Helping People Serve Out of Their Passions

Director of Leadership Excellence Mark Statler opened his report by explaining how their the ministry area relates to the Board of Ordained Ministry, District Committees on Ministry and the Conference Lay Ministries team. The center has been working on a lot key events and processes related to these things that recently included Right Start and Residents in Ministry. Upcoming opportunities include: 

• Rebekah Simon-Peter for small-to-mid-sized churches on October 28
• Adaptive Capacity Leadership Cohort launching in October 2023
• Preaching Academy in April 2024

Leadership Excellence is also supporting a fellows program that currently has Rev. Keyarae Yi at First UMC (Kearney) and Rev. Sarah Rugenstone at The Gathering in St. Louis. The current Cole Scholar is Monique Jones at Woods Chapel. There are close to 40 cross-cultural appointments in the Missouri Conference. 

“We help congregations develop missional leaders,” Statler said. “Rather than asking people to fill volunteer spots, how about we invite them to serve out of their gifts and passions?”