The Missional Leadership Team (MLT) had a retreat at Amigo Centre August 20 and 21. One of the highlights was spending time with Sharon and Joanne, our new conference co-ministers. We listened to their hopes for the coming year and how they are working out team responsibilities. We heard with gratitude their news about hiring Clayton Gladish as administrative coordinator. A priority for MLT this year is to support the two of them as they finalize job descriptions and grow into this work as a team.

We spent time reviewing your Table Wisdom feedback from Annual Sessions and considered listed possible modifications to our Intercultural Witness goals document. We decided to utilize the IDI (Intercultural Development Inventory) assessments in phases: all MLT and staff members this year and conference leadership teams in the coming year. Taking the lead from a sister conference we asked Joanne to be trained as an IDI administrator so we can do the assessments internally. We took initial steps toward establishing an intercultural working group.

We set MLT goals for the year. In addition to the goals of onboarding new staff and continuing the intercultural work, we prioritized: continued learning about what will need to change in order to increase the diversity of our leadership, listening to the needs and hopes of congregations that are feeling marginalized in the conference, and working with staff to update job descriptions for all conference positions.