A budget for denominational ministries in 2014 and responses to items
of business sent back by Annual Conference--the Ministerial Leadership
document and a query on equitable representation--were high on the
agenda of the Mission and Ministry Board at its fall meeting Oct. 18-21.
The meeting was chaired by Becky Ball Miller. (Find a photo album from
the Mission and Ministry Board’s fall meeting at
www.brethren.org/album.)
Also on the agenda were a review of the organization’s strategic
plan, changes to financial policies, capital proposals, discussion of
the future of the Brethren Service Center, a celebration of the Gather
’Round curriculum, discussion of expanding the Annual Conference
delegate travel stipend, resolution of issues related to terms of board
members, and reports--among others a report from National Older Adult
Conference and plans for the 2014 National Youth Conference.
A class from Bethany Theological Seminary attended and led the Sunday
morning worship service. At the close of the meeting, an afternoon
workshop sponsored by Congregational Life Ministries was led by David
Fitch, B.R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary
in Chicago.
 |
| Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| “By
and large there’s hope on every one of these doors for us to be
‘strangers no more.’” -- Janet Elsea, a Mission and Ministry Board
member, commenting on how intercultural ministry is increasingly part of
various ministries of the denomination. Her comment came during an
exercise to assess the Strategic Plan and its six goal areas--Brethren
voice, vitality, service, mission, planting, and sustainability. Each
goal was represented by a door, and participants wrote sticky notes to
place on the doors showing how the goals are being carried out in the
church.
|
The Mission and Ministry Board adopted a revision to the Ministerial
Leadership Polity document, after the 2013 Annual Conference returned it
with instruction for certain changes. Once adopted the document will
represent a major revision to Church of the Brethren polity for
ministers. It was presented to the Conference in early July.
The new revision was presented to the board by Mary Jo Flory-Steury,
associate general secretary and executive of the Ministry Office. The
revision was prepared by the Ministry Advisory Council after
conversations with key groups in the denomination including
representatives of the plural non-salaried ministry (free ministry) and
the Intercultural Advisory Committee. In all, the Ministry Advisory
Council has been working on the revision of the document for about seven
years.
Numerous revisions respond to Annual Conference concerns in several
areas: integration of plural non-salaried ministry (free ministry) into
the document, guidelines for the make-up of “calling cohorts” for
ministry candidates, a process for commissioned ministers to be ordained
and a process for change of call for commissioned ministers, and
intentional conversation with ethnic congregations about how the
document will affect ministers in their contexts.
The board received the report of the revisions with appreciation,
focusing particularly on the guidelines for makeup of calling cohorts.
The board made one significant change, to state that calling cohorts
“will include” an ordained mentor appointed by the District Ministry
Commission. With that change the document received approval from the
board, and will be brought back to the 2014 Annual Conference.
 |
| Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| “We
live so intimately with our culture that we grow comfortable, not
recognizing the consequences.... Baptism is a radical act of civil
disobedience. It marks the clear shift of allegiance from a nation state
to our God.” -- General secretary Stan Noffsinger in his closing
remarks to the Mission and Ministry Board.
|
The board approved a total budget of $8,033,860 income, $8,037,110
expense, for all Church of the Brethren ministries in 2014. Those
figures include a Core Ministries balanced budget of $4,915,000 for next
year, as well as separate budgets for the “self funding” units of
Brethren Disaster Ministries, Brethren Press, Conference Office, Global
Food Crisis, Material Resources, and Messenger.
The 2014 budget reflects one-time use of funds from the Gahagan Trust
for youth and children’s ministries to support the planning for
National Youth Conference and curriculum development by Brethren Press,
among other youth and children’s ministries. The budget includes a cost
of living increase for employee salaries of 2 percent, and continuing
employer contributions to employees’ Health Savings Accounts.
Changes to financial policies
The board approved a new Gift Acceptance Policy to help staff
evaluate proposed gifts to the church’s ministries, and to set up a
committee that reviews proposals for large gifts.
The board also followed up on previous board critique of the practice
of charging interest on interfund borrowing within departments of the
denomination, and acted to end the practice and delete the section on
interfund borrowing from the financial policies.
Capital proposals
Two capital proposals were approved by the board. A proposal for use
of up to $125,000 was approved for renovation to the General Offices in
Elgin, Ill., to create a handicapped accessible entrance to the building
and to renovate two bathrooms to make them handicapped accessible.
Funds for the project were raised in a campaign that was carried out
some years ago.
A capital proposal for a new database including software, technical
support, and design consultation, was approved to the amount of up to
$329,000. A “phase two” of the project may require a small amount of
additional funding in future years. The money for the project will come
from funds set aside in the Building and Equipment Fund for the General
Offices.
 |
| Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| “What
will the neighborhood look like if all the violence and the crime we
read about ceases to exist? ...That’s what it means when Jesus moves
into the neighborhood, lives are transformed.” -- Samuel Sarpiya,
Rockford, Ill., pastor who attended the Mission and Ministry Board
meeting with a class of Bethany Seminary students. He was one of two
students who gave homilies for Sunday morning worship, along with Tara
Shepherd. The seminarians planned and led worship centered on the
meeting theme “Jesus Moved into the Neighborhood” (John 1:14, The
Message).
|
After lengthy discussion, and review of suggestions and responses
from the table talk at Annual Cnference 2013, the board decided to
recommend to the 2014 Annual Conference that no change be made in the
process for selecting members of the Mission and Ministry Board.
Several board members and staff expressed trust that the current
system works effectively to ensure equitable representation from the
various areas of the denomination.
The query that originated in Southern Pennsylvania District was
directed to the Mission and Ministry Board by Annual Conference in 2012.
