{"id":15175,"date":"2020-07-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=15175"},"modified":"2020-08-25T03:31:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T03:31:24","slug":"mission-and-ministry-board-july-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2020\/mission-and-ministry-board-july-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission and Ministry Board holds July 1 meeting via Zoom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Church of the Brethren Newsline
July 13, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mission and Ministry Board chair Patrick Starkey leads the board in a Zoom meeting on July 1, 2020.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Mission and Ministry Board of the Church of the Brethren met via Zoom on July 1 for a summer meeting usually held onsite at Annual Conference. The meeting of the denominational board was chaired by Patrick Starkey assisted by chair-elect Carl Fike and general secretary David Steele. Starkey noted that the Zoom meeting was a very streamlined version of the usual summer meeting, attending only to the most critical board functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main items of business included setting a budget parameter for core ministries in 2021, approving a revised budget for 2020, other financial matters, and consideration of a new strategic plan for the ministries overseen by the Mission and Ministry Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget and finances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board set a budget parameter of $4,934,000 for core ministries in 2021, and approved revised 2020 budgets<\/strong> that reflected work by staff to review expenses as well as to reassess income projections for the remainder of this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has resulted in changes to the denomination\u2019s financial situation, which has meant \u201cstaff needed a more dependable and realistic budget to work from,\u201d said Starkey. Core ministries expenses were revised downward by almost $340,000 to a total of $4,629,150, and the income projection for core ministries was revised downward by almost $447,000 to $4,522,040, resulting in an anticipated core ministries deficit of ($107,110) for 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reporting on the denomination\u2019s finances as of May, the board learned that 2020 has seen a significant shortfall in congregational giving (down $96,500 compared to last year). Individual giving has increased (up $4,800 from last year), but total giving to every fund of the denomination–including core ministries, the Emergency Disaster Fund that supports Brethren Disaster Ministries, and the Global Food Initiative–is down $283,000 compared to 2019. The \u201cself-funded\u201d ministries also have been negatively affected by the pandemic as Brethren Press, Annual Conference, and Material Resources all are showing deficit balances as of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core ministries are considered crucial to the denomination\u2019s program and include the General Secretary\u2019s office, Global Mission and Service, Office of Ministry, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy, Brethren Volunteer Service, Workcamp Ministry, Discipleship Ministries, Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Older Adult Ministry, Intercultural Ministries, Brethren Historical Library and Archives, and departments that sustain and serve the program work including Mission Advancement, finance, IT, human resources, buildings and properties, \u201cMessenger\u201d magazine, and communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board actions on other financial matters included approval of a recommendation to keep the annual \u201cdraw\u201d from the Brethren Service Center Quasi-Endowment Fund to a range of 5 to 7 percent,<\/strong> effective with the 2022 budget-building process. The fund was created from proceeds of the sale of the upper campus of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. For the 2021 budget, the draw is set at 8 percent. The recommendation was made in order \u201cto insure long-term support for board-approved ministry programs\u201d but the decision also allows the board to consider use of the fund to augment other income sources for start-up costs \u201cif a bold new ministry emerges from the compelling vision statement or the strategic planning process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recommendation to write off the negative net asset balance Brethren Press has accumulated as of the end of 2019 was tabled.<\/strong> The recommendation included using funds from the denomination\u2019s Bequest Quasi-Fund Endowment Fund to cover the write-off along with a stipulation that Brethren Press work from a break-even budget in 2020 and going forward. This recommendation is expected to come before the board again in October after review of a new business plan for Brethren Press. The Brethren Press negative net asset balance has grown to $546,718 over the past 20 years, an accumulation from years in which expenses outweighed income. The press receives income from the sale of books, Sunday school curriculum, Bible studies, and other materials. Its expenses include salaries and other personnel expenses, expenses related to the production and marketing of products, and payments to the core ministries budget for use of facilities and support services at the Church of the Brethren General Offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategic plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board approved a new strategic plan for the ministries it oversees, based in large part on the compelling vision statement<\/strong> that will be presented to the 2021 Annual Conference. Titled \u201cJesus in the Neighborhood,\u201d the strategic plan includes sections of short-term or \u201cforeground\u201d goals and actions for the next three months, a \u201cmid-ground\u201d section extending into next year, a \u201cbackground\u201d section extending one to three years, and a \u201cbeyond the horizon\u201d section looking five to ten years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short term, the plan calls board and staff to articulate how ministries are serving the \u201cJesus in the Neighborhood\u201d vision in alignment with the strategic plan. Four \u201cforeground vision initiatives\u201d are to be in place by the October board meeting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— creation of task teams of board members and staff;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— a communications plan and interpretive resources to share the strategic plan with the denomination;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— a timeline to review denominational policies and procedures \u201cwith the aim of identifying potential impediments to full implementation of the strategic plan and recommending appropriate changes to those policies and procedures\u201d; and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— assessment by the general secretary and executive committee of skills, resources, and programs in relation to the strategic plan \u201cto identify how our current capabilities may (or may not) align with anticipated needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan includes four areas of longer term or \u201cbackground\u201d vision:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

— \u201cPursue Christ\u2019s call to discipleship\u201d<\/strong> to help church members articulate and embody their faith;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— \u201cEmbody the biblical command to love our neighbors\u201d<\/strong> to help congregations and church members cultivate relationships with neighbors near and far;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— \u201cSeek God\u2019s racial justice\u201d<\/strong> including identification, critique, confession, and repentance \u201cof the whiteness and racialized hierarchy that have been integrated into Brethren identity,\u201d among other actions; and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— \u201cReclaim New Testament models of giving\u201d<\/strong> to transform giving practices and church culture \u201cto reflect the just and equitable distribution of God\u2019s resources to eradicate needs as embodied by the early church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strategic Plan Formation Team was convened by chair-elect Carl Fike and included board members Lauren Seganos Cohen, Paul Schrock, and Colin Scott; Discipleship Ministries co-coordinator Joshua Brockway as staff; Pacific Southwest District executive Russ Matteson representing the Council of District Executives; Rhonda Pittman Gingrich representing the Compelling Vision Team; Jamie Claire Chau as Subject Matter Contributor; with the involvement of Jim Randall  from Auxano, a consulting firm that provided assistance to the Compelling Vision Team and the compelling vision sessions at the 2019 Annual Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board confirmed the general secretary\u2019s appointment of Ed Woolf as treasurer of the Church of the Brethren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new executive committee was called to serve from now through the 2021 Annual Conference: the chair, chair-elect, and board members Thomas Dowdy, Lois Grove, and Colin Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the Mission and Ministry Board go to www.brethren.org\/mmb<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go to www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a> to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mission and Ministry Board of the Church of the Brethren met via Zoom on July 1 for a summer meeting usually held onsite at Annual Conference. Main items of business included setting a budget parameter for core ministries in 2021, approving a revised budget for 2020, other financial matters, and consideration of a new strategic plan for the ministries overseen by the board. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1261,1266],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-15175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-general-secretary","tag-mmb"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15176,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions\/15176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15175"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}