BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference 
 
I hope you are looking forward to Annual Conference June 6-8. We will be meeting in Wichita Falls this year.

I know the Wichita Falls District clergy and laity have been planning for our arrival and ways to share great hospitality to all the members of the conference.

I believe this year will be a defining moment for the North Texas Conference. We will be making some very important decisions that will affect the future of our work together.

The theme is “Risk-Taking Mission.” What a bold declaration! “Risk-Taking Mission” is one of the five practices of fruitful congregations as outlined in Bishop Robert Schnase’s book, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.” We as a church must be willing to take risks for the sake of the Kingdom.

The opening night worship on Sunday evening will be one you will not want to miss. I recently spoke to Bishop John Innis, of The United Methodist Church in Liberia, Africa, who will be featured preacher. He is looking forward to addressing the Conference and is excited about the possibilities, especially our emphasis on eradicating killer diseases around the world such as malaria.

Our biblical foundation for this year, “Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly,” as declared in the 2010 logo, comes from Micah 6:8 which states in contemporary English, “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple:

Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.”[The Message].

I look forward to a wonderful time of holy conferencing as we move forward in ministry to reach the mission field of North Texas.

The 2010 Annual Conference logo features the scripture from Micah 6.8 that is the foundation for the conference theme “Risk-Taking Mission.” Donna Aldridge, an artist and member of Greenland Hills UMC, Dallas, designed this year’s logo. 
 

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

The month of March has been traditionallly designated as Women’s Month, where we celebrate the gifts, talents and contributions that women have made in life.

I was reading a blog this morning where the question was raised as to why we need a women’s month. The author of the question obviously proved the point for such a question.

Even to raise the question suggests that we have not come as far as we need to with regard to equal inclusion and power sharing when it comes to women. The truth of the matter is that the presence of women in our society has played a crucial role in the creation and development of life. We need to celebrate this each and every day.

Although women make up the majority of the world’s population, their presence and contributions have not been acknowledged in the history books. Fortunately, March Women’s Month provides an opportunity to call attention to the need to know and tell the whole story.

Several of my close friends chided me on the fact that during the announcements of the key leadership positions in the new strategic plan that it appears that males will continue to dominate and hold all the key positions. My response is: “Don’t judge me on this issue too early in the process.”

We do need to do more, and I am committed to being proactive in selecting the right leadership for church, as well as being diverse with regard to gender. I believe this is a time to lead. There will be more opportunities to come.

I remember attending the 2000 General Conference, where we held a service of confession and repentance for racism in the church. One of the leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church made a statement that stays with me even to this day. Paraphrasing him, he said, hopefully this sign of repentance will produce better fruit in the future and our role in the process will be “fruit inspectors.”

My hope is that as we move forward into God’s great future for the North Texas Conference, we will bring forth the best fruit that reflects the Kingdom of God. We can hope that there will be enough fruit inspectors to hold us accountable.

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

I just finished reading a great book entitled, “Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni. In the book, Lencioni states that teamwork is the most powerful tool one has to accomplish a goal—not strategy, not technology, not money. Teamwork is sometimes rare in the church, especially among the clergy and laity.

We are embarking on a bold vision and mission for the Annual Conference that will involve all of us rowing in the same direction. We are clear about our mission and priorities. One of the issues that we will face as we move forward into this bold new future is how well we work together as a team in accomplishing our goals and priorities. Building a team is both simple and difficult. There are negative consequences, dysfunctions, if we do not learn how to work as a team.

According to Lencioni, the five dysfunctions are:

1. Inattention to results— failure to make some sort of assessment of where we are and what the results of our efforts are;
2. Avoidance of accountability—unwillingness to be held accountable for the stated mission or goal;
3. Lack of commitment— willingness to give lip service and half-hearted efforts, but unwilling to make the necessary changes to make a difference;
4. Fear of conflict; and
5. Absence of trust—unwilling to give the leadership the benefit of the doubt to lead effectively.

If these are the five dysfunctions of a team, then what are the necessary functions of a team for successful work and ministry? As you probably imagined, they are just the opposite: paying attention to results and having a way to measure accomplishments; willing to be held accountable; making a commitment to do the heavy lifting required to enable change; not fearing conflict, but working through it and learning from it; placing a lot of trust in the leadership to lead.

