Report 66

Vision Statement:
Rev. Ron Ramsey

Ron Ramsey
Senior pastor of Main Street UB church in Walbridge, Ohio

Ron Ramsey is one of the two candidates for Bishop of the US National Conference. The Nominating Committee asked the two candidates to submit a vision statement for the US National Conference along with biographical material. Both can be downloaded as a PDF version of the document provided to all National Conference delegates.

In his book Courageous Leadership, Bill Hybels says, "The local church is the hope of the world."1 I agree! The local church is the God-ordained institution to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. When it does that effectively, it is the "hope of the world." All local churches have the same purpose, to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. But local churches are not all alike nor should they be. There may be wide variance on structure, decision making, managing change, and the strategies for growth within local churches, but there can be no variance on the purpose.

Christ Himself gave to the church its purpose: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19a NIV). How we do that may look different from one church to another, but that we do it must not be questioned. It is not the denominational office that is the hope of the world, nor any other parachurch ministry or organization. And for me this is the starting point as I present my ideas of how the denomination should interact with the local churches in the next four years. Evangelism/discipleship is a nonnegotiable. This is why we exist. This was the heartbeat of our founders and it must be ours as well. These ideas come from the inner core of my beliefs that have been hammered out by theory and experience.

I agree with the proposals of restructuring for our denomination. Agreeing with them and implementing them may be two different things. This represents a significant change for our churches which will require our full attention. I realize that change does not always come easy, but sometimes a redirection is very necessary. A full implementation may take several years to fully realize.

The temptation for me in writing this paper is to present a whole laundry list of things I believe need to be addressed. But, I must be realistic in what should and can be accomplished in the next four years. So what follows is not necessarily an exhaustive list, but a list of what I consider to be some of the major priorities. There will always be other issues that will be necessary to handle, but this is where I would like to spend a major portion of my time and a bit of insight as to how I would go about the task.

There are two major areas. One is Leadership Development. Items 1-4 deal with this area. The other area is what I'll call Healthy Church/Growth/Expansion. Items 5 and 6 deal with this area. Item 7 deals with both areas.

1. Selecting the Cluster Leaders

The success of the new structure rises and falls largely on the clusters and who leads them. So this becomes a critical decision at the outset. The cluster leaders are to assume the role of a ministry coach to the pastors in their cluster.

According to the bishop's quadrennial report, we have 215 churches. If we use the proposed goal of each cluster being just seven churches, then we would need about 30-31 cluster leaders. The purpose of the clusters is stated, "...to improve the pastoral leadership across the US National Conference." I agree that this should be the purpose, and I would also want to think outside the boxes as to who and where we recruit these leaders.

I would want to quickly begin to develop a list of the strongest candidates from the active pastors, retired pastors, and strong lay persons who have the gifts and skills to handle such an assignment. In my estimation, this will be the most critical decision that the bishop will make in the coming term, and it must be done thoroughly but with due diligence. If elected, I would begin right away building a rather comprehensive list, interviewing possible candidates for cluster leaders, and being fairly well set in my mind by the beginning of the term who they would be so that the clusters could begin quickly.

2. Training the Cluster Leaders

It would be necessary that all of the leaders be on the "same page." This does not mean that they would all need to walk in "lock step," but it does mean that there would need to be developed certain nonnegotiables that would be characteristics of every cluster so that some consistency could be developed across the denomination.

My tendency is to paint with a broad brush, giving the parameters of what must be accomplished and allowing great freedom in the "how to." I am not afraid of having people around me who are stronger than I am in certain areas. I tend to support with loyalty and trust those I select to do a job.

I would also like to think outside the box on how to deliver this training within budgetary restrictions. The technology today will allow for some very creative delivery methods. I would also encourage cluster leaders to communicate with one another by sharing ideas, concepts and problems, by recommending good books, etc.

3. Continuing Education for Pastors

Many professions require continuing education as a condition of employment. The pastoral ministry should be no different. The people who attend our churches have the right to expect that the church is being led by competent, knowledgeable leaders who keep their skills sharp. No person who attends a United Brethren church should be ashamed to invite a friend to their church because of the poor quality of the ministry.

I envision some of the continuing education coming from within the clusters themselves. Much of that will be informal training that comes from being around others in a cluster who are working to be the best they can be, and some of that "rubs off." But I am also a firm believer in the role of formal continuing education for pastors. It can be accomplished from a variety of settings--from books read, to regional seminars attended or classes taken at a college. There are so many good opportunities to choose from that there is really no excuse for not taking advantage of them to keep our skills sharp. Together with the cluster leaders, I would develop a strategy to enable pastors and leaders to realize continuing education goals.

4. Recruitment

A plan would be developed to recruit good candidates to become pastors within the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. A strategy might include such things as making visits to some of the prominent seminaries to recruit graduates, networking with successful pastors and churches for potential candidates, and keeping in close contact with students from our churches who are already in training. The future success of our church will be determined by the quality of pastors, staff, and leaders in our local churches. There must be a high commitment to locate and recruit the very best available.

5. Evangelism/Discipleship

Looking at the statistics that each of the churches have reported to the bishop, I see some real disconnects. For example, in the reporting period of 2001--2004 there are 8276 conversions reported, 4121 baptisms, and 1560 increase in average attendance. I praise God that 8276 persons found Christ in our churches over the past four years, but I have a few questions. Why did we baptize only half of those? What happened to the other 6716 people who accepted Christ but did not show up in our average attendance? Where did all the people go? Are we being faithful in populating other churches? That may be okay, but why? Are the number of conversions reported accurate?

