Structure - Central Plains Mennonite Conference

The Delegate Body meets once a year at Annual Meeting.

Between annual meetings, Central Plains is governed by the Conference Council.

There are three standing committees represented on conference council:
Pastoral Leadership Committee
Outreach & Service Committee
Congregational Ministries Committee

Other committees are:
Executive Committee
Discernment Committee
Stewardship Task Group

Other groups:
Mennonite Women
Mennonite Men

New Structure to be proposed at Annual Meeting
At Central Plains Annual Meeting in June, the delegates will be asked to approve a three-year trial period for a new conference structure. Here is a document that describes the new structure for delegates so they can come to the meeting informed. Delegates are invited to read the document and then use this form to give their feedback to Moderator Diane Zaerr Brenneman. Between now and Annual Meeting, feedback will be collected and incorporated into new drafts of the proposal.

In addition to a new structure, we will have some changes in staff. Executive Conference Minister Ed Kauffman will complete his service with Central Plains by June 30 and Conference Minister Sharon Kennel is retiring as of August 31. Conference Minister Tim Detweiler and Conference Youth Minister Shana Peachey Boshart will remain on staff.

We anticipate that in the new structure, Tim will be the Conference Minister for Ministerial Leadership and Shana will be the Conference Minister for Nurture and Communication.

Tim Detweiler has agreed to visit as many pastor clusters as he can before Annual Meeting to present the proposed structure and receive feedback. In addition, Conference Council members will staff a Q&A table at Annual Meeting to be sure all concerns and questions are heard.

The proposed structure basically realigns staff time toward a more missional focus and relies on local networks (where there are concentrations of Mennonite churches) to resource churches. The three-year trial period would give the new staff team time to transition and make needed adjustments before the delegates would make changes to the by-laws.