A Follow-Up Message from Pastor Karen about the Service on 12/12/21

Our congregation is invited to watch the video below and/or read the letter from Pastor' Karen, also below, as she clarifies her remarks made on Sunday, December 12, 2021 about changes in our church leadership structure to strengthen our organization, while celebrating the strengths of the people who have kept our church going over the years.

 Hello, Christ United Methodist Church.

As a follow up to Sunday’s message, I wanted to clarify a few things.

Questions were raised about the leadership team I referenced.

The first thing to know is that the United Methodist Church does not have a congregational governance system. Each year at our Church/Charge Conference, we elect leaders to serve the local church in various capacities. Many positions are appointed on 3-year rotational cycles.

Most crucial among the positions elected are areas of Finance (Annual Budget, Financial Processes, Stewardship), Staff Pastor Parish (Personnel), Trustees (Management of all assets), and Church Council. We have elected these offices in 2019-2021, using the vehicle of a Nominations Committee, of which the Sr. Pastor is Chair. Each year we invite folks to let us know they are interested in serving in these areas. Hopefully we have responded to all responses.

In addition to administrative areas, there are areas of Mission and Ministry, and Age-Related ministries, which ought to be the lifeblood of a congregation. These areas have formerly also been nominated for time-limited terms. We seek to build people with passion and call who will focus, sustain, and equip these and all of our hands-on, people ministries.

We are at a time in our congregational story when we need to seek clarity of mission, focus, and administration. Furthermore, we seek to identify, equip and deploy collaborative leaders who will serve in administrative areas, so that we may be clear, efficient, and appropriately conduct the business of the church.

Since November 19, 2020, at least 27 different persons in the congregation have been involved by invitation or inquiry in six conversations, meetings, training, in anticipation of bringing the Simplified Accountable Leadership Structure to you and implementing it in the congregation.

It is my job to study the congregation—its past, and its present, so that I might help us find our way to the future. It is too easy for me to assume that a number of others have the same information that I do from my study.

I hope that you can hear from me that there are no bad people. None. In no way did I intend to suggest that any persons had acted with disregard, poor judgment, neglect, or anything of the like.

In fact, I said more than once that I am grateful for those who kept the engine running, the home fires burning, and took care of necessary business along the way.

I sought to emphasize that we have had a system failure in our operations—again, not in individuals who were taking necessary action.

As I observed patterns, looked for reports, documentation, and more, it seemed we have fallen away from an Administrative Board/Church Council unity of mission, vision, values, direction, goals, purpose, and priority. Lack of unity can breed mistrust, and lead to disengagement or departure.  

My goal and hope for us is to remedy our disease so that we move together and leverage the power and capacity we have when we align our resources of all types: human, property, talent, time, assets, etc, so that we can reach new people with God’s love in Jesus Christ. That is always our mission.

It is my great hope that we can begin to achieve greater unity, functional collaborative governance, and unified hope as we go forward with implementation of the Simplified Accountable Structure.

In the office, I have placed a notebook with meeting notes. I have a second copy of the notebook in my office, should you desire more information.

I hope you will join us in praying for discernment that we go forward in ways that increase our capacity to incarnate—make flesh and real—God’s love in Jesus Christ so that everyone in Marietta, even our congregation might find love here.

I am keeping Advent hope.

In Christ,

Pastor Karen

Phone: 614-570-8013

Email: pastorkaren@christumcmarietta.org

I will be out of the office from December 16-December 21, should you seek further conversation or clarification.