Table Talk

Thanks to Deb who transcribed her notes from the newsprint, we can post them on this blog to refresh our memory and to stimulate conversation. Remember, these were the comments that came at the end of our session as we went around the table sharing our “out of the box” ideas of how to move forward with our connectional ministries. You might want to refer to these in your blogging.

CMT Visioning & Sharing Results April 11, 2008

1. Growth of Youth – Invite a friend to Youth Group to a fun event. By doing so, you will get others involved who invite other people, who will invite other people, who will invite other people, etc.

2. Racism – Cabinet would mandate that racism become a focus of the O-I Annual Conference. Local churches to be trained (TTT). Can be done cost effectively.

3. God expresses ideas among many people. Use our connectional structure to use many voices to connect many others to Christ.

4. Seek a purpose through the connection. Personal experience through the connection – all to be focused in doing one thing as a connection. Would show why connectionalism is the right thing.

5. Immigration – What should the CMT do related to immigration?

6. As a Connectional Ministry team, reach out to God with one hand and to others with the other hand. We have to be connected to Christ first.

7. Have the staff of our local churches gather to share. For example, Christian Education, Older Adult Ministries, Urban Ministries, etc. Rather than gathering and doing stuff by committee, get the people together who are doing the actual work.

8. Must be on fire with the Spirit so we can’t help not doing it.

9. Take a couple of years and listen to the local churches and ministry settings. By doing so, we will be able to connect our churches. Need to listen, listen, listen.

10. Local churches – It is so natural to focus on ourselves – “what do we get out of it?” Challenge local churches to choose one priority beyond themselves and local as a priority and chose another one that is beyond themselves and not local. Set a goal to raise dollars equal to your local church budget or some such target.

11. Conference ministry teams should be chosen based on passion, commitment and dedication. Don’t get caught up in the numbers of people from each district, serving too many years, etc. We would then have the right folks serving in the right capacities. Would need to train them and then send them forth to do good works. This (along with #10) are what we would finance.

12. Need to do more than “fit God in.” Need to just be willing to let some things die to create room for the right stuff.

13. Need to make sure the Bishop and the Cabinet are not seen as “the Annual Conference.” Need to be sure everyone understands that we (collectively) are the Annual Conference. Are we clear on this? Can we answer the question “How has the Annual Conference benefited from this action?” For example, from today’s meeting, would we answer this question, “How has the Annual Conference benefited from this meeting?” Are there models to be followed? Maybe the Baltimore-Washington model? Or a Coaching & Mentoring model?

14. Reconsider the current CMT structure. Need to focus the structure on the missional priorities of our Strategic Direction rather than trying to fit the priorities into our current structure. Why not blow it all up and create a structure that is focused our needed intentions – the missional priorities.

15. Set aside at least $50,000 to church development in 2009.

16. Strategic focus – Create 3 new faith communities in 2009-09. How can our teams resource this priority? (Scott)

17. Look at Christ’s Model. Empower a few who reach out and empower a few who reach out and empower a few…

18. Live to a model that leaves people wanting what we have.

19. Need to have DCM staff located in ID (not just Portland). This is much more than just symbolic. Need people who understand the Idaho culture to work in that space.

20. Need to understand that the concept of “church” is changing. How do we live within that changing concept?

21. People stay because their needs are being met. Need to listen to and understand that paradigm.

22. People want to be involved in significant ministries, but they don’t know how. Need to focus on coaching to find those directions.

Colleagues,

We are hoping that an ongoing discussion among the members of the Connectional Ministries Table members can enhance our readiness for the work we have to do in leading Conference ministries.

As the incoming chair of the CMT, I invite you to set some regular schedule of checking this ongoing discussion and adding your ideas and comments. As we go along, we may want to have various “threads”, different discussion topics that you can participate in. For now, we will begin with this general discussion area and see how it goes.

We find ourselves in challenging and opportune times for our Conference ministries. They are challenging because the ways of doing ministry that have served the church and the world so well for decades seem to be failing us and our communities. As Scott outlined at our last gathering, the statistics tell a story of decline, or at least of stasis. I recently attended the Gay Reese Practical Evangelism conference. She undertook a study of mainline outreach funded by the Lilly Foundation. She looked at a potential sample of 40,000 mainline congregations with this criterion - congregations that had baptized 15 or more adults in the previous three years. After eliminating the congregations that were huge (5 adults per year in a congregation of 3000 doesn’t really indicate much evangelism!) she found that there were only 137 who had baptized 15 or more adults in the previous 3 years. My experience in the ministry over the past 25 years here in the Oregon-Idaho Conference is that I have done many more funerals than baptisms (adult or child).

The opportunity is afforded by the fact that there are not many of us anymore denying that change is needed. We may not know what we need to do, but we know we cannot keep doing what we have been; at least not if we are going to boldly make disciples, revitalize the church, and transform the world.

There are also signs that all around us people are yearning for a mature and relevant Christianity that gives meaning and direction in this life (not just a promise for another one), and that addresses the way we live together before God (not just how I live before God).

What is called for is a change in the way we, as people of faith, engage with our neighbors, our community, and the world. Making this kind of change is not just a matter of changing our minds, or of learning different words; it is also a matter of changing how we spend money, how we use our time, and how we relate to each other.

Scott has prepared a 2009 CMT budget proposal that offers some pretty bold suggestions for how we spend our money. We have talked about making some bold changes in how we spend our time (shifting resources toward local churches in ministry instead of Conference programs), and in how we relate to each other (coaching, networking, and remote conversations instead of committees, committees, and committees).

What do you think about these proposals? What seems promising, what seems to be missing, what is frightening, and what is encouraging? How would you see your vocation as a disciple fitting in to some of these different ways of carrying out ministry together?

Peace,

Steve Ross