Release # 060 {2924} April 26, 1996
DENVER, (UMNS) -- An initiative designed to increase and enhance the involvement of youth and young people in the church during the next four years was approved April 25 by the 1996 United Methodist General Conference here.
"A Shared Focus On Young People," is an emphasis created by the churchwide Council on Ministries in response to a 1992 General Conference declaration that the church must do more to address the needs of young people -- specifically, the spiritual, social and economic needs that are critical to wholeness and achievement.
The delegates voted 589-329 to accept this new missional focus and recommended $3 million to fund the iniative.
Considerable debate, specifically about the financial implications of another priority, took a major portion of the day's morning agenda.
Before the delegates adopted the proposal, they first amended the budget from its original quadrennial request of $270,000.
Jeff Quick, North Little Rock, Ark., suggested the original budget remain but requested the General Council on Ministries make available another $230,000 to local churches to be used as "seed money to respond to the needs and issues of young people in the church and community."
He also proposed that $2.4 million be provided to a shared mission team to oversee and coordinate pilot programs in 10 annual conferences and in 10 local churches. This money is to pay for the salary of trained and qualified staff to establish a ministry with young people for the future.
Quick further recommended a grant of $100,000 to undergird a fund to strengthen theological education in the area of ministry with young people.
He said the original quadrennial budget alone is "belittling to a focus or to a priority of the church, especially on the denominational level." He said that the amount "seems unfair" and if it was not adjusted, the youth in the church would view conference actions as "doing little more than speaking out of the sides of our mouths.
"It's time for us to ... dive into the ministry of youth and young people in our denomination," he said. "We are not studying it; we're deciding that this is going to be a priority and a focus of our denomination."
The Rev. Rebecca C. Carver, a campus minister in Cedar Falls, Iowa, made an impassioned plea for the General Conference to implement a focus on young people. "I have waited on my life to see the United Methodist Church take youth and young adults seriously and be committed to us," she said.
After watching friends and students "walk away" from the church "because they are not taken seriously," Carver said the church cannot afford to spend four more years studying the needs of youth and young adults. "We need to be supportive and keep them, keep all of us in the church."
-- Linda Green
If you want to know how to get more information about this story, call InfoServ at 1-800/251-8140.