My hope and prayer is that we will work together to accomplish all that God has in store for us as the Church.

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

The feeling of jetlag still lingers, but the memories of present-day miracles flood my mind and my soul. The difference that the Zoe Ministries Giving Hope program makes in the lives of orphans is amazing.

Our team of twelve persons returned from Rwanda after nine wonderful days spent visiting children orphaned by genocide, HIV/AIDS and malaria. Many of the children were raising other children. Of the nine million plus population in Rwanda, the average age is 14. Prior to going to Rwanda, I assumed we would see orphans being cared for by adults in family homes. What I discovered instead were orphans caring for other orphans, and what a difference they are making in each other’s lives.

One such orphan, with whom we visited about mid-way through the trip, was Angelique. Her testimony changed my life. At the age of 14 she was separated from her brothers and sisters. Her parents died, and she had to find food for herself. A family took her in and gave her food and a place to stay in exchange for her fetching water each day.

Angelique was allowed to stay in the family’s older adult son’s room, and he raped her each night. She found herself alone, pregnant and back on the street with no hope. She wanted to kill herself, but she remembered that her mother had told her about God and Jesus. She prayed that God would take her life and the life of her unborn child.

At that moment things began to change, and a group of United Methodists working with Zoe Ministries found Angelique and began to help her help herself. She was placed with a working group of other orphans, developed her “life plan,” and eventually, Angelique, along with other orphans, worked to help build their own home.

Angelique found her brothers and sisters, and they began the long journey of sowing seeds for food and to sell. Eventually, she started raising rabbits and chickens. Before long—within several months—she was self-sufficient. Her life changed as her life plan began to come to fruition due to prayer, listening to God, hard work and caring for others.

On the day we visited Angelique, we found her standing in the doorway of her new home, her baby son in one arm and her Bible in the other. She had the biggest smile that I had ever witnessed while in Rwanda. Months prior she could not smile; now she could not keep from smiling.

Angelique prayed for us and shared scriptures from the Bible that she had handwritten for each of us. Mine was Matthew 5:9, which states: ”You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” [The Message].

Angelique’s dream now is to become a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will always cherish the thought and the Word coming from an orphan who discovered the love of God that changed not only her life, but the lives of countless others through Zoe Ministries. This ministry is not only making a difference in the lives of orphans, but also changing the lives of volunteers as well. I am a living witness!

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference 
 
By now most of you have probably heard about some of the initial appointments that I have made. These appointments are conditional, based on whether the Strategic Plan is adopted by the North Texas Annual Conference.

Much of the feedback that we have received during the listening conferences about the Strategic Plan has been positive and supportive. The Strategic Planning Team will make several adjustments based on your responses and comments. We anticipate the final draft of the document will be ready for the pre-conference journal, and hopefully, an affirmative vote at Annual Conference.

Someone asked me why we did not wait to make the appointments. My response is that I believe we have a great plan to carry us forward into the future and that it will enable us to be about our mission and focus on the essentials that only the Annual Conference can do.

Our goal is not to change the local church, but to streamline and align the Annual Conference to enable the local church to reach its mission field. To that end, we will be focusing on leadership development (both lay and clergy); new places for new people; ministry with the poor; and eradicating killer diseases around the globe.

The new plan will enable us to be nimble, yet efficient, in making the necessary decisions to focus on our mission. I believe it is a well-documented plan and will do what it was designed to do, thus should be adopted and implemented at the same time. If the plan is not adopted by the 2010 Annual Conference, we will go back and continue to do what we have always done, getting the same results that we have received thus far.

The Strategic Plan document is now posted on the website: www.holyconferencing.com. I invite you to read it and to join those who are commenting and answering questions.

