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Massachusetts Conference Edition
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Proposal affirmed; the journey continuesby Rev. Dr. Stephen Austin December 2007 / January 2008
This has been an interesting journey. Someone recently re-marked that we as UCC’ers love to use that word – journey. Well, it’s been particularly relevant for us as a Conference over the last two years, and doubly so for these past 12 months. At the recent September portion of our 2007 Annual Meeting, the motion was made with regard to our Conference restructure that the Annual Meeting “…affirms the proposal from the Board of Directors entitled ‘A Still More Excellent Way: Transforming our use of Massachusetts Conference Resources for Vitality and Covenant’ (September 2007 revision); that it encourages all MACUCC members and clergy to participate in the new directions outlined therein; and calls on the Conference to realign our resources in the most effective way to nurture local church vitality and the covenant among our churches.” And to the Board’s delight, it passed overwhelmingly. As we address “next steps” in this ongoing process, the Conference Board of Directors, program commissions and staff will all be strategizing in the coming months about their specific response to the adoption by the Annual Meeting of the proposal. The Board will meet on Dec. 1 to begin crafting a plan of action. Through the work of our Goal Develop-ment and Resource Allocation committee, we have already met with Conference staff regarding creating and setting outcome-based benchmarks for ministry effectiveness evaluation. Staff are also beginning to figure out their own next steps in other areas The two things that remain most important to us to convey to you, the Conference, are these: (1) That A Still More Excellent Way, is primarily meant to convey the alterations of our approach to Conference ministry, based on things requiring change – and is not presented to you as a comprehensive document recommending an entire overhaul of the Conference. The things that are working well, we have no intention of changing. (2) It doesn’t end here – not at all. As your Board of Directors, and in concert with Conference staff, we will be regularly assessing the effectiveness of this proposal and its components as it is implemented throughout 2008; and we will apply regular, rigorous evaluation of our work together during that time. Your input will be critical for us to properly evaluate this proposal’s viability. We mean it when we say that this proposal is not an endpoint, but the next stage on a shared journey of transformation together. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I would like to thank the members of the Listening Process Steering Committee, and to express our appreciation to all who attended the listening sessions, and to those of you who provided feedback at the June meeting and the September hearings. We feel, as a Board, that we have been blessed with a spirit of hopefulness, energy, enthusiasm, flexibility, expectation, and the desire to grow into the next chapter and expression of our Conference’s life – and we are looking forward to seeing what God will do with us, and through us, and inside of us.
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