Lay speakers recharge and rededicate
Left photo: Patti Martin,holding a cross, gave the opening devotion.
Right photo: Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe (top) and Kathy Corley (bottom), Northwest District representative.
BY CYNTHIA B. ASTLE
Certified Lay Speaker, Metro District
Lay speakers in the North Texas Conference gathered Aug. 7 at First UMC McKinney to celebrate the successes of lay speaking ministries and to prepare for the future under the new Strategic Plan.
About 150 lay leaders and guests attended the daylong program, organized by Betsy Schenk and John Bodnar, certified lay speakers of the former Dallas-Denton District. The event began with greetings from several conference leaders including Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe and Mrs. Leslie Bledsoe, herself a certified lay speaker; the Rev. Keith Boone, director of the new Center for Leadership Development; the Rev. Dr. Clara Reed, superintendent of the new Metro District; and Rachel Magruder and Ricky Harrison, current and immediate past chairs of the Conference Council on Youth Ministries.
For the Strategic Plan to be successful, Bishop Bledsoe said, lay United Methodists must be involved. North Texas, he noted, is one of the few U.S. annual conferences focusing on leadership development for laypeople as well as clergy, in keeping with the church’s emphasis on training principled Christian leaders.
“The laity will make the difference; they enable the church to grow,” said the Bishop. “When they get excited about working for Jesus, people come to them.”
Rev. Boone underscored the bishop’s message that laypeople are key to the Strategic Plan. “It will take all of us pulling together to get out the word of God.”
John Barham, conference director of Lay Speaking Ministries, said North Texas Lay Speakers stand ready to help develop training and to serve as trainers so that lay leadership education can begin as soon as possible.
For five years, the North Texas Lay Speaking Ministries program has emphasized teacher training with an accreditation curriculum that exceeds the instruction provided through General Board of Discipleship. In addition, Lay Speaking Ministries has sponsored three conferencewide seminars open to both laity and clergy. They include: United Methodist organization and polity, basic theology and “Five Alive,” an advanced preaching course led by the Rev. Dr. Alyce McKenzie of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
Bishop Bledsoe concluded opening remarks with a blessing similar to the charge laid upon clergy at their ordination: “Take thou authority to go into the world and speak a word for God.”