My prayer is that you will pray for the plan, support the leadership and enable persons appointed to carry out the various areas of mission to be effective in their efforts

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference
 

By the time you read this article, hopefully Leslie and I will be in Rwanda giving hope to orphans in Africa. I say “hopefully”  because Leslie had an MRI that came back abnormal, and she was scheduled for further tests on the morning that we were scheduled to leave for Rwanda.*

At first, it gave us a big scare, and we were immobilized with fear. Dallas South District Superintendent Rev. Milton Guttierrez and his wife, Kathy, came by with food and prayed for us. We decided not to focus on our fear but on our faith and trust in God, and we now have hope. As Christians, we are called to look beyond our circumstances, trusting in the grace and love of God to get us through.

We are traveling to Rwanda with Zoe Ministries, an empowerment project that connects individual families of orphans to other

enlarge>> Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe at the North Dallas Food Bank with Stephanie Noland, First UMC, Sachse.

orphaned families for mutual support and emotional stability. Six thousand children become orphans every day in Africa due to HIV/AIDS and malaria.

 Zoe Ministries began in 2004 when a pastor by the name of Rev. Greg Jenks answered Christ’s call to reach out to the least of these in Africa. His life was transformed by the witness of a 15-year-old American girl who traveled to Africa to work with children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The ministry is a grassroots effort where thousands of churches and individuals have heeded the call of God to make a difference in the lives of others. I know that many of our children and youth groups in the North Texas Conference care and are working to eradicate malaria from the continent of Africa by 2015.

A few weeks ago, the members of the Extended Cabinet and I were volunteering at the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas. Our jobs were to fill plastic bags with what looked like snacks and goodies for the road. We packed seven (7) bags in each box and eventually filled up two pallets of boxes.

We later learned that the food was going to be placed in backpacks for children who were going home for the weekend and had no food to eat. As we were packing those boxes, a lady named Stephanie from First UMC, Sachse, came into the Food Bank to pick up the boxes and carry them back to her community to provide food for needy children. Her words to me were these: “I’m proud to be a United Methodist!”

We as United Methodists are called to go public with our Christian witness and not hide the light of Christ from others. My prayer is that we get ourselves out of our comfort zones and become the people that God has called us.

*The good news is that the Feb. 8 medical tests went well, and the Bledsoes were on their way to Rwanda with the NTC team.

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

I want to share my excitement about an initiative that is starting as a grassroots effort in the North Texas Conference. Unlike previous efforts, this one began with a group of laity and clergy wanting to help make a difference in the lives of children.

Now, their enthusiasm is catching on and spreading like a wildfire. This initiative is called Imagine No Malaria, or, as our newly formed task force refers to it, “ZAPMalaria!”

One of the four main focus areas of our NTC Strategic Planning Team is the eradication of killer diseases around the world. This might seem too overwhelming to even consider. Then, we remember polio, a killer disease now almost wiped out. United Methodists and partner organizations can take up this latest challenge with high hopes for victory.

Our task force is planning new, exciting and fun ways for churches, large and small, to make a difference in the fight against malaria. We are by our very nature connectional, and this time we are connecting as part of a larger campaign called The Global Health Initiative. We have been named a leadership conference, which means that others will learn from what we do.

I am not surprised that we have been called to be leaders in this battle, but I am thankful that it is happening.

I am asking all of you, the caring people of the North Texas Conference, to join in the fight to save children around the world, especially those most at risk in sub-Sahara Africa.

Our Lay Leader Richard Hearne, co-chair of our NTC “ZAPMalaria” team, with Rev. Judith Reedy, has written an article in this edition of the North Texas United Methodist Reporter explaining some of the great ideas that churches can use and adapt as they wish. The team has also developed a new website, www.zapmalaria.com, which you can visit for resources and ideas.

We can do this. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we can “ZAPMalaria” and usher in a new day of health and hope for all God’s children

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

The month of February is an opportunity to celebrate African American history. A great devotional guide that I received was one written by Dr. Mackie L. Harper Norris, entitled African American History Month 2010: Daily devotions.

The devotional guidebook was published by Abingdon Press, 2009, and can be purchased at Cokesbury. It is a wonderful daily spiritual and historical resource connecting the past and present to biblical truths. In it, Dr. Norris shares the experiences, hopes and dreams of a people fulfilling God’s purpose for their lives.

