Overview
The future of the church is more connected. The future of the church is in deeper conversation. The future of the church is a future with deeper covenant. The Covenant Project is the work of changing structures to be more just and relationships across the church to be more connected.
The Covenant Project began more than three years ago as part of the work of Governance Committee of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. When the Governance Committee met in retreat in the fall of 2019, they committed to the work of aligning the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) with God’s design for the church and to claim the power and potential of covenant.
To that end, the committee took two important steps: the first was the development of the Covenant Curriculum, a small group resource for congregations to explore their identity as covenantal partners in the wider church. The second was a process of a review of the Design, with an aim to explore how the church’s structures and practices might shift to better serve the church, with two main areas of focus. The first area of evaluation and recommendations is the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) which refers to not just a gathering but the structure of how congregations relate to and engage with the larger church to provide feedback, prioritize vision and lead. The second area of evaluations and recommendations is centered around the General Board.
In April of 2023 the General Board voted to send to the General Assembly GA-2343: Amendments to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a resolution that encompassed the proposed changes of the Covenant Project.
Why Now? Why This?
When the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) established The Design in 1969, much of the structures and practices were adapted from the existing structures. As our church has grown more expansive and diverse, we’ve made adaptations on the model. However, the changing composition of the church and a growing desire to have our structures reflect our commitment to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world means rethinking how we engage and relate to one another. Put simply, if we are going to be the church we say we are, we need to dismantle structures that aren’t working well and reimagine how we relate to one another as the body of Christ. We want to be more connected, not less. We want congregations to be more connected to one another and the General Board, have more of a voice in the present and future of the church. These changes will allow congregations to be able to provide feedback, set agendas and weigh in on the present and future of the church. They will allow the General Board and General Assembly to to hear with more frequency and with more nuance from congregations so that more voices are heard and shape the church.
Timeline
The Covenant Project process began in 2019 under the direction of the Governance Committee. Bill Jennison, an active member of the committee shared, “We determined we needed a renewed emphasis on covenant as an organizing principle for our church.” This led to a series of rich conversations which will continue over the next year leading up to the 2023 General Assembly.
In the fall of 2020, The Governance Committee presented to the Administrative Committee a framework of possible changes to The Design. Those changes were also reviewed by groups of church leaders including the General Cabinet and the College of Regional Ministers. In April 2021, a refined framework was presented to the General Board for review and comment.
One year later, at the 2022 General Board meeting, the Governance Committee again presented a further refined framework and proposed changes for the Board to engage in discernment, dialogue and prayer.
In the summer of 2022, clergy, congregations and leadership across the church will be invited to attend a series of digital and in person town hall-style listening sessions. We encourage you to attend. You may see a full schedule of opportunities here.
This will provide an opportunity for the Governance Committee and the General Board to receive feedback from church leadership across the church and revise the proposal prior to the 2023 General Assembly in Louisville, Kentucky. It also offers the church an opportunity to learn more about the potential changes and processes prior to voting at General Assembly.
Two Areas of Change
While there has not yet been a formal proposal for change, there are two key areas of change which have been discussed by the General Board and the Governance committee:
General Assembly
If the suggested changes are ultimately adopted, the General Assembly will meet more often during a three-year cycle. Every three years, there would be a hybrid meeting, with opportunities for participation in person and online; in the other two years of the cycle, the Assembly would meet in online-only gatherings. This change will allow more people to attend General Assembly while reducing costs as well as other barriers to attend.
Under the new General Assembly model, congregations would appoint three delegates to serve three-year terms, to increase engagement across the life of the church. Delegates to the General Assembly would shift the focus of their work from primarily voting on resolutions to engaging in dialogue, discernment, and prayer with increased frequency. With more regular meeting and dialogue, delegates would provide feedback from their congregational and Regional circles about the priorities of the church to the General Board. The new delegate model, along with different meeting formats, will increase the number of voices from across the church who will be engaged in this work, particularly including those who have not always had access to decision-making structures. While resolutions will still be a part of the General Assembly experience, dialogue, education, and discernment will be the primary foci of meetings.
Congregation delegates would serve three-year terms, with one representative being new each year. This model provides continuity of participation in the General Assembly meetings, time for each delegate to live into their role as a delegate and avoids having all three delegates being new at the same time.
General Board
Currently, the General Board consists of representatives chosen from each of the general and regional ministries, the executive leaders of each of those ministries, at-large members selected by the General Nominating Committee, ecumenical representatives and representatives from colleges and universities, along with the elected officers of the General Assembly.
In the new model, the General Board would become a working board that meets more often than once a year. Members would serve on one of three committees: Mission, Finance and Executive. Committees would meet and work together on an ongoing, regular basis. The General Board would be reduced in size and rather than the board having representatives from regions and groups, board members would be mostly at-large and selected by the nominating committee for essential skills and experience, while also reflecting the diversity of the church.
The General Board would receive missional priorities from the congregational delegates who are gathering for dialogue and discernment through more frequent General Assemblies. The General Board would also act on behalf of the church in making statements of social witness following the church’s engagement at General Assemblies, establishing mission priorities, and acting on policies and procedures as needed, maintain 501(c)3 status, recommend changes to The Design and approve regional boundary changes.
“Over the course of time, we want the General Board not to send things down, but to be listening from the bottom up. What is on the hearts of the people? And how do we want to proceed?”
