Point Elders

From the Council of Elders:

The primary responsibility of Elders is to give pastoral leadership and care to enable the Fellowship on our spiritual journey, serve in a pastoral role and direct the spiritual life of MCC. (UFMCC Bylaws). Many of our clergy, lay pastors and lay leaders have expressed a sense of isolation and desire a stronger connection with UFMCC.  The Council of Elders (COE) is hoping that the Point Elder initiative will be one way to meet these expressed needs. For those who ask the question, “Who is our Elder?”, there is now an answer to that question.

Point Elder Q&A (Word)
(Updated: 13 February 2019)

Point Elder are available to serve in three capacities:

1. Provide spiritual support and pastoral care for churches, clergy and lay pastoral leaders, when requested. Whenever there is a need for spiritual support and care, please contact the appropriate Point Elder. A Point Elder can bring prayer concerns or praises to the monthly meetings of the COE so that the other Elders can pray for these concerns or praises; this would always be with permission given to share prayer requests.
2. Participate in congregational celebrations. Many churches do not know who to invite when they would like UFMCC participation in celebrating special congregational events, such as installing a new pastor or celebrating a church anniversary. A church’s Point Elder can assist with recognizing these milestones, although churches are free to invite someone other than their Point Elder if they wish. (As in the past, congregations would usually cover the expenses to have an Elder as a guest at congregational celebrations.)
3. Recommend or make a referral to MCC denominational staff, the Governing Board, or other appropriate resource when churches, clergy or lay pastoral leaders need or want to make such contact.

The role of a Point Elder is exclusively one of support, which does not include exercising any administrative authority or responsibility. All Elders serve in this capacity as unpaid volunteers. Some Elders are also paid staff, paid for their staff work but not for their work as an Elder. Those Elders, who are also staff members, have administrative responsibilities for our congregations, pastors or clergy; they exercise their administrative duties as staff members, not as Elders. For example, the Elders’ duties do not include being involved in the oversight of churches or individual pastors; neither would an Elder intervene when there is conflict within a congregation. Consequently, when a Point Elder, who is also a staff member, needs to interact with a congregation or clergy in his or her administrative role as a staff member, a different Point Elder would be offered to the congregation or clergy to provide spiritual support or pastoral care.

When the COE was seeking feedback on the Point Elder initiative, several people asked how a Point Elder was selected. Here is the process we followed: As a first step, the COE recognized that some Elders already had supportive relationships with some congregations, pastors, lay leaders and clergy. We attempted to honor those relationships by first asking each Elder to select the congregations, pastors, lay leaders and clergy with whom they already had a relationship. As a second step, we then adjusted the pairings to make more equitable the number of congregations and individuals each Elder would serve.

In addition, the feedback we received requested that the Point Elder relationship be completely voluntary. Consequently, this means congregations, pastors or clergy would initiate any requests of support from their Point Elder. If a church, clergy person or pastor already has sufficient support systems in place and has a good familiarity with the UFMCC resources, they may not need to ask for Point Elder assistance.

Of course, we want to make sure there is good pastoral support, prayer and ongoing sense of community and connection with our congregations and leaders, so there needs to be a good fit between the Point Elder and those they serve. We anticipate some adjustments might still be needed. If another Elder would be a better fit, then the pastor, clergy person or lay leader is encouraged to contact the Convener of the Council of Elders at [email protected] so that an adjustment can be made.  The list of Point Elders and their congregations can be found below.

Rev. Elder Héctor Gutiérrez – [email protected]
Rev. Elder Mona West, Ph.D – [email protected]
Rev. Elder Margarita Sánchez De León – [email protected]
Rev. Elder Dwayne Johnson – [email protected]
Rev. Elder Ines-Paul Baumann – [email protected]
Rev .Elder Pat Bumgardner – [email protected]
Rev. Elder Tony Freeman – [email protected]
Elder Nancy Maxwell – [email protected]

Download this list here:

Point Elders – Churches (Spreadsheet)
(Updated: 21 March 2018)