We are grateful for the call at the all boards meeting for the executive board to demonstrate visionary and inspirational leadership within Mennonite Church USA and through its relationships with its churchwide agencies. We recognize that all of the board members of our churchwide agencies love Mennonite Church USA and have served it faithfully.
We believe that we are building on a strong foundation as a church. Jesus is our center and we are strongly committed to sharing the good news of Jesus with our neighbors.
We believe that God is calling us as a church to be something more than we are today. Our understanding of the gospel is one that our communities, our nation and our world desperately long to hear.
Our desire is that the churchwide ministries of Mennonite Church USA work with the executive board to prioritize our goals as a church so that we can more fully help equip our conferences, congregations and members to be witnesses in the world.
We are committed to:
- Our Vision Healing & Hope: God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.
- Our missional intent to be a church that seeks to understand what God is doing in the world and to join in those efforts
- Integrated churchwide priorities which drive program and practices of the denominational structure
- Built-in intersections through relationships and practices which are intentional and become a routine part of the denominational structure
- Intentional and focused resource allocation which is in line with the integrated priorities of the denomination
- Simplifying the system to benefit the missional church efforts of congregations, conferences and their leaders
The June 19, 2008 working draft of our plan outlines our continuing desire to integrate the communications and development work of the denomination and to designate a churchwide operations person to give leadership to the points of intersection in the operations of all of our churchwide ministries.
While we continue to believe that one leadership board is the most effective way to organize to help us reach our goals, we have heard the call from agency boards to slow down this process. At this time, we are ready to defer the model of one leadership board, provided that we can find an alternative route for integrating our churchwide priorities and can make progress on reaching the communications, development and operations goals outlined in the working draft of our earlier plan.
These initiatives depend upon clear accountability of agency board leadership to executive board leadership and upon the accountability of agency executive directors to the executive director of Mennonite Church USA. These accountabilities will be clarified by the executive board.
The executive board will take responsibility in conversation with others for setting churchwide priorities, approving agency budgets and giving oversight to human resources. We are pleased with in-depth conversation between churchwide agency boards and the executive board. We will continue this dialogue.
The executive board is keenly aware of the need to work together with area conferences, racial/ethnic groups and the Constituency Leaders Council to provide support for our congregations to join in the work that God is doing in the world. We look forward to further conversation and collaborative work with all of these groups.
All of this agenda will be primary work for our board and staff and we will continue to assess whether we have made sufficient progress towards our vision, missional intent and commitments stated above. A new draft of our working plan will be available soon.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever.
(Ephesians 3:20)
Mennonite Church USA Executive Board
June 22, 2008
related article: Executive Board “ready to defer” on one-board concept
by Marathana Prothro
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.