REPORT TO THE COORDINATING COUNCIL, PCC-UMC
August 21, 2009
Wesleyan University-Philippines, Cabanatuan City

By Bishop Rodolfo A. Juan

Introduction

The Episcopal journey is not a bed of roses. If it is, then maybe because roses have thorns. But it is replete with wonderful lessons and evidences of God’s constant love and boundless compassion. The great truth of God’s faithfulness is even more powerfully affirmed when we endure the heat of spiritual testing at the helm of leadership.

I can truly identify with the Apostle Paul when he said, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NRSV).

As I greet you and account for the work of the Church in the Baguio Episcopal Area today, may God’s presence unite us in our common journey of faith, mission and service. Amen!

Our report will address the four key result areas encapsulated in my first report to you entitled “BEA With A Great Future.”

Developing Principled Christian Leaders for the Church and the World

Christian leadership training is one of the hallmarks of Methodism. Our Methodist heritage in this task is an interesting story. For his PhD dissertation, Dr. James L. Garlow analyzed the journals of John Wesley in mentoring others. He discovered that the capability of Methodism’s founder to empower others increased with time and experience. He concludes: “Secure leaders release power to others. Wesley did. So can you.”

So far, since January until July this year, we have conducted three (3) Encounter God Retreats and three (3) Lay Congress activities. Lay Speaking Seminars and Church Council Officers’ Seminars are continuing education programs. The UMYFers held Summer Institutes and District/Annual Youth Conferences all over the Baguio Episcopal Area. The UMYAF held Caravans and training seminars while the UMM and UMW held their own versions of leadership development exercises in the District and Annual Conference Levels. These programs are primarily intended to serve the Laity.

We are now geared to pay attention to our more than 1,318 Church Workers as we gather them to our much-awaited BEA Church Workers Convocation next year. Training principled Christian leaders must integrate serious actions to help them in their financial needs.

For instance, 122 church workers who receive salaries equivalent to Php3,000 below are among our priority concerns (1 Corinthians 9:11-12, 14). Hence, we have our MSF (Mission Support Fund) program. Hospitalization and medical assistance for church workers will continue. In addition, 37 UTS and 35 WDS ministerial students and 69 student deaconesses from BEA are beneficiaries of our “modified” BAGAS program. (Sharing of BAGAS gifts is now done at the start of the school year and at Christmastime.) We visited them and provided rice and a little love gift for each of them to supplement their allowance. The amount may not be much in our inflation-plagued economy but at least we can stretch our resources to assure them that we care.

What can a neophyte Bishop like me learn from all this?

• First, I realized that God called me to serve an Episcopal Area that puts a premium on leadership development. I have participated in these programs and activities as preacher and lecturer as far as my schedule allows.

• Second, while there is wisdom in encouraging the context-related diversity among the districts and annual conferences, the Episcopal leadership will come up with common leadership development programs in pursuit of our vision to nurture principled Christian leaders. We continue to learn the general needs of the whole BEA.

• Finally, I re-discovered that God has placed upon my shoulders the awesome duty of modeling (Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 11:1) Biblical Christian leadership for our people if this vision is to succeed. I have extensively practiced this thru Haggai Institutes both here and abroad; I humbly covet your prayers for your servant in this regard.

Creating New Places for New People by Starting New Congregations and Renewing Existing Ones

A historical book published in 1971 written by Rev. Charles Ferguson described the phenomenal growth of Methodism. He characterized the Methodist movement in the words of the book title, Organizing to Beat the Devil. United Methodists in the Baguio Episcopal Area pursue this vision-driven and mission-organized connectional growth by planting new churches (Acts 17:2-4) and renewing existing ones (Acts 16:5).

While current Nurture, Outreach, Witness, and Resource Development Programs in all connectional levels strengthen organized local churches, the missionary field is still so vast that we find new converts to the Christian faith and plant new communities of faith for them.

Initial reports yielded 126 baptisms and 84 professions of faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (with consistent follow up, more will decide either to officially join the UMC or accept the sacrament of baptism if they had not yet been baptized) while 186 rededicated their lives as a result of 18 evangelistic campaigns throughout the BEA.

But in every missionary undertaking we need to go back to the basic Biblical model of organizing communities of faith (Acts 11:26; 14:21-23). Ultimately, in UMC practice, we want to finally recognize them as financially robust, mission-driven, disciple-making and transformation-oriented local churches for the glory of God.

Last week, with district superintendents and pastors, I visited and spent 3 days with our Aeta congregations in Tarlac. I officiated in a mass wedding of 20 Aeta couples. We had extensive dialogue with the Aeta workers and lectured on how to properly accomplish the statistical form for the conference. Our immediate plans for the Aeta congregation there are 1) to rehabilitate the mission house; 2) repair the 2-storey building (at the back of Patling UMC) which may be used as a seminar venue; 3) provide assistance for livelihood projects. The Bishop’s Office has just released funds to start a goat-raising program at the Navy community in Capas, as we did for Asbury College in the Pangasinan West District, and in Maddela, Quirino.

Likewise, we visited Marag Valley with American and Filipino UMCOR staff. We will continue to sustain and intensify our support for our congregation and livelihood programs there.

