A Message from The Reverend Dr. Cindi Love, MCC Executive Director

March 28, 2005

Dear MCC Friends and Family:

We have just completed a joyous Easter holiday and celebration. I spent Easter with my family and during this holy time of reflection and celebration I set aside time to give thanks for each of you, speaking your names and the concerns that you have expressed to me for your personal needs and for our Beloved Community of MCC.

I want you to know that I am praying for each of you and for myself as I travel.  May we all experience the Resurrection as reclamation of our deepest capacity for relationship with the Most Holy.

We are promised a new Name and a new Life through this relationship and I pray that we have claimed that promise during our Holy Week observances.  I claim it for all of us as the community of MCC.  Give us a new heart and let us be on fire for our mission in the world.  Let us lay down our differences and focus on the Light in each one of us.

This is a time of reflection and much of mine has been about the ministry to which I am now called as the new Executive Director of MCC. I've been on duty now as the new Executive Director of MCC since January 18, 2005 and I want to give you a brief update on the progress we are making as we redefine our relationship with you. 

UPDATE

Good reflection requires us to look deeply into ourselves and see the truth. The facts are that our denominational service and support of you has been less than it could be and less than it should be in the past years. Our relationship with you has been less than it could be and should be. 

We are now on a mission to reclaim our identity as your helpers and, indeed, as your servants -- in the positive context demonstrated to us by the life and love of Jesus Christ. You are the feet on the street and the first line of defense for our mission and ministry in the world and, therefore, our primary focus. We will not realign ourselves to this focus overnight and I ask you to pray for our discernment and commitment.

During the last 60+ days, I've had the privilege of introducing our team at HQ and in the regions to some powerful concepts about customer service and support that have proven effective in my former work. The concepts are simple. You are our customer. You are doing the work that is integral to the mission and ministry of MCC. Our job is to facilitate that work. 

It is clear to all of us that we cannot do a good job of facilitating your work without getting our own house in order, so we focused on a "gap analysis" of our performance first. That analysis helped reprioritize areas in the budget that  was approved by the MCC Board of Administration. In addition, it highlighted our need for standardization in many processes as well as "post-mortems" on both our successful and failing interactions with you.  These post-mortems are helping us track issues from the first point of contact with you through either successful or unsuccessful completion of the task related to your request. 

We have now installed an internal issue/task management system that makes it less easy for issues to slide into a "black hole" and, therefore, higher accountability by all of us.

Our first external financial audit will begin April 4, 2005 and we will have a firmer foundation for accountability through the lessons this process will teach us. Any of you who've been through an audit know that most of the work has to happen before the auditor arrives and this has been a good "spring cleaning" for us.

Our entire team in LA is now engaged in weekly training sessions related to our understanding and support of our constituents.  Topics range from How to Create Loyal Customers to Generational Context to Temperament and Work. I have asked each team member to carry and use a deck of customer support cards that really "call the question" about individual interactions with customers. These are just tangible reminders that every time we interact, we either help or we don't. I am encouraging us to move away from a culture that aims for "do no harm" and on to the higher ground of "always find a way to help." 

Our Elders and all of our teams have committed to both 360 degree evaluation and performance evaluations going forward. These evaluations will help us improve our understanding of our work and our impact and provide the basis for better service to you.

Our team for Clergy Development and Leadership has been completely reorganized in the short term to focus on the area of customer dissatisfaction that is most apparent. Justin Tanis resigned on March 7, 2005 and we have reformulated the Conference Team to include a short-term Conference Director from outside our HQ office, Jim Mitulski, Carlos Chavez, Heather Huff and the existing volunteer teams for worship, logistics and business sessions.

Charles Tigard has moved to this area along with a new part-time facilitator, Bill Hooper (from MCC of Greater Dallas). Jim Mitulski is working directly with seminaries and students and Charles and Bill are digging into every aspect of how we identify, recruit, train and help sustain highly effective clergy.  Charles will now also work with the Lay Ministry Council.

