By Maureen Wright
In August 2023, the Presbytery of West Virginia began its transition, and throughout the past 22 months, we have talked often about what transition means. I have shared my belief that this transition is an invitation from God to reflect on our identity, purpose, and future as a Presbytery – who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do now. We have been on a journey of leaving behind our old ways of doing and being “the church” and listening for the Spirit to guide us to the way to be the church as we move forward.
The Leadership Team partnered with Holy Cow! Consultant Emily Swanson to enter A Season of Discernment, to listen to what you, the Presbytery, had to say about the needs of churches and church leaders. Like the UPS advertising campaign What can brown do for you, the Leadership Team sought to hear your answers to What can Presbytery do for you? This was done through the Landscape Survey and a series of both in-person and Zoom listening sessions.
The Leadership Team began 2024 working with Ms. Swanson on the outline of a strategic plan that incorporated what you said into strategic targets, goals, and milestones undergirded by a committee structure and staffing model to support the work of the plan. The Leadership Team met throughout the summer and fall of 2024 to refine and develop the outline into a plan that reflects who the Presbytery of West Virginia is and can be.
At the Presbytery meeting on Nov. 21, 2024, the Strategic Plan was approved. It offers a roadmap for the next three to five years. The plan focuses on relationships, resources, and leadership development with the goal of supporting our churches to engage more deeply in life-giving mission and ministry – God’s kingdom work. It calls for our Presbytery to focus our resources – our committees, our staff, our finances, our volunteers – on these three areas in order that the Presbytery of West Virginia will be known as a community of Presbyterian churches where the people of God are welcomed, loved, encouraged, and transformed.
The work of moving from where we have been to this new place God is calling us to go is underway. Much like my son’s favorite book when he was six, Road Builders by G.B. Henessy, which depicts the way that roads are built – full of cement mixers, bulldozers, and graders, we are moving step by step into the Strategic Plan – a blueprint for what we are building.
The Transitional Nominating Committee is working to discern, invite, and nominate a group of insightful, smart, faithful, and dedicated leaders. Their first step is to nominate those who will lead the new committees. Please pray for Sallie Daugherty, Nellie Howard (chair), Amy Kesterson, Elizabeth Lewis, Jim Musgrave, and Will Myers.
The Presbytery committees are essential to getting the work done both now and into the future. When the timeline for the Strategic Plan was created, the Leadership Team used the term aspirational as a descriptor. The timeline reflects the fact that they are excited to move forward. The timeline calls for the “old” committees to complete their work this summer and for the “new” committees to begin their work in September. However, the Leadership Team has determined that this is unrealistic. The goal is to begin well with leadership set for success. Current committees are invited to continue their work through the end of 2025. The new committees will begin in January 2026.
There are currently three search committees working to discern and put into place the best staff leaders to support the Presbytery moving forward. The Search Committee for the Communications Coordinator has developed a job description and is currently accepting applications with interviews to begin soon. Please pray for the work of the committee and its members: Amy Ahern, Stephen Baldwin, John Bolt (chair), and Senta Goudy. This group will also serve as the Search Committee for the Treasurer/Business Administrator. They are working to refine the job description for this position.
The Lead Presbyter (and Stated Clerk) Search Committee was elected at the Feb. 20, 2025, Presbytery meeting. This group is thoughtfully working with Synod of the Trinity Executive Forrest Claassen. They are seeking to find the candidate with the skills and vision to lead the Presbytery. They have worked to create a Ministry Discernment Profile (MDP) that reflects the Presbytery of West Virginia and where God is calling us to go. The MDP will soon be released, and applications will be accepted. Please pray for the committee and its members: Elizabeth Campbell-Maleke, Randy Fife, Zac Morton, Julie Olt (chair), and Ginna Taylor.
The Connectional Presbyter Search Committee was also elected at the Feb. 20, 2025, Presbytery meeting. This committee is seeking to find the candidate with the skills and vision to resource the Presbytery in the focus areas of relationship building and leadership development. They are working through the MDP. Please pray for the committee and its members: Chris Bailey (chair), Susan Eason, Annie McMillan, Kari Preslar, and Todd Wright.
It is likely that all of these groups will bring new leadership to the Presbytery at its August and November meetings. (There is even a chance of a called meeting.) I challenge each of our churches to think now about who they will elect as commissioners to these meetings so that all have a voice as these leaders are elected.
I am thinking about the next big step: training the leadership these groups are bringing to the Presbytery, helping leadership to expand their discernment and decision-making toolboxes, and weaving this new structure together into a vision of mission and ministry. The Leadership Team will discuss a retreat to include 2026 committee chairs at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon. It is time to create plans to bring the committees together. The step after that is creating teams to visit with each congregation as called for in the Strategic Plan. Please pray for me as I try to stay a step or two ahead.
I invite you to share questions or concerns with me or any member of the Leadership Team – Dawn Adamy, Chris Bailey, John Bolt, Randy Fife, Senta Goudy, Amy Kesterson, Jane Lothes, Bill Myers, Amy Parker, and Andy Rice (chair). May we move to who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do with grace, joy, and faithfulness – all to the glory of God.