A
road map that has gone out of date cannot provide proper direction.
That is why the Massachusetts Conference Board of Directors has updated
the Conference’s road map: the three-year-old strategic plan, the
Vision for Renewal and Growth.
The
newly updated plan, entitled Living the Vision for Renewal and Growth,
details what progress the Conference has made over the past three years
and makes recommendations on where to go from here.
“It is with immense hopefulness that we offer the revised edition of
the Vision for Renewal and Growth,” Conference Minister &
President Nancy S. Taylor writes in the introduction. “The Vision …
has become a part of our lives in remarkable ways. It has guided and
informed the work of the Board of Directors and the Commissions of the
Massachusetts Conference. It has and continues to find its way into
the life of our churches. We are better, stronger and more faithful
because of it.”
The newly revised Vision was introduced to members of the Conference’s
eight program commissions at a special gathering in Worcester in September.
Associate Conference Minister Susan Dickerman, who staffed the strategic
planning team, praised the Conference’s volunteers and staff for putting
the plan into action.
“Studies have shown that 85 percent of strategic plans never get taken
off the shelf,” she said. “We can be proud that we fall into the other
15 percent.”
The original Vision urged the Conference to focus on four key
strategies: Leadership Development; Evangelism, Mission & Justice;
Youth and Young Adult Ministries; and 21st Century Communications. The
Conference staff was reorganized to focus on those areas, and all Conference
commissions were asked to use the Vision to guide their work.
Some of the accomplishments mentioned in the report include: the institution
of clergy colloquies that engage clergy in worship, Bible study, networking
and learning; the establishment of evangelism coaches and justice coaches;
the refocusing of the youth ministries program to concentrate more heavily
on mission; and the networking of the churches with the Conference and
area offices via email and the Web.
The new document also includes two new pieces: one on stewardship development
and the other on United Church of Christ identity.
“The need for financial resources to support the implementation of the
four initiatives was a ‘given’ in the original plan,” the document states.
“One of the learnings in this period of experimentation is that the
subject of Christian stewardship needs further articulation and recommendations.”
Those recommendations call on the Conference to: educate clergy and
laity on the connection between spirituality and stewardship; encourage
local churches to teach tithing and proportional giving; provide opportunities
to clergy to learn how to preach on stewardship; encourage each church
to devote at least 10 percent of its budget to mission, with at least
50 percent of that going to Our Church’s Wider Mission; and support
local churches in stewardship appeals.
The section on UCC identity quotes an estimate that 75 percent of the
people in the pews of Massachusetts churches do not know they are in
a UCC congregation. It calls on clergy to use UCC materials in the orientation
of new members, confirmation classes and adult education and calls on
congregations to make time in the liturgical year to celebrate the heritage
of the UCC. It also calls on the Conference to continue to develop resources
that compellingly tell the story of the UCC.
“We are still dreaming, still experimenting, still evaluating, still
listening together to the calling of God,” Taylor said. “But this much
is clear: The Vision continues to beckon us forward toward
a more courageous, inspired and faithful discipleship.”
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