According to Dr. Norris, “these devotions are perfect for Bible s

enlarge>> Dr. Mackie Norris

tudy, opening or closing meditations at meetings and events, personal and family devotion time, and other gatherings.”

When I received my first copy of the book, I shared it with my mother. She loved it so much that they are using it for a month-long study in her church in Midland.. I now have another copy and will be using it during the month of February as my personal devotional guide.

The guide is filled with stories and experiences of persons whose lives helped shape and mold us into the people we are today.

African Americans have contributed a lot to this country and to The United Methodist Church. Many times, those contributions were not recognized, celebrated, or appreciated.

In the midst of everything that is going on in the life of our country and our church, I hope we will find time to reflect upon the contributions and sacrifices of those who have gone on before us to help make this world a more just and peaceful one.

It is through the prophets and wisdom literature of the Old Testament that we understand the meaning of justice in our society. A favorite passage of mine is found in Proverbs 21:3, “Clean living before God and justice with our neighbors mean far more to God than religious performance.”

I trust that each of us will celebrate the contributions of African Americans in the life of the church and our country. It’s an amazing story of God’s grace.

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference

Leslie and I are excited about the upcoming Schools of Missions provided by the United Methodist Women. I hope you are planning to enroll and attend one of the schools this summer. Why am I telling you this now? Well, because if you are like me, if you don’t get it on the calendar and plan to attend early, the time will arrive and the calendar will be already filled. No, actually I just started reading the new, unpublished materials from the Mission Resource Center. Leslie and I will be teaching the study on “Mission in the Age of Global Christianity.” The study text will be, “Joy to the World! Mission in the Age of Global Christianity” by Dana L. Robert, professor of World Christianity and History of Mission at Boston University School of Theology. The published text should be available after February 9, 2010. I encourage you to get a copy and begin your reading early and
come prepared to share with others in a wonderful learning opportunity.

Dates and locations of the schools are: The Weekday School, July 26-29, First UMC, Plano, and The Weekend Event, July 23-25, Austin College, Sherman.

We should want to take advantage of every opportunity we get to learn something new and to study the Scriptures in the context of Christian missions. Even though we sometimes do it to prepare for teaching, I promise you, we learn much more from reading and from the class participants. United Methodists are people of the Book and people in mission in the world. The summer study programs are an excellent way to learn more about God’s world and to meet other people who are excited about missions as well.

On another note: thank you so much for your generous response to the Haiti Initiative. Many of us just wanted to catch a plane to get there and provide as much hands-on help as we could offer. To see the hurt, pain, and devastation on the faces of the people just broke my heart. We cry out, “what can we do to help?” Well, we have been encouraged to send money now to purchase immediate resources and to meet emergency needs. Later on, I have been assured that we will have opportunities to take teams and do some hands-on ministry. Right now the infrastructure is not in place to allow for that. In the meantime, please pray, send money, and help provide health kits, all of which are greatly needed and appreciated. Also, pray for the families of those who lost loved ones in this tragedy, and more personally, the families of Jean Arnwine, Rev. Sam Dixon, and Rev. Clinton Rabb, who lost their lives doing what they believed God had called them to do.

May God continue to bless the people of the North Texas Conference for your Christian witness in the world.

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE
North Texas Conference 

I hope by now both clergy and laity in the church will have made it a priority to attend one of the several “listening conferences” planned throughout the districts for the purpose of providing feedback and input on the proposed Strategic Plan for the North Texas Conference.

I do believe this is the time for the North Texas Conference to lead in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

We are not making changes to address financial scarcities. We are not making changes because of incompetence or inadequate leadership capabilities. North Texas is a good Conference and has continued to grow over the years and to do some creative and exciting ministries that make a difference in the world.

The plan is not an indictment of the past or the present. I believe we are at a critical time in the life of the church in which we can position ourselves to respond to the upcoming growth projected within the bounds of the annual conference. It is truly a mission field ready and ripe for the harvest.

While I know some of the changes will be a challenge for some, they are changes that need to be made if we are to be faithful to the cause of Christ in our various communities. I know that God will truly bless, guide, and keep us as we move toward a new way of relating and doing ministry. I covet your prayers and your support.