Wesley's Chapel
The annual Wesley Pilgrimage, featuring such historic sites as Wesley's Chapel in London, is one of the programs affected by personnel changes at Discipleship Ministries in Nashville. Photo by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Editor's Note: In the interest of clarity for readers, this article has been revised to include responses from Discipleship Ministries within the body of the original article.
Personnel cuts announced Jan. 26 at Discipleship Ministries in Nashville have bitten deeply into the agency’s roster of longtime experts in local-church ministries.
Insight learned of the job cuts on Jan. 29 and emailed Discipleship Ministries’ director of communications, Steve Horswill-Johnston, requesting details on the changes. Mr. Horswill-Johnston said there would be no press release on the cuts, saying it was the agency’s policy not to comment on personnel changes below the level of associate general secretary. Consequently, Insight sought information on the job cuts from knowledgeable individuals outside Discipleship Ministries, who all requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak officially for the agency.
After Insight provided Discipleship Ministries with an advance copy of the original story, Mr. Horswill-Johnston provided a copy of the memo sent by the agency's executive, the Rev. Junius B. Dotson, announcing the personnel cutbacks, saying in an email: "Here’s the email we sent to our staff and board a week ago today. You can call this our “statement” if you wish. Thank you."
Executive's memo
Dear Colleagues,
It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing World Service budget cuts today that include the elimination and repositioning of certain staff positions. These decisions have been made in consultation with the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors and the Leadership Team in order to address budgetary issues our agency is experiencing.
There are three major factors that require our immediate action:
• Discipleship Ministries is responding to the reality that over the last several quadrennia there has been a downward trend of World Service income. Our plan to supplement our budget through the use of reserves over a three-year period is no longer feasible. We must confront our budget reality sooner than anticipated.
• We are in an on-going effort to right-size the agency and maximize World Service dollars to best carry out our mission. In doing so, we will emphasize our priorities and preserve the core of ministry.
• This budget revision is a necessary and responsible move in the short term to handle an immediate projected shortfall. It also helps us to prepare for the uncertainties of the next quadrennial budget allocation.
Decisions like these are never easy. The staff affected by these decisions have dedicated decades of service to The United Methodist Church. We grieve the loss of their expertise yet celebrate their contributions to help fulfill our mission to make world-changing disciples of Jesus Christ.
Staff affected by position elimination, effective February 9 are:
Editorial Project Manager, held by Cheryl Capshaw
Director of Wesleyan Leadership, held by Steven W. Manskar
Coordinator of Leadership Ministries, held by Erich Moody
Director of Aging and Older Adult Ministries, held by William Randolph
Assistant Director of Annual Conference Relationships, held by David Abarca
Most of the portfolios above will be reallocated in creative and innovative ways with existing positions.
Staff affected by position elimination today, January 26, in order to move to outsourcing computer workstation support are:
System Support Administrator, held by Toni Payne
System Support Administrator, held by Nadina Tharpe
Team Logic IT will be our vendor and will be installing software on all computers that allows them to support our computer needs. More details will be emailed to you in the coming days.
I am also announcing that Discipleship Resources (DR) and Discipleship Resources International (DRI), and the staff of both teams, will be moving to The Upper Room in the near future. This will allow us to continue these important ministries and also save the related expenses to our World Service budget.
I understand you may have many questions about all these announced changes. Please talk with your supervisors and Associate General Secretary. We are working hard to ensure that your questions will be answered. We ask that you be patient as we work through how these changes will affect our work across the agency.
Please continue to pray for those affected by these decisions and for our collective work as we seek to faithfully fulfill our mission.
Remembering who we serve,
Rev. Junius B. Dotson
General Secretary
Discipleship Ministries | The United Methodist Church
Originally spread via social media
As word of the job cuts spread through social media, constituents expressed dismay at the staff departures and concern about how the agency – one of 14 units serving the worldwide denomination – now will provide resources for the eliminated ministry specialties to United Methodist pastors and congregations. At the time of the job cuts, Discipleship Ministries employed more than 150 people, according to its website.
The official Financial Commitment booklet of The United Methodist Church says that an annual budget of some $8.73 million for Discipleship Ministries was allotted for the four-year period 2017-2020. The agency’s income derives from the church-wide World Service Fund, one of the seven apportioned funds paid for by the tithes and offerings of United Methodist congregations. Regarding church-wide funding, the General Council on Finance and Administration announced Jan. 30 that giving to connectional works such as Discipleship Ministries had risen in 2017 for the fourth consecutive year. The rise in giving is projected to bring in an additional $1.8 million in proceeds, which is expected to be divided among denominational agencies according to formulas approved by the 2016 General Conference.
In addition to those staff terminated Jan. 29, staff who had worked remotely from locations outside Nashville were previously informed they had to relocate to Nashville or resign their positions. United Methodist Insight contacted most of the remote staff regarding their separation, and was told that they were restricted from discussing the circumstances of their separation as a condition of their severance.
