The City Road Chapel Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development has developed the following proposal for organizing our work together in 2018. This proposal will be considered and voted on by the Charge Conference on October 30, 2017.
The United Methodist Book Discipline requires the Charge Conference to elect each year a committee to oversee the work of nominations and leadership development, which is charged with identifying, developing, deploying, evaluating, and monitoring Christian spiritual leadership for the local congregation. (¶258.1) These leaders direct the work of God in our church as we all seek to be the hands and feet of Christ. The Committee on Nominations and Leadership development is charged with discerning the best organizational structure, and then identifying leaders to work within that structure, so as to best carry out God’s work in the world.
As the City Road Chapel Committee on Nominations and Leadership Development has met and talked, we believe that we are in an important time in the life of our church. Our community, and therefore the ways that we live out God’s call, has changed. The approaches to carrying out God’s work that were effective in the past may no longer be effective today. Likewise, with our shrinking professional staff pool, the way that ministries are managed and accomplished must change as well. Thus, we believe that it is time to evaluate how our work together is ordered, working to discern a new vision for our life together.
We understand that whatever structure we adopt must conform to the requirements of The Book of Discipline. The Book of Discipline mandates certain committees and offices to ensure that the church’s finances and properties are well managed, that there is adequate communication and supervision of staff, and that leaders are identified to carry out the work of the church. These committees (Staff Parish Relations, Finance, Trustees, and Lay Leadership) are charged with being stewards of the resources we have been given, and ensuring that our church has the resources needed to do what God would have us do.
Beyond those mandated committees, the church is able to discern the structure that best reflects our life together. As we have prayed and considered where God is leading City Road Chapel, we believe that the starting place for any organizational structure must be our current vision for our church, that we are a community of disciples of Jesus Christ committed to growing in Christ and sharing God’s love, leading us to make a difference in Madison. While previous committees and pastors have offered alternate structures, we believe that this mission has taken root in our congregation, and must be the guiding vision for our work together.
As such, we are proposing that our ministry needs to be structured around three major areas:
- Discipleship — growing in Christ
- Sharing –– sharing God’s love, and
- Resourcing which provides the resources needed for the work of discipleship and sharing
None of these areas is of greater importance than the others. Growing in Christ naturally leads to one’s inspiration to share God’s love. Sharing God’s love brings one closer to God and leads to spiritual growth. Both areas need resources for their work, and a focus on resources without an accompanying mission is simply building up treasures on earth rather than in heaven. All of these areas work together in a symbiotic relationship not unlike that of Father, Son, and Spirit – unified for the purpose of creating a world filled with love and grace.
This document outlines our vision of our structure together, with the hope that it will guide us in carrying out God’s work for the City Road Chapel UMC in Madison.