Connectional Services are some of the ways the Office of Connectional Ministries intentionally seeks to live out our charge to “ensure the connections among local, district, Annual Conference, and general church ministries. We work at fulfilling this goal by three primary tasks: Connecting to the General Church, Consulting and Training, and Annual Conference Support Services.
We have several ways of connecting with the various components of the General Church. Each of these means is intended to help us fulfill ¶608.1 of The Book of Discipline.
First, each program staff member has become familiar with their counterparts on the general and jurisdictional conference levels. We are able to offer suggestions, connect people to available resources, and share grassroots concerns with the larger church.
Second, our Annual Conference has representation on the General Boards that set policy and offer resources in both the programmatic and administrative areas. The Connectional Ministries office can help connect you with these representatives.
Third, our program staff has become adept at connecting people to information via the General Church's website, www.umc.org.
Our program staff members offer consultation and training to local churches and clusters of churches in a wide-variety of areas. We offer leadership training, teacher training, vision discernment, mission interpretation, lay speaker training, stewardship, children and youth ministries, intentional hospitality, board planning days, and staff development. Churches normally contact the staff person directly working with that particular ministry area to negotiate a date and define the desired outcomes so a customized workshop can be developed. Our program staff comes to the local church or district at no charge as our expenses are provided through the local churches payment of the Apportionments.