Over the last two days 80 pastors of the largest churches in United Methodism gathering in Atlanta to experience what Wesley referred to as Christian conferencing.  Meeting in groups of eight, with pastors of varying size churches (from 1,200 to 8,000 per weekend in worship) from varying geographical locations and from often quite different theological places, these pastors prayed together, shared their best ideas and their personal struggles together, and discussed the future of the United Methodist Church.

This group recognized that they carry a responsibility to serve as positive leaders for the church.  For too long many have been content to criticize rather than constructively seeking to be a part of the solution. We devoted much of our time to looking at how the largest churches in the denomination might provide support and leadership for pursuing the “four areas of focus” that were recommended by the Council of Bishops and approved at General Conference, namely, starting new faith communities, raising up young leaders, and engaging in work with the poor while seeking to eliinate the diseases of poverty.

The large church pastors set a goal for their own congregations related to each of these areas of focus.  I asked them to set goals for the next two quadrenia (eight years).  By the end of 2016 they committed to:  1.  Starting 370 new faith communities in the United States.  [These could be satellite locations, daughter churches or even new churches within their existing church.]  2.  Helping 1,000 new young people to hear a call to ministry and enter seminary.  3.  And committing more than $256 million, over and above their combined apportionments (which totaled $200 million) over the next eight years for missions, health ministries and serving the poor.

In our last two sessions the group discussed what more could be done by large churches to strengthen the United Methodist Church.  Some in the group expressed concern as to whether seminary would adequately prepare these 1,000 new clergy for a ministry of renewing churches that have been in decline.  Others felt that there would be some benefit in having a joint meeting with members of the Council of Bishops.  Still others felt the group needed to talk about the theological issues that threaten to divide our denomination (we intentionally chose not to focus on these topics in this first gathering but are considering taking this on in a subsequent gathering).  This group plans to meet again next year, and to have each group of eight pastors serve as a resource to one another throughout this year.

I came away from this time in Atlanta believing that this group has the potential to play a very important role in helping the United Methodist Church to have a “future with hope.”  It was an exciting and refreshing time.