Steve Horswill-Johnston clarified the issue of remote staff changes: "The board changed policy regarding our remote staff. We moved to only having staff remotely placed that had a missional reason for being placed away from Nashville. Staff that have a missional or strategic reason for being located outside of our office are called 'deployed,' and we have several. Remote staff, on the other hand, are those that work from their home for personal reasons. Under previous leadership that was allowed. Our leadership, working with our board of directors, made a change of policy to bring those staff (remote staff) back to Nashville, expenses paid by the agency. Staff had nearly a 9 months to make that decision. Some staff chose to not relocate."
According to a reliable source, none of the remote staff chose to relocate. They include:
The Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, director of worship resources.
The Rev. Dr. Dawn Chesser, director of preaching ministries,
Jodi Lynn Cataldo, layperson from Dakotas Annual Conference, director of laity in leadership;
The Rev. Kevin Witt, Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference, director of camping and retreat ministries for the past 25 years; and
Melanie Gordon, layperson from South Carolina, director of children's ministry.
Some of the longtime staff members have disclosed their future plans. Rev. Burton-Edwards announced on Facebook that he will begin work March 1 with InfoServ, a unit of United Methodist Communications. Ms. Capshaw, a 32-year communications veteran, said via email she plans to retire. Dr. Manskar said via email that he has not yet found a new position. Dr. Chesser emailed that she will receive a full-time appointment in the Holston Conference.
Loss of longtime expertise
The separation of so many longtime staff leaves large holes in Discipleship Ministries’ program areas, in terms of both expertise and institutional memory.
Rev. Burton-Edwards is an internationally recognized expert in worship and liturgy. He joined Discipleship Ministries’ predecessor agency, the General Board of Discipleship, in 2005. He has served as General Conference worship director, led seminars and workshops for both U.S. annual conferences and Central Conference regions and represented The United Methodist Church in ecumenical organizations such as the Consultation on Common Texts. His ability to speak French has enabled him to lead worship seminars in French-speaking Central Conferences, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo. His blog for Discipleship Ministries and his video podcast “Liturgy Man” were cited by pastors and church leaders as popular instructional resources, along with countless articles and references he has posted on the Discipleship Ministries website.
Also an internationally recognized expert, Dr. Manskar has been instrumental in reviving the spirituality and practices of Methodism’s founders, John and Charles Wesley, for today’s United Methodist leaders. He is the author of three books: “Accountable Discipleship: Living in God’s Household”; “A Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley’s ‘A Plain Account of Christian Perfection’” and “A Disciple’s Journal: A Guide for Daily Prayer, Bible Reading, and Discipleship.” A clergy member of the Minnesota Annual Conference, he joined the Discipleship staff in 1999.
In addition to heading the Covenant Discipleship program, Dr. Manskar has led an annual seminar on Wesleyan-style leadership for clergy and laypeople, and has served as guide for the annual Wesley Pilgrimage to historic Methodist sites in England. Registration for the 2018 Wesley Pilgrimage opened in November 2017, and a source said that Discipleship Ministries plans to contract with Dr. Manskar to lead this year’s trip. Neither Dr. Manskar nor Discipleship Ministries has confirmed this information.
In 2015 and 2016, Rev. Burton-Edwards and Dr. Manskar, along with other Discipleship staff and consultants, led workshops on strengthening United Methodists’ understanding and practice of the baptismal covenant in the five annual conferences in Texas. The workshops were funded by a United Methodist layperson.
The other three separated staff members, Ms. Capshaw, Dr. Randolph and Dr. Chesser were praised by sources and Facebook commenters as cordial and highly competent in their respective ministry areas.
Ms. Capshaw is a veteran church communicator whose work has won numerous awards from the United Methodist Association of Communicators. She has served as web editor and communications director among other posts. In her latest position, she has prepared or supervised resources on the best practices for ministry such as the iTeach monthly newsletter series. She also helped edit the book, “Boomer Spirituality: Values for the Second Half of Life,” by the Rev. Craig Kennet Miller, a Discipleship Ministries colleague.
Jake Harsh
Dr. Randolph was a chaplain at a senior living facility in Pennsylvania when he joined Discipleship Ministries in 2013. A clergy member of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference, he also has served as a pastor and a hospice chaplain. A slide presentation of one of his webinars, “Boomer Ministry Basics,” is available on Amazon’s document service.
Dr. Chesser was chaplain at United Methodist-related Hiwassee College and pastor of the college chapel, Buckner Memorial United Methodist Church in Madisonville, Tenn., when she joined Discipleship Ministries in 2012. A video of her presentation at a 2016 “Grow by One” seminar is available on Vimeo.
Jake Harsh
According to its website, Discipleship Ministries describes itself as “an agency of The United Methodist Church, [that] helps local church, district, and conference leaders fulfill the shared dream of making world-changing disciples.
“The agency connects leaders with needed resourcing, training, consulting, and networking that support spiritual formation, new church development, revitalization of local churches, and materials for use in Central Conferences. Discipleship Ministries has embarked upon an integrated, strategic direction that serves the church with continuity, based upon basic values and mission.”
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.