The Southern Convocation of our diocese has been chosen as the first test site of Bishop Scanlan’s, Mission Resource Teams (MRT) initiative. The MRT project will bring together people with unique gifts and skills in our diocese with new opportunities to build relationships and to serve others in our church.
We know that transformations in individuals and parishes come when people study and learn together; pray and worship together, and act together. The MRT effort seeks to identify the gifts/assets that we have in the diocese; to lift up those individuals through training in leadership/relationship building skills, and to engage them at meaningful ministry opportunities in our parishes that request their help. For example, if a parish needs assistance with financial matters and we have folks who possess that knowledge or are willing to be trained in that area – then the MRT approach will create opportunities for relationships to be made and individuals to grow.
With the cooperation of the Southern Convocation, we will co-create a process that will help us learn the assets of the people of our diocese and the needs of our parishes in four specific areas: finance, stewardship, transitional ministry and evangelism/community engagement. We have begun the process of seeking lay missioners and recruiting opportunities for assets/resources with the seven parishes in the Southern Convocation. We seek to recruit eight missioners for this first phase of the project: 2 to specialize in each of the four focus areas. After we gather our missioners, we will train them in leadership/building relationship skills as well as additional in-depth training in their focus areas. At the same time, the preparation is taking place we will be looking for opportunities for transformation projects in the seven parishes in the Southern Convocation. Further development of this project will take place in other convocations of our diocese in the future.
For questions regarding the Mission Resource Team (MRT) project, please contact Michael Nailor, MRT Project Manager at nflncfl@ptd.net or at (570) 490-5699. If you are interested in participating in the Mission Resource Team project in the areas of finance, stewardship, contact, Canon Chad Linder, clinder@diocesecpa.org or if you would like to participate in the areas of transitional ministry and evangelism/community engagement, contact the Rev. Canon Dan Morrow, dmorrow@diocesecpa.org.
