MCC Staff Transition, FAQs

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Staff Transition In mid-December, the Governing Board and Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson announced some necessary staff reductions. If you missed that message or would like to see it again, click here.  Since then, we have received feedback from some of you; we appreciate your thoughtfulness and expressions of concern.  As promised, Rev. Wilson is following that announcement with more details about staff operations.   With fewer staff, we needed to make adjustments and shift staff responsibilities to provide essential coverage.  Following is a description of these changes and the roles of our current staff by office and function.  Please remember to hold us in your prayers as we go through this transition together, and we ask for your patience as we modify how we work and provide coverage while Rev. Elder Darlene Garner is on sabbatical.   Moderator's Office   The Office of Outreach is being consolidated with the Moderator's Office.  Florin Buhuceanu (MCC staff in Eastern Europe) and Sharon Cox Ludwig (MCC staff in Africa) will report directly to the Moderator, Rev. Elder Dr. Nancy Wilson. Rev. Elder Arlene Ackerman remains part-time with MCC focusing on resource development and will continue reporting to the Moderator.  Rev. Ackerman will also begin working with the Office of Church Life and Health to support churches in the Pastoral Search process.   Linda Brenner-Beckstead has been hired to replace Connie Meadows, who retired at the end of December.  Linda began her duties as Rev. Wilson's assistant this month and will also serve as project manager for the International Task Force (ITF).       Office of Development   We will hire a new Development Director in mid-2012.  The new Director will work in our Sarasota office to provide more direct and consistent opportunities for collaboration with the Moderator.   Marina Laws will continue her current responsibilities with the Development Office (now reporting to the Moderator) and providing support for the critically-important work of the ITF.  In addition, she will begin supporting the OFLD. Office of Formation and Leadership Development (OFLD)   Rev. Dr. Mona West continues in her role as the Director of the Office of Formation and Leadership Development.  Thanks to a generous grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos will continue in her role as the Associate Director of the OFLD.     Office of Church Life and Health (OCLH)   Rev. Elder Lillie Brock and Rev. Elder Ken Martin will continue as the Directors of the Office of Church Life and Health.  Rev. Martin will move to semi-retirement and serve half-time with the OCLH.  He will spend most of his time on program development, teaching at church summits, and continuing his work with the Asia Pacific Initiative (API).   Rev. Stedney Phillips will continue supporting the church Summits, will assume leadership of API, and will begin coordinating the Interim Pastor Ministry.  Kay Hale will continue providing Administrative Support to the OCLH.   We will be hiring a staff person for the Office of Church Life and Health in the first quarter to close the gap caused by the change in Elder positions. Office of Emerging Ministries (OEM)   Rev. Elder Darlene Garner will continue to serve as the Director of the Office of Emerging Ministries.  Vickey Gibbs continues in her position in this office, developing resources for churches and emerging ministries.  Angel Collie serves as our Trans* Ministry lead, now reporting to the OEM.  Rev. Cristiano Valerio continues in his role assisting with support for our developing ministries in Brazil.   Rev. Hector Gutierrez has worked with Rev. Garner since 2003 as the Coordinator of Leadership and Church Development for Latin America.  During this time, Latin America experienced very strong growth and stability.  Rev. Gutierrez organized and serves as the Dean of MCC's virtual seminary for Spanish-speaking clergy candidates; provides direct support to 35 new church starts; and mentors the Pastors of the 10 affiliated churches in Latin America.  It is our pleasure to announce that because of these tremendous contributions, Rev. Hector will now become the Associate Director of the OEM.   Office of Operations   Barb Crabtree remains the Director of Operations and is now based in Sarasota, Florida.  During the first quarter of 2012, we will consolidate more of our operations in the Sarasota office.  As a result, we will close the administrative office in Abilene, Texas.    Bill Hooper, the Board of Pensions Administrator, will be relocating from Abilene to Sarasota. Leah Sloan, who handles all of our tithe tracking and data analysis, will remain in Abilene and work remotely.    Our Accounting Manager, Tammy Erwin, has been a dedicated staff leader in the Abilene office and has served MCC with grace and skill.  She has decided not to move to Sarasota.  We are finalizing a job description to post soon.  Tammy will work remotely until the new Accounting Manager is on board.   For the near future, all mail (including tithe payments) will still be sent to MCC, PO Box 1374, Abilene, TX 79604, USA.  We will communicate the new mailing address when we are set up in Sarasota.   Carlos Chavez and Jennifer Justice jointly lead our conference planning work, which will be much of their focus over the next months as planning for General Conference XXV moves into high gear.  In addition, Carlos will continue to handle all of our Information Technology needs.  Jennifer will become staff liaison to our Young Adult initiatives.   Jason O'Neill will spend significantly more of his time working on our internal and external communications (including press releases, social media, marketing, etc), which has been identified by the Governing Board as a priority for MCC.  So we are increasing the amount of resources we dedicate to this important area.  As part of his duties, Jason will be working closely with the team from Blur Advertising, the agency we have contracted with to overhaul our communications, marketing, public relations and the way we manage our brand.  Blur Advertising is headed by Rev. Joseph Tolton, who is a pastor at a Fellowship of Affirming Churches congregation in New York.  For their work with MCC, Blur is collaborating with Ann Craig, former Religion Director for GLAAD and owner of Craig Media Strategy.  Both Joseph and Ann know MCC well and have extensive experience in communications and brand management.  We are energized by this new partnership.  Expect some exciting updates in the coming months!   Network-Reporting Relationships   All US and Canada Networks and Network leaders will now report to Rev. Elder Lillie Brock.   Leadership of the Asia Pacific Initiative will transition to Rev. Stedney Phillips, with continued involvement and support from Rev. Elder Ken Martin.   The following Networks and Network leaders will continue to report to Rev. Elder Darlene Garner (Jason O'Neill and Rev. Hector Gutierrez are providing coverage during her sabbatical): Europe (Western and Eastern) Latin America and Caribbean Australia and New Zealand   The Africa Network and Network leaders will report to the Moderator, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson.   We are extremely grateful for our Networks and Network leaders, and especially the Network Coordinators (Terry Curry and Gordon McCoy) -- your work with churches is even more important in these times!   We greatly appreciate each and every one of you, as well as your generosity toward MCC and our combined work to change the world.  Thank you for your patience as we implement all these changes.  Questions can be directed to Transition@MCCchurch.net.

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