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November 2019

A monthly publication of
Team of Teams
By Michael Traylor
One can be overpowered, but two together can put up resistance. A three-ply cord doesn’t easily snap.
(Ecclesiastes 4:12)

“The war’s tactics and the overall strategy differed radically from how they had envisioned fighting. This was not a war of planning and discipline; it was one of agility and innovation. Adaptability, not efficiency, must become our central competency.”
General Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams


Modern warfare is no longer won through forces with the best strategies, the best equipment, or the best preparation, but the force that is most innovative and the most adaptable. No longer are epic-sized battles determining outcomes, but the ability to respond to a dizzying array of possible outcomes in an unpredictable and rapidly shifting context. General Stanley McChrystal in regard to fighting in the Iraq war, writes “We had to tear down familiar organizational structures and rebuild them along completely different lines, swapping our sturdy architecture for organic fluidity, because it was the only way to confront a rising tide of complex threats.” (Team of Teams, 2017).

General McChrystal writes on the momentous shift needed in the United States armed forces to wage and ultimately win a war against forces that fight unconventionally. His “aha” moment was the realization that “An organizations fitness—like that of an organism—cannot be assessed in a vacuum; it is a product of compatibility with the surrounding environment.” In other words, the strength and effectiveness of any unit is based upon its effectiveness in a given context. A naval battleship has awesome power and range but is not well suited for combat in the Arabia desert. In a vacuum, it is incredible, but in the desert context it is mere foolishness.

In the Iraq war, the armed forces began to realize that they were prepared for situations that are complicated but predictable. A combustion engine is complicated. Thousands of parts interacting with a finite number of other parts with a predictable outcome. However, dealing with Al-Queda was complex. Thousands of people with unknown number of interactions and links in thousands of different locations that changed independently. This led to an unimaginable number of outcomes, most of which were not anticipated by what is regarded by most as the best prepared and disciplined soldiers in the world.

Ministry is no longer complicated, but complex. Communities change quickly. Church Consultant Reggie McNeal estimates that the average American community makes a major shift in its make-up every seven years compared to 70 years in the mid-twentieth century. People are more connected today than ever with a continuous instant news, social media, and massive urbanization. The average person receives more information in one hour than a person did in seven months in 1900. It is the amount of interactions that makes ministry more complex with completely unpredictable outcomes due to thousands upon thousands of interactions, community shifts, catalytic events, and continuous social media connections.

Like the United States Armed forces in Iraq, we too must switch from ministries designed for complicated situations to that which designed for complex contexts. The armed forces developed the ability to develop small teams who shared information and adapted to the rapid changes. That adaption required significant trust with one another and the understanding that it is the combined creativity and innovation that translated into success. The days of a strict hierarchical structure where strategies were developed in a board room and channeled down to the soldiers in the battle were not only ineffective but gave the enemy a huge advantage. The River Conference must adapt to do ministry differently or we too will suffer missional failure.

Team of Teams is the name of our restructuring where we develop regional, resilient, and highly adaptive teams for ministry. Each team, led by a District Leader who has undergone over 80 hours of training, will develop a team in each of our six regions: Spokane, Boise, Colorado, North Texas, South Texas, and Oasis (Arizona, New Mexico). These teams are focused on a Christ-centered mission and powered by trust. Without trust, ministry innovation and team agility (the ability to adapt) is destroyed. General McChrystal warns that, “Trust and purpose are inefficient. Getting to know your colleagues intimately and acquiring a whole-system overview and focus are big time sinks.” Our Team of Teams is utilizing a process from Spiritual Leadership, Inc. that builds teams over twelve to eighteen months meeting eight hours per month. Based upon spiritual formative processes, we seek to develop processes that yield creativity and collaboration. We describe the culture that is produced as L 3 culture: Loving, Learning, and Leading.

The goal is to develop agile teams who can respond to regional ministry complexity and are empowered to develop the best rules of engagement to successfully make disciples, mobilize leaders, multiple churches, and meet human need. The concept of hierarchical chains of command is not only ineffective but has not been effective for the past 20 years.

By this time, you have been contacted by your district leaders. I want to encourage you to participate in your regional team and be part of transformation of the conference, our leaders, and your region. If you have not heard from your district leader, please do not hesitate to contact them or the conference office for more information on meeting times and places.

We are truly excited about what Christ will do with the Team and Teams and we are anticipating that He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine, according to His purposes!

May God bless you
TRC IS EXPANDING
The Free Methodist BOA, Oasis Conference Board of Directors, and TRC's Board of Directors have approved the merger between the Oasis Conference and The River Conference. Beginning January 1, 2020, the churches of the Oasis Conference will join TRC. Please join us in welcoming these churches to The River Conference.
TRC DISTRICT LEADERS

ARIZONA
Ben Forsberg (Phoenix, Citizen's Church) ben@citizensofphoenix.org

BOISE
Ryan Stoops (Caldwell, Deer Flat Church) ryanstoops@deerflat.org

COLORADO/NEW MEXICO
Mark Douglas (Pueblo, Light & Life) pastor@pueblolightandlife.com

NORTH TEXAS
Ali Mitachi (Abilene, Portland Avenue) mitachilw@yahoo.com

SOUTH TEXAS
James Ford (Corpus Christi CPP) jesusandjames@yahoo.com

SPOKANE
James Leman (Spokane, First) james.leman@ffmwired.com
TRC signed up to take advantage of Amazon.com's "give back" campaign. Amazon Smile is a program where you can designate a charity to receive a percentage of any purchase made on Amazon.com.

