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News archive
Contact: Laurie L. Oswald (316) 283-5100, E-mail: LaurieO@MennoniteUSA.org
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Area conferences to join center stage in Mennonite Church
USA |
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| From left, Samuel
Lopez, representing Lancaster Mennonite Conference and
Hispanic Mennonite Church, dialogues with Tom Kauffman,
of Ohio Mennonite Conference, during a table group discussion
at the Constituency Leader's Council meeting in Colorado
Springs, Colo., on Oct. 17-19. |
by Laurie L. Oswald
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (MC USA) -- As the Constituency Leaders
Council (CLC) focused on expanding the role of area conferences
in Mennonite Church USA, it revealed that both great gifts
and challenges will be part of the process.
Mennonite Church USA Executive Board staff during the CLC
meeting Oct. 17-19 in Colorado Springs encouraged area conferences
to develop these gifts and tackle the challenges in partnership
with the denomination in the next biennium. And area conference
leaders shared how changes and new opportunities are stretching
them to find Spirit-led ways to collaborate with the wider
church and their congregations.
Conference ministers and moderators -- along with the pastors
and constituency group representatives who are part of CLC
-- practice mutual discernment and give counsel to the Executive
Board. They shared their hopes and struggles in worship, small
and large groups and break-out sessions. Some area conference
leaders said conference opportunities are increasing at a
time when financial resources are decreasing, which makes
the need for collaboration even more important than ever.
Other conference leaders discussed how Mennonite Church USA's
priority of becoming missional and the push by constituents
for localizing ministries are bringing the need for restructuring
their conferences (see sidebar). Still other leaders shared
how the merger of the former General Conference Mennonite
Church and the Mennonite Church in 2002 has produced transitions
that come with change (see sidebar).
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| Dorothy Nickel
Friesen, Western District Conference minister, joins
discussion at a table group with Edgar Stoesz, moderator
of Atlantic Coast Conference, during the Constituency
Leaders Council meeting Oct. 17-19 at Glyn Erie Conference
Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. |
"I sensed an amazing level of congruence in
conferences around the themes we were discussing," said
Jim Lapp, conference pastor for Franconia Mennonite Conference,
and one of about 80 CLC members at the meeting, held at Glyn
Erie Conference Center. "While our 21 area conferences
are not all the same, we understand a similar language and
are having a similar journey, even though we are at different
places on that journey."
"Given the general economy of our country, and shifts
in how money is being allocated within our congregations,
many of us are feeling a squeeze of heightened expectations
but not heightened income. This means that we need to develop
greater communication with our constituency about who we are
and what we do.
"One thing that helps us is the fact that conferences
seem to be losing whatever vestiges of competition there have
been in the past and are seeing that we are allies for each
other."
Dorothy Nickel Friesen, conference minister for Western District
Conference, was one of several leaders to reflect on these
changes as they relate to their conferences.
"Conferences are sandwiched between Mennonite Church
USA and congregations, and we are in the process of understanding
what that means," Friesen said. "We are in the center
and are a conduit between the denomination and the local body.
... We agree we are all connected. But deciding how we are
going to be connected will be our new task."
Lapp and Friesen and other CLC members in their table groups
grappled with changes in area conferences and other parts
of the church. One discussion focused on questions posed by
Phil Bergey, Franconia Conference executive, an Executive
Board consultant.
Bergey, through questions prepared before he left on sabbatical
in Indonesia, asked the table groups to focus on the changing
role of conferences, the difficulty in navigating the transitions
that come with change, the role of money in the church and
efforts to become missional -- helping all parts of the church
to join God's mission.
"We have all entered a time where change is no longer
the question but rather the rate of change and the ways of
coping with and even leveraging change to our advantage,"
Bergey said. "Based on our conversation in Atlanta, conference
leaders identified a dynamic and challenging, if not difficult,
context in which to lead and serve area conferences. But there
are many good things going on and more than a few days that
show signs of promise.
"We see signs of God's activity around us. I trust we
all have access to avenues of joy and celebration in the midst
of some of the heavy aspects of our ministry. Despite our
feelings of discouragement, many of the relationships that
frustrate us have people on the other end who truly want the
same outcomes we want."
Table groups also responded to reports given by Jim Schrag,
executive director of Mennonite Church USA, on the state of
the church, the Atlanta delegate process and establishing
global connections; by Jorge Vallejos, director of the Executive
Board Office of Convention Planning, on the role of assemblies
in the life of the church; and by Carlos Romero, executive
director of Mennonite Education Agency (MEA), on MEA's vision
for education as a ministry of the church.
One concern that emerged from the groups is that youth ministry
will remain a core priority as the church develops its "culture
of call" in identifying new leaders. Executive Board
staff downsizing has called the church to find new ways of
sharing resources within area conferences and among youth
ministers.
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| Darrell Baer,
conference minister for Franklin Mennonite Conference,
dialogues with Shana Peachey Boshart, youth minister
for Central Plains Conference, during a table group
discussion at the Constituency Leader's Council meeting
in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Oct. 17-19. |
"I think it's important that we answer the question,
'how does youth ministry align with the church's three priorities?'"
said Shana Peachey Boshart, youth minister for Central Plains
Mennonite Conference, one of several youth ministry representatives
at CLC. "We need to figure out what is most important
and then figure out how conference and denomination work
together to make it happen."
The CLC team that helped facilitate the meeting included
Roy Williams, CLC chair and moderator-elect of Mennonite
Church USA; Susan Sommer, CLC vice chair and administrator
for Illinois Mennonite Conference; Kurt Horst, CLC worship
leader and Allegheny Mennonite Conference minister; and
Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.
