Above is the full version of the vision statement of The United Methodist Church. You may more often it see abbreviated “Love boldly, Serve joyfully, Lead courageously.”
The vision statement of The United Methodist Church does not replace the mission statement: “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” The statement in full makes that clear.
Rather, it focuses United Methodists at all levels of church life on the outcomes of our discipling work.
These disciples, it says, are to “love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.”
The vision statement acknowledges that these outcomes are not entirely of our own making. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers all disciples of Jesus Christ. Our role is to collaborate with the Spirit’s work to foster bold love, joyful service and courageous leadership among the disciples we are part of forming.
The vision statement also calls United Methodists at every level of church life to ask what we can do to foster disciples of Jesus who behave like this vision.
Love Boldly
Disciples of Jesus follow his teaching to love our enemies and do good even to those who harm us (Luke 6:27-28). Jesus begins that sermon by identifying those who are blessed in God’s coming kingdom: the poor, the hungry, the mourning, the persecuted, and the hated. If our love is to focus on those who receive God’s blessing, it should be one with and amplify the voices of people who are poor, people who cannot afford food or other basic needs for themselves or their families, people who face grievous difficulties in their lives, and people who are oppressed or marginalized. In the United States, currently, this explicitly includes transgender people, immigrants, refugees, and people on boats alleged but not proven to carry drugs. All of these people, our neighbors, are currently being targeted by powerful leaders for hostile treatment. Loving boldly calls United Methodists to show love to one another and to all people, especially targeted people, in whatever ways we can—and to do so openly, boldly.
The same sermon also raises a caution for many United Methodists who have plenty of money, are not hungry, find themselves in a place of privilege and are generally spoken well of rather than targeted for hostile treatment. Jesus declares woe to all in any of these positions. That includes me. This is a call to repent. Sociological research tells us that most people in these positions do not have many if any meaningful relationships with people who are poor, hungry, distraught or treated as hated. Early Methodists who were wealthy were constantly urged by John Wesley to associate with people who were poor and to visit prisoners. True association requires spending considerable time and effort in building trust with people who do not know us and also do know what people like us have done to them. Loving boldly, for many of us, will require us to learn how to become allies with those we have largely ignored or abandoned.
Serve joyfully
Service in U.S. culture is often pictured either as a burden one takes upon oneself or something done because one is forced to by circumstances (such as racism, sexism, xenophobia, human traffickers or poverty) or by the courts (community service). For disciples of Jesus, however, service need not be not a burden, nor must it be forced upon us. Service can be an opportunity to live and work alongside those who are most blessed in God’s reign. If we believe that people who are poor, hungry, suffering or targeted for hostile treatment are the blessed, being among them and using whatever privilege we may have to amplify their voices can and must be joyous. So to serve joyfully requires only that we believe what Jesus said to his first disciples about who receives God’s blessings in God’s reign and act accordingly.
Lead courageously
Leadership in U.S. culture is typically associated with individuals placed at the top of an organization or government seeking to control the situation around them to their own perceived advantage. The measure of effective leadership in this context is typically the degree of increase in wealth, status or power generated by the actions of the leader. Leadership in this model is a zero-sum game; the leader’s gain is at the cost of the losses of others.
Leadership as Jesus teaches it is the quite different. "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (Mark 10:44, NRSVUE). Success in leadership in God's reign is measured not in how well an individual controls the situation around them, nor in how much the leader gains for the sake of oneself or their organization or government. Success in leadership in God’s reign is measured by whether and how well everyone around the leader is cared for. Such leadership generates a net positive-sum outcome for all involved, making the lives of everyone better, even in the face of ongoing opposition or oppression.
Leadership for disciples of Jesus thus necessarily involves collaboration and partnership more than individual prowess. Its currency is not power, influence or wealth. Costs to disciples who lead courageously are real. They may include reputation, wealth, opportunity and even harm to leaders and their loved ones. Increased power, influence or wealth may instead be indicators that leadership and courage as disciples of Jesus have waned.
The currency of leadership as Jesus teaches is it love for every neighbor, especially neighbors who have fewer resources, are weaker in some way, or are otherwise deprived of power. Effective leadership in God’s reign requires the leader to become a trusted partner and work with others to deploy all the assets of a group for the greater benefit of all.
To lead courageously, disciples of Jesus learn a different meaning of courage than is commonly portrayed in U.S. culture. Like leadership itself, courage is generally seen as a quality of the heroic individual who “takes a stand” against a powerful adversary, often in a dramatic and confrontational way. It may be difficult to distinguish the courageous leader, in this model, from someone who exercises fearless, even arrogant bravado.
Courage as Jesus calls for has nothing to do with such heroism. The courageous servant-leader stands with and alongside those God’s reign calls blessed, day in, day out. There may be few if any dramatic confrontations. Courage as Jesus teaches it is far more notable for its reliability and persistence over time than "victories" in “decisive clashes.”
Creating a culture of disciples of Jesus who lead courageously involves leaders setting a good example of courageous leadership themselves and cultivating many others who are learning how to do the same thing. Courage includes acknowledgment both of our limitations and fears and of our trust in God to fulfill God's promises. With such honesty, integrity and faith, courageous leaders persevere in siding with and working alongside those God’s reign calls blessed.
Disciples of Jesus who love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously are people whose lives, work, and relationships become more fully aligned with with the work of God's reign which overcomes the powers of this world. Or, in the words of Charles Wesley and the commendation of the newly baptized in the United Methodist baptismal covenant. this vision statement aims to help "perfect us in love."
Burton Edwards serves as Lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
