Shalom ministry finds new home at Drew University

The new partnership was announced jointly by United Methodist Bishop John Schol of Washington, chairman of the National Shalom Committee, and the Rev. Maxine Beach, vice president and dean of Drew Theological School.

For the past 15 years, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries has administered the Shalom Initiative in collaboration with the National Shalom Committee. Drew will support and develop Shalom as a national network, and Global Ministries will continue as a partner, providing significant funding for the next two years.

Communities of Shalom was launched by the 1992 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body, to respond to social unrest and riots in Los Angeles in 1992. The initiative has expanded to more than 200 sites, mostly in the United States; two sites are in Africa. "Shalom" is the Hebrew word indicating peace, harmony and well-being.

Mutually beneficial

"A partnership with Drew University and the Theological School will give the Shalom movement legs well into the future as it transforms congregations and communities," said the bishop, adding, "Shalom has achieved results that far surpassed anyone's expectations over the past 15 years. This new partnership will further enhance the initiative and multiply the results over the next 15 years."

Beach said the partnership would allow faculty and students to "have access to the lessons that are stored in these committed communities. Our curriculum is rich with courses that teach of social injustice and increased sensitivity to the marginalized, but we have often lacked ways to give students and faculty opportunities to work with ministries that act out of these convictions."

As the new "national partner" in Shalom, the Drew Theological School will assume major responsibility for the human and financial resources required to sustain the initiative, which will become part of its curriculum and training resources in preparation for parish and community ministry.

The seminary already has strong commitments in the areas of social justice, multicultural collaboration and faith-in-action - all factors in its selection by the national committee.

The Rev. Michael J. Christensen, a Drew faculty member and director of the Doctor of Ministry program, will become the new Shalom director. He has extensive experience in community development, disaster response and emergency relief, urban ministry, community health and human rights advocacy.

He holds a doctorate degree from Drew and teaches in the area of spirituality and practical theology. Beach called Christensen "the right person" to assume the leadership of Shalom.

Four goals

• Renew the spirit of God in congregations and communities;
• Develop the shared prosperity and economies of communities;
• Strengthen relationships among diverse neighbors; and
• Improve community health care and delivery of community services.

United Methodists in other parts of the United States resonated to the concept of congregations or clusters of churches, often in ecumenical or interfaith configurations, organizing to achieve peaceful, hopeful and economically secure communities. The national office of Shalom has provided seed grants, training and technical consultation, all funded by World Service, the basic central fund of The United Methodist Church.

"There was never any thought that the General Conference would fund Shalom in perpetuity," said Jerald McKie, head of the Global Ministries unit in which the program has been lodged since the mid-1990s. "The idea has always been that of Shalom finding its way into the life and texture of our denomination and ecumenical partners."

*Wright is the information officer for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.