On Saturday morning, June 6, the Rev. Benton Heisler, Director of Connectional Ministries for the West Michigan Conference, introduced Carol Krau, the Director of Formation and Discipleship Leadership Ministries for The United Methodist Church.

Krau was on hand to present a newly created honor--the One Matters Award--to the Rev. Mona Dye and Bannister United Methodist Church. "A church making a difference," in Krau's words.

Benton tells of Bannister: "It's a sad story with a wonderful ending. Bannister was a little tiny church in middle of nowhere with only 22 in worship."

Bannister then became the first smaller church consultation for the Vital Church Initiative (VCI). "Three years later," Benton reports, "they have gone through VCI prescriptions, have 45 in worship and recently celebrated seven baptisms." The award carries with it a $1,000 premium designed to encourage continued growth in discipleship. Annual conferences are being encouraged to renew their focus on discipleship, especially at congregations in the United Methodist connection where annual baptisms and professions of faith too often are nonexistent.

More than 70 percent of the UMC congregations in the United States did not baptize anyone age 13 or older in 2013, and 55 percent did not baptize anyone age 12 and under, according to the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA). In addition, 50 percent of local churches did not have any professions of faith in 2013.

“With the One Matters Discipleship Award, we want to lift up the importance of discipleship and help interpret across the connection what zeros in professions of faith and baptism mean and what moving away from the zeros means,” said Sara Thomas, Deputy General Secretary of Discipleship Ministries and Chief Strategist for Vital Congregations. “Each "1" in those categories represents a transformed life – a life that matters to God, and a life that should matter to us.”

“Making disciples is much more than statistics; it is about lives changed by God’s grace," Thomas said. “We have an opportunity to help celebrate the fact that one life matters ... and continue to help congregations identify ways to invite people into a relationship with Jesus through the United Methodist Church.”