“The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.” UMBOD para 120
There are few if any of us as United Methodist pastors who could not quote the mission of the church as stated in our Discipline. There are few if any of us who would disagree with the mission as stated in there. The challenge will always be with how we move from what we “know” to what we “do”. The key in making the transition from knowing to doing is rooted in intentionality.
Intentionality begins with a vision or a goal that is manifested by a plan, driven by passion and commitment, and kept on track by accountability and evaluation.
In the church, accomplishing any goal is dependent up our ability to lead people into that shared vision, inspiring them to have passion and commitment for the goal, teaching them to formulate a plan to accomplish it, and loving them enough to gain the trust that allows us to hold each other accountable for staying on task and reaching the goal. The breakdown that leads to our failure to accomplish our goal can happen in any of those things, but it begins with a lack of intentionality. In many of our churches we know we are suppose to make disciples and we have many activities that can contribute to that end, but there is a lack of intentional focus and planning that drives everything we do towards that end.
This is where the DISCIPLE COVENANT CONFERENCE comes into play. Bishop King is compelling us to act with intentionality in the area of “making disciples” by bringing leadership from our churches together to catch a vision, be inspired to commitment, and begin the process of formulating a clear plan for instilling the values of the faith into the lives of our people. I encourage you to make plans to be a part of this special time of commitment in Macon on February 11-12th. Inspire your leaders to join you in leading your church to a new and focused commitment on the mission.
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