As I look over these stats, I have a feeling we have a real "back door" problem in our churches. As a student of these trends in our church, I can tell you that what was reported for 2001--2004 is not a lot different from other quadrennial reports. We report a good number of conversions and we baptize about half, but we have only modest gains in average attendance. We are a denomination that was founded upon evangelism. But it was not just evangelism--it was also discipleship. The emphasis in those early years of preaching an assurance of salvation along with the teaching of living a godly lifestyle resulted in tremendous growth.

We have never had a problem seeing people converted. But I would have to conclude that we do have a discipleship problem. In my mind, evangelism cannot be separated from discipleship. They both are part of a continuing process of seeing people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. In the early church, everyone was a witness. Evangelism was a natural part of daily life (Acts 2:4-7). Christianity made an impact on society. We must evangelize the lost but then ripen the fruit for service through strategic, consistent discipleship training.

6. Church Planting

Healthy churches plant healthy churches. Therefore, we must encourage our healthy churches to consider planting churches. This is not a matter of size but of health. There is no reason to think that a smaller church that is healthy could not plant a healthy congregation. This is an extremely sensitive issue in many parts of our church. I agree with Dan Kopp that we need to discourage haphazard church planting.

The new structure that is being proposed will give us an opportunity to revisit the whole issue of church planting. I am not interested in throwing out the "baby with the bathwater," but a fresh new look at our philosophy might be in order. We must, simply must, learn how to successfully plant new churches. It seems to me, at least in Sandusky Conference and maybe in your conference as well, that we are closing churches faster than we are opening them. As a denomination we simply must change that.

7. Accountability

There must be consistent accountability for churches as well as for pastors. Every two years congregations will be asked to sign a covenant, to give their affirmation to values that have been determined by the US National Conference to be the minimum requirement of being a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Someone has said (or if they didn't they should have) that you "get what you inspect, not what you expect." Now, I don't believe the job of a bishop is to be a "spiritual fruit inspector," but I do believe that a part of that job is to hold churches and pastors accountable to what they have indicated as their desire to accomplish.

I have been in the United Brethren Church as a licensed/ordained pastor since 1964. Over that time I have experienced great laxity in holding anyone accountable. Maybe it is part of the times we live in. People don't want to be held accountable. We resist it and bristle when it is even mentioned that someone would dare to hold us accountable. Maybe that is the way it is in the world, but that is not the model of the Kingdom. Jesus felt it necessary to hold his disciples accountable to what he instructed them to do. Paul felt it necessary to hold the churches accountable to correct practice. And the Bible tells us that one day everyone will be called to stand in the presence of God and be held accountable for their life. Accountability is a part of the Christian life.

It has been my practice in managing people to lead them to develop a plan upon which we could mutually agree. It is in this context that I hold people accountable. I would expect to do the same with clusters, pastors, and churches if I were elected as bishop. And I would expect the Executive Leadership Team to hold me accountable for what we mutually agree should be accomplished. I have no problem being held to accountability nor holding others to accountability.

My Leadership Style

Let me conclude this paper by telling you something of how I have led in the past, because that's probably how I would continue to lead.

First, I believe in the principle of synergy. That is a mathematical term which means that the sum of the whole is greater than any of the parts. In leadership, I believe it works pretty much the same way. A group of carefully selected people will be able to accomplish more than any one of those persons could accomplish on their own. The group will come up with better ideas than any one person on his own can develop. That has certainly been true for me. I am not afraid to surround myself with strong people in building a team to accomplish a great task. I believe in teamwork.

Second, I am not a legalist theologically nor practically. I tend not to beat around the bush. I'm pretty straight-forward; I tell it like I see it. I may later change my mind as result of debate, but I do have concerns for your feelings and would expect the same from you. If you just want to be critical, I'm not impressed. But if you think critically and want to help the process, then I'm "all ears" (and I've got big ones). I don't play nor do I like to have people on my team who play politics. Politics has its place but not in the Kingdom. I am a big picture thinker rather than a detail person.

Third, I have surrounded myself with detail people because the "battle" is often lost in the details. But I can become a bulldog in accomplishing the big picture.

My spiritual gifts are preaching/teaching, leading, and discernment. I have a deep passion to see people come to know Christ and then grow up in Him. I truly enjoy mentoring pastors and leaders through one-on-one and group discipleship. My personality type is that I am loyal to my values, and people are important to me.

I am curious, quick to see possibilities, and have been a catalyst for implementing ideas. The past twelve years I have lived and served in an atmosphere of change. It is exhilarating, but also scary at times. I don't believe in change for change sake, but when change is warranted I enjoy leading the charge. I seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. I am adaptable, flexible, and accepting of others. As you can see if you read my bio, I have had a wide range of experiences.

If you are interested in "results" versus "activity," you probably would be happy with my leadership. If you are a pastor or a layperson in a local church that really desires to develop greater effectiveness, I'll be your greatest cheerleader. But if you want to continue in the status quo (being interpreted as "the mess we're in"), you probably would not be real happy with me. Status quo is not an option that is on the table! I believe that where God is taking us is always better than where we've been.