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I have been the Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches now for two and a half years, and have completed half of my term.

Being the Moderator of MCC means being the spiritual leader and pastor to our movement and denomination; not in isolation, but together with the Board of Elders and leadership. If we are to be the new face of Jesus in the 21st century, we have to be connected spiritually, to God and to one another. We have to learn to trust God for the mission and ministry. We also have to be accountable for that vision and mission to God and to each other.

Accomplishments 2005 to 2007:

• Strengthened Board of Elders – learning to work as a team, creating portfolios, facilitated training and continuing education, as they serve our local churches
• Established myself as a Pastor to pastors and church leaders in MCC
• Led the process to downsize from eight to seven Regions, eliminated fulltime Vice Moderator’s position after Elder Eastman’s retirement, worked with Executive Director and BOA on other cost-saving measures
• Supported ED in realignment of staff, selling HQ, creating a more dispersed and virtually connected staff
• Created a new Leadership Team to create top team alignment among Board of Elders, Board of Administration, Executive Director and Staff
• Successful, best attended General Conference ever in 2007
• Established three new teams to advance Global Justice, Ecumenical and Inter-religious work, and MCC’s emerging theological discussion
• Increased transparency and communication at all levels
• Oversaw five successful Easter and Fellowship Sunday campaigns to promote global advancement
• Re-established HIV/AIDS ministry through Unfinished World, Unfinished Calling
• Established or strengthened numerous partnerships with religious and human rights organizations
• Appointed a new Vice Moderator in our new system

In my original essay two and a half years ago, said that my first role was to “Build a Shared Vision” – I would amend that to say, “Build and Communicate a Shared Vision.”

Our Shared Vision is not my vision, it is our vision. My role is to promote that vision and to communicate it; and to help people in MCC feel connected to one another in the implementation and embodiment of that vision and the values that undergird it. 

My first task as Moderator was to strengthen the Board of Elders, who were demoralized three years ago.  I had to build my credibility with them in this role. Recently one of them complimented me on not being “conflict averse.”  We had many, complicated issues internally and externally to deal with. I had to be willing to make tough decisions and carry them out. In two years we had a 50% turnover in Elders. 

In the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, it talks about “getting the right people on the bus.” That has taken some time, not only on the Board of Elders, but on the Board of Administration and in other leadership roles. 

This same process has happened with our Fellowship staff through the work of Dr. Cindi Love. It has been one of my roles to support her as she has set about creating “the Team that Beats with One Heart.” 

I created a Leadership Team, that consists of the Moderator, Executive Director, the Chair of the Board of Administration, the former Vice-Moderator and the present Vice Moderator. This group exists to create a “zone of accommodation” between our two board and our two executives. It is a place for us to insure there is adequate communication between the Boards.  We used a consulting firm, Fusion Strategic, who donated their time and expertise, to help us form this Leadership Team and get the “buy in” from both Boards. The Leadership Team has been a great resource and vehicle over the last several years. This was essential in making our new system work.

Building a shared vision requires building relationships of trust among leadership. We have invested time, energy and resources, to bring together the Elders, Board of Administration, staff and other leaders in different configurations to do the work of building trust and shared vision.

We have also had to do a lot of information gathering, fact-finding, so we can build a reality-based strategy for growth.

The two boards have agreed for two years that our strategic plan and goals can be summarized by “Growth, Justice and Generosity.” The Elders set programmatic goals through our work plans, which we share with the Board of Administration. We have tried to understand growth in a holistic way, meaning growth in numbers, strength and spirituality.

We have worked to get accurate information, now comprising five years worth, of statistics of church attendance, growth and decline, and work on analyzing the information. The Elders have used this information to help churches and to resolve long-standing issues. We have re-invented the process of pastoral transition and invested a lot of time and resources in helping churches make better transitions, often to a new generation of leadership.

We focused a lot of energy and money on developing high quality resources for local churches, such as Creating a Life that Matters. We are in the process of reviewing our Church Planting Initiative, assessing its success, looking for ways to more effectively plant sustainable, dynamic, attractive, MCC churches. We have renewed with excellence our commitment to an updated, global HIV/AIDS ministry.

And, we have worked very hard to improve the volume and quality of our communication. The Executive Director and I have both been improving the transparency of our organization, to our members, and to the external world.

In addition, we are helping our churches to see themselves as part of something bigger, a movement that is “tearing down walls and building up hope.” Today more MCCers than ever have a shared vision of MCC and a sense of excitement about all that is happening around the globe.

I am very grateful for the work of our Executive Director. We work together well. Her expertise in consumer satisfaction and in marketing have made a huge difference internally and externally in MCC.  Her initiative, “Would Jesus Discriminate?” is having an amazing impact on churches and communities, and has captured the imagination of our movement in many places around the world. Her work with pastors and local churches, often around finances and buildings, has also been an incredible resource.

I also formed three teams that serve our denomination that function under the Moderator’s Office that are core to our vision and mission (all of these teams have a special page on our MCC Website):

The Global Justice Team – This global team’s purpose is to foster a new era of engagement in global justice and human rights around the globe – to be present and active where our people need justice. They have been engaged in significant work in Eastern Europe, Nigeria, Jamaica, Latin America, Malaysia and Pakistan. The team offered a very successful Global Justice Day at General Conference. I am proud of the members of this team who have exhibited extraordinary courage and creativity in putting global justice back at the center of our life as a movement, as they work with MCCer’s and young activists in many locations around the world.

The Ecumenical and Inter-religious Team – This global team has focused on understanding our history of ecumenical and inter-religious work, and building something new on that framework. We have developed a theological statement and a protocol with the Board of Elders for authorizing involvement, and have begun to work strategically to evaluate our commitments and partnerships.  This team is developing a wider circle of MCC ecumenists as we deepen this work around the world.

