JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Churchnet (the Baptist General Convention of Missouri) rolled out its strategic plan for the next five years at its March 6 directors’ session — a plan that calls for focusing on missional approaches.
Meeting at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., directors approved the plan, which still must be adopted at Churchnet’s annual meeting April 24-25.
Titled “Vision 2020: Engag?ing the Future with Hope,” the plan will include four initiatives — to facilitate missional collaboration, to develop hope-filled strategies, to engage new generations and cultures and to expand community involvement.
The plan calls for restructuring operations. Currently, Churchnet operates as six teams with six team leaders. The new plan calls for five teams, and two team leaders would become contract workers.
The five teams include missional collaboration, strategy development, generational engagement, community involvement and ministry resources. Contract workers will lead the ministry resources team.
The budget also would be restructured. Churchnet leaders felt the budget had not adequately reflected economic reality, Executive Director Jim Hill said. The 2015-16 budget will be reduced by about 20 percent.
The plan includes salary reductions of about 9 percent for current staffers, a move that was implemented in mid-February.
“I’m extremely grateful to all of our staff to make that possible now,” Hill said.
The proposed cooperative giving allocations budget is set at $388,000, with Churchnet ministries to receive $300,860. The proposed board of directors budget is set at $400,500.
The state mission offering goal is $18,000, with 50 percent to mission partnerships, 25 percent to support a Ukrainian church planter, and 12.5 percent each to The Baptist Home and the Children’s Home.
In other action, directors converted a $25,000 loan previously made to Windermere to an interest-free loan. Windermere leaders anticipate the conference center will pay it off during this year’s summer season.
