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In response to changing cultural and church landscapes, the Baltimore-Washington Conference is embarking on a restructuring plan to renew connectionalism, more deeply engage churches with their communities, and ignite a spirit of vitality and discipleship.
While it is often financial crises that prompt annual conferences to restructure, the BWC’s plans are grounded in the hopes and aspirations of more than a thousand people who expressed, in a survey and at listening sessions, their vision of how the church might structure itself to be more faithful to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
At the annual conference session on May 29-31, members will vote on a proposal to move from eight to six districts.
This vote will be a foundation for the plan, which lifts up some of the greatest strengths of United Methodist structure and introduces several ground-breaking new components.
At a glance, the plan entails:
- Five to 12 local churches grouped in a collaborative hub in a shared, geographically-based mission field. Each hub will have a designated Connecting Church, to facilitate collaborative work and vitality.
- A group of hubs are organized in one of six non-geographic districts, based on population density. This creates new opportunities to network across perceived boundaries and learn from one another in diverse, and yet similar, contexts.
- The hubs and districts are organized into two administrative regions.
The plan, which is budget-neutral and will not increase local churches’ mission share payments, will go into effect in July 2025. In the season ahead, the hubs, districts and regions will be created in ways that honor the strengths of local churches and ensure the BWC’s diversity, rich heritage, and focus on vitality are preserved. Church leaders are encouraged to learn about the restructuring. A variety of resources are being developed to assist in this endeavor. Currently, leaders are invited to visit: https://www.bwcumc.org/news/restructuring/.
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