Our Year of Discernment has begun

The first Discernment Summit of 2024 in March looked at Property and Finance and how as a Church we can understand how the common wealth of the Synod can be more effectively used for mission across the Church to activate and resource Future Directions.

We sought to understand the ways in which the Church can grow through effective stewardship of what we have.

In particular, working together to “continue the process of discovery to determine what property and financial assets exist under the oversight of the specific responsible bodies of Synod and Presbytery” by:

• Reviewing, testing and refining our resourcing principles
• Discerning governance requirements (key process expectations) for the 3 funding pools:

1. 1. a) Growth Investment Fund
   2. b) Synod Capital Fund
   3. c) Presbytery Resourcing Fund

• Illustrating, Identifying, and Analysing funding sources and opportunities.

Some Key Take-Outs from the Summit

• Dr Denise Wood reflected on the nature, art, experience and discipline of discernment and how this operates in an inter-conciliar manner.
• Presbyteries shared their top 5 mission and oversight priorities and talked sbout challenges and achievements.
• Dr Rob McFarlane refreshed participants understanding of the common wealth of the Church as a guiding principle for discussions and discernment concerning the use of property and financial assets to resource mission. For more information, see Proposal 8 from Synod 2023.
• Neil King, Executive Director noted that as a Church, we need to have a Synod-wide mission focus, and an impact driven future-focused growth mindset, which can only happen through collaborative discernment and that delaying, deferring, distracting and descaling the task ahead of the group wasn’t an option. As a Church we need to understand how we can activate our assets for mission.
• Luke Lee, General Manager of Treasury and Investment Services worked with participants to cast a vision for what’s possible in terms of unlocking and activating property and investments for mission, looking at the common wealth of the Church through the illustrate, identify and analyse exercise.
• There was a hands-on session with the new deep dive analysis tool, Power BI, which will be rolled out to Presbyteries in the coming weeks.
• Small groups spent time collectively discerning potential funding sources, the scope of funding and discernment process that will underpin the development of the common wealth funding pools.

Next steps

A detailed feedback slide pack has been sent to all participants in the Discernment Summit and the group looks forward to further interaction and active discernment with three more Summits throughout 2024.

Dates for the upcoming Discernment Summits

• Summit 2: Healthy Presbytery - Programs and Processes, 24-25 May
• Summit 3: Healthy Presbytery - People and Placements, 2-3 August
• Summit 4: Integration of Radical Resourcing, 1-2 November

Representatives had the opportunity to look at the Power BI tool being rolled out to Presbyteries.