Duke Divinity to Host Leadership Forum for UMC Bishops
June 20, 2005
The forum, sponsored by the Duke Center for Excellence in Ministry, is intended to help nurture the bishops’ leadership development and fill a gap in the preparation of bishops for the UMC’s highest office. Currently, newly elected bishops receive limited training and orientation, with much of that devoted primarily to an overview of legal and administrative issues, according to Kenneth L. Carder, director of the center and a retired UMC bishop.
“New bishops experience a sudden and enormous change in the scope and scale of their leadership responsibilities,” said Carder. “Yet, they are given little help or guidance in how to prepare for and manage that change.”
With his own election as bishop in 1992, Carder said, he was moved virtually overnight from being a pastor of a 2,700-member congregation to a bishop responsible for oversight of 1,200 UMC churches with more than 200,000 members, 750 pastors, and multiple church-affiliated institutions such as hospitals, colleges, retreat centers, camps, and nursing homes. He served 12 years as a UMC bishop, initially as bishop of the Nashville, Tenn., area and later as bishop of the Mississippi area.
“Many people and institutions look to a bishop for leadership,” Carder said. “It’s a real challenge for bishops to maintain their focus, vision and integrity when they’re being pulled in multiple directions by so many different agendas.”
L. Gregory Jones, dean of the divinity school, said the forum is an effort by the school to use its expertise in ongoing education and formation for local church pastors and expand it to those in the UMC episcopacy.
“We’ve given a lot of attention to how to enhance the leadership of pastors through both programs and research, and now we want to use that knowledge to help those who have oversight responsibility,” Jones said. “Much more than an administrative post, the office of bishop is a critically important position of ministry and leadership, one that affects all UMC congregations and their members.”
Bishops, Jones said, need the same opportunities for reflection, friendship and spiritual formation as do the pastors and laity they serve. “We look forward to learning from the bishops as we work together with them in this project,” he said.
Fourteen current bishops from across the U.S. are scheduled to attend the forum, which will also include a second three-day gathering at the divinity school in December. Invited by the Center from the UMC’s roster of 50 active bishops, the participants include both new and experienced bishops and were selected so as to represent a diversity of geographic regions, experience, ethnicity and gender.
“The United Methodist Church is fortunately blessed with gifted and accomplished leaders, but that made it very difficult for us to select this initial group of participants,” said Carder. “We tried to put together a good cross section of bishops from across the church’s five jurisdictions.”
The forum is essentially a pilot project, Carder said. If it is successful and helps the bishops in their work, the center will likely conduct similar forums in the future for other UMC bishops and perhaps leaders of other denominations as well, he added.
Rather than having “experts” teach the bishops how best to perform their jobs, the forum will instead provide an environment in which the bishops can learn from one another, Carder said.
“We want to create a place where they can be candid with each other about the issues and challenges they face and support each other as they fill the complex and demanding role of bishop,” Carder said.
The forum will draw upon insights gained in various programs initiated by the divinity school in recent years, particularly the Reynolds Program in Church Leadership, a year-long course of study program for clergy. It will also draw on the work of the school’s Pulpit & Pew project, which has focused on understanding the current state of pastoral ministry in the United States and how to support excellent ministry.
Carder, Jones, Associate Dean for Continuing Education and Strategic Planning Janice Virtue, and retired Bishop Joseph E. Pennel Jr. of Franklin, Tenn., will serve as facilitators for the forum sessions.
The following active bishops are scheduled to attend the forum:
| Thomas J. Bickerton | Bishop of the Pittsburgh, Pa., area |
| Warner H. Brown Jr. | Bishop of the Denver, Col., area |
| Charles N. Crutchfield | Bishop of the Arkansas area |
| Sudarshana Devadhar | Bishop of the New Jersey area |
| Sally Dyck | Bishop of the Minnesota area |
| Larry Goodpaster | Bishop of the Alabama-West Florida area |
| Alfred W. Gwinn, Jr | Bishop of the Raleigh, N.C. area |
| Janice Riggle Huie | Bishop of the Houston, Texas, area |
| Scott Jones | Bishop of the Kansas area |
| Robert Schnase | Bishop of the Missouri area |
| Mary Virginia Taylor | Bishop of the Columbia, S.C. area |
| Hope Morgan Ward | Bishop of the Mississippi area |
| William H. Willimon | Bishop of the Birmingham, Ala., area |
| Richard J. Wills, Jr. | Bishop of the Nashville, Tenn. |