Dream Big Dreams!

By Ron Hardman, Virginia Conference Lay Leader  

I begin with words of appreciation to my wife, Martha, my faithful companion of 44 years (we just celebrated an anniversary last Saturday), who journeyed with me on many of the 15-thousand-plus miles I traveled across Virginia this year, into every district and who knows how many trips to the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center and the Virginia United Methodist Center in Glen Allen.  

Also words of appreciation to you, Bishop Pennel, and to Janene. You continue to model for us what it means to be a Partner in Ministry. Please join me in wishing them well as they celebrate their anniversary on June 24.  

And to all of you, clergy and laity, from one end of this great conference to the other, who have nurtured and encouraged me this past year, I say thank you for the privilege of serving the Lord in this way and for your vote of confidence today. For the last four years you dreamed with you about what the ministry of the laity here in Virginia and across the church might look like if you and I put our hearts and minds and muscle into it.  

Until a short time ago, my words for this year were not as clear to me. Not, that is, until I responded to a question from a dear friend about three weeks ago that I had no idea what my message today was to be. More about that in a moment. First, let me share a bit about the year since we last met. The Board of Laity embarked on a journey to assist the local church in identifying and nurturing emerging leaders. With that in mind, we updated our leadership training resource and made it available to every district and local church with the hope that it will not sit on a shelf gathering dust, but that it will indeed be used to help equip leaders in every part of this conference.  

Secondly, because we believe that at the heart of our ministry is the need to be intentional about our spiritual development, we have begun new initiatives in the area of stewardship and Bible study which you will hear more about in the near future.  

And third, in September of this year, we will host the first two Academies of Servant Leadership -- designed for lay and clergy -- which we pray will provide answers to the question, “Does my leadership style reflect my faith values?” Our target audience for these first two academies is the emerging leader, lay and clergy. And we need your help in identifying these persons so that they can be invited to attend one of the two-day sessions, September 11-12 or September 13-14.  

Who, but those gathered here, are better equipped to identify the “emerging leaders” in every part of the Virginia Conference. Your district superintendents and district lay leaders are compiling a list of those to receive an invitation to the Servant Leadership Academy. I encourage you to nominate persons. Write these names, addresses, local church and district, and get them to either your district lay leader or district superintendent before your leave for home Wednesday. You know where to find them, at these tables across the front here. Our dream on the Board of Laity is that this will be but the beginning of an ongoing series designed to identify, train and encourage those who will be the future leaders of the church in Virginia and we urge you to partner with us to assure the success of this effort.  

Speaking of the future, I want to offer a very brief word about the proposal that comes to us tomorrow from the Common Table Task Force. As one member of that group that has focused for more than 27 months on how we respond to our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ, I commend this report to you with the hope that you have given it careful attention in preparation for the discussion tomorrow. I believe you will find on those pages a renewed strategy for encouraging the mission and ministry of your local church, the place where the rubber meets the road, in our journey to welcome, nurture, and transform persons in the name of Christ. Be in prayer about this important item on tomorrow’s agenda.  

We celebrate Bishop Pennel’s leadership in calling the task force together to consider how we are structured for ministry. We come this year to the reason we’ve committed to this journey: to celebrate the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ that sends us out into the world, ready to share the good news and to welcome others to come join us at table. More than a year and a half ago, as the Board of Laity took a look at the vision statement to see where we might make it come to life in our ministry, the word “transformed” jumped off the written page.  

To be “transformed” is to be changed and your Board of Laity set out to develop a set of “Standards for Lay Leadership” that would clarify the expectations of the lay leadership at all levels of the church in Virginia. We sought answers to the question, “What is expected of me if I say ‘yes’ to the invitation to take on a leadership role?” The standards, in their final form, can be found on pages 30 and 31 of your Book of Reports. Other copies are available at the Board of Laity display near Cokesbury. I hope you have read them. Hear but a few of the standards to which we are called:

• Leaders recognize that commitment to Jesus Christ is the foundation for all leadership in the church.
• Leaders seek to respond to conflict as Jesus did -- directly, openly and responsibly, treating others with respect and always seeking justice, healthy accountability and reconciliation.
• Leaders are determined to be servant leaders, seeking the good of the Kingdom rather than their own power and status.
• They partner with their pastors, praying for and encouraging them.
• And leaders commit to regular participation in worship and study.

These are but a few of the Standards for Lay Leadership that we believe provide a vision of what the laity of the church are called to be and do as we live out the mission of bringing people into fellowship with God.  

