Blended Parish Structure

Background
What is a Blended Ministry Parish?: The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church defines it as “the merging of the organizations and memberships of churches spread throughout a defined geographical area into one church that intentionally develops two or more worship/program centers at agreed-upon locations, and for which there is one charge conference and one set of committees and other groups of an organized local church, guided by a covenant and served by a staff and a director appointed or assigned to the parish.”

Are Trinity and/or Town Point planning to close their doors?
There is no plan or intention to close either facility, rather to work together to use each building to its fullest advantage for worship and ministries. The names of each facility and worship service will remain the same.

Will we still be the Chesapeake City United Methodist Charge?
We are still in discernment about what name will be used to refer to all three congregations. If you have questions or suggestions, the team welcomes your input.

So exactly what will I be a member of if we become a “blended ministry parish?”
Your membership as a United Methodist in the Chesapeake City area will not change, nor should your attachment to one or more buildings as your “home” church or congregation (you can designate your worshipping church or congregation if you so choose). Our members’ identification with and dedication to their congregation is what gives us strength, just as we have and will continue to find strength in joining together.

Why are the leaders considering joining the administration of the churches NOW?
As we looked into the history of our Charge, we discovered that the churches have begun meeting and working together over the course of many years. Our sense of community has grown significantly in just the last few years. When we looked back in even further, we found that Methodists in the Chesapeake City area have grown and responded to change time and time again. (Mikki’s presentation here)

Reasoning
What is gained by doing this?

We believe that reorganizing our administrative structure will allow us to be more fruitful in serving our shared mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ by inviting, developing, and sending people in the name of Jesus Christ through a worshipping, nurturing, and teaching fellowship.

• Becoming more unified in our administrative, financial, and membership structure is a faithful witness to the presence of the Holy Spirit among disciples of Jesus Christ. The more unity we have in the Holy Spirit, the more creative energy and strength God’s people experience.
• It is also a good use of the spiritual gifts God has entrusted to us. More folks will be able to serve in the ways in which they are gifted- far more members of our community have gifts of mercy and compassion than have gifts of administration and leadership.
• Fewer administrative servants from across the charge will be required for service on committees. The goal is to have more time for service (in areas like congregational care, spiritual formation, and ministry with people in need) and spend less time in meetings.
• People who become members at Jacob’s Well will simply be a part of the unified membership structure. It will not require making artificial designations of JW folks as being members of TP or TR for purposes of official reporting. Under the blended ministry parish structure, we would have a unified membership roster. Under the current structure, there is now way for a JW person to be a member of the Charge because the Charge is not a separately incorporated entity.
• As a Charge, we have found that the most fruit is born of joint ministry. It is the places where we join together for the sake of the gospel that God blesses us most deeply. We want to honor where the Spirit is leading.

What is going to change at our churches?
If you are not serving on a committee, but attend worship and participate in the life of the community, you probably will not notice any change at all. One of the goals of the new structure is to allow more people to spend time in service ministry and short term “task groups” with fewer people in administrative ministry (committee meetings). Under the new structure, we anticipate that some of those serving on traditional committees will be freed to serve in other areas or on short-term committees or “task groups.” Currently, many of our committees meet jointly, including Worship, Missions, Preschool, Staff Parish Relations. This process will unify all committees, and require fewer administrative servants overall.

Won’t meetings be longer since there will be more administration to consider?
It is an intuitive conclusion that if each Town Point, Trinty, and Jacob’s Well spend 1-2 hours at each meeting, it would seem impossible to have a meeting to cover all three. However, some of what is discussed is re-reporting from the other meetings, and duplicate conversation about the same topics. Some of what is decided can and should be decided by the group doing the ministry, rather than Council. In addition, larger churches actually have fewer members on their Administrative Council equivalent body. (A UM Church of 10,000 in Ohio has a Council of fewer than 10 people.)

What about our apportionments?
Apportionments refer to the money that we forward to the United Methodist Church for use in mission, justice, and denominational administration ministries. Our apportionments would be unified, and Jacob’s Well would not increase our apportionments for four more years.

What about the budget and designated funds or endowments?
The three congregations already share 60%?-75% of all charge expenses, and a joint administration should make financial processes more efficient. Expenditures will continue to go through a committee process for approval and we will work under the organization of a unifiedjoint annual budget. Special funds and endowments held by Trinity or Town Point are bound by legal requirements and these will be honored. by the administrative body.

Process

How will the leadership decide what the structure should look like?
There are United Methodist churches in our region and throughout the country that have joined administrations in this way and/or created new and different structures to meet their needs, as allowed by the Book of Discipline. We will be consulting with them to see what has worked well, and carefully considering our own needs to develop a practical structure. In addition, we will set up evaluation of the structure for future years, so that we can be sure that the new structure serves the mission well.

When will this issue be voted upon and how we will be informed?
The Blended Ministry Parish Committee is charged with keeping the congregations informed about their efforts to develop a proposed administrative structure and the dates when key meetings and votes will be held. This information will be communicated in special mailings, the summer newsletter, and on the church website. The timeline is below:

How will the vote be conducted at the church conference in September?
The District Superintendent will preside over a church conference, at which the members will be asked to vote whether to join as a “blended ministry parish” and to revise the current administrative structure. Each church will vote separately by paper ballot, which will be given to as you check in for the meeting. You must be present at the meeting to vote. When the votes are tallied, a simple majority is required for passage. Both Town Point and Trinity must approve the proposal for it to take effect.

How do I know if I am eligible to vote?
Members (full, associate, or affiliate) of Town Point or Trinity Churches can vote on this issue, as well as members of Jacob’s Well who are listed on the roster of either church. A complete membership list will be posted on the bulletin board at each church at the time of this mailing and will also be available on the website at www.trinitytownpoint.com. Please take the time to review your membership status and notify the church office of any errors or changes as soon as possible.