Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell – Regional Executive Minister
By now you probably know that we have moved our Regional Office, having sold our building in Elm Grove and relocated to Wauwatosa in a nice office building. I won’t go into all the details, but after many years of maintaining an old building, a shrinking staff and different needs of the region, it made sense to rethink our needs and how we can best support our ministers, ministries, and congregations.
Change is difficult—we all know that—and change is necessary. We know that the church in the United States has gone astray from God’s purpose for us. True change means transformation in Christ. It means getting down to the core of your purpose, your vision and ministry, who God has called you to be, and reorienting yourself back to God.
The vision of the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin is “to engage with churches, ministers, and ministries in collaborative and transformative work with our local and global communities by modeling integrity, pursuing justice, and fostering resilience while affirming the sacred worth of each person as beloved in Christ and by His church.” In order to engage our churches, ministers, and ministries in collaborative and transformative work, we have to listen so we can change. We’ve heard your need for more support for youth and young adult ministries and leadership. We’ve listened to the desire for more engagement with digital ministry. And we’ve also noted the need to help churches in revisioning and rethinking purpose and ministry.
We are reconfiguring our regional staff and support. We are shifting a focus to Next Generation ministries, which means both the next generation of your church will become as well as youth and young adult ministries. We are prioritizing opportunities for learning to engage with digital tools and in digital spaces. And we are listening to our ministers and congregations when it comes to where we need to pursue justice. As a region, we have encouraged social action when necessary to speak up for the most vulnerable, especially for our Baptist siblings in the Republic of Georgia, for Christians in Burma, and raising awareness of religious nationalism at work in the United States, India, and around the world.
We’d love to listen to you. Please don’t hesitate to invite me or a Regional Staff team member to visit your church, to bring greetings and/or preach, and to listen. In the meantime, stay tuned for an Open House invitation to our new office in Wauwatosa; we’d love you to visit.