Title: Bethany project does renewal by looking back
Date: March 21, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
97b-17
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- There's a move afoot in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to push the mainline denomination forward by looking back -- to Bethany.
A new endeavor, "The Bethany Project," aims to help revitalize Disciples congregations by helping their pastors. The venture offers them group support, help with deepening their spiritual lives and leadership skill enhancement. A two-track approach will be used that involves training regional ministers to work with church pastors.
The renewal effort was developed by the Rev. Martha Grace (Gay) Reese and is being funded by a $260,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment.
Reese, an ordained Disciples minister and former attorney, brings seven years of personal experience to the revitalization project. Until 1996, she was senior pastor of a suburban Indianapolis congregation that doubled in attendance and reduced debt by half during her tenure. That experience led her to realize that pastors need this kind of support.
The project represents a "radically new approach to church renewal," said General Minister and President Richard L. Hamm. "I believe it has the potential for changing the entire perspective of our denominational leaders."
This kind of resourcing, Reese feels, is key to congregations' survival. "My sense is that we're at a very crucial time in our history," she said. "Many of our congregations are really at a point where they need to be revitalized or they could miss evangelizing the next generation."
"We have come to realize that renewal will not come by changes in structure or program, but by the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our midst," said Ohio Regional Minister Howard Ratcliff. "Through the Bethany Project we are genuinely and ardently seeking the leading of God for our ministries and for the life of the church."
The specifics of the project involve selecting groups of local church pastors to be trained over a five-year-period to do revitalization. This task is being approached through a series of retreats for small groups of regional ministers and later for local pastors.
The separate gatherings of regional ministers and congregational leaders share a common agenda of skills training, prayer and meditation, and group discernment around congregational or theological issues.
Why spiritual retreats? They are a way of helping church leaders deepen their connection with God, and form the foundation from which numerical and spiritual growth begins. "If we can become much more deeply connected with God, I have the most profound confidence and faith that God will show us where to reach out to people," Reese said.
The church has tried "so hard to make things work that we may be missing the fact that God really can provide a lot of the energy and joy that will lead us as congregations and a denomination," she added.
In the process, Reese believes the Disciples of Christ can be a model for other mainline denominations whose memberships are aging and declining. "The Disciples have a great deal to add to the broader church. We have practical people . . . wonderful theology, a deep sense of working together with other Christians, and an enormous ability to reach out to help people."
"We have a rich heritage of faith that is reasonable and passionate," said Arkansas Regional Minister Barbara Jones. "If we have had problems with evangelism programs producing new members for our churches, perhaps it has been due to our own lack of passion, individuality and autonomy and superficial spirituality."
The first retreat was held in January with eight regional ministers in historic Bethany, W.Va. Church founder Alexander Campbell established the denomination's first higher education institution, Bethany College, here in 1840.
The involvement of regional ministers is key to the renewal process, according to Reese. They will shape the project's direction and determine which congregations and pastors will be involved.
A second group of regional executives currently is being formed and will have its initial meeting at Bethany in October 1997. The regional retreats are led by Reese and General Minister and President Richard L. Hamm.
Once participating congregations and pastors are identified, these parties sign on for long-term commitments to support pastors' participation in the project and ensure limited lay involvement. Subsequent groups of regional ministers, pastors and congregations would rotate in and out of the project, ensuring a steady group of participants.
Within four years Reese anticipates that the Bethany Project will be financially self supporting. The project will have a total duration of approximately eight years.
What are the possible results from the renewal effort? Two current "spinoff" activities include a web site on the Internet (http://pages.prodigy.com/bethanyproject) and a support group or "prayer circle" of 150 persons who are praying for the project.
Reese eventually expects to develop a group of 100-200 pastors with advanced training in church growth, practical theology and spirituality. Further, the project could help "slow the hemorrhage of sensitive and gifted pastors into mediocre survival modes, or out of ministry entirely."
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