TITLE: Lay Address Calls for Partnership
Release # 002 April 17, 1996
General Conference '96
DENVER (UMNS) -- On the threshold of the 21st Century, United Methodist laity and clergy urgently need to become partners in ministry to chart new possibilities for mission and ministry, according to a Laity Address given at the denomination's top legislative assembly here April 17.
James Lane of Sherwood, Ark., representing the church's 9.7 million lay members worldwide, focused on "Partners in Ministry: A Vision for the Year 2000."
Calling United Methodists "God's ambassadors and ministers," Lane told General Conference delegates here that laity "must convince the world of the reality of the gospel or leave it unconvinced."
In order for the church to enter the 21st century effectively, he said laity "must thrust open the doors of our churches, ... quit sitting around in meetings talking about what we ought to do, and get out and about, and be in ministry."
In the traditional Laity Address, given on the first full day of the conference, Lane said partnership calls for everyone having a place for service and ministry where they feel worthy and are valued and where each has equal voice regardless of the certificates, diplomas and credentials acquired.
Partners in ministry, according to Lane, is not another "program" for the laity to consider, but a "new way" for people in ministry to work together. "It is an attitude, an ethos, something that permeates how we do church," he said.
When people understand the principles of a ministerial and missional partnership, he said, a different model of church leadership will emerge -- sharing in ministry and leadership between the pastor and the local church laity. He called for a "deep" level of trust, commitment and communication on both sides.
Lane called for churches first to become "full service mission stations", centers of spiritual renewal, community centers of wholeness and healing, and beacons to seekers. "Our churches must become stations where everyone standing in the need of prayer will find love, forgiveness, acceptance and haven," he said.
Second, he urged local congregations to become "saving stations" where Christ as Savior is offered to the people, to the community and to the world.
The third possibility he cited is for churches to become "empowering stations," where vital opportunities for worship and learning will be offered. "We are people of the book," Lane said. "It is absolutely essential that we know and understand our book."
He also called for revitalizing worship services so that they may be filled with the "Pentecostal fires of a church in mission and ministry," provide opportunity for conversion, and "address our heart-felt and gut-felt needs with the integrity of the Holy Scripture."
A fourth possibility, he continued, is for congregations to become "sending stations" from which people are equipped for ministry and sent out into the community and world.
Noting the importance of "equipping the saints," he called on every church to have a director of volunteers who would prepare others for mission and ministry.
Finally, United Methodist churches must become "community outreach stations," Lane said. These stations will provide programs for youth, scouting, recovery groups, community agencies and assistance to people with immediate survival needs.
He called on United Methodists to be committed to peace in families, communities and the nations and to serve as agents of change.
Declaring that "the spirit of the Lord is upon us," Lane concluded, "we are God's station keepers ... partners in ministry."
-- Linda Green
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