April 11, 2003
by Linda Green

LOS ANGELES - If the United Methodist African-American caucus wants to continue providing a prophetic voice in times of injustice and a pastoral presence in times of crisis, it needs a new vision, leaders of the group say.

Speakers, workshop leaders, Bible study leaders and others led this refrain at the April 2-5 annual meeting of the National Black Methodists for Church Renewal. The 530 people in attendance focused on the emotional, spiritual and physical renewal of African-American churches and communities.

Representing more than 380,000 African-American United Methodists, the 36-year-old organization has fulfilled its original purpose of advocacy, leadership development and connecting blacks to the church at large, but "we missed out on the pulse of the church," said the Rev. Vincent Harris of Houston, newly elected caucus chairperson.

BMCR must reassess its mission, he said. "We have not felt what is going on in our churches and we have not connected to that." BMCR is so disconnected from local churches that people do know what the organization is, are skeptical about the things that it does or feel that the caucus is not relevant to their needs, he said.

"We are at a point where people or local churches today do not see us as viable as we once were," Harris said. "If BMCR has had some influence, where has it been? It has been with those people who were the original founders, and they have been able to penetrate the church and make decisions that really did affect local churches."

The question today, he said, is: How does BMCR bring a new generation into understanding what the caucus is and how they can be effectively involved in it?

BMCR must first address the health of black United Methodist congregations. "We have found that most African-American congregations are sick; they are unhealthy," Harris said. The caucus "must find a way to infuse medicine - the medicine of revival and renewal - into these churches so that we can boast about the church in a way that the church needs to be boasted about."

African-American churches are located in communities that are "dying or sick," he noted. "The church shouldn't be sick. The church should be a place where people come to get well."

BMCR must invite both clergy and lay to understand that congregations and communities need to move toward healing and wholeness, not just in a corporate way but in a hands-on way, he said. "The people need to know that congregations need to be healthy, communities need to healthy, and we have to be a part of that movement."

Harris, who has attended the organization's national meetings since 1985, said he has always questioned, "what we do, why we do and how does that relate to the gospel and what we are called to be as a church." He said his understanding has been fuzzy.

As the chairperson, Harris wants to clarify BMCR's role for a new generation. The organization should be able to say that after nearly 40 years, its mission is consistent with that of the church universal: to be the people of God, serving in places where it needs to be.

"Today BMCR is moving, it's healing and it's transforming," he said, stating his immediate vision for the organization.

Harris said the group is recuperating from the brokenness left by wounds of disappointment and despair, and the wounds of seeing the church - and the black church, especially - not grow as it should. For healing to be successful, he said, two things must occur.

The first is organizational healing within the relationships and attitudes of African-American United Methodists. Harris said many are frustrated that BMCR does not accomplish the things it sets out to do.

The second healing is needed at the grass-roots level, he said. Local congregations must understand that their churches need healing to move forward.

"People have settled for what BMCR's original vision was, and today, we not only need to take a look at where we've come from but also at what we need," Harris said. "BMCR is no longer a teen-ager. It is an adult, but we have some teen-age and adolescent attitudes in the organization. We have to move from our milk to our meat."

Transformation, he said, involves a plan of action and setting goals and relevant objectives for local churches and the caucus. People are dying, hurting and scared, and BMCR needs to find ways to help local churches address those concerns, Harris said.

While many churches have adopted the "what people need and what people come with" models of doing ministry, BMCR's model was adapted from "one that was middle-class and like the regular church, where we don't want to get our hands dirty."

"It is past time to get our hands dirty," he said, "and let the people who are doing the work in the ministries of our churches ... (tell) about what they are doing in those ministries that has been transforming in their lives."

In other business, BMCR members elected officers and approved four resolutions for delegates to consider during the 2004 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body. The assembly will meet in Pittsburgh.

Besides Harris, others elected were Brenda Mims-Wilson, Oakland, Calif., vice chairwoman; Velva Hardaway, Dayton, Ohio, recording secretary; and Josefa Bethea, Greensboro, N.C., treasurer.

One resolution calls upon the General Conference to support the continuation of the Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century initiative, which members said is a vital ministry that strengthens the entire church. The initiative focuses on restoring, revitalizing and renewing black churches for mission and ministry.

Another resolution urges increased support for the church's Africa University in Zimbabwe. BMCR is calling on the General Conference to make the 10-year-old school a priority by allocating "an apportionment of $10 million over a four-year period and an additional $10 million to be raised through World Service Special Gifts to continue development, construction and endowment of Africa University."

The caucus also encourages General Conference to continue the Black College Fund as an apportioned fund for the 2005-2008 period at the previously funded level of $45 million. The caucus and fund officials note that local United Methodist congregations average 86 percent payment of their annual Black College Fund apportionment, and the resolution to General Conference urges payment of 100 percent.

Supporting the Black College Fund and other apportioned ministries is difficult in some annual conferences because of an accounting practice known as bundling, which drew criticism from the Rev. Jerome King del Pino, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. With bundling, several connectional funds are lumped together in such a way that local churches are unable to understand the purpose of the funds or to easily identify the funds they are supporting. That practice is also affecting giving to Africa University and the Ministerial Education Fund.

"Once bundled, it becomes difficult for the bishop and (annual conference finance officials) to lift one fund above another in interpreting the specific apportionment that is included in a particular bundle," del Pino said. His agency oversees the Black College Fund.

The Black College Fund has "historically never been fully supported by certain geographic locations in this church," he said. Support of the fund has not been uniformly strong across the denomination.

"It is missionally irresponsible for annual conferences to so bundle their apportionments so that local churches cannot knowingly participate in the missional initiatives that are apportionments and have been approved by the General Conference," del Pino said.

The caucus, which had previously approved the creation of an African-American Methodist Heritage Center, also passed a resolution that would enable the center to use the resources of the United Methodist Church Foundation to establish an endowment fund that would provide support and maintenance for the center's work.

BMCR nurtured the idea of heritage center in order to preserve the history of African Americans who have been part of the Methodist church since its inception. The churchwide Commission on Archives and History has agreed to be the temporary depository for the collection of artifacts, documents, pictures and other memorabilia until the center has its own facility. Organizers hope the center would be connected to one of the denomination's 11 historically black colleges or universities.

Members also:

. Heard a report from the Black Staff Forum, a support group for all black staff in annual conference and churchwide agencies. Newly elected officers are: chairperson, the Rev. Lillian Smith, staff member, the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry; vice chairperson, Helen Allen, staff member, United Methodist Communications; secretary, Cynthia Haralson, staff member, General Council on Finance and Administration; and treasurer, Cedric Foley, staff member, United Methodist Publishing House. The forum honored those churchwide staff people who are retiring this year because of actions by the Board of Pension and Health Benefits.

. Passed an April 4 resolution urging President Bush and the U.S. Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a speedy end and pursue peace at all costs.

. Learned that 60 of the denomination's 64 annual conferences have responded or will respond this spring and summer to the 2000 General Conference mandate to engage in a liturgical act of repentance before fall 2003.

. Listened to strategies to financially shore up the organization.

. Heard about the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race's Central Jurisdiction Recovery Project, an to preserve materials related to the denomination's former segregated province and its merger with the geographic jurisdictions.

United Methodist News Service Linda Green is United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn., news director.