news article
UNY Leaders continue work with FACT team
December 2, 2014 / By Steve Hustedt / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Once again leadership from around the Upper New York Conference gathered with some of the brightest minds in the general agencies of The United Methodist Church on Nov. 22, 2014 as a part of the Financial Advisory Consulting Team (FACT) process. The
previous meeting was Sept. 13 following a series of one-on-one phone interviews over the summer.
At the Nov. 22 meeting all the other work that had been done began to take form with 20 recommendations in five areas being introduced. The recommendations were in the areas of:
- Leadership
- United Methodist Ethos
- Trust
- Financial Resources
- Communication
However, this introduction was only the beginning of the work for the day.
Upon hearing the recommendations, those gathered broke into small groups to work on perfecting the elements and the language. The results of that work will be collected and incorporated into the continuing work.
As the day neared its end, the work being done around visioning and leadership in many different arenas began to come into focus. An early draft of the FACT report was shared with the leaders and Upper New York Bishop Mark J. Webb set the context.
“I want you to understand that the document you are receiving is the coming together of two bodies of work,” explained Bishop Webb. “The first is the extensive research and knowledge of our friends at the general agencies. The second is the Mission Map (the strategic plan introduced at Annual Conference 2014) that we have been working on as a Conference for over a year and a half.”
In fact, the visioning work around outcomes from the Conference Leadership Team, the information gathered at district gatherings with the bishop, and countless other bits of information that have been gathered for the Mission Map are being merged with the in-depth research and brainstorming that has taken place as a part of the FACT process.
The end result will be a final report that will cast a vision for the Upper New York Conference into the future. That report will be available to all in 2015.
“This process has allowed us to acknowledge our reality, but more importantly our potential as the Church of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Webb said. “God is indeed at work in our lives and through our shared ministry and the Holy Spirit is leading us to even greater things!”