Board of Directors
Nancy Lawrence

“Nurturing local church vitality and the covenant among our churches”

This mission statement is the lens through which the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ has looked in order to focus our work this year. From the outset it was evident that the most important work before us was to determine how to better align our resources with our mission statement.

The members of the Board of Directors have worked hard to gain clarity concerning what we are about as the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, and to propose new ways of doing our work together. Our basic structure, developed over forty years ago, appears not well-suited to meeting the needs of our churches today. Further, we need to become more skilled at measuring the results of our work as a Conference, in order to determine what activities best help churches to thrive. All Board members fully understand that change elicits pain, as well as possibility. We have made some hard decisions this year, but have done so with both the knowledge of and a love of the Conference.

In December, the Board invited Gil Rendle, Senior Consultant for the Alban Institute, to help us in this process. Gil Rendle has been in relationship with the Conference since 1997 when he led the Strategic Planning Task Team producing the Vision for Renewal and Growth adopted in 1999. He also assisted the Staff and Board in March 2005 to refocus and frame our mission statement, “to nurture local church vitality and the covenant among our churches”.

December’s work involved coming to a common understanding of the state of the Conference and the role of the Board. Subgroups were formed as a result of the December retreat to further explore: How do we measure local church vitality? How can we measure covenant? The staff were asked to look at leverage points for change that would lead toward greater vitality and stronger covenant. And finally, we looked at Conference resources over which the Board has influence that can be deployed to further our mission.

Our next step was a Board/Staff retreat in February. We approached this retreat with the understanding that this is a critical time in the life of the Conference in which the work is increasingly complex and demanding while available resources are both strained and shrinking. Despite the fiscal constraints, we held to the forefront deeper questions of purpose and spirit facing our churches. Please hear us when we say that the Board’s work of shaping the way we move into the future would be happening even if there were no fiscal constraints.

However, by February, financial results from 2005 made it clear that significant expense reductions would be needed by 2007. Continuing decline in local church membership and local church budgets have resulted in declining financial support for the Conference. The retreat included communication with staff about these financial realities in order to that difficult issues might be discussed with maximal trust and openness.

Out of our February Retreat emerged a strategy for action (voted by the Board of Directors on February 25, 2006) to develop possible scenarios for new staffing patterns and a direction for the Conference. That document was then presented in each of our eleven (11) Associations by teams of two Board members. We listened hard at these gatherings, noting questions, concerns and excitement. As a result, the Board modified its strategy in its March 25th meeting to develop a highly inclusive, Conference-wide process to determine the shape of the Conference in the near future, as expressed in the following vote:

The Board of Directors determines that, beginning in January 2007, all full time Associate Conference Ministers and the Minister and President will offer basic Conference ministry functions such as ministerial authorization, search and call, clergy support, new clergy support, lay leader support, conflict and crisis management for congregations, training and resource development in key program areas, and provide representation at the Commonwealth and national levels. Associate Conference Ministers will be based throughout the state. Though every Association will have an identified staff person to call upon, the whole Associate Conference Minister staff will be available to work with Associations and Association Committees. Each of these staff will cultivate gifts and abilities that, with those of others, will provide a diverse range of expertise for consulting with congregations around the issues of church vitality and covenant, including but not limited to: mission and justice; stewardship; worship; Christian education; evangelism; new church development; and youth ministry.

In order to solicit broad input as to how best to structure staff for this work, the Board of Directors directs the Minister and President to oversee the formation of working groups consisting of members of local churches, clergy, Association committees, the Board of Directors, Conference Commissions, and staff persons. These working groups will gather information and make recommendations to the Board of Directors in early 2007. The Board will receive the recommendations and develop a plan for Conference staffing and structure to be presented to the 2007 Annual Meeting for adoption.

The meetings in our Associations were important first steps in an ongoing dialogue with and among local churches, clergy, Associations, MACUCC staff, Board and Commissions. These conversations will need to continue in the coming months and years as we move together to strengthen our covenantal relationships and to nurture local church vitality, for the Conference is each of our local churches gathered together trying to live out Jesus prayer, “That they may all be one”.

While all this work was taking place the Board still needed to see to its regular ongoing responsibilities: Bylaws Article VI 1. “The corporate business and affairs of the Conference….” It was important for us to spend time on our more strategic focus, while continuing with our duly assigned responsibilities. The Board established a Consent Calendar for consolidated action, a vehicle for accomplishing more efficiently the necessary votes of the Board of Directors. It also reaffirmed the trust that the total Board put in the faithful commitment of each of its standing committees: Policy, Goal Development and Resource Allocation, Resource Development and Management and the Executive Committee. Highlights of the year include: the adoption of a Conference Disaster Response Ministries policy, a renewed Partnership agreement with the Pentecostal Church of Chile, and adoption of the Good Shepard Church near New Orleans as a sister church to MACUCC for the purpose of recovery from Hurricane Katrina. We joyously watched the Scudder House reconstruction transforming the once vacant building into transitional housing for twelve (12) women, as well as completion of Edwards House renovations.

At this writing, it is evident that each member of the Board can relate well to the joy and pain of serving on your Board of Directors. On the one hand, we just joyously voted to recommend to the 207th Annual Meeting the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, an outstanding and gifted candidate for Minister & President selected by the Search Committee to journey forward with us. On the other hand, we prayerfully and with great pain and grief voted to lay off staff and close two area offices. I am sure the catch in your breath, the tear down your cheek and the bowing of your head in prayer mirrors that of each of us on your Board of Directors.

We are depending on and trusting in God. The Reverend Steve Sterner has been an amazing gift to us this year during this interim time in the life of our Conference. Dawn Hammond’s administrative ministry to and with the Board is a privilege to behold. We are blessed with a gifted and dedicated staff and with solid historical work that has been done in the past, by many of you reading this report, that has set us on this path of refocusing, reframing and moving toward the fulfillment of our mission as the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Finally, words cannot begin to express my respect and love for each member of the Board. The multitude of gifts around the table is immense and the energy they have poured out this year is beyond measure. It has been a breathtaking privilege to serve with them as we labor for Christ’s work in this way-post of his kingdom we name the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.