Saturday, January 01, 2011

NCDT and LT Restructuring Moving Forward

The action taken at this year’s district conference to dissolve the New Church Development Team and move it under the umbrella of the District Leadership Team is being worked on by the District Visioning Team. Members of this team are Anna Lee Hisey Pierson, Jim Lehman, Dawn Blackman, Vernon Showalter, Lynda DeVore and Kevin Kessler. Meeting via a conference call on December 20, the team dove into their work by naming legal documents that need to be gathered and reviewed. Included in the list of named documents are determination letters for 501(c)(3) status, constitutions and bylaws, budgets, and staff position descriptions. These documents will help to ensure that important legalities are not overlooked as we move forward. Legal counsel will be consulted as an additional measure in maintaining legal authenticity throughout this process.

This process is in its infancy and to offer details about a new structure would be premature. However, the visioning team agrees that an evolving new structure will need to maintain church planting as a high priority in the district. Furthermore, there is a call for congregational revitalization to occur or at least be resourced in some fashion in the district. Adding this component to the new structure will be given strong consideration.

Another component being considered in this process is district staffing. To carry on the momentum of church planting and adding the revitalization component infers a need to have staff that is experienced and trained in the church planting and revitalization arenas. The visioning team will give serious consideration to the staffing question and, based on the staffing options determined, will offer proposals for funding staff positions adequately.

The Visioning Team is excited to be involved in this transition process. They welcome input and questions. Feel free to communicate with them at any time.