news article
Missional Excellence and staffing
July 25, 2024 / By Rev. Dr. Aaron Bouwens, Director of Missional Excellence / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Nearly eighteen months ago, I was invited to serve as the Director of Missional Excellence for United Methodists of Upper New York. In that time, some have asked what it means to be Director of Missional Excellence, or more specifically what is Missional Excellence?
In short, Missional Excellence is about equipping leaders and congregations so they can make a missional impact in their communities and around the world. Missional is a word that has been used often in the past several years without much offered to define it. To gain clarity, let’s reflect on Luke 4, specifically, Jesus’ visit to the synagogue in Nazareth. There Jesus reads from the Book of Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus is describing what happens when he arrives in the neighborhood. And he’s telling us what it can look like in your neighbor when your church embodies the mission of God as he did. Missional isn’t about being the biggest church in the neighborhood; it’s about being a church with a bigger impact in the neighborhood.
When we say missional impact and have the office of Missional Excellence, we are talking about resourcing leaders in local congregations and communities to embody the mission of God demonstrated in Jesus. To learn and grow together with leaders so that United Methodists of Upper New York will follow Jesus as lives are forever changed.
To help make this a reality, we’ve developed a resourcing framework to help leaders and churches gain new insight, passion, and capacity. It has four parts: Thrive, Journey, Impact, and Engage.
- Thrive: focus on clergy and lay leaders.
- Journey: focus on congregational health and impact.
- Impact: focus on missional impact with communities
- Engage: focus on next generation ministry and leadership
Outcomes of each area of focus:
- Thrive = Flourishing Leaders
- Journey = Flourishing Congregations
- Impact = Flourishing Communities
- Engage = Flourishing of future generations
To be clear, this is a resourcing model. This means equipping leaders in local congregations and communities, and not having the annual conference attempting to do ministry that is best done by the local church. We cannot do ministry for you; we can equip and resource.
In order to provide this support and resourcing to the leaders and local congregations, there has been some staffing changes and additions. In the recent past, conferences tended to hire a programming specialist to put on the latest initiative either from the conference or the general church. This has been the pattern in Upper New York over the past 14 years. To live into a Missional Excellence model for resourcing, it is important to staff in a different way. Therefore, we have brought together a staff of generalists with portfolios to resource specific ministry areas, and to provide resource tools for leaders and congregations.
Our first step was to move the position of Director of New Faith Communities, the Rev. Abigail Browka serving in that role, to the position of Associate Director of Missional Excellence with a portfolio of New Faith Communities and the Compelling Preaching Initiative. Next a transition was made to move Kristina Clark from Director of Missional Engagement to Associate Director for Missional Excellence with a portfolio that includes missional engagement and asset-based community development.
Most recently two new Associate Directors of Missional Excellence were added to the team; the Rev. Jee Hae Song with a portfolio of the United Methodist Chaplain at Syracuse University, our Engage Ministries, and resourcing our Cross Racial, Cross Cultural appointments and Pastor Rebekah Solar joined the team with a portfolio of Clergy/Leader Wellness and the Compelling Preaching Initiative.
Continuing to be part of the Missional Excellence Team is the Executive Director of Camp & Retreat Ministries with the Rev. Dr. Pam Harris serving in that role; the Director of Stewardship Resources, the Rev. Susan Ranous; and the Director of Spiritual Vitality, the Rev. Nancy Dibelius. Together we are working to partner with congregations and leaders to provide the needed resources to help congregations make a missional impact in their communities and beyond.
One of the greatest benefits of this model is the allowance for changing portfolios of the staff as the needs of leaders and congregations change. Rather than needed to go through the process of restaffing, we can adjust portfolios of existing staff. This allows for greater continuity and relationship, helping to deepen the work of resourcing.
Two final thoughts as I conclude. First, some of the new staff are appointed clergy who were serving the local church and some might wonder why take effective clergy from the church for a conference role? It is about missional impact, in one church these great leaders can impact one community, in a conference role they can impact many communities thereby multiplying their impact. Second, there might be questions about finances. How are we paying for the increase in staff? This is being done in two primary ways through a grant of $1.25 million from the Lilly Foundation Inc., and by realigning financial resources in the budget from areas that were spending below budget. The addition of the staff has not resulted in an increase to the Ministry Share budget.
As we move together into the future God is inviting us, we have an opportunity to live into a new reality, using new models of ministry and leadership. Change at any level brings concern for some, anxiety for others, and excitement for others. Regardless, together we can be confident that God is the one who is leading, and it is God who will provide the vision, hope, and joy as we are faithful to the invitation to follow.