– Rev. Terri Hord Owens, 2022 Kirkpatrick conference
Stewardship will become a core responsibility of the General Board, which would regularly evaluate, revise and improve the church-wide funding system. The Board would also articulate a clear and compelling message that explains why the church is worthy of investment and provide healthy accountability through the Finance Committee.
What We’ve Heard from Town Halls
In the late summer and across the fall of 2022, the Covenant Project launched a series of town halls to discuss the proposed changes and gather feedback from congregations and leaders across the life of the church. Hosting 29 town halls in addition to digital resources, the General Minister and President, Moderator of the General Board and members of the Governance Committee were able to share proposed changes and hear feedback.
View the Covenant Project town hall presentation and Q&A. Or the video for GA-2343.
Some of the highlights from the feedback include:
- A desire for materials that support volunteer recruitment such as volunteer job descriptions and details about the time commitment involved in being a representative
- The challenge for congregations to recruit representatives
- A clearly articulated process for how members of the general board are nominated to ensure wide representation across the life of the church
- Support for rural congregations and congregations that have limited internet or access to technology
Frequently Asked Questions
The goal is for each member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to understand the Covenant Project proposed changes and have the ability to provide feedback. We encourage you to attend a Covenant Project town hall. If attending a town hall is not possible, we encourage listening or watching one of the many video conversations focused on the Covenant Project, including a recorded town hall presentation and Q&A conversation. Please take time to explore some of the Frequently Asked Questions about this process and its impacts.
The Covenant Project aims to strengthen the body of the church, expanding our knowledge of each other and including more people. More congregations and individuals will be able to be involved and engaged; people from a more diverse group will be able to participate. . General Assembly delegates and participants will have access to meetings using technology. This provides more access to people who maybe could not afford or chose not to afford travel expenses to attend the in-person only meetings. The vision is to encourage more investment in the life of the church and a deeper understanding of how we form the body of Christ together.
The Covenant Project changes aim to engender more participation and more investment in the mission and ministry of the church–growing in diversity, fulfilling its role in a more efficient and effective way. These changes also allow us as a church to be nimbler and discern mission and ministry and align funding to what we say our priorities are.
Your congregation will benefit from the inspiration, energy, and resources from the networking that your representatives are doing as they participate in this expanded way of being the church. Each congregation will have more frequent and consistent opportunities to shape the life fo the wider church.
Currently each congregation sends delegates to the in person General Assembly every two years. These delegates vote on resolutions and engage worship and the larger conversation at these events.
Under the proposed changes, your congregation will still select delegates to the General Assembly. The congregational delegates will join clergy voting delegates, as they currently do. Instead of serving at an event once every two years, your delegates will be asked to serve a three-year term, representing your church in conversations throughout the intervening years. These conversations will provide feedback and direction to the General Board, not just in the years that the church gathers in person but in the years the General Assembly meets virtually.
The proposed changes will have no impact on clergy voting status. Clergy will obtain and maintain their voting status in the same way they currently do.
Currently, each region sends one representative to the General Board, and each regional minister serve, ex-officio without vote, on the board. In the new model, the nominating committee will nominate board members from across all the regions.
Currently, the majority of voting members of the General Board are selected by general ministries and regions with a smaller number of at-large members. Under the new model, members would be selected based on the skills they bring to lead the church around the three committees: Mission, Finance and Executive. There would be a priority on selecting members that represent the broad diversity of the church. Instead of all regional ministers serving without vote, there would be six regional ministers serving with vote. Instead of all general ministry executives serving without vote, there would be three general ministry executives serving with vote.
This change would move the board from a representative board, in which each ministry sends someone to represent that ministry, to a governing board, in which all members work together to serve the whole church.
The officers will be slightly different: Currently, the officers include a moderator, two vice moderators, and a moderator-elect. This will be changed to a moderator, one vice moderator, a moderator-elect, and a chaplain, who will tend to the worshipful work of the General Assembly and General Board.
Currently, the church gathers every two years as the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to listen, discern and consider resolutions. The General Board meets once a year.
Under the proposed Governance process the business of the Assembly would shift from a focus on voting on resolutions to a focus on education and dialogue on issues. Action on matters of social witness will be taken by the General Board after dialogue, formation, education, discernment and prayer by the General Assembly. This dialogue, formation, education, discernment and prayer could happen over multiple years and can lead to a multitude of possible actions.
In some ways, this new model will save money: holding an in-person event every three years instead of two will help ministries save money, and individuals will save on travel and lodging costs when attending a digital gathering. In other ways, there will be new costs involved: the church will need to fund the infrastructure – both in technology and staff – to make this new meeting model work.
The Covenant Project work began and was rooted in prayer. A prayer team was established early in the process to engage this work through prayer. The process has also been undergirded by study of scripture. In summer of 2021, the Covenant Curriculum was provided for congregations and regions to utilize to engage scripture in this process. You can find that curriculum here.
We encourage you to participate in a Covenant Project town hall either in your region or through other churchwide opportunities. If attending a town hall is not possible, consider viewing the recorded town hall and Q&A conversation. The General Board feels strongly that as we strengthen relationships across the church, that the work of listening and feedback will take place in community when possible.
Currently, congregations are designated voting delegates based on membership size. In the new model all congregations would have three voting delegates in the hopes of moving to more equity.
Following the vote at the 2023 General Assembly, there will be a several year implementation period. During this time you will receive volunteer job descriptions, videos and other materials to help you recruit the right volunteer to be your delegate at the General Assembly.