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Posted: December 20 2024 at 03:10 PM
Author: Rev. Victoria Rebeck, NIC director of communications
The NIC Commission on Religion and Race has been meeting with the Anti-Racism Task Force
Two task forces are folding into existing committees or transitioning to committee status.
The Discipleship Task Force and Anti-Racism Task Force are joining their work to the Discipleship Committee and the Commission on Religion and Race, respectively, on Jan. 1.
In 2022, a third task force, assigned to work toward growing vital congregations, merged with the Committee on Congregational Development and Redevelopment and took the name Committee on Development and Redevelopment (CODE RED).
These task forces emerged in 2019, following a restructuring of Northern Illinois Conference ministries in 2018. At that time the Annual Conference Shepherding Team proposed three conference priorities that would be implemented by new task forces.
The Discipleship Task Force was formed to lead the conference toward achieving goal one, to grow and reach new disciples of Jesus Christ. The Anti-Racism Task Force has been overseeing work toward goal two, to live out the conviction that racism is incompatible with Christian teaching. The Vital Congregations Task Force has strategized progress toward goal three, to increase the number of highly vital congregations.
“The goals have been embraced by the permanent committees,” explained Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer, NIC’s director of connectional ministries. Moving the goals to the oversight of permanent committees signals that the conference is committed to the goals for the foreseeable future.
Funds delegated to the task forces will now be joined with the committees’ budgets.
Although the transition to permanent committees began on Jan. 1, these committees and their corresponding task forces began meeting in 2024 to identify and organize their work.
Project manager Amania Drane has been assisting the Discipleship and Anti-Racism task forces. In 2025, she will concentrate on helping four NIC committees: the Committee on Discipleship and Spiritual Formation (a new name for this group), the Commission on Religion and Race, the Council on Young People’s Ministries, and the Commission the Status and Role of Women. She will offer guidance on how these groups can implement their plans.
Ms. Drane, who is a consultant contracted to work with the conference, provides help that otherwise would have been offered by staff.