January 15, 2026 | By Matthew Shineman, Director of Communications
As the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church continues to discern God’s vision for this season of ministry, one truth is becoming increasingly clear: this is a moment that calls for renewed investment in the health, vitality, and leadership of our local churches.
Across our Conference, congregations are faithfully serving their communities while navigating profound change – cultural shifts, new leadership realities, and evolving understandings of how the Church is called to show up in the world. In response, the Conference is launching two new leadership positions within Connectional Ministries that will work in close consultation with the Director of Connectional Ministries and with one another: Director of Missional Innovation and Director of Congregational Health & Leadership Development.
Together, these roles establish a strong foundation for the work ahead – supporting existing congregations, cultivating new faith communities, and forming leaders for the Church God is calling us to be in this season.
Strengthening Congregational Health and Impact
The Director of Congregational Health & Leadership Development will focus on walking alongside churches as they assess their current realities with honesty and hope, identifying faithful next steps and helping them deepen their capacity for meaningful, life-giving ministry.
The role is rooted in a core conviction: healthy congregations are better equipped to make disciples, love their neighbors, and bear transformative witness in their communities. Through coaching, leadership development, and strategic resourcing, this director will help churches:
- Discern their missional identity and clarify vision and values
- Strengthen discipleship pathways and ministry systems
- Cultivate cultural competence, radical hospitality, and faith sharing
- Navigate pastoral transitions and adaptive change with clarity and care
Coaching will be a central tool in this work. The Conference is already training coaches and drawing on leaders skilled in a coach approach – creating space for clergy and laity to reflect deeply, ask meaningful questions, and move toward faithful action with accountability. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all solutions, this role emphasizes accompaniment, empowerment, and long-term sustainability.
The impact of this approach is already visible. One of last year’s One Matters Award recipients – New Oxford & Salem Guldens – benefited from coaching and workshop support that helped catalyze renewed vitality and focus. This new role expands the Conference’s capacity to offer that kind of support more broadly and consistently.
Exploring New Faith Communities and Missional Innovation
While supporting existing churches is essential, this moment also calls the Church to pay close attention to where God is doing something new.
The Director of Missional Innovation will lead efforts to cultivate a culture of experimentation, imagination, and entrepreneurial ministry across the Conference. This includes launching and nurturing new faith communities – some of which may look very different from traditional church models – while remaining deeply rooted in United Methodist theology, connectionalism, and mission.
New faith communities may take shape as fresh expressions of worship, community-based gatherings, or spiritually formative spaces that meet people where they are. These communities may not always resemble Sunday morning worship as we have known it, but they are grounded in the same calling: forming disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
This role will:
- Help identify communities and regions where there is little or no United Methodist presence
- Support experimentation and learning through coaching, cohorts, and resourcing
- Train and deploy teams to accompany leaders discerning and launching new ministries
- Assess fruitfulness and guide communities through growth, adaptation, or transition
Success in this work will not be measured solely by numbers or performance. Some experiments will thrive; others will not. Yet each effort contributes to deeper learning, bolder faith, and a clearer understanding of how the Church can faithfully engage a changing world.
Forming Leaders for This Moment
Both roles share a deep commitment to leadership development. The future of the Church depends not only on innovative ideas, but on spiritually grounded, adaptable leaders – clergy and laity alike – who can navigate complexity, lead change, and remain rooted in Christ.
By investing focused time, energy, and resources into leadership formation, the Conference is responding directly to what it has already heard through its visioning process: a strong desire for more support, more coaching, and more opportunities to grow into new forms of leadership.
A Hope-Filled Investment in the Future
These positions are funded through closed property funds rather than Shares of Ministry, reflecting a strategic and hopeful investment in the future of the Conference. They signal a clear commitment to resourcing local churches, cultivating innovation, and equipping leaders – not out of fear or scarcity, but out of trust in God’s ongoing work among us.
As Rev. Dr. Kathleen E. Kind, Director of Connectional Ministries, shared during the discernment process, what is most exciting about these roles is “the possibilities – the hope – because hope does not disappoint us. It’s the impact churches will make on their communities, the lives changed, and the Church being the Church and living into our mission in tangible ways.”
This is an investment in that hope – and in the belief that God is not finished with the Susquehanna Conference yet.