Report of the Deputy General Secretary
to the
Women’s Division
October 19, 2003

Since the April meeting of the Women’s Division, the division staff has been involved in revising staff position descriptions; restructuring supervisory relationships; assuming new responsibilities; and saying good-bye to colleagues that took early retirement due to the change in pension benefits. Although we hated to see eight staff retire, their retirement did enable the staff cabinet to take a look at core staff needs, possible realignments and a reduction in the number of staff positions without having to lay-off staff due to a reduction in income.

The staff cabinet approached the possibility of reconfiguration by doing the following:

1. Identifying core responsibilities that needed staff.

2. Reviewing previous staffing patterns in the division, going back into the mid-70's.

3. Setting a goal for the number of staff positions that we felt the current and near-future finances would support.

4. Working together to combine certain positions, establish new positions, and eliminate some existing positions

5. Reviewing process and procedures with the staff at the May staff meeting.

After the positions were established and position descriptions written, each staff was given a packet consisting of all descriptions and asked to complete the following form:

1. My current position is continuing and I would like to continue in that position_______

2. My current position is continuing and I am willing to continue in that position, but I would like to be considered for the following position(s)_____________________

3. My current position has been discontinued and I would like to be considered for the following position(s) ________________________

Responses were received from all staff by mid-June and the staff cabinet reviewed them, considered organizational needs as well as individual preferences and made the new assignments as of July 15. The Personnel Committee was consulted at several steps in the process.

Changing assignments and/or entire portfolio is easier for some than for others. Time has been given for those required to move to New York to make their adjustments, some of which will continue for the next several months. All staff are now in their new assignments. Have we reached utopia regarding positions needed in the Women’s Division? Not at all, for there is always more work to be done than there are hours in the day. Can we live and work within these arrangements until something else is required? Absolutely. Staffing needs change on a regular basis and certainly are not predictable, but at this time the staff cabinet feels that we have a staff configuration that is adequate for today and the near future.

We are in the midst of a Long Range Planning process. You have heard the report regarding survey responses and initial analysis, focus group input, and next steps as we prepare to establish goals for the coming years. In order to augment this process staff has started to do some looking at the future in a process that we are calling "Thinking Outside the Box". Haesun Kim and I are leading this endeavor. The emphasis is on looking at, envisioning the future instead of modifying the past. We are being encouraged to look at ourselves, the division, and the organization in light of possible futures within the church, the society and the world. What will the world be like in 15 years? What about the church? What will be the place and role of women? What concerns will women have about themselves and their communities? Where will I be professionally and individually in the next 10-15 years? What impact does or should my faith have on these questions?

Leonard Sweet in his book Soul Tsunami talks a great deal about the future. He is very clear when he says:

He goes on to say that we as Christians must be spiritual interventionists that are willing to help design this new world, for "the future is a function of our choices and creations."

There are any number of scenarios about what the world and the church will look like in 15 years. Some of them are simply duplicates of the past or perhaps a projection of the present; some go beyond our individual comfort zones; while others are dreams of a very different world or church. But do our futures take into account God’s promises of making all things new, of transforming lives, the world and the church? God’s promises are not about change, adaptation or reaction to what is. God’s promises are about transformation - something new - a new being, a new world, a transformed church, the reign of God in our midst.

Let’s look at the familiar story of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus as found in John 3. Just to remind you I will read the first several verses:

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above."

Isn’t it interesting that Nicodemus came! He was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, a devout man. Yet he came to see Jesus. But isn’t it also interesting that he came at night. Perhaps he knew there were some that would not approve of his visit, therefore he came in the safety of the night. He speaks for more than just himself when he acknowledges "we know that you are a teacher" implying that others agreed with him. But Nicodemus did not clearly understand what Jesus was about or who he was. He was looking at signs as the certainty that Jesus was from God. And then Jesus really confused him when he said "you must be born from above"! How can that be? What is Jesus talking about?

In the NRSV verse 3 is translated " Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above" whereas in many other translations it reads "born again" or "born anew". The New Interpreter’s Bible challenges all translations because the Greek word anothen means both "from above" and "again" or "anew". This double meaning is important and gets lost when one or other translation is used. "To be born anothen speaks both of a time of birth (again) and the place from which this new birth is generated(from above)" . Poor Nicodemus got lost in this double meaning as do most of us. We often fail to see that Jesus is talking about something new, something brought forth by water, but also by the Spirit of God. Jesus then goes on in the verses that follow to describe the new birth as similar to the wind/spirit. In all the images that Jesus uses, he is really talking about a mystery, a mystery that is beyond human possibility, but not beyond God’s possibilities.

That’s the kind of transformation that God promises. He is speaking of a new birth for individuals and for institutions and organizations, for the church and the world. Such is within the possibilities of God, for Jesus is offering new life brought about through the cross and the resurrection.

As committed Christian women, God’s promises must impact, influence, guide the future we are creating through our work. As leaders we must use innovation and creativity; we must draw upon God’s wisdom and become "wise women" in touch with reality tempered by the newness promised; we must communicate or "make common to many" the story of God at work in our midst today as well as in the past; we must draw from our heritage of faith and our belief in God’s promises to point to the future with a hope that we can articulate and live.

Eugene Peterson in his book Living the Message says:

"Hope is a response to the future which has its foundations in the promises of God. It looks at the future as time for the completion of God’s promise. But hope is not a doctrine about the future; it is a grace cultivated in the present, it is a stance in the present which deals with the future. As such it is misunderstood if it is valued only for the comfort it brings; as if it should say, "Everything is going to be all right in the future because God is in control of it, therefore relax and be comforted." Hope operates differently. Christian hope alerts us to the possibilities of the future as a field of action, and as a consequence fills the present with energy."

It is this hope - the hope that is built on God’s promises and Jesus’ resurrection - that gives us the energy, the joy and the excitement to be the leaders needed in our organization, the church and the world. It is this hope that moves us beyond despair, weariness, indifference and feelings of defeat. It is this hope that keeps us going in the midst of war, hate, violence and injustices, for it is in difficult times that God’s promises become to believers more life sustaining and "hope-filled". It is this hope that causes us to know that God has not given up on God’s world, that God is at work in the midst of all of the nonsense we see around us. It is this hope that can bring about a future transformed by the living God.

In our planning; in our "thinking outside the box"; in our dreaming; in our visioning and futuring we must claim God’s promises of newness, of transformation. God is inviting us to join in the process of transformation. This is a powerful invitation and one that is given to each of us individually and to all of us collectively. Let us get out of our boxes. Let us do exciting and far reaching planning. Let us dream big dreams of love and justice. Let God’s vision of shalom be the future we assist to design by the decisions we make today.