A primary summer project of the Mission Strategy Network (MSN) was to develop a set of four teams to work on each of the four goals of the report by the Bishop’s Commission on Mission Strategy (BCMS) that was approved by Diocesan Convention in 2007. These teams have now been formed, and they held their first joint gathering at St. David’s, Minnetonka, on Saturday, September 13, 2008, to strengthen their own networks and to plan for presentations at September’s Clergy Conference and October’s Diocesan Convention. In addition, every church in the diocese is being contacted personally about mission strategy goals.

The meeting opened with Gospel-Based Discipleship, led by the Rev. Mariann Budde. MSN co-chair Jim Huber then offered this challenge: “How will we accomplish the mission that BCMS laid out for us and that Convention approved?” The rest of the day was devoted to next steps in this process.

Continuing the communication

The Rev. Anne Miner-Pearson reported on her work of personally contacting a clergy or lay person from each church in the diocese. She had already made 79 contacts as of the September 13 meeting, and reported that she was also waiting for some other phone calls and e-mails to be returned. Updates and comments from these calls were included in the materials distributed to the task teams at the meeting.

Miner-Pearson is encouraged by these conversations. “Many people said they were not doing any BCMS work,” she said later, “so I would then ask them what was happening at their churches.” After hearing these stories, she was often able to tell them that they were already working on one of the BCMS goals.

Stories from a number of these congregations will be included in these regular communiqués. In addition, each congregation has been asked to identify one “point person” to relay news of its work around one or more of the BCMS goals. The regular communiqués, whether specific updates on the work or stories of mission from individual congregations, are yet another aspect of the network’s communication strategy.

Kevin Bullock is working on Web communications for mission strategy, beginning with a site at http://www.missionstrategymn.org/ for news and communiqués from the core teams. He asked each task team to identify one person that day who would be set up with posting rights to the site. He has also set up a Mission Strategy group on the diocesan social network site, where Episcopalians who are spread around the diocese can share news and stay in constant communication about the process.

Beginning the work of the task teams

Draft documents of the proposed work of each task team had been prepared by team leaders and were distributed at the meeting. It was interesting to note that, although each document focused on one specific goal, elements of other goals were often present as well — most notably the concepts of spiritual transformation and the use of new and existing networks to help accomplish the goals. The individual task teams also met in two separate work sessions during the day, to review their own goal areas and to develop implementation plans and timetables, as well as identify resources required to do their work. Each team reported back to the entire group later in the afternoon.

Finding connectivity amid uncertainty and transition

The congregational conversations reported by Anne Miner-Pearson ran the gamut from little or no knowledge of the BCMS report and the work to listing of the dreams of the congregations to stories of new or ongoing renewal projects. Now, all have been (or will be) contacted personally, and some had particular suggestions for aspects of the MSN work. And, as noted above, many are actively pursuing mission strategy work already without knowing it.

A number of congregations of our diocese are in transition and uncertain about their future. They are not alone. “We are about the transition as well,” says Jim Huber, alluding to references to the ongoing bishop search process and staff changes at the Episcopal Center.

Karen Olson, recently named Canon and Executive Officer, agreed. “We will keep trying to find connectivity,” she said to the meeting, “and we will try to keep this melding together.”