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by Rev. Dr. Stephen Austin
October/November 2007
After presenting its proposal, A Still More Excellent Way, to Annual Meeting delegates in June, the Board of Directors gathered feedback and drafted a final revision, which was sent to delegates and posted online in early September. Hearings about the revised plan were being held at press time, in preparation for a vote on the proposal at the second part of Annual Meeting Sept. 29.
Having one weekend of hearings on our proposal for restructure – or “re-forming” as one board member put it – behind us, we are discovering a significant amount of enthusiasm, passion, even empowerment around it. This fact has encouraged us greatly, as we have received a considerable amount of input, both supportive and constructively critical, from constituents all over the Conference resulting from the proposal’s first draft.
Main concerns voiced at these hearings revolved around issues of ACM relationships with local churches, facilitator selection and compensation for the Communities of Practice, Association-Conference relationship strengthening, and the pragmatics of the proposal; i.e., as one attendee put it, “What will this look like on the street?”
Each session was attended by close to 20 people, representing a wide variety of church size, type and location, including turn-around churches. And they came prepared…with questions, comments, and their own stories – several of which told of very positive personal experiences of certain elements of the proposal which are already being implemented. There was also a marked level of receptivity to the parallel goals of redesigning ACM job implementation and networking churches in more tangible ways.
Another commonly stated observation made was that this new structure offers the Conference, some would say ironically, the opportunity to return to its more Congregational roots – through the diminishment of centralized power and focus and empowering a multi-leveled constituency.
In general, there was an overwhelmingly good spirit among participants: one of hopefulness, energy, enthusiasm, flexibility, expectation, and the desire to grow into the next chapter or expression of life as a Conference.
We look forward to the upcoming hearings this weekend and the stories, observations and comments attendees will bring with them as well.