Type | Agency of the United Methodist Church |
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Headquarters | Nashville, TN |
General Secretary | Rev. Jeffrey Campbell |
Parent organization | United Methodist Church |
Website | umcdiscipleship |
Formerly called | General Board of Discipleship |
Part of a series on |
Methodism |
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Methodismportal |
Discipleship Ministries, formerly known as the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD), is one of 13 international agencies, boards and commissions of The United Methodist Church. GBOD was established by the 1972 United Methodist General Conference, and in March 2015, officially changed its name. Discipleship Ministries was given the primary responsibility for the support of receiving, nurturing, caring, and sending ministries of congregations in The United Methodist Church.
The board provides resources in the areas of Christian education, worship, music, evangelism, new church development, stewardship, lay leadership development, age-level (children, youth, adult) and family ministries, small-group ministries, ethnic local church concerns, devotional life, spiritual formation, anti-racism resources and other areas related to the lives of people, church leaders, and the ministries of congregations.
Written and audiovisual resources produced by Discipleship Ministries staff support the ministries of clergy and lay people and congregations. Staff members also provide training, education, and skill development seminars and workshops.
Discipleship Ministries staff includes specialists in evangelism, worship, Christian education, music, stewardship and other areas of ministry. The agency is organized in these major divisions:
The Upper Room is a global ministry that supports the spiritual formation of Christians. From its beginnings as a daily devotional guide, Upper Room Ministries has grown to include publications, programs, prayer support and other resources to help people of all ages and denominations. The Upper Room is a daily devotional guide published in 78 languages through 41 international editions. The guide celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010.
Upper Room resources are grouped in five different areas: personal spirituality; children, youth, young adults and families; small groups; spiritual leadership, and cross-cultural and international ministries. Upper Room Ministries also publishes books and magazines for people of all ages and provides various programs and events.
Upper Room Ministries also includes the Emmaus Ministries International Office, which oversees the family of Emmaus Ministries, including: Walk to Emmaus, Chrysalis, Face to Face, Journey to the Table, and Discovery Weekend.
Leadership Ministries provides resources to both the laity and clergy leaders of The United Methodist Church who work in local congregations, districts and annual (regional) conferences. The division supports and develops leaders in all areas of church’s life, including worship, Christian education, congregational development, evangelism, small groups, Wesleyan studies, racial/ethnic ministries, stewardship, congregational and conference leadership and covenant and accountable discipleship.
Young People's Ministries was established in 2004 especially for young people aged 14 to 30 and the people who minister to them.
Young People’s Ministries sponsors international events that bring young leaders together to focus on advocacy, faith formation, resource development, communication and networking. Grants, scholarships and consultations are available to help local churches develop projects and programs that support young people.
New Church Starts (Path 1) is a team of leaders from national, regional and local levels of The United Methodist Church. The team helps people to establish new congregations throughout the United States. The division recruits, organizes, offers best practices and trains people to start United Methodist churches in communities that have no vital churches and also helps healthy congregations to branch out and assist in starting new churches.
Administrative functions of the board are carried out by the Office of the General Secretary, the Office of Financial Services, Human Resources, Building Services, Information Technology, Communications and Web Development. The administrative offices are located in Nashville, Tennessee. The current General Secretary (Chief Executive Officer) of the agency is the Rev. Jeffrey Campbell.
The Christian Church is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th century as a loose association of churches working towards Christian unity, then slowly forming quasi-denominational structures through missionary societies, regional associations, and an international convention. In 1968, the Disciples of Christ officially adopted a denominational structure at which time a group of churches left to remain nondenominational.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the Basis of Union. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the 2016 census, about 870,200 Australians identified with the church; in the 2011 census, the figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and the Anglican Churches. There are around 2,000 UCA congregations, and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative, it was founded in 1850 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged in North America from the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement within Methodism. It is headquartered in Lenexa within Johnson County, Kansas. With its members commonly referred to as Nazarenes, it is the largest denomination in the world aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and is a member of the World Methodist Council.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4,800 churches and 773,500 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Lutheran, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014, the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members, primarily in the U.S. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent, or 1 million adult adherents, of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.
The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of mainline Protestant denominations in South India after independence.
The Order of Saint Luke (OSL) is a religious order begun within the Methodist Church in the United States that is dedicated to sacramental and liturgical scholarship, education, and practice.
The Upper Room is a Christian organization that publishes books and magazines and that produces programs to support the spiritual life of Christians around the world. The Upper Room is best known for The Upper Room daily devotional, which is published in 35 languages and is available in more than 100 countries. Other publications include devozine for teens and Pockets for children. Programs include The Walk to Emmaus and The Academy for Spiritual Formation.
Rueben Philip Job was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church. Elected in 1984, he served the Iowa episcopal area and retired in 1992.
Maxie D. Dunnam (1934-) is a United Methodist Church minister, evangelist, Bible commentator and writer. He is a past president of World Methodist Council. He is currently President Emeritus of Asbury Theological Seminary.
More than 70% of the population of Botswana is Christian. Most are members of the Anglican, United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, and African independent churches. Anglicans are part of the Church of the Province of Central Africa. The Roman Catholic Church includes about 5% of the nation's population.
Christianity Explored is an informal Christian evangelistic teaching course developed by Rico Tice and Barry Cooper at All Souls Church, Langham Place, a leading Anglican church, and published by The Good Book Company. The course is considered to stand within the conservative evangelical tradition. Christianity Explored Ministries has also developed a second evangelistic course in 2016 Life Explored.
Adam Hamilton is an American minister. He is the senior pastor of the 25,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, the largest United Methodist congregation in the world, measured by both weekend attendance and membership.
The clergy of the United Church of Canada are called "ministers". There are two "streams", ordered ministry and lay ministry. Ordered ministry includes ordained ministers and diaconal ministers. Lay ministry refers to licensed lay worship leaders (LLWL), designated lay ministers (DLM), sacraments elders, and congregational designated ministers (CDM). There are no restrictions on gender, sexual orientation, age, or marital status for any branches of ministry.
Blue Christmas in the Western Christian tradition, is a day in the Advent season marking the longest night of the year. On this day, some churches in Western Christian denominations hold a church service that honours people that have lost loved ones and are experiencing grief. These include parishes of Catholicism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravianism, and Reformed Christianity. The Holy Eucharist is traditionally a part of the service of worship on this day. This worship service is traditionally held on or around the longest night of the year, which falls on or about December 21, the Winter Solstice. There is an interesting convergence for this day as it is also the traditional feast day for Saint Thomas the Apostle. This linkage invites making some connections between Saint Thomas's struggle to believe in Jesus' resurrection, the long nights just before Christmas, and the struggle with darkness and grief faced by those living with loss.
Forward Movement is the name taken by a number of Christian Protestant movements in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other countries.
Ben Campbell Johnson was an American ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a Professor Emeritus of Evangelism and Spiritual Direction at Columbia Theological Seminary. He is known for his work in church renewal movements and on interfaith relations between a variety of faith traditions.
Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology, Congregational Studies and Leadership, Ethnography, Evangelism and Church Planting, Black Church Studies, and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.