April Update from the Coordinating Team

Dear Next Church colleagues, siblings and friends –

Blessings to you in this holy season, as our Lenten journey begins its move toward Jerusalem.

We are grateful for your connection to Next Church – whether through a National Gathering, a cohort, an elder symposium or training. With you, we form a network of leaders who believe the Spirit is even now moving through the church. We seek to strengthen the relational fabric of the church, cultivating congregations and leaders who work to promote God’s transformation of our communities. In recent years, we have endeavored to engage that work undergirded with the commitment to be an anti-racist organization.

You may know that the past year has been one of transition for us, especially as we have faced several changes in our staff. We are grateful to all who have so faithfully served our mission, and those who continue to do so. We are very glad to report that we are moving through this season with a positive sense of purpose.

 Last week, we held a two-day retreat with our leaders, a retreat that generated hope for our future. There  is much work to do, but we are committed, and we believe that God is calling us to new ways of being and ways of serving the church.

At our retreat, we:

  •      Re-connected and re-engaged one another, a challenging but important task in a season of COVID and Zoom
  •      Worked through the content and proposed  interventions of the anti-racism audit we received from Crossroads Training a year ago (stay tuned for more in the coming weeks)
  •     Engaged the Antiracist Practices for Faithful Leaders Recorded Seriesthrough thoughtful conversation
  •       Discerned extensively about our next steps as an organization, including our staffing model and financial picture
  •    Shared dreams and visions about our future

This season of transition has been challenging for us. We are grateful for our leaders and dedicated staff who are committed to this effort. More so, we are grateful for all those – including you – who continue to support us and buoy us in this work. Thank you.

If you’d like to be in touch, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us below.

Finally, we hope you will join us in May! Our National Gathering will be held May 16-18 in Montreat. We are planning something really meaningful and we’d love for you to be there.

 

Onward –

Veronica Cannon, Co-Convener, Coordinating Team

John Wilkinson, Co-Convener, Coordinating Team