Schrag described the state of the new church at the "go"
stage of "ready, set, go," as churchwide priorities
have become widely accepted and area conferences are working
to implement those priorities.
"As we approach Charlotte, it is of utmost importance
that we make some headway in understanding the important
role of area conferences," Schrag said. "You are
in that 'middle' position, and must do your work by looking
both to the congregations and to churchwide agencies and
the Executive Board. ... We are with you and for you, as
we all work out our relationships within the whole."
Photos available.
Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite
Church USA.
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Ohio
Mennonite Conference finds it's not alone in need to
restructure.
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Ohio Mennonite Conference's report about its need to restructure
the conference sent ripples of recognition through those who
gathered for the Constituency Leaders Council meeting.
As Tom Kauffman, Ohio Conference minister, and Allen Rutter,
Ohio Conference moderator, gave their report, other CLC members
affirmed that the patterns identified within that conference
are some of the same ones they face.
A recent listening survey among Ohio Conference congregations
revealed changes in the way people view the conference, and
these changes are causing conference leaders to develop new
ways of working, Kauffman said. Changes in perception include
less knowledge about conference-level or churchwide functions
and more focus on regional-local ministries.
"We discovered that the awareness of conference is very
shallow when you get beyond the level of pastors and those
lay persons who have served in some important role in the
congregation," Kauffman said. "An average person
sitting in the pew knows virtually nothing about conference.
...
"We also discovered that there are increasingly very
few things that we do at the conference level that everyone
feels a part of. For most people, the way they understand
church life is that which happens at the local level. ...
But there has been an increasing number of regional initiatives
in which clusters of congregations are gathering around projects
in meaningful ways."
He said that in an increasingly mobile society, there's more
desire to plan regional and local activities, rather than
conference-wide events.
"If we sponsor events, they want the conference to regionalize
and localize everything we do," he said. "If we
have events for pastor-elders, marriage enrichment or a prayer
retreat, nobody wants to drive two and a half hours for anything
-- unless it is for something special like an annual conference."
Kauffman and Rutter said they're responding to these changes
through a number of different initiatives. One is a formal
contract with MRN Resources to do assistance analysis of Ohio
Conference. There are three points to that analysis, including
examining how the conference currently functions, to interpret
that data and then to make recommendations for change and
new vision. "We are in the second phase of that process,"
Rutter said.
In long-range planning that Kauffman shared with delegates
this past March, he spoke of the possibility of having the
conference develop other links to the conference than solely
through the pastor, he said. He also envisions moving away
from periodic pastor review. Instead, committees within congregations
would tend to the relationship between the pastor and the
congregation.
In addition, the conference would like to help congregations
develop five-year vision plans on how they can be missional
in their communities and encourage excellence among pastors
and laity.
"Everywhere throughout the conference, we received affirmation
for this process, and we found many committed Christians who
are seeking to live out the gospel and their missional values,"
he said. "It just so happens that for most of them, what
that means now is doing that locally. And how that connects
with the wider church is now the challenge that stands before
us." -- Laurie L. Oswald
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| Western
District Conference provides one of many pictures of
change. |
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Dorothy Nickel Friesen, Western District Conference minister,
said she found support among her peers at the Constituency
Leaders Council meeting when she shared how the conference
is undergoing the pains of transition and the joys of developing
new vision.
Friesen gave her report by sharing 10 ways the conference
initials -- WDC -- applies to the conference's ministry. Several
of those 10 points included: "weak district center, we
dedicate churches, wise dedicated consultant and wholistic
dynamic Christians."
Weak district center
Friesen said she feels the area conference has developed a
weak district center due to losing its core and identity after
the merger of the former General Conference Mennonite Church
and Mennonite Church into Mennonite Church USA.
"Whereas there used to be a North-South feeling to relationships,
with the Newton-Winnipeg connection, the shift towards Mennonite
Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada has brought an East-West
flow to relationships," Friesen said. "This has
brought a somewhat lost feeling to our constituency, and questions
about who is resourcing whom ... and wondering who is leading
all this."
She also cited how the economic downturn in the Midwest has
deeply affected giving levels in the area conference. "Without
the former giving pattern in Western District, we cannot sustain
half of what we do," she said. "That has nothing
to do with vision and mission but has to do with economics."
We dedicate churches; wise dedicated consultant
Nevertheless, the conference is strong in many ways, and hope
abounds, despite all the transitions that have come with change,
she said. Hope includes the dedication of new churches.
"We dedicate churches in Western District," she
said. "We currently have three new buildings and two
new churches. In the I-70 corridor, there has been vigorous
growth in the last 35 years. There is also other expansion
in the mid-Texas area and a new retreat center at Camp Mennoscah."
Phil Bergey, Franconia Mennonite Conference executive, is
a "wise dedicated consultant" who helped to begin
the initial evaluation that's leading to restructuring, she
said.
"There are sea shifts happening throughout area levels
and conference levels, and Western District is no exception,"
she said. "We have established a process called 'Vision
2012,' which signifies that in 2012 Western District will
be 120 years old.
"Six people [steering committee for Vision 2012], including
Roger Neufeld Smith, conference moderator, and myself, are
conducting a series of conference calls to focus on where
we go from here. Each of us are also engaging four or five
other people surrounding us in our communities to develop
circles of response, prayer and feedback on the many issues
before us."
Wholistic dynamic Christians
"Within Western District, there are many wholistic, dynamic
Christians, she said. "I tell you in truth that that
is what we are. But we don't yet know how Western District
is going to be structured." -- Laurie L. Oswald
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