(RNS2-MAY05) United Methodist Bishop Susan Hassinger, right, visits with Wilfredo Calderon at the Gaithersburg (Md.) Workers Center, where services are provided for area day laborers. Hassinger was part of a delegation of bishops and their spouses who visited the center to launch the Methodists’ “Rethink Church” ad campaign. For use with RNS-DIGEST-MAY05, transmitted May 5, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Mike DuBose/UMNS.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (RNS) United Methodist bishops launched a new advertising and outreach campaign Tuesday (May 5) that emphasizes hands-on service opportunities beyond the four walls of a church on Sunday mornings.

“As a United Methodist Christian, I want to join and lead other United Methodist Christians in making the work of Jesus more visible in the world and being present to those who are most vulnerable and hurting,” said Bishop Gregory Palmer, president of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, in an interview.

“And among those in this society who are the most vulnerable and hurting are … new immigrants and people without work of whatever nationality.”

Palmer joined about two dozen other bishops and their spouses at a center for temporary workers, where they talked, offered Communion and served breakfast to laborers looking for hourly work as carpenters or painters.

The effort was part of the launch of “Rethink Church,” a new ad campaign that follows the Methodists’ successful “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors” campaign. It features a Web site, http://www.10thousanddoors.org, and initiatives to appeal to 18-to-34-year-olds by demonstrating a range of service opportunities — from finding volunteering to purchasing bed nets to stem malaria.

“This next step is to say to a wide audience, particularly outside the church, don’t not engage because of your perception of church,” Palmer said.

Bishop Violet Fisher, a retired bishop who lives in Wilmington, Del., said bishops generally work in their regions on outreach, but it was “a new thing” for them to break away from their council meeting to visit day laborers.

“We’re the ones that have to set the example,” she said.

Bishop Peggy Johnson of the Philadelphia area attempted to use the Spanish she learned in high school and college to communicate with some of the day laborers. Johnson, who has worked with deaf congregants, said it’s important to reach out to groups the church has previously neglected.

“It’s just one big global family and we have got to start being multilingual in our denomination,” she said. “It’s part of getting the Word out to people in their language, not forcing people always to accommodate us English speakers.”

The denomination will spend $20 million on the four-year “Rethink Church” advertising campaign.