If you buy things off Amazon, please consider designating TRC as your charity. How to get started:
www.smile.amazon.com - find The River Conference of the Free Methodist Church, Lakewood, CO on the charity list, select it. Now every time you order something from Amazon, you must enter through the smile.amazon.com website, you'll see what charity you're supporting in red letters. Then start shopping. Amazon will automatically deposit donations into our checking account.

If you buy things off Amazon, please consider designating TRC as your charity.
DEB'S BIG MOVE

After much prayer and obedience to God, TRC's Administrator has moved to Wyoming. Deb Baggett will continue as the Administrator only from a different location. Deb and her husband, John, are downsizing in a big way. They have prayed about this move for a couple of years and God has answered in bold and decisive ways.
YEAR END GIVING RULES
By Mark Dowley

As you begin to enter the season where we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we thought it would also be
helpful to provide a reminder about how to treat giving from individuals and churches as it relates to the
tax impact and 2019 missions and EPP.

The cutoff dates for receiving donations for 2019 are described below . Since you may be asked, you
need to have this year’s donation processing schedule.

For Individual donors , to be included as a 2019 gift the check must be dated in 2019 and postmarked no
later than December 31, 2019. Online gifts must be made no later than December 31 st , 2019.

Church checks for giving that qualifies as a deduction from income for the EPP calculation must be dated
in 2019 and postmarked no later than January 3 rd , 2020 to be counted as 2019 gifts. Online gifts must
be made no later than December 31 st , 2019.
OVERTIME HOURS - A message from FMCUSA

We want to make you aware the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued their final overtime ruling that will begin January 1, 2020 regarding exempt salaried employees. As you may remember a couple years ago the DOL tried to bring about a policy with a larger minimum amount for exempt salaries, and the ruling was turned down immediately prior to the date it was scheduled to be put in place.  This ruling has since been extensively reviewed which is resulting with a new figure that will be in place next year.

An estimated 1.3 million more workers will qualify for overtime pay beginning January 1, 2020 under final rules just announced by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The federal law will generally require employers, including churches and nonprofits, to pay overtime to employees who earn less than $35,568 per year (the current threshold is $23,660). Employers should also continue to analyze their overtime obligations under state and local law, which may require overtime to more workers than federal law. The increase in the overtime threshold has no impact on the “ministerial exception” that exempts clergy from federal wage and hour laws. All other lay employees, non-ordained staff, who are salaried exempt will fall under this ruling.

The U.S. Department of Labor released the following:


Included below are links to the type of exemptions that include the qualifications to be an exempt salaried employee. Note these notices do not state the new earnings level of $35,568 yet since this will not occur until January 1, 2020.







Blessings,
Willadean M. Duncan, Director of Human Resources
Around the Conference
NEW TRC PASTORS

TRC's Ministerial Appointments Committee recently appointed three new pastors to our family of churches. We are very excited to see what God has in store for these churches and how they will impact the kingdom.

River Church in Lakewood, Colorado welcomes Rick Herzer as their new Lead Pastor. Rick served at Sage Hills in Wenatchee, WA before accepting the position at River Church.

Brenda Nagunst will assume the Lead Pastor role at Chewelah, WA's Abundant Life Fellowship beginning January 1, 2020. Brenda and her husband have served at Chewelah for the past three years.

Kenji Nitta will lead Timberview Church in Mead, WA. Kenji has been leading N ew Life Community Church in Clovis, CA and will begin his new role at Timberview in January.
IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS
SEPTEMBER 23–25, 2020
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

New Room Conference is a gathering for Christians and leaders to join together to sow for a great awakening!
  • If you’re seeking deep fellowship with real people, join us.
  • If you desire to see God’s love move greatly in your family, community, and in our culture, join us.
  • If you long to be part of a great awakening movement of God in our time, join us.
  • Don’t miss this opportunity to unite the whole Church around the extravagant, transformational Gospel.
E2020 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS OPEN!
Join us March 12-15, 2020 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina for E2020, a conference for women exploring and living out their call to ministry.

As women called to ministry, “seeing and being seen” is not a vain pursuit but a spiritual pilgrimage that begins by recognizing our Shepherd’s voice, who created us Imago Dei – in the image of God – and invites us into redemptive relationship.

Nestled into the side of a mountain in North Carolina, we will experience:
  • Powerful keynotes from from gifted preachers.
  • Practical workshops from experts in their field.
  • Spirit-filled worship that represents God’s global heart.
  • Spanish translation and workshops.
  • Formative experiences like prayer walks, peer-groups and coaching appointments.
  • Networking opportunities for best-practices and life-long friendships.

Come see and be seen in a setting where your soul will be set on fire, your calling will be affirmed, your imagination will expand, and your ministry will be set ablaze by the Spirit of El Roi – the God Who Sees.

The River Conference | theriverconference.org