In this vein, our growing alliance with “The Fellowship,” an African America Pentecostal LGBT affirming denomination, led by Bishop Yvette Flunder is a wonderful new development. The Board of Elders has invested time and energy in building a healthy relationship with The Fellowship in advance of any kind of formal partnership and alliance.

This partnership pushed us into a new level of commitment to doing anti-racism work as a Board. This year the Elders spent three day in retreat with VISIONS, Inc. an anti-racism, anti-oppression training organization; and most of us attended the People of African Descent Conference, which also included VISIONS training. We have a new sense of accountability around this work, both within MCC and with The Fellowship.

The Theologies Team – This is the newest team, and has just begun its work together. I had envisioned this team in my previous Statement of Call, and am grateful for those who have responded to my invitation to serve. They are committed to providing safe space for many holy conversations that we need to have in MCC about what we believe, what we think, who we are as a community of faith. This is work that we know is essential to our future. It is also a resource for responding to theological issues externally, and in the “academy.”

The second area I spoke of in my original vision was coaching and mentoring Elders. This has included creating a sense of being a team; developing portfolios, learning to work through the disciplines of work plans. It has meant learning to worship, pray and sing together. It has meant moving out of a sense of isolation in our work, of “silos,” to a style of cooperation and mutuality. We hope that it can model something for our denomination as a whole. 

In my original paper, I said I wanted to lead us into a new era of forming strategic partnerships. This is also the commitment of our Executive Director, and today we have dynamic, partnerships with many organizations, from Human Rights Watch, to the Human Rights Campaign, to Navratilova, Inc and Merrill Lynch, for example. Internationally we work with ILGA and the European Forum for Lesbian and Gay Christians, and Other Sheep. We have a new level of engagement with key seminaries – scholarship funds, seats on Boards of Trustees, and not just in North America. We helped to found the North American Convocation of LGBT Affirming Churches, and the Women, Faith and Development Alliance. We continue to enjoy a close relationship with SoulForce, and have new contacts with the United Nations. Our work with the Fellowship and Mother of Peace Orphanage in Zimbabwe has also been powerful.

I have learned so much these last few years:

• There is a new generation of spiritual activists around the globe that needs MCC to live up to our destiny. Youth and young adults need to be at the top of our list of priorities.
• Jesus is alive and present in MCC, and the Holy Spirit is moving in our churches and in our global ministries. There is renewed energy and passion about God’s purpose for MCC. In our 40th year, I feel a Pentecost moving in and through us!
• Sexuality and Spirituality, and the integration of the two, is still an amazingly hot topic in the church and in our world!
• The center of power in the world is shifting from North to South, from West to East, and we must understand what that means for our future.
• In the next decades, everything will be virtual, in ways we cannot yet imagine, and yet must get ready for.
• As we have explosive growth outside of North America, MCC in North America is re-inventing itself, dealing sometimes with new “competitors and imitators,” but continuing to see ourselves as an emerging community of faith, hope and love as we celebrate 40 years!
• We must be committed to live up to and continue to earn the label Human Rights Church.” 
• HIV/AIDS is still an essential part of our ministry, and we have a lot to offer to MCC churches and the rest of the world in terms of our knowledge and spiritual strength and commitment.
• I love and respect my fellow Elders: Rev. Arlene Ackerman, Rev. Lillie Brock, Rev. Diane Fisher, Rev. Darlene Garner, Rev. Ken Martin, Rev. Jim Mitulski and Rev. Glenna Shepherd. I appreciate how hard they work; their devotion to the people of MCC and those yearning for MCC; their willingness to learn and take risks; their courage and commitment to excellence; their love for the people and mission of MCC.
• I love and respect our Executive Director, Dr. Cindi Love – she has taught me words like “leverage your assets:” “branding;” “segmentation;” and what it means to continue to build a “team that beats with one heart.”  Her courage and perseverance and willingness to see our potential in the midst of enormous, at time, overwhelming challenges, has been inspiring and encouraging beyond words.
• I am impressed and inspired by our devoted and talented staff!
• I have come to appreciate the partnership of the Board of Administration, their Chair Jeff Miner, their perseverance, focus, their willingness to take risks, to push us and be pushed by us!
• I am grateful for all our MCC teams, ministries, boards and councils who give so much of themselves.
• Information is power and can help us build realistically and with confidence. Thanks to my assistant, Connie, for being an information engine – and for giving over and above, over and over again, of her time, energy and devotion.
• MCCers are flexible, generous and willing to give to what they believe in
• There is a hunger for learning, education and training to move us to the next levels 
• We are making progress on fulfilling the “Unfinished World, Unfinished Calling” mandates for renewed commitment to HIV/AIDS, Senior Housing and other key initiatives – and this resonates way beyond our present MCC constituency

I do feel as though I am just beginning to learn and appreciate what leadership in MCC in these times demands and entails.

On my/our plate for the next several years:

• Continue to foster the spiritual strength and health of our leaders.
• Become The Human Rights Church
• Create better, sustainable funding for our denominational movement work, especially the justice work.
• Grapple with a renewed vision and support for Church Planting
• Take more, bold steps to use technology to reach a wider constituency
• Expand our work with VISIONS, as we commit to diversity and inclusion at all levels
• Focus with Elders on our new segmentation model for working with churches at different levels of need and potential, building “capacity” for growth.
• Recruit and nurture younger, new leaders.

I am open to serving a second term, if this is the will of the Nominations Committee and the General Conference. As always, I am a grateful, life long MCCer, and will serve in whatever ways please God and the people of MCC.

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