New Superintendency Model

Beloved in Christ,

Many of you have heard about the changes in structure for the District Superintendent role in our conference, either in discussions of Annual Conference or in communications from conference leadership. It is now clear that we are part of a new experiment, the parameters of which are getting more defined. The map shown on the photos page of this newsletter shows all the churches involved in this experiment and is color-coded to show which of the superintendents in the Sea-Tac team will be the primary contact for each church. The light blue churches are those who have been part of Sea-Tac district whose primary contact is Rev. Shalom Agtarap. The dark blue churches are those who have been part of Puget Sound district whose primary contact is Rev. Shalom Agtarap. Rev. Agtarap is also serving as pastor of Tacoma First UMC part-time. The churches shown in yellow are churches who have been part of Sea-Tac and whose primary contact will be Rev. Ferdie Llenado, pastor at Fairwood Community UMC in Renton. The two churches in green are Shalom and Ferdie’s churches, which is acknowledgement that they will not superintend for their own churches. The pink churches are Sea-Tac churches whose primary contact is Rev. Elizabeth Ingram-Schindler. The red churches are Puget Sound churches whose primary contact is Rev. Elizabeth Ingram-Schindler. Rev. Ingram-Schindler is not pastoring a church at this time and works part-time. The three orange churches at the very top of the map, Haller Lake UMC, Ronald UMC, and Shoreline UMC, are Sea-Tac churches whose primary contact will the Puget Sound superintendent Rev. Mark Galang. We will remain part of the Sea-Tac district, but our primary contact will be the superintendent of the Puget Sound district. We will have access to trainings and resources through both districts, but we will continue to work through the committees of the Sea-Tac district.

The bishop is making this change in structure intentionally to bring more people onto his cabinet, invite leadership from more clergy, spread the work of superintendency across more people, and create teams of leaders who serve local churches when pastors also serve part-time as superintendent. Sea-Tac is the first district to experience this change. Next year, all the other districts will move to this model, having learned from Sea-Tac this year. Therefore, we know that we will only have Rev. Mark Galang as our primary contact for one year, since he is planning to step off the cabinet next year and Puget Sound district will welcome a new team of superintendents. You’ve heard the bishop’s motto, “We will try, we will fail, and we will learn.” This is one of the applications of the motto in our connectional life.

Our connections to the Sea-Tac district are strong. I co-chair a district committee. We house another pastor from our district in our parsonage. We are planning a couple of pulpit swaps this fall with other Sea-Tac churches. Our Faithland team continues to relate to the Sea-Tac district Board of Church Building and Location as we move forward in discernment about property transitions. I don’t anticipate that any of that will change. That said, we will also have new opportunities to learn from our neighbors in Puget Sound district because of Rev. Mark’s leadership there. I look forward to those opportunities.

In the coming weeks, Rev. Mark has shared that in late summer, he anticipates prioritizing the three new churches in his care for clergy consultations ahead of his continuing churches. That means that I’ll have a chance to ask him questions relatively soon. Please let me know what to ask! In addition, we plan to welcome Rev. Ingram-Schindler to our pulpit in August and she will share her understandings and wisdom. I hope you will plan to be there to hear her reflections. Even before these coming events, we can reach out to Rev. Mark, if we need him. He is already “on duty” for us.

As always, I welcome any questions, thoughts, or reflections you may have about anything, but especially superintendency transitions or how they may impact our ministry here at Haller Lake UMC.

Many summer blessings,

-Pastor Laura