Strategic Task Group Update and Invitation

At its September 2020 meeting, the Presbytery of Los Ranchos voted “that Council, in consultation with the Generative Catalyst Team and the Strategic Coordinating Team, appoint a Strategic Task Group, representative of Presbytery, for the purpose of review and evaluation of the presbytery’s current Vision for Missional Design outlined in the Odyssey Report.” The task group was asked to “develop recommendations for a revised strategy that would instruct a structural reorganization of the presbytery that would align with available resources and include benchmarks for evaluation.“

Task Group members began meeting in January 2021. After reviewing their mandate, evaluating the presbytery’s current mission design documents, and consulting the Book of Order, the task group sought guidance from ruling and teaching elders about the functions they believe the presbytery should provide and which causes and activities they are willing to support. They then took up the work of establishing Guiding Principles and determining the Specific Steps and Tasks that would lead to a set of Desired Outcomes.

One of the specific steps the task group will complete is “recommend[ing] to Council a strategy to better achieve the presbytery’s mission.  The strategy shall include:”

1. Re-defining presbytery priorities.
2. Creation of a group that is responsible to interpret the presbytery’s priorities throughout the presbytery.
3. Recommending benchmarks to measure the accomplishment of the presbytery priorities and ensure their fulfillment.
4. Proposing a timeline by which a structural reorganization, together with its attendant alignments and benchmarks, will be implemented, in accordance with the priorities identified above.
5. Designing an ongoing process for re-defining presbytery’s priorities in the future.

As the work goes on, ensuring the long-term diversity of voices and cultivating relationships between congregations are priorities that have risen to the top. In an attempt to live into these priorities, to share its findings and deliberations, to answer questions and seek input, members of the task force are hosting a Learning Conversation immediately prior to the May Presbytery Gathering. To sign up to attend this Learning Conversation and the May Gathering, please click here to register.