Why these four and only these four to start off? New A.C.T. applied the same principle to decisions about conference staffing its been applying to other aspects of new conference development: we want to start off as a new conference with enough but not too much.
New A.C.T. believes these four senior executive staff positions are enough to get us off to an excellent start. Wherever we discern Christ leading us as a new conference and area in the future, we'll want these four persons to be walking along side us. They will provide vital and necessary support to all sorts of conference and local church leadership.
But New A.C.T. also believes to develop more senior level staffing at this time would be to do too much. Why? Well, not because these first four will be all the staff we need, but because we haven't discerned what our future staffing needs are.
You know the saying, "get three United Methodists together, and you'll hear at least four opinions." Just imagine the number of opinions you'd hear if you get 180, 000 United Methodists together! Well, sisters and brothers, that's what we're about to do in the Upper New York Area.
Since I joined New A.C.T. last November I've been sitting with just a small fraction of that 180,000. Around the table at New A.C.T. meetings the twenty-five of us have all sorts of ideas about what this new conference could offer God and the people of Upper New York. And many other folks who don't sit around that table but who've been interested in the process have shared their hopes, dreams and desires.
It's pretty exciting and I know its just the beginning. As this conversation is deepened, broadened, focused and blessed, our conference's programs and ministries will emerge. And we'll be looking for some new staff to help us turn our dreams into accomplishments.
But we're not there yet. We don't know what outcomes (i.e., the fruit of our mission and ministry) God seeks from us yet. Discerning those outcomes is the work of the new conference, not New A.C.T.
And because the outcomes we seek determine the sort of staffing we need to put in place, we need to wait on identifying other staff. To do the staffing before we're clear about outcomes would be to put "the cart before the horse." Once our new conference and its leadership are in place (i.e., after July 1, 2010), we can begin this work.
Does that make sense? Let me know.
You know the saying, "get three United Methodists together, and you'll hear at least four opinions." Just imagine the number of opinions you'd hear if you get 180, 000 United Methodists together! Well, sisters and brothers, that's what we're about to do in the Upper New York Area.
Since I joined New A.C.T. last November I've been sitting with just a small fraction of that 180,000. Around the table at New A.C.T. meetings the twenty-five of us have all sorts of ideas about what this new conference could offer God and the people of Upper New York. And many other folks who don't sit around that table but who've been interested in the process have shared their hopes, dreams and desires.
It's pretty exciting and I know its just the beginning. As this conversation is deepened, broadened, focused and blessed, our conference's programs and ministries will emerge. And we'll be looking for some new staff to help us turn our dreams into accomplishments.
But we're not there yet. We don't know what outcomes (i.e., the fruit of our mission and ministry) God seeks from us yet. Discerning those outcomes is the work of the new conference, not New A.C.T.
And because the outcomes we seek determine the sort of staffing we need to put in place, we need to wait on identifying other staff. To do the staffing before we're clear about outcomes would be to put "the cart before the horse." Once our new conference and its leadership are in place (i.e., after July 1, 2010), we can begin this work.
Does that make sense? Let me know.
Posts
I'm not sure how I feel about staffing, but probably fewer is better to begin with. I wanted to add a different book to people's reading lists, from a very different, non-church perspective. I suggest The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley. It is about the lessons in creativity from IDEO, a leading design firm in the US. Lots of good lessons there about planning for change. Bruce Lee-Clark leeclark@together.net
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