October/November
2007: Gospel Evangel
Transition Team members roll up sleeves and
get to work
Members of the new IN-MI Conference Transition Team --
appointed by the Executive Committee to work at implementing the
Listening/Redesign proposal approved by delegates at annual sessions last
summer -- have jumped headfirst into their work.
They’ve met with members of the
Listening/Redesign Team, who worked from 2005 to 2007 to listen to
congregations and to write the proposal for a conference system redesign.
They’ve reflected on what it means to be in a time of transition as a
conference. They’ve studied and discussed four books about missional leadership
(see sidebar below). They’ve chosen a consultant, Alan Roxburgh (co-author of The Missional Leader).
They met with Roxburgh for a two-day
retreat Oct. 11–12 at Camp Mack in Milford, Ind., to unpack the conference’s
newly adopted mission statement (“Joyfully following Jesus, we will cultivate a
missional imagination in every congregation”) as a step in discerning their
future work. (Some members of the Executive Committee and of the search
committee for a long-term lead conference minister joined them in this work
during the retreat.)
During the retreat, Alan -- who had read
the conference’s Listening/Redesign documents -- used illustrations, told stories
and asked questions to give the group feedback about the documents and to
address the significance of what the documents say about the future of our
conference. He helped the group brainstorm a task list for the work to be done
and to draft a timeline for the work of the Transition Team and the search
committee. This draft will be shared during meetings of the Executive
Committee, search committee, and staff.
Please join the prayer teams in praying
for the members of the Transition Team and for the work that lies ahead.
Photo caption: The Transition Team at their October retreat:
(front row, l. to r.) Sarah Rohrer of Howard-Miami Mennonite, Kokomo, Ind.;
Bill Scott of Ninth Street Mennonite, Saginaw, Mich.; Klaudia Smucker of
College Mennonite, Goshen, Ind.
(middle row, l. to r.) Gene Hartman, chair, of Emma
Mennonite, Topeka, Ind.; John Troyer of Clinton Frame Mennonite, Goshen; Alan
Roxburgh, consultant (who will continue to serve the team in this role and will
be present at next summer’s annual sessions); Sherm Kauffman, staff
representative.
(back row, l. to r.) Dan Miller (continuing from the Listening/Redesign Team)
of Clinton Brick Mennonite, Goshen; Phil Mininger of Paoli (Ind.) Mennonite
Fellowship. (Photo by Heidi King)
[sidebar] Missional leadership: The
Transition Team’s reading list
Transition Team members have been discussing four books about
the missional church, looking at common themes and thinking together about how
these themes impact the future of the conference. A few of these common ideas
are: God is active; we are in a time of discontinuous change; we cannot know or
predict the future; and all of life can be part of mission.
The team members encourage you to read
these books and to think about their content in the context of the conference’s
new mission statement:
- Road
Signs for the Journey: A Profile of Mennonite Church USA. With data from
the 2006 member profile, Conrad Kanagy provides spiritual and sociological
markers of the church today. He notes changes since profiles of Mennonites in
1972 and 1989, and compares the denomination with other U.S. faith traditions.
Kanagy’s pastoral and missional perspective points to signs of hope and
renewal.
- We Are
Here Now: A New Missional Era (A Missional Journey of Spiritual Discovery).
Patrick Keifert, president and director of research for Church Innovations and
professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., invites
you to a journey filled with learning, growing, discovering, experimenting,
visioning, mentoring and sharing as local churches move from maintaining
Christendom to innovating the missional church in their time and location.
- The Sky
is Falling!?! Leaders Lost in Transition: A Proposal for Leadership Communities
to Take New Risks for the Reign of God. Alan Roxburgh, director of The
Allelon Missional Leadership Network, writes that having new kinds of churches
with new kinds of leaders is not the point. It’s not about the church. The
church exists for something bigger than itself.
- The
Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World. Alan
Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, an organizational psychologist, give an introduction
to and background understanding of missional leadership. The conference’s
mission statement comes from the first part of this book, so it is
formational/foundational for the work of the Transition Team.
-- Sarah Rohrer