Your Network Board of Directors is hard at work today, meeting at the Lutheran Center in Chicago.
We actually began meeting last night, just spending time together and doing “check-ins” on each others lives.
Today we buckled down for some hard work. Highlights included:
- Opening devotions
- Approving minutes and other “housekeeping” items
- Rachel Alley, Program Director for Youth Ministries gave us a report on her work and the ministries of the ELCA relating to faith formation
- Todd Buegler gave a Directors report on Network activity since the last time the board met at the Extravaganza
- We discussed a proposal for a new for of organizational partnership, working with ELCA outdoor ministries
- We reviewed progress on our strategic plan
- We updated on the progress of the “Discipling Cohorts Initiative”
- We discussed some new possibilities for connecting with those entering ministry
- We heard a report on the Network’s multi-cultural initiative and discussed connecting participants in this ministry with leadership opportunities within the Network
- We crafted a new “best practice” on how we memorialize Network members who have died in the past year
- We discussed the timeline for the work of the Nominating Committee and what the needs of the Network would be for the next members taking roles on the board
- We ate some lunch and then visited our friends who work in faith formation ministries on the 9th floor
- Mark Burkhart who works with congregational and synodical mission and who leads the faith formation team stopped by for a visit
- We discussed the Extravaganza, evaluation results and some shifts the E-Team is making in its planning
- We talked about Extravaganza 2021 in Minneapolis and some of the unique challenges of that location
- We reviewed and edited the Network’s governing documents
- We talked about goals for Network membership and how we both create membership levels and market the Network
The board will be heading to dinner at 6pm. Tomorrow we begin work again at 9am and will be meeting until noon before heading to the airport and back to our homes and our ministries. This is a wonderful and gifted board, and our conversations have been rich, dynamic and exhausting.
Please continue to pray for the board as they do their work, and for safe travel home.
Peace,
Todd
Network is a Verb 