By Dori Thurman, Western North Carolina Conference
Instructions: Divide the group into five groups as follows:
1) Everybody 2) Somebody 3) Anybody 4) Nobody 5) Mission Today
When the group's name is called in the script, they stand up.
Adapt as needed for your purposes.
Once upon a time there was a conference of United Methodist Women. It was a large conference with 13 districts, and 978 units of United Methodist Women. They wanted to be more faithful to their purpose.
They wanted to expand concepts of mission and to increase their membership but
EVERYBODY thought it was SOMEBODY else's job to do.
The conference executive team said ANYBODY in the districts can do the job. The district executive team said it needs to be SOMEBODY in the local unit. The local unit said we need younger women, but we've invited them before and NOBODY will come. So NOBODY did very much.
At the next conference executive team meeting the new president
talked about the purpose. She wanted to set some goals for the year. She
was so excited as she talked about the purpose. She asked, "How can we
make Mission Come Alive in the local unit. At first , NOBODY said anything.
Then she said, "Let's share some ideas and ways that we can make Mission
Come Alive in the local unit. ANYBODY who has an idea to share can
start. SOMEBODY said we need help the local unit understand where the
money goes and help them to make contact with mission personnel and
mission projects. EVERYBODY said, yes, that's right. ANYBODY spoke up and
said, if only they would use the mission resources. How can we get the
local unit to use the many resources we have? EVERYBODY agreed and said
"Yes, that's right."
The new president said, "Does ANYBODY else have an idea?" SOMEBODY spoke up and said, "We need to expand our concepts of mission, including social justice as mission." EVERYBODY said, "SOCIAL JUSTICE AS MISSION...Yes, that's right."
NOBODY was silent now. EVERYBODY was getting excited about being involved in mission. SOMEBODY said, "We need a plan. We need someone to help us come up with a plan.
EVERYBODY said, "We have a plan. It's Mission Today."
The new president said, "Sue is with us today. She is a new member on our team. She is the Mission Today Resource person from the Core Planning Group for our conference for this quadrennium. Sue, do you have any ideas?
Sue said, "Yes. My role is to serve as a resource person for MISSION TODAY and to help you understand how Membership, Visitation, and MISSION TODAY are three facets of the same purpose!! We can begin by looking at your MISSION TODAY plan to see where you are. Are there any obstacles that we need to overcome? Let's find out how many units in each district s are MISSION TODAY units. Let's find out how the MISSION TODAY units are recognized at district and annual meetings and make it a celebration! Let's find out not only how MISSION TODAY is being promoted, but also Membership and the Visitation Program. We know that the units who are visited by the district team grow in membership and in their understanding of mission. We know that in MISSION TODAY units, membership increases and units are willing to be involved in social action. I read the Conference Gram and District News letters to see how each officer is promoting these three areas. I'm available to help you overcome any obstacles, or to assist in officer training or in district meetings to help promote MISSION TODAY, in any way that I can.
SOMEBODY said, "I'm beginning to see that MISSION TODAY is
ongoing!"
EVERYBODY said, "MISSION TODAY is ongoing and so is Visitation and
Membership! We must work hard on all of these areas if we want to expand
concepts of mission and increase membership."
And so, EVERYBODY begin to help implement the MISSION TODAY
plan. They began to pray. They began to tell the mission story. They began
to seek God's guidance in the conference, in the districts, in the local
units. They began reaching out, deepening and strengthening mission.
NOBODY complained about the hard work because they were so excited about
what they were doing and were making Mission Come Alive. When word got
out about the exciting things the United Methodist Women were doing.
EVERYBODY wanted to come to the meetings. NOBODY was left out
. SOMEBODY even suggested that they increase their pledge to mission.
"ANYBODY can be a MISSION TODAY unit ," they said.
And every unit in all the districts and in that conference became a
MISSION TODAY unit and continued to grow and to be in mission.