We are completely revising our Human Resources Policies and Procedures to ensure that we have the proper performance evaluation metrics in place to support our teams in achieving their best. 

I have asked Rev. Elder Don Eastman to devote part of his time to direct interventions with churches that are at risk for closure or loss of property or essential personnel. He has done an amazing amount of work in three locations in less than 60 days. 

We are now producing all of our external communications in both English and Spanish in order to better serve our constituents in Latin America.  All General Conference communications on the Internet are available in multiple languages. I hope that you have noticed the increase in communication to the field by both Elders and HQ staffers.

We have just completed a "top to bottom" assessment of the physical condition of the LA facilities including the HQ office and the MCC LA church and some long needed repairs are now scheduled and underway. It has taken several years to build enough reserve to accomplish these repairs through the JOPC (Joint Ownership Board for MCC LA and MCC HQ). 

I believe that you will feel very proud of the facility and very reassured about the preservation and growth potential of one of MCC's largest physical assets. I want to commend Rev. Neil Thomas and the Board of the MCC LA Church, the JOPC Board and as individuals, our own Rev. Jim Mitulski, Margaret Mahlman and Michele Horn Davis for their commitment to this work.

We are working now with four Foundations to help focus their attention on MCC and our new strategic mission.  Please pray for their discernment about our mission and ministry and that the Holy Spirit will move them to help us.

Founder's Circle renewals and an exciting new MCC Legacy program both launch in a few days, so watch your mail for these. The Troy Perry Scholarship Fund is growing. Your generous tithes continue to sustain us and help us expand our support in hundreds of areas. 

MCC recently won a major victory for equality when the California Superior Court  ruled in favor of Rev. Troy Perry's marriage lawsuit. The court ruled that California must provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples and must also recognize legal same-sex marriages such as those from Massachusetts or Canada.

In August of this year, Rev. Perry will represent MCC at World Pride in Jerusalem, and he is the organizer of the International LGBT Clergy Conference that will take place at World Pride. He will give strong voice to spiritual justice issues around the globe, and also call for governments, institutions and individuals to again focus on the resurgent HIV & AIDS health pandemic.

I've met with the Strategic Growth Initiative team, the Strategic Planning Team, Large Church Pastors, the Church Planting Team and visited the Denver, LA, Glendale, Omaha, San Francisco, Sarasota and Fort Lauderdale churches. I will be in New York, Washington D.C. and Atlanta during the next three months. 

The Elders are helping me with a new challenge to double our scholarship fund for General Conference. Many of you are helping them raise those funds and I want to thank you for making it possible for people who are so isolated in their ministries to have the blessing of connecting with the MCC community at conference.

The first international Gay Marketing Guide was launched this past Friday in LA and MCC is the only church listed. 

More than 5000 people have written responses to the new proposed Strategic Plan. More than 700 people have responded to the Geographic Review Board surveys. The web site revisions are underway and will make it possible for us to expand our capacity for ministry throughout the world while dramatically improving delivery of resources for all of you. 

Pre-reservations are already arriving for Troy's retirement event at the Biltmore in Los Angeles and the installation of our new Moderator at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in October 2005.  A Human Rights event will follow the installation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  (Please pray that all of the required permits will be granted.).

Your churches are on the move! I cannot tell you how energizing it is for all of us to hear from you about your many ministries, feeding hungry people, supporting and loving people living with HIV and AIDS, planning new Sunday Schools for the children who are now in your midst and standing tall in every place where oppression exists. Be sure to send information about your church's new programs, ministries, and accomplishments to info@MCCchurch.org so that we can share your news with the entire Fellowship through the new "Around The Fellowship" monthly newsletter.

Thank you for your gracious living in behalf of the Most Loving and Holy Creator, for being and heart and hands of Jesus in the world.

Peace,

 
Cindi Love
Executive Director
Metropolitan Community Churches
www.MCCchurch.org