Strategic Direction takes hold in the North District
By Rev. Candace Lansberry
Take a church with a heart for social holiness, wrap it up with a pastor whose specialty is leadership development and flavor it with emerging faith communities of cultures from around the globe, and you begin to get a glimpse of the ministry of University United Methodist Church.
In 2008, University UMC offered its portable building to United Methodist Social Ministries for its day-to-day operations, its primary center for WEAP (Weekend Emergency Assistance Program) and its emerging foster care program. With that move, University UMC once more positioned itself as a church with social holiness at its center in its desire to support and undergird ministry to the poor and the oppressed. Their work with Sidewalk Sunday School has long been an integral part of who they are and what they do as a church with a heart for outreach.
Under the guidance of Rev. Art Gafke, the staff has been training and growing in its understanding of leadership, of the staff person’s role in equipping the congregation for ministry, and of the need to identify
The greatest success in implementing the Strategic Direction, however, comes in University UMC’s vision for planting new faith communities, multi-cultural congregations that are reaching people of different ethnic groups who are living around the church. Currently, there are seven United Methodist worshipping congregations at University UMC and two non-UMC congregations who utilize space for worship and study.
The earliest addition to the three Anglo congregations, who meet for worship on Sunday mornings, is the Filipino-American congregation who began gathering under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Julian Miguel, a retired pastor from Nebraska. Initially part of the church-within-a-church model, this congregation grew to the point where it decided it would launch as a separate fellowship, First Filipino American UMF, while still maintaining a physical presence on the UUMC campus.
Las Naciones, the Hispanic congregation at UUMC, began meeting at Daniel Gomez's home as a bible study group. When they out grew Daniel’s home in 2005, they arranged to meet at UUMC and eventually became incorporated in the UUMC church as a fellowship in the church-within-a-church model with Daniel serving as its lay pastor. They meet Sunday afternoons as a multi-generational worshipping community and again on Thursday evenings, which is designed for all the youth of the worshiping congregations of UUMC.
UUMC’s African congregation began last summer when Pastor Alexander Bahati, along with 35 African refugees fleeing from the warring countries of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi to America, showed up at worship one Sunday and asked what they would have to do to become part of UUMC. The congregation extended help to the refugees (there’s that heart for social holiness again!) by helping the children get shots for school and school registration, providing clothing and household articles, and taking the new African members shopping for groceries and other needs.
The African refugees’ languages include several dialects of Swahili, French, and English. Some speak no English, some, a little, and some are fluent. Pastor Alexander Bahati speaks fluent English, which he taught himself in a Kenyan refugee camp. The Africans meet both in worship led by Alexander and with the greater congregation.
The Anglos, Africans, and Las Naciones come together for the Thursday evening service in which the youth of the church attend. Originally it was a Hispanic service, all in Spanish. Now Daniel Gomez conducts the service in Spanish and English. Alexander Bahati then translates the service to his son, Oliver, from English to French. Oliver then translates the service from French, to the African youth, to Swahili. All the youth of the church meet together for youth activities and are forging a multi-cultural identity that is contagious.
Under the enthusiastic leadership of Pastor Daniel Choi, the Korean Campus ministry meets at UUMC and in July 2008 gave birth to a new congregation, A Grain of Mustard Seed UMF. While the former churches were a church-within-a-church model, AGOMS was intentionally started as a stand-alone fellowship with the support, prayers and blessing of the UUMC congregation.
In addition to these United Methodist faith communities, two groups from India meet at UUMC to worship and to study: Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and Blessed Mother Theresa Church.
It’s pretty obvious that University UMC has continually promoted the practice of establishing churches within the greater church to meet the diverse needs of the surrounding community. They have caught the vision of what the church can look like when they are about making disciples for the transformation of the world and are striving with all their heart to be one with Christ in reaching those in their community who experience injustice; growing in leadership development as they learn what it means to be one with each other as they lead an ever changing and diverse congregation; and exploring in a tangible way what it really means to be one in ministry to all the world.