep the churches more healthy, even when community changes are exceed- ingly discouraging.
If there is one negative result of church union, it is that what had had important status as a Department of Stewardship of our former Evangelical United Brethren Church has been placed under the Board of Lay Activities. We hope its function is not absorbed by other activities of this phase of the United Church.
Let me hasten to say, however, that Evangelism and Stewardship, as in all other phases of church life, happens locally or it doesn't happen. General departments can only aid us to get the job done.
Enough experiences and skills have developed in the field of stewardship in recent years to grant no excuse for a church not to have an Every Member Enlistment-and repeatedly where our churches are failing, a regular planned program of Christian Stewardship is totally absent.
MISCELLANEOUS
This report cannot possibly call to your attention all the aspects of our new church. I wish, however, to call to your attention certain matters, and refer some of them to the Committees of the Conference.
Every person is on a Discussion Group but not every member is on a committee. This, let me point out, means that if you are on a committee, there is important work to do and I hope you will do your share.
We recommend that the Calendar Committee receive all suggested dates for the Conference Calendar and carefully plan a program of events which will not be in conflict or competition for important local church needs.
We recommend that the Sub-Committee on "Financial Causes beyond the Budget" consider:
1. The Quardrennial Goals of $20,000,000
2. The Otterbein College Capital Fund Appeal
3. The Camp Miami Fund Appeal (Approved last year)
4. Ministerial Education Fund (Beginning Fiscal 1970)
5. The Otterbein Home Building Fund Appeal
6. Place special days in the calendar-This committee will prepare recommendations for conference action.
We recommend that the Sub-Committee on Church Administration Stand- ards begin to interpret and recommend for conference action the new struc- ture and forms for the local church.
We recommend that the Committee on Appropriations, Boundary and Finance prepare appropriate resolutions on matters of boundary change and recommend for conference action the budget for 1969.
We recommend that the Conference Board of Pensions plan workshops to instruct our pastors and lay members on the changes in the Pension Provision in the United Methodist Church.
We have engaged this year in preparatory conversation with our brethren of the Methodist Church in Ohio. Our Conference Council elected Mrs. Darwin Medkeff, Jay Jacoby, William Hensley, Carl Robinson, Louis O. Odon and William K. Messmer; Charles Messmer, alternate, Owen Delp, alternate, as our representatives in the negotiations. Three sub-committees have been named: (1) Pensions, (2) Finance Policies and (3) Minimum Salary to work still further on important items for consideration in conference union. We will consider in this Annual Conference a suggested procedure to achieve union.
The United Methodist Church and all the new relationships thereby pro- vided offers tremendous promise. I am excited by the prospects on every hand. I am greeted warmly and openly into new groups. Many of you have found this in the local communities. A great number of exciting new possibilities open their doors, new united churches, yoked parishes, new parish partners. I hope and fully expect that our pastors and people will be cordial, and open
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