Green Valley Community UMC, guided by the Conference Strategic Direction
By Rev. Michael Pearson
When I was asked, “Where is the Strategic Direction guiding a church in the South District?” I immediately reviewed the charge conference season because a version of that question was asked of all congregations: “How is the Strategic Direction guiding your church?” Green Valley Community UMC was best able to articulate how this process was happening. So let me share with you how it is working in that congregation. Let me first offer a slight disclaimer: the Conference Strategic Direction’s chair, Jim Jennings, is a member at Green Valley Community UMC. In fact, it was he that I turned to for more information.
This congregation has a long history of outreach and missions work, but the Strategic Direction has provided some additional focus. Most recently, the Strategic Direction has informed the decision making process in their creation of a job description and hiring of a Volunteer Coordinator. The Volunteer Coordinator has taken the social holiness aspect of the Strategic Direction as a major part of her job description. She is seeing to it that new opportunities for service and experiential learning are in place for the congregation.
Let me share a brief listing of ongoing activities that demonstrate a high commitment to both new and ongoing programs: Food Bank Sunday (last year over $6,000 and two tons of food raised), UMCOR special offerings, funding for the women’s shelter, and assistance for a local single parent. On border issues the church has been at the forefront of the Conference Church-to-Church program, and has a relationship with four border congregations: three in Mexico and one in Nogales, AZ, El Mesias UMC. It also has recently partnered with the Claremont School of Theology to sponsor a lecture for the church and community on Christianity and Immigration. The lecture was given by Dr. Helene Slessarev Jamir and was delivered in conjunction with a course of study class hosted by the church. Dr. Jamir taught the class.
With regard to the second priority, to develop an ongoing culture of leadership development, the church and its two pastors, Rebecca Oakes Long, Senior Pastor and Jeanne Festa, Associate Pastor, have both attended leadership development classes and have participated in training new church leaders. In addition, lay speaking classes at the church have helped new leaders develop skills and enabled others to preach in four care centers in town. Also, youth are involved in leading two worship services and are being mentored.
Our third direction centers on encouraging a culture of planting new churches and communities of faith. Green Valley Community has paid almost three quarters of its Forward in Their Footsteps Campaign goal. In addition, they have been financially supportive of new faith efforts in Nogales, Sonora at El Divino Redemptor, and the Crossroads Mission. Finally, they continue to be supportive of Santa Cruz Valley UMC, a congregation they parented several years ago.
When I asked if there was a good understanding of the Strategic Direction and how it was guiding the congregation into the future, Jim responded that this was a growth area for the church. The Green Valley Community UMC has already been doing many of the things that fit the measurable objectives. Therefore, the changes have been by addition rather than by taking a completely new direction. Jim noted that the outward focus of the Strategic Direction has been one of the direct benefits to the church.