What’s a UMORE, Anyway?

by George White

A UMORE? It’s not a unicorn or a unicycle or a unanimous. It’s also not an umble, or an umbra or an umbrella.

What then? A movement. A stirring of energy and hope. A collection of longings that the United Methodist Church reclaim and rekindle her evangelistic faithfulness.

United Methodists Organized for Renewal and Evangelism (UMORE) began to take shape in the summer of 1987. Several of us visited during Annual Conference and discovered some shared longings, frustrations, and concerns. We felt a growing consensus that it was time to stop grumbling in the hallways and to take positive action.

On September 1, 1987, a group of fifty-four United Methodists joined together at Calvary United Methodist Church in Ames, IA, to share concerns around evangelism and to explore God’s leading. A Steering Committee was formed by inviting any who wanted to take leadership to do so. An Executive Committee was elected to provide accountably.

We were demonstrating our true United Methodist character, we were organizing. We even put "organized" in our name. Some of us met with Bishop Reuben Job, the Conference Council Director, and the Dean of the Cabinet. They encouraged us to continue to seek God’s guidance. We discussed the struggle of being an effective, focused, pro-active group without becoming a divisive force. That struggle has continued over the years.

In the fall of 1987, a vision statement was developed and adopted and the UMORE name and logo were approved. Worship gatherings, retreats, and organizational meetings followed. At times energies and enthusiasm ran high, at other time we stumbled and wavered. In our desire to hold each other accountable for evangelistic faithfulness, covenant groups were started. A few were life-transforming forces, others faded in the starting blocks.

A part of our movement was most deeply committed to improving local churches evangelistic faithfulness, another part was most concerned about influencing church policies and stands. In a survey of those first attendees at our September 1987 meeting, "strengthening the local church for its evangelistic task" was affirmed most often; equipping lay persons "to bear witness to their faith by word and deed" came in a close second. But also strongly supported were a desire to "speak God’s word to the structures of our church" and "functioning as a caucus group to seek a more ‘evangelical perspective’ as General/Jurisdictional Conference delegates and legislators." We have been continually challenged to balance our desire to strengthen local church evangelism and to be a pro-active evangelical caucus group.

Perhaps our point of greatest visibility came during the election of persons to 1992 General & Jurisdictional Conference. UMORE prepared a "right to know" questionnaire, which was mailed to all lay and clergy who were candidates for nomination to General/Jurisdictional Conference. A summary of the survey was sent to all Annual Conference members prior to Annual Conference. UMORE leaders felt that a one hundred word statement was inadequate to enable candidates to express themselves on important issues. The survey provided Conference members with information and was especially affirmed by lay persons as a helpful means of better knowing candidates. UMORE also held nightly information/strategy meetings during Conference. Those who evaluated our efforts felt there was a broadening of the General and Jurisdictional delegation to include healthier representation of persons with an evangelical perspective.

The positive results were not without price. Fears, misunderstandings, and criticism surfaced toward UMORE. We were again forced to re-examine our vision and purpose. How do we impact the church to be more faithful evangelistically without being seen as another "political" caucus?

Over the years our movement has been stirring, inhaling new breaths of life. A statewide meeting was held in Ames on January 22,1994. There was significant sharing and many new interested persons were identified. Also, a network of representatives from each District began to develop. Christ is at work in our midst. Our newspaper, The UMORE Beacon, is a sign of that new life.

I conclude with where UMORE began: to call ourselves and the United Methodist Church to "re-establish the Great Commission as our #1 priority."  If your heart is moved by this desire, we invite you to join us.