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New conference design takes shape

Posted on by Michigan
Bishop Kiesey listens in Kalamazoo. Saginaw, Southfield, and Caledonia have also provide venues for feedback. Two more Listening Sessions are ahead in Grayling and Gladstone. ~mic photo/Mark Doyal

The Design Team tasked with creating a new Michigan Conference continues to listen to clergy, laity, leadership and the Holy Spirit.
KAY DeMOSS
Senior Editor-Writer, Michigan Area

The Michigan Conference Design Team continues to meet with Area leadership to collaborate, learn and dream together toward the creation of one Annual Conference in Michigan. They have now completed four of six listening sessions that have yielded valued feedback, questions and ideas from clergy and laity around Michigan. Two more sessions are scheduled for next month.

“We continue to affirm the value that we are working not for a merger that smushes together what already exists in a bigger version of our current selves,” said co-chair Glenn Wagner. “Rather we are collaborating as partners to create something new for Christ in Michigan.

The team’s proposed Vision Statement for United Methodists in Michigan has provided the basis for dialogue. The Vision Statement focuses on:

Bold Effective Leaders … Vital Congregations … Christ-Centered Ministry and Mission

The Mission Statement of The United Methodist Church — to make disciples of Jesus’ Christ for the transformation of the world —  and Book of Discipline paragraph #601 — the purpose of an Annual Conference [is to] equip its local churches for ministry and by providing a connection for ministry beyond the local church — also inform the effort.

Exploring that vision at the grassroots level has been a source of excitement about:

  • new opportunities for ministry;
  • exposure to greater diversity;
  • an emerging spirit of cooperation and adventure;
  • new staffing options and methods for training volunteers;
  • fuller use of new technologies;
  • the larger pool for matching ministry gifts, missional needs and opportunities to serve.

Wagner notes, “It has been healthy to step back from the way we have always done things to imagine current needs, anticipated developments, and God’s vision for our future to dream new dreams.”

Exploring the vision has also been an opportunity to express concerns about:

  • the future of cherished traditions;
  • budget realignment;
  • expected benefits and parameters for health care;
  • cultural changes that are impacting the church and its ministry;
  • aging congregations and membership decline;
  • rising costs and shrinking resources;
  • the retirement of Bishop Kiesey and the arrival of a new bishop;
  • fears of doing things in a new way along with fears that things won’t change at all.

Meanwhile, board and agency counterparts from both West Michigan and Detroit conferences have started to explore how to move forward in ministry together.

The Design Team has received reports from the chairs of both Conference Councils on Finance and Administration at work to align connectional giving formulas and procedures. The team has stated a preference that a new Area Finance Office would be established in the Lansing Area as a part of the Episcopal office.

Property matters are under review. The Design Team is in conversation about conference properties currently owned as well as the kinds of connectional spaces needed for connectional ministries in the new conference.  Conference Boards of Trustees will soon be consulted for further research and implementation.

A Structure Task Force of the Design Team is at work on matters such as strategic changes in staffing. They await direction from the upcoming General Conference regarding resolutions calling for greater flexibility in establishing Conference Boards and Agencies. The hope is that General Conference action will allow for the implantation of “a more nimble structure,” Wagner notes.

The Design Team may be contacted any time with questions or ideas. Email [email protected].

The final two Listening Sessions are scheduled as follows:

Wednesday, April 27, 2016, 6:30-8:30 pm at Michelson Memorial UMC in Grayling
, 400 Michigan Avenue. Grayling, MI

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 6:30-8:30 pm at Memorial UMC in Gladstone,1920 Lake Shore Drive Gladstone, MI
~team co-chairs, Marsha Woolley and Glenn Wagner, contributed to this report

 

Last Updated on December 28, 2022

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The Michigan Conference