Conference restructure up for a vote

Changes to the Oklahoma Conference’s  current structure are up for a vote at the 2020 Annual conference. The proposed changes are intended to help the conference focus on serving the local church and respond more effectively to racial and justice issues, said Rev. Derrek Belase, director of connectional ministry.

“The larger situation of the world around us, where we know that these matters are theological in nature and the church must respond to what is happening, and one of the ways to do that as an institution is to align to be ready to respond,” Belase said. “Local churches can respond in many ways, but annual conferences often need to respond through our structures.”

The current structure was put into place 20 years ago in order to focus on five areas: discipleship, leadership, mission, starting churches and communicaton. Belase said these areas are not parsed out as separately in today’s church, and it was necessary for the annual conference to respond accordingly.

“We should always organize ourselves to meet our mission,” Belase said. “Regardless of what’s going on in our mission, we need to adapt to our conference needs.”

Among the proposed restructure changes are reorganizing Discipleship and Leadership Development into Local Church Development and Minority Local Church Concerns; Mission and Service, New Faith Communities and the Communications Ministry will keep their current structure. Changes are detailed in the pre-conference workbook.