By Rick Wolcott*

On Saturday, November 9 laity and clergy members of East Ohio’s four district Leadership Boards and Mission and Strategy teams gathered at Wooster UMC (Central Valley District) for a day of Simplified Structure training.

“We have the chance right now in The United Methodist Church, specifically East Ohio, to fan a new flame of the Holy Spirit. If we truly embrace this opportunity, we will flourish by living out our vision of being disciples, making disciples, being agents of transformation and reaching new people,” said Rev. Kimberly Arbaugh, pastor of Carrollton First UMC (South Forest District) and a member of the Conference Simplified Structure coach team.

In January the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church transitioned from 10 geographic districts to four and became the first Conference in the denomination to move to the Simplified Structure form of governance for all districts. The changes in numbers of districts and the leadership structures within them were made to assist local churches to live into the Conference vision by providing greater flexibility of resources and generating more opportunity for creative ministries.

“Moving to the Simplified Structure provides East Ohio the opportunity to unite our spirit, our energy, and our resources for a strategic effort to rebuild this Church for the mission of Jesus Christ,” Executive Director of Connectional Ministries Rev. Ed Fashbaugh said in his presentation.

The other members of the Conference Simplified Structure coach team with Fashbaugh and Arbaugh, are EOC Strategic Ministries Director Rev. Beth Ortiz, Thoburn UMC pastor Rev. Jeff Croft, and retired Local Pastor Rick Oaks.

Many local churches across the East Ohio Conference – and many more throughout the connection of The United Methodist Church – are utilizing the Simplified Structure leadership model for their boards, councils, and committees. This new leadership model in each of the four East Ohio Conference districts consists of a District Leadership Board, a District Mission and Strategy Team, and a District Committee on Ministry.

• The District Leadership Board is focused on governance. It combines many of the responsibilities of the former District Council, District Board of Trustees, District Committee on Superintendency, District Finance Committee, and Nominations.
• The District Mission and Strategy Team is focused on strategy in the mission field. Its members will consider local church building plans and land proposals, new church starts, grants and more.
• The District Committee on Ministry is focused on building clergy leadership. In conjunction with the Conference Board of Ministry, District Committee on Ministry members will recruit, interview, and recommend candidates for ministry, and work with them through the credentialing process.

“This year, the governance teams of each district have taken initial steps to establish a foundation for collaborative work in the future. This work has focused on getting acquainted with the new districts and the potential ministry opportunities they hold,” Croft shared. “At this Simplified Structure training participants took a vital next step. By the end of the day, each district had formulated Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals for 2025. These goals were crafted based on the demographic information they have been diligently studying, as well as the mission and vision of the East Ohio Annual Conference. Now that these goals have been set, each district will identify the necessary action steps to achieve them as they collectively strive to fulfill our mission and vision.”

“I am excited that you are here to re-capture, re-invent and re-focus our mission and ministry together setting the direction of districts, setting the direction of the Conference,” Bishop Hee-Soo Jung, resident bishop of the Ohio Episcopal Area, said in his message to the laity and clergy leaders. “Let us look at the possibilities. Let us look at the opportunities. Let us see how God has opened the door to us.”

“East Ohio is on the cutting edge of district governance structures designed to steward the Conference vision while moving the mission forward to make disciples. It is a new way of working collaboratively together, and during the training day district leadership teams continued the process of learning how to live into this new structure. The energy and excitement for what God is doing and will do through these teams was powerful. Together, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are learning a new way to write a new chapter of faithful service to Christ through The United Methodist Church,” Fashbaugh said.

Training for members of the four District Committees on Ministry took place at Cuyahoga Falls First UMC (Northern Waters District) in October. On that day, Rev. Jonathan Priebe, pastor of Cuyahoga Falls First UMC and chairperson of the EOC Board of Ministry spoke of the importance of consistency in the credentialing process of clergy, both in the East Ohio Conference and across The United Methodist Church.

“As we’ve reshaped our committees from 10 to four, we see this as an opportunity to be in lock step in the way that we have our processes and in the way we create opportunities for candidates in the interview process,” Priebe said.

The creation of processes and the training of laity and clergy in those processes for the District Simplified Structure model is laying the groundwork for new ways of reaching people in our communities with the transformative love of Jesus Christ. This work is also informing the new East Ohio Conference Simplified Structure governance model that was approved by Annual Conference 2024. The new structure will be phased in over an 18-month transitional time beginning with the election of the Conference Leadership Board members at Annual Conference 2025.

*Rick Wolcott is executive director of Communications for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.