Nebraska United Methodist Conference Transition Team

Job Descriptions | Meeting Minutes | Process Chart

To the people of

The Nebraska United Methodist Church,

Most of us have had the experience of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The first thing you do is dump it out of the box onto a table of some kind. Then, you use some strategy to begin to put the pieces together. A common strategy is to look for the edge pieces; they're easier to find, because they have one straight edge, and when you have the edge pieces together, you have a frame. You've defined the puzzle, in a way, and you know that everything else has to fit within the frame. There are other strategies, too. Some people start with collecting all the pieces of a certain color; they put together the sky, or the lake, or the yellow flowers. Others sort by shape of piece. Regardless of strategy, however, there is much hunting, trying, putting aside, and later finding, just the right piece.

The task of the Transition Team has been akin to putting together a puzzle, though we didn't have a box with a picture on it. We've searched for the edge pieces, described in the Disciplemaking document, to give us a frame. We've searched for the big features, and we've labeled them Clergy Leadership, Laity Leadership, Signs of Vital Discipleship, and Transforming the World. We've thought about the table that supports the puzzle, and we've labeled it Structure and Resources. The puzzle is taking shape, but it's not yet complete. Most likely it will never be complete, because we'll always be open to new insights from the Holy Spirit within the Nebraska Annual Conference. We'll try some things, we'll discover some that work, and some that don't, and we'll put down that piece and search for another.

Our puzzle is more interesting, more complex, and more beautiful than anything that comes out of a box, because it's given life by the hopes and dreams and aspirations and efforts of the people of the Nebraska Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. To that end, we invite all to become a part of the puzzle-making process.

Marilyn Moore

Darrell Stock

Transition Team Co-chairs

A message from the bishop

Dear Friends,

The spirit of Making Disciples, Making a Difference is moving across Nebraska. During the recent cabinet assessment I read some of your discipleship plans rooted in the six signs of discipleship, and even more importantly, saw how you are carefully developing next steps and a timeline so that these plans can become a reality. Across the state in district and cabinet gatherings, along with visiting in local churches, I have heard so many people working on their own personal discipleship -- going to a spiritual director, joining a covenant discipleship group, organizing a prayer and Bible study group, participating in L3 leadership training, and the incubator program. I think we know instinctively that without being shaped by a walk with Christ and a deep immersion in Christian community, we cannot help our local churches be the disciple making places that God calls us to be. We are on a journey. This journey requires prayer, discernment, reflection, careful planning, concrete strategies, a timeline and a lifelong commitment. As we each move from membership to discipleship, to a life of giving ourselves away in mission and ministry, we are empowered to lead the church in this vital discipleship adventure.

The Transition team has been taking this same journey. The Exodus story captures much of our experience. This has been our year of walking in the desert with Moses, facing both our reality and our possibility, listening for a word from God, struggling with one another and living with our varied calls to mission and action, along with trying to give legs to the Discipleship Plan which the Conference adopted in 2006. About half the team was new. Just like in the local church when leadership changes, we had to become a new community and trust each other's hunches and concerns. We now have some first plans ready and want to dialogue with you about them. There is more work to be done. Please help us. We will take steps at this conference and then we will take others in the ensuing years. We are on the journey for a lifetime. Step by step we will let ourselves be shaped by Christ and community, making decisions that implement the Discipleship plan. We know where God is calling us to go. We are seeking to align the money, program and staff to develop the leadership to get us there. We are seeking to shape our new districts and our conference office as a resource to you in the local churches that are making disciples, making a difference. We are offering a comprehensive leadership development system. We are implementing some first steps of a nurture and accountability system. We are taking our work seriously. Please let us know how to improve our work.

I am so hopeful. We are moving steadily along a plan that will, by God's grace, give us opportunities to make disciples, make a difference, to be faithful and fruitful, and to discover in each place steps along a more excellent way.

Grace and peace,

Bishop Ann Brookshire Sherer