To this end, three Area Mission Teams were formed to help congregations
respond to this challenge. The Area Mission Teams' mission is to identify
and facilitate development of mission opportunities in the three geographic
areas of the Diocese and to work with the Bishop to implement mission
opportunities. The Mid-East Area Mission Team is composed of grassroots
representatives from the 16 church congregations, 5 mission congregations,
2 mission station congregations, 1 college campus ministry, and 2 day
school ministries in the middle section of the Diocese, stretching from
LaFollette to Loudon and from Crossville to Newport.
The Mid-East Area is the largest of the three areas, both in number
of congregations and in distance. This makes the recruitment of members,
and the selection of meeting sites and dates especially challenging.
The team has met that challenge by attempting to meet at different venues,
enabling the team to learn more about the individual congregations in
our area, see what each congregation is doing in various ministry areas,
and spread around the travel time burden. The Mid-East Team has met
at St. James', St. Luke's, Ascension, All Saints', Good Samaritan, St.
Francis-Norris, St. Michael and All Angels-Tyson House, St. Andrew-Harriman,
and St. Stephan, in addition to the Diocesan House.
The Bishop charged the area mission teams to "call people into
mission and identify particularly appropriate mission activities in
our area," while Archdeacon Doty has referred to the three teams
as the "brain trust on mission." While such expectations can
be overwhelming, monthly meetings and discussions about the mission
of the Mid-East Area has led the team to identify the need to instill
the spirit of welcome and hospitality in our congregations, recognizing
that we, as a church, are often needed more as a place of community
than as a source of liturgy.
The team identified three specific focus areas within this ministry:
- Education: To teach both clergy and laity the importance of hospitality
in the scope of the church's mission.
- Resources: To develop and enable the ways and means necessary to
introduce and incorporate newcomers to a church.
- Tools: To develop the means necessary to empower parishioners for
invitation of newcomers to church.
With these focus areas in mind, the team is preparing for a Diocesan
Conference on Newcomer Ministry by the Alban Institute, collecting tools,
resources, and information about what is already being done in our churches,
and working with a marketing agency about means and methods to effectively
introduce the Episcopal Church to our area.
As a means to introduce the tools needed by the members of our churches
to be effective missionaries, the Mid-East Area Mission Team will sponsor
a workshop during the 2001 Diocesan Convention entitled: Power Tools
for Industrial Strength Ministry. The workshop's purpose is to teach
how to use promotional tools and techniques to engage, excite, and equip
members of each congregation in the mission and ministries of the Church
and will be led by David England, Director of Marketing and Communications
for The ADS Phoenix Company. In addition, the team will provide tote
bags and note pads for each delegate and a clock for each congregation
that will remind us of the miracles we anticipate in the Diocese of
East Tennessee.
In the spring of 2001, the team will begin collecting information from
each congregation regarding the means and resources they employ in their
ministries of hospitality. The information and resources gathered through
this survey will form the basis for the design of the Newcomers Ministry
Diocesan Conference that the team is planning for the fall of 2001.
Respectfully submitted by the Mid-East Area Mission Team
members
Report of the Southeast Mission Team
The Southeast Area Mission Team spent most of the year 2000 in a discernment
process looking at what was happening in our congregations and in our
world in order to see what mission and ministry opportunities God might
be inviting us to pursue. Ministry with and to the Hispanic population
in Chattanooga and the surrounding area came to the forefront and became
our focus. We met with the staff of La Esperanza del Barrio, the agency
which is at the center of Hispanic ministry in Chattanooga, to hear
from them about needs and opportunities. We purchased new computers
to assist them in their work and to begin partnership efforts with them.
Two of our Team members are exploring similar partnerships in Bradley
County. At the end of the year, we began the process of visioning what
our future efforts at Hispanic ministry might involve; that process
continues into 2001.
Respectfully submitted by the Rev. Jocelyn Bell