Ministry of the Laity

I noticed a few things while reading through the United Methodist Book of Discipline recently.

I tend to read through the changes in the Discipline with the Red Letter Edition, after going through the Discipline with a quick scan of the entire hard copy. We added a new Paragraph to the Ministry of All Christians. We added a segment laying out the explicit need for the Laity to have ministry.

I am excited about this and I am capitalizing on the change in language with the Visioning process for Ojai UMC. Tomorrow I intend to post on the sermon notes from Sunday, with an eye to the commitment to ministry the people of Ojai UMC have made.

In the meantime, here is the language change.

CALMS Discipline Changes

New Paragraph Number: 126

Original Paragraph Number: 100.53

Version: 2

Calendar Item: 53

¶126. The Ministry of the Laity—The ministry of the laity flows from a commitment to

Christ's outreaching love. Lay members of The United Methodist Church are, by

history and calling, active advocates of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every layperson is

called to carry out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20); every layperson is

called to be missional. The witness of the laity, their Christ-like examples of everyday

living as well as the sharing of their own faith experiences of the Gospel, is the

primary evangelistic ministry through which all people will come to know Christ and

The United Methodist Church will fulfill its mission.