| Senior Leadership Team Meets in Austin, Texas, December 6 to 10, 2010  | | Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, MCC Moderator |
The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of MCC, which includes the Moderator, Elders, the Director of Operations, the Director of The Office of Leadership Development, and the Director of Development, met last week in Austin, Texas. Rev. Ken Martin led us in times of daily reflections on the Advent readings and in prayer for ourselves as spiritual leaders, our families, our churches and our world. We spent most of our time finalizing plans for 2011 and beyond, in anticipation of General Conference 2013, when our International Task Force will make its historic report. In light of our learning about church size theory, we are excited to shepherd MCC as together we become a "Program sized denomination." This means focusing intensely on program creation, delivery and implementation in order to strengthen local churches and leaders. Making this shift is the best way we can focus on the goals and directives presented to us by the Governing Board last August. We are ready to step up our commitment to leadership development across the board, including with young adults; and to improve communications globally. We had many significant conversations, considered a wide range of issues and made many decisions. These are some of the highlights: We began our planning for General Conference 2013 with some lively discussion about a conference theme. Look for more details about the conference early in 2011 as we announce the next steps on the journey together that will lead to our next historic conference! We reviewed plans for the next two years of the Asia Pacific Initiative as they develop leaders and churches in Asia, building on the success of the recent REVM and prepare for an All Asia LGBT Christian Conference in 2012. We reviewed all Networks, began preparing for a Network leaders training in 2011, and affirmed, more simply, that each church's "Elder" is the one who supervises their Network leader. All Senior Staff will support the elders in resourcing the churches. We were "CRAVED" - we heard about exciting plans for a new church start designed and implemented by young adults in a major US City . . . Irma Bauer-Levesque offered training to the SLT about our philosophy of the purpose of grants, our relationships with Foundations, plans for stewardship training for the Governing Board and for our churches. Finally, we were glad to welcome Rev. Elder Diane Fisher back from her much earned sabbatical and prepared ourselves for Rev. Elder Lillie Brock's sabbatical which begins in January of 2011. We appreciated your prayers for us and we pray you will feel our presence with you as we all prepare for Christ to be born anew in our hearts, our churches and our world. We developed the first comprehensive year long "program booklet" for leadership training events and opportunities in 2011, which will be published the first of the year - look for it in your email boxes and on the Website! |
