Title: Leadership, planning anchor Administrative Committee agenda
Date: February 4, 1999
Disciples News Service Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
99b-6
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- Unanimous votes by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Administrative Committee supported reelection of the general minister and president and added a new executive to the staff team.
The committee, meeting here Jan. 31-Feb. 2, heartily endorsed forwarding General Minister and President Richard Hamm's name to the General Board. If approved by the General Board in July, Hamm's name will be sent to the General Assembly for a reelection vote in October. A two-thirds vote is required by both bodies.
The Administrative Committee elected Lois Artis Murray, Wake Forest, N.C., associate general minister and Church Finance Council president. She is a former assistant secretary for administration with the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources in Raleigh. Since 1996, she and her spouse, the Rev. Samuel J. Murray, have been co-pastors of St. Andrews Christian Church, Dudley, N.C. Lois Murray begins the new assignment May 10.
A certified public accountant, Murray was chief financial officer for a state agency whose annual budget exceeded $2 billion. In addition, she supervised seven regional offices, five administrative divisions and 16 program divisions, and was a senior member of N.C. Governor James B. Hunt, Jr.'s staff.
The new CFC president-elect holds a bachelor's degree from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and a master's of business administration degree from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is currently a student at Duke University Divinity School, Durham.
Hamm, first elected to office in 1993, finishes his first six-year term during the Oct. 8-12 General Assembly in Cincinnati. During the term Hamm initiated discernment processes that promote churchwide education and dialogue as an alternative to divisive parliamentary debate and win-lose voting by the assembly over contentious issues. The initial discernment processes concerned racism and scriptural authority. He also helped the Indianapolis-based denomination identify strengthening congregations as a chief priority.
Churchwide planning also dominated the business agenda. The committee received a report detailing an initial meeting of the Mission Council, appointed by the General Board in July 1998.
The Mission Council, which met in January, will facilitate a process that helps strengthen congregations for mission around six vital issues. Those issues, identified by the General Board in 1998, are: spiritual vitality and faith development; leadership development; inclusiveness, diversity and hospitality; evangelism and witness; justice, reconciliation and service; and worship.
Unlike past attempts at program planning and coordination, the council will not engage in "top down methodology," said Hamm. The entire process will use more of a holistic approach. "The mission council decided that its job was to establish some tables around the life of the church where people could come together to talk about these vital issues and engage them," Hamm said.
The council's presence manifests a shift by regions and general units from being "hubs of control" to being "hubs of communication," according to the GMP. General and regional partners will "overhear" conversations and planning about mission initiated by congregations.
In addition, the planning council will make recommendations to the Commission on Mission Funding for grant requests from the mission imperatives fund. One percent, or approximately $200,000 from Basic Mission Finance receipts, is designated for the imperatives fund.
Having that resource available to church entities is exciting and will stimulate some work around these vital issues, according to Hamm.
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