Jeremiah Teams making strides toward report to Annual Conference
By Dan O’Mara
The four Jeremiah Teams commissioned by Bishop Leonard Fairley to help envision a thriving future for local churches and other ministries in the South Carolina Conference are making progress toward bringing formal recommendations to the 2025 Annual Conference when it meets in June.
The teams were inspired by Jeremiah 29:11, in which God reveals plans to give us “a future with hope.” Fairley invited lay and clergy across the conference to take the lead in developing recommendations in four areas: Missional Priorities, Strategy for the Black Church and Ethnic Ministries, District Alignment, and Conference Staff Alignment. Here’s what they are doing:
The Missional Priorities Team
The Missional Priorities Team, led by the Rev. Millie Nelson Smith, director of Connectional Ministries, is broadening its assessment of missional priorities beyond the area of Connectional Ministries. Members are trying to rethink all areas of missional work, rather than just those under the organizational umbrella of Connectional Ministries. Multiple themes have emerged from their research and conversations, touching on connection, communication and identity.
Communication drives our connection, and local churches don’t always connect and communicate with each other. Districts and churches may not connect and communicate with each other in certain areas. And the Annual Conference and districts may not be connecting and communicating with each other in certain areas.
The team has discussed the need to reclaim who we are as United Methodists, to understand that it’s OK to be United Methodist and not keep our heads down because of a season of disaffiliation and separation.
The Black Church and Ethnic Ministries Strategy Team
The Black Church and Ethnic Ministries Strategy Team, led by the Rev. James Friday, director of Congregational Development, continued its research into the existing Black and ethnic ministries of the conference, and began turning toward looking for what next steps might look like.
Team members discussed opportunities for reorganizing existing ministries around missions or new church starts, as well as revitalizing what is already being done. Beyond their meetings, they are dividing up the work of researching what types of resources may be needed to restart, for example, ministry with Hispanics/Latinos in South Carolina.
The team is investigating the potential for ministry in places across the state where ethnic minority populations have increased significantly in the past decade or two. That includes what we may need to start doing differently, and finding new funding sources to help pay for that ministry. They also are:
exploring development of an assessment tool or framework to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the conference’s ethnic ministries;
researching and documenting the narrative of ethnic ministries in the conference over the past 10 years;
assessing the current status and funding of the Ethnic Local Church Concerns committee and its initiatives; and
looking for potential funding sources and partnership opportunities outside of the local church to support ethnic ministries.
The District Alignment Team
The District Alignment Team, led by the Rev. Cathy Mitchell, superintendent of the Spartanburg District and dean of the Cabinet, is organized into two sub-teams: one to look into geographical implications in the alignment of districts and another to consider the work that must be done at the district level, regardless of how the districts are aligned. Their research has become more granular in recent weeks, such as logging the actual distances between local churches and district parsonages, and between district parsonages and district offices; and the cost of maintaining parsonages and district offices, as well as the salaries involved.
Currently, 10 superintendents are covering the 12 districts, which means six superintendents are covering extra churches outside of their own districts. The team has determined that, when determining future coverage, it’s not so much about the number of churches, but the distance superintendents have to travel. From a workload perspective, the team is reviewing job descriptions of district administrative assistants, as well as comparing what The Book of Discipline delineates as the responsibilities of a superintendent with what they do.
The Conference Staff Alignment Team
The Conference Staff Alignment Team, led by Fairley, has been studying a 30-page report from the General Council on Finance and Administration. GCFA conducted a personnel audit of conference staff. Fairley said the GCFA report provided a solid broad assessment that will inform the team’s continuing conversation and work. He stressed that, while GCFA made some specific recommendations, the team will determine what recommendations will eventually be presented to Annual Conference for approval.
Anxiety during uncertain times is understandable, Bishop Fairley said, but he encouraged everybody “to be at peace.”