Back to that suggestion that came from a dear clergy friend of mine who asked me about my main message for this time with you today. I responded that I was still working on it and here is the advice my friend offered. Dream as big a dream as you can. What would you have us do in the year ahead, my friend asked, that you feel would make a difference in our response to the call to make disciples of Jesus Christ? 

Well, please hear me out. My dream is that each of us in this room, each layperson and each pastor, will commit to taking the responsibility to present and interpret these Standards of Lay Leadership to the Committee on Lay Leadership in your church as well as your entire congregation as you select new leaders and evaluate your current leadership in the year ahead. That’s my dream for how you and I can help transform the lay leadership of this conference into a group of Christians who have a passion for making disciples. This document recognizes that all Christians are on a journey of faith and discipleship, and that no one meets all the standards. But, we offer them as goals.  

The dream is a challenging one. If we are to realize our dream, we must go back to our churches prepared to have conversation and study and prayer around the need for those whom we call to roles of leadership to understand what is expected of them if they say “yes.” I know that’s asking a lot of each of us. But, you are the direct link with every one of our local churches. I believe that if you do this, if you partner with one another in this great adventure of faith and development, when we gather here one year from now there will be stories to tell of leaders and churches that have been transformed. That’s my dream and the dream of your Board of Laity. I pray it becomes your dream in the months ahead.  

Church leaders must create an environment in which people can become the kind of Christians they were intended to be. The church must not be a hospice where no one ever gets well. It should be a training ground for growing spiritual giants who recognize that the primary role of the church is to reach out to others and introduce them to Jesus.  

Hear again Bishop Pennel’s challenge to us… “If the cause of Christ is significantly advanced in today’s world, it will be the laity who are in the forefront.” Are we up to the task before us to significantly advance the cause of Christ in today’s world? I pray we are.  

Christ is calling each of us, lay and clergy, to be fishers of people. Most persons are won to Christ through some person caring about them, through some person sharing the love of Christ with them, through the witness and example of some person called a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.  

And you don’t have to be the conference or district lay leader, or even the local church lay leader to get the job done either. Last year, we began to lift up the impact of persons we refer to as “Quiet Disciples.” There are thousands of Quiet Disciples around the Virginia Conference… persons who are in ministry in God’s name without concern about title or power… persons who do not get much public recognition beyond the local church.  

Persons like Simns Jacquette of Trinity United Methodist Church of Smithfield, Portsmouth District, who has given his life in retirement to helping feed, clothe and house persons in need through the Christian Outreach program in Isle of Wight County as well as traveling eight years to Russia with the Volunteers in Mission.  

Quiet Disciples like Dorothy Cross of Franconia Church, Alexandria District, who is committed to the work of Rising Hope Mission Church reaching out to the least, the lost, the lonely and the left out along the Route One corridor.  

Or perhaps a Quiet Disciple like Roberta Rickers of Kenbridge Church on the Farmville District, a dedicated Sunday school teacher who, every two weeks, “goes to prison” as she puts it to try to make a difference in the lives of the inmates by leading them in Bible study.  

Or maybe you know a Quiet Disciple like Ben Mathis of Market Street Church in Winchester who responded to the need and volunteered to organize the first District Lay Speaking Ministry.  

Perhaps you know a Quiet Disciple like Jane Joyner of Grace Memorial Church on the Portsmouth District who is ready to help in any way that she can to further the cause of Christ.  

And then there is Margaret Ann Holt of St. Matthias Church on the Ashland District, who has worked diligently to encourage churches to be more accepting of persons who have a mental illness.  

These are but a few of the thousands of Quiet Disciples around this conference. Remember to honor them with yours words of appreciation and encouragement in the days and weeks ahead. These folks take seriously the invitation from our Lord to “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”  

Folks around Virginia sure do love to fish. Anytime, anywhere, at the drop of a hat, they are ready to drop a line in hopes of catching something. There is little question about our passion for fishing, whether it is for recreation or for a living. In the Virginia Conference there are more than 342,000 potential “fishers of people” in our churches. Just imagine what would happen if each of us were as passionate about fishing for people as we are about catching fish. It is this degree of passion to which Christ is calling us in order to reach people in his name. “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”  

Please keep your Board of Laity in your prayers in the year ahead as we work to resource the local church in such a way that we will raise up church leaders who passionately believe that the church’s purpose is to lovingly invite people to follow Jesus. The degree of our passion for transformation is what drives the church.  

Also, pray for a spirit of expectancy among the clergy and laity as we claim the ministry to which each of us is called.  

Dream the Big Dreams. For without them we will be adrift.  

So be it here in Hampton, across the Virginia Conference and around the world in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!