With your prayers and by the grace of God, we endeavor to achieve at least 6.25% growth in 2009 as we envisioned a 20% increase in membership for the quadrennium. This will be accomplished by creating these new places (future UMC congregations) for new Christians while we strengthen the existing local churches. Indeed, the Holy Spirit leads us to organize and beat the devil (Acts 19:20)!

Engaging in Ministry with the Poor

Our ministry to the poor is rooted in our Biblical traditions (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 2:43-47; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; James 1:27). Becoming a Church to serve the poor is a remarkable mandate of our UMC Social Principles (especially Par. 163-E, 2008 UMC Book of Discipline.)

We cannot do everything in this area to effect radical change. But we must do something—and do it with the right sense of purpose. We must do it with a deep sense of humility. Or else, we must examine our deepest motivations and ask whose needs we are actually serving. Bryant L. Myers reminds us that “we need to discipline ourselves to struggle for self-understanding lest we succumb to the temptation to play god in the lives of the poor, thus adding to their captivity to the god-complexes of the non-poor.”

We have appointed the REV. FERDINAND J. VALDEZ, an expert in cooperatives and livelihood, to take the lead in our ministry to the poor. Our BEA Cooperative and Livelihood Development Program cannot serve all kinds of poor people but we are trying our level best to serve as many as we can.

To date, we have nine (9) active cooperatives and micro-finance projects managing total assets equivalent to almost P57 million.

A lot more needs to be done as we engage our people in discussions and program planning that involve and inspire them to make a difference in the lives of the poor. Our livelihood programs must all be accounted for so that in 2010, more specific social ministries relevant to unique socio-economic contexts will be addressed.

We need to understand that at the center of all ministries with the poor we must tell the story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:3). There can be no real future with hope apart from the Gospel’s story of God’s redeeming love (Ephesians 3:14-19). Myers concludes that “failure to share this story is to withhold the only story that Christians believe brings real hope.” Our vision of “BEA with a great future” is anchored on this authentic message of hope as we affirm that “Every Methodist counts!”

Stamping Out Killer Diseases by Improving Health

The fourth major program of the Baguio Episcopal Area is stamping out killer diseases by providing health care services. The immediate strategy to carry it out is to emphasize, intensify, coordinate all the program activities thru the Bishop’s Office. I am referring to the MODELL-V (Medical, Optical, Dental, Evangelistic, Legal, Livelihood, and Veterinary—some campaigns carry all components while others focus on specific services) Mission.

We have appointed MR. JIMMY SAMONTE (from Knox UMC) as Person-in-Mission for our health care services. His initial activities include identifying and listing all health care professionals within the BEA and getting their commitment to participate in MODELL-V Mission projects. Mobilizing our health specialists in many fields will greatly facilitate the implementation of MODELL-V activities since they provide the backbone for our required human resources. In addition, he is establishing linkages with pharmaceutical companies that are willing to share their stocks of medicines for noteworthy MODELL-V projects.

Twelve BEA districts conducted 28 MODELL-V activities that served 4,469 patients/beneficiaries. We expect more MODELL-V campaigns for the rest of 2009.

Again, from an Episcopal perspective, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We hope to be able to do more in terms of initiating, systematizing, and organizing ourselves for action in health care ministries. This is because we are confronted with complex problems and health hazards that directly or indirectly affect the capability of Filipinos to avail of adequate and quality health care services. As we struggle with our own mandate to address the bigger picture of health ministries, we cannot be simplistic in our approaches even as we must prioritize practical (“bite-size” or SMART) projects.

For example, we need to include the following concerns in our prayers:

• Chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke are now the biggest killers worldwide. The World Health Organization added that of the eight leading causes of death worldwide, tobacco contributes to six. Only 5% of the world’s population is covered by any one measure to control tobacco use.

• The 2009 Social Weather Station (SWS) Survey taken from June 19-22 found that 50 percent of 9.3 million families considered themselves poor (“mahirap”), 27 percent rated themselves on the borderline and 22 percent saw themselves as not poor (“hindi mahirap”).

• Another SWS research found that there was an increase of Filipino families who experience hunger from 2.9 million families in February to 3.7 million families as reported last July 2009.

• 157,584 families or 756,544 people were displaced when rebels started terrorizing villages in August 2008 in Mindanao.

These are just samples of the many faces of contemporary Philippines today. While we may be dismayed, let us thank God for the honest efforts of government and non-government agencies to march forward in the fight against disease and the accompanying headaches of war, violence and poverty. May we be given more opportunities to do our part.

Conclusion

Allow me to thank all of you in this august body for your inspiring support. You helped me to learn the ropes and keep my handle of leadership firm and steady as I seek to know and obey God’s will for our Church. The friendship that you kindly offered and sustained kept me going during the past months after we first met as the 2009-2012 PCC Coordinating Council last February.

I want to thank my Administrative Assistant, the Rev. Dr. Pedro Torio, Jr., my office staff, Sis. Gilda, Sis. Rachel and Bro. Bernard, my wife, Leigh, and our two children, for their unfailing partnership in the mission and ministry of the Church. To my BEA family (our DSs, pastors, deaconesses, and lay leaders), I owe a deep sense of gratitude. Above all, I give the highest praise and honor to our Almighty God for His grace and mercy!

Let me close with these words of Scripture: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17, NRSV).
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