The Conference Connectional Table (CCT) met August 21 at the Methodist Building in Garner. After a devotion by James Henderson and communion led by Bishop Ward, the CCT moved into the day’s business. In attendance were CCT members and committee chairpersons from the Christian Formation, Leadership, Outreach, and Stewardship ministries.
The focus of the meeting was to discuss the conference budgeting process and to acquaint committee chairpersons with the format of video conferences, designed to deepen the dialogue between committees and CCT ministry team members.
The goal of these video conferences is two-fold:
- to ensure alignment between committee initiatives and the conference vision and emphases; and
- to provide chairpersons the opportunity to offer their programming ideas, to receive input on their budgeting priorities, and to identify to CCT team members what they need to implement their committee’s vision.
These 15-minutes video conferences will be scheduled twice yearly in March and November, and will utilize the ZOOM platform. Douglas Ward and Derek Leek provided ZOOM operational tips to CCT members and chairpersons. The first video conferences will be held November 14.
Christine Dodson explained the conference’s budgeting process, which operates on a four-year cycle. For example, the planning process for year 2021 begins in 2018.
- Year 1: Plan a budget (2018)
- Year 2: Approve a budget (2019)
- Year 3: Raise a budget (2020)
- Year 4: Spend a budget (2021)
Celebrating Our Ministries
The Bishop encouraged everyone to envision ministry in new and creative ways. Thirteen people offered stories about good things happening in their ministries. Michelle Taylor Skipper, CCT member and clinical professor and director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at ECU, was featured on NPR’s The State of Things in a session titled Leading a Life of Service: Meet Michelle Skipper.
Updates: Conference Priorities
- A year ago, the CCT brought into the conference the Academy, now called the Center for Leadership Excellence. In August, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, Leah Wiebe-Smith, director of the Center for Leadership Excellence, and Steve Taylor, executive director of Connectional Ministries, gathered with the conference Strengthening the Black Church 21 committee (SBC21) and planned to work collaboratively to develop a Fellows program within the committee’s work.
- Having finished another round of SHIFT, Connectional Ministries offered in August one-day SHIFT workshops with Phil Maynard in four locations throughout the conference. Called Intentional Discipleship, the workshops attracted about 250 pastors and laity.
- In April, the CCT decided to launch a series of readings to learn our history and how we can move ourselves out of these spaces of micro-aggression. The first two books are Waking Up White and Enrique’s Journey.
- Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, Gray Southern, and Gary Locklear led General Conference conversational gatherings in various districts.
New CCT Member
Natalie Van Dyke is the newly elected president of the Conference Committee on Youth Ministries (CCYM).
Upcoming Events
- November 13: Bishop’s Forum on the opiod crisis
- November 14: Next CCT meeting including video conferences with committee chairpersons and CCT ministry team members