What is important to you as a member of a church? How does a congregation determine how to spend resources? The answers are often find in having clarity around what is valued. The Dakotas Conference Strategy Team has developed a resource to help congregations define their values. 

The Dakotas Strategy Team is comprised of seven clergy and eight laity from across the Conference, and Bishop Laurie Haller. Team members include the following people: Derek Baum, Tom Dravland, Jane Hincks, Jennifer Larsen, Kris Mutzenberger, Tiff Ortman, Nancy Oviatt, Jeff Pospisil, Ross Reinhiller, Al Roll, Peggy Stempson, Rebecca Trefz, Brandon Vetter, Alisha Vincent, Barry Whipkey and Bishop Haller.

The work of the Strategy Team is informed by the reality that, at the General Conference, now scheduled for August 2022, there is proposed legislation to create systems and processes to allow for a split of The United Methodist church into two or more forms of Methodism. If for some reason no effective legislation passes out of General Conference, some Dakotas Conference congregations and clergy will still make the choice to separate or disaffiliate.  

The focus of the Dakotas Strategy Team are three objectives:

1. To imagine and develop a model or models for how we continue to carry forward our core values (Jesus, Mission, Connection), and our mission (Making disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world), in a post-General Conference environment.
2. Design specific strategies that create ways for pastors and churches to participate in shared ministry and/or support services, innovative partnerships, and collaborative Kingdom work while staying true to their convictions and callings.
3. Design strategies for assisting every clergyperson and every congregation to find a place where they can best fulfill their contextual mission and vision.

The Strategy Team has worked on a number of things in the past year. Some are foundational and help set the stage for accomplishing objectives, and others are specific to accomplishing one of the three objectives.

As the team began to reflect on how to best support churches in navigating these denominational challenges, one of observations that emerged was that many churches are not prepared for some of these hard conversations and decisions. Many factors may contribute to this reality but a clear one is that many churches have not articulated what their core values are—those things that make your church who it is—the things that made you want to join. 

In response to this observation, the Strategy Team has developed a workshop designed to assist local congregations in determining their values.  Through the process of determining core values – churches are able to understand more fully how they are called to uniquely live into the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. In addition, we believe the discernment of core values will help local congregations make big decisions, including decisions about their place in The United Methodist Church as well who they want to be as they emerge from this pandemic. 

The values workshop is meant to be done by a group from your congregation – hopefully, as many members as possible.  It will likely take 4-5 hours, so you want to plan in advance for this.  There are a number of people in the Conference who have been trained to be facilitators for the workshop – including all district superintendents, some lay people, and some pastors. 

Congregations are invited to take advantage of the free value workshop resource. Request a workshop here.