However the board’s proposed amendments to the bylaws to respond to the
concerns of the query did not receive enough votes from the 2013
Conference, so the business was returned to the board for further work.
Board member terms
The board acted on a by law change that clarified the intention to
fill the unexpired term of a board member named chair elect, which
requires a separate term of service.
The moving of a board member into the chair elect position has in
recent years caused a complex and unequal staggering of terms on the
board. The board approved a leadership team proposal that will bring
about consistent number of new members on the board each year.
 |
| Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| “When
we come together as the body of Christ our hearts begin to beat as
one.... So it is that in these gatherings the space becomes holy
ground.” -- Board member Trent Smith, preaching for the closing service
of the Mission and Ministry Board’s fall 2013 meeting.
|
The fall meeting included a discussion of the Brethren Service
Center, located in New Windsor, Md. The conversation followed up on a
decision made by the Mission and Ministry Board at the summer meeting on
June 29, authorizing staff to pursue all options for the property, up
to and including receiving letters of intent.
In June the board received a brief update on the situation of the
Brethren Service Center following the closing of the New Windsor
Conference Center, and heard that staff have been working hard to seek
options for the use of two of the main buildings on the campus that are
not being fully utilized, including meeting with county officials and
real estate consultants.
At this meeting, general secretary Stan Noffsinger gave more
background information and reviewed the studies of the denominational
properties that began in 2005 and included an intensive study of the
Brethren Service Center by the board-appointed Stewardship of Property
Committee, which was followed by another committee that looked at
ministry options for the property in New Windsor. After the economic
downturn that started in 2008 adversely affected the New Windsor
Conference Center, the board subsequently decided to close the
conference center. Since then staff have continued the search for
options for use of the property while monitoring the costs of having
some large buildings mostly vacant, and having conversation with other
agencies that use center facilities.
“There has been exhaustive work by your staff and people who love the
center to find ways to utilize the center,” Noffsinger told the board.
He asked the board’s help to discern “how to approach the heart side of
this conversation with the church,” noting that the property is not on
the market but staff need to be prepared “if and when a bona fide offer
comes.” He emphasized that if concerned church members came up with a
solution it would be considered, although he warned that upgrade and
renovation costs might come to around $10 million.
Several rounds of small group “table talk” followed. Board members,
staff, and guests including the class of Bethany Seminary students who
were at the meeting, responded to questions including “Identify what has
been the essence of the legacy of the Brethren Service Center?” and
“Who do we need to engage in similar conversations to identify the holy
memories to carry forward?”
The staff hope for a time for similar small group conversations
during “table talk” time at the 2014 Annual Conference, Noffsinger said.
In the next few months, the Inter Agency Forum and the Council of
District Executives’ annual retreat are also possible venues for
conversation about the Brethren Service Center.
 |
| Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford |
| “To
give up on publishing our own material for our church members is to
give up on the Church of the Brethren.” -- Brethren Press publisher
Wendy McFadden, reviewing the history of the Gather ’Round Sunday school
curriculum, which is in its concluding eighth year of publication and
was celebrated at the Mission and Ministry Board’s fall meeting. She is
at the podium with Gather 'Round project director and senior editor Anna
Speicher. Shine, the follow up curriculum to Gather ’Round, will be
available beginning next fall. Find out more at www.shinecurriculum.org . |
A review of the organization’s Strategic Plan and
the six goal areas for the work of the board and staff was led by the
executive staff. Stories were told about successes in each area, and
continuing work. Then the group was led in an exercise to affirm what
people were seeing happening in each area of emphasis.
In a celebration of the Gather ’Round curriculum
jointly produced by Brethren Press and MennoMedia, the board saw a
presentation highlighting the accumulation of Christian education
resources produced by the curriculum staff over the eight years of
Gather ’Round. The board expressed appreciation for the work of project
director and senior editor Anna Speicher, managing editor Cyndi Fecher,
and editorial assistant Roseanne Segovia, who are completing the work
and concluding their employment this year.
The board’s Audit and Investment Committee report
included the information that the investments managed for the
denomination by the Brethren Foundation have increased in value by more
than $1.5 million since the end of 2012. The value of the investments
now totals more than $26 million.
The Executive Committee of the board approved a proposal
for a grant of $47,500 from the David J. And Mary Elizabeth Wieand
Trust to fund a new web platform for the sharing of worship resources.
Board member Jonathan Prater was named to the Board Development Committee.
Find a photo album from the Mission and Ministry Board’s fall meeting at
www.brethren.org/album.
Source: 10/25/2013 Newsline
The cost to attend the 2014 Church of the Brethren Clergy Women’s Retreat
go up on Nov. 1. The retreat takes place Jan. 13-16 at the Serra
Retreat Center in Malibu, Calif. “Hand in Hand, Heart to Heart: On the
Journey Together” is the theme. Leading the retreat will be Melissa
Wiginton, vice president for Education Beyond the Walls at Austin
Seminary. The scriptural focus is Philippians 1:3-11 (CEB), “I keep you
in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace.” For online
registration and more information go to 
Peacemaker Shane Claiborne
will speak at Bridgewater (Va.) College’s Fall Spiritual Focus. “Shane
Claiborne’s adventures have taken him from the streets of Calcutta,
where he worked with Mother Teresa, to an internship at Willow Creek, a
mega-church in the suburbs of Chicago,” said a release. Claiborne also
has worked with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, and is a founder and
leader of the Simple Way faith community in inner-city Philadelphia.
His books include “Jesus for President,” “Red Letter Revolution,”
“Common Prayer,” “Follow Me to Freedom,” “Becoming the Answer to Our
Prayers,” and “The Irresistible Revolution.” He will be speaking at
Bridgewater on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m., in the Carter Center for
Worship and Music. A reception will follow. The program is free and open
to the public.