Mental Illness and Families of Faith Community
According to the US Surgeon General, “the majority of those who need mental health treatment do not seek it. The reluctance of Americans to seek and obtain care for mental illness is all too understandable, given the many barriers that stand in their way.” 

One of those barriers is stigma. “Stigma assumes many forms, both subtle and overt. It appears as prejudice and discrimination, fear, distrust, and stereotyping. It prompts many people to avoid working, socializing, and living with people who have a mental disorder. Stigma impedes people from seeking help for fear that the confidentiality of their diagnosis or treatment will be breached. Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.”*

The Mental Illness and Families of Faith community will engage in conversation that fosters understanding and share resources that will diffuse stigma and enhance ministry opportunities for congregations and individuals who desire to help those who struggle with mental health disabilities. Contact Roy Moritz (photo:above).

. *Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General.

Equity for Women in the Church Community

At the Alliance's fall meeting in Chicago the board enthusiastically affirmed the Equity for Women in the Church community. The purpose of this community is to:

. Look for upcoming information for a Community meeting at the 2012 Convocation. We want to hear your stories and share more of the community’s ideas for proposed changes. Get excited with us! Change is on the way!

         Where Hope Manifests and Celebrate
                       Mandy England Cole, vice president & chair of the development task group

Manifesting

One of the exciting decisions made by the board at our recent meeting was to officially partner with Hope Manifest!  Hope Manifest is a non-profit organization committed to helping other non-profits succeed.  In their words they are, “caring, concerned, generous and fed-up individuals committed to helping non-profits succeed.” 

Mandy England Cole and Mark Cole celebrate their 11th anniversary in Chicago prior to the Alliance board meeting.

Hope Manifest as Todd Heifner describes is "fed-up with seeing the estimated 25,000 non-profits shut their doors each year due to a lack of adequate funding." Co-directors Todd Heifner and Allan Burton will be helping the Alliance Leadership team and board with development and fundraising practices.  The Alliance has a vision for living out our covenant in powerful ways in the world.  In the last 5 years we’ve focused time on creating a strategic vision for the Alliance and discerned from that vision six initiatives and associated projects. 

These projects include Summer Communities of Service and increasing the opportunities to gather as the Alliance.  We are now poised to live even more fully into the Alliance vision. But to be faithful stewards while growing and boldly stepping out into the future we must give our attention to the growth and financial well-being of the Alliance. 

We are delighted to have the expertise, encouragement, and experience of Hope Manifest to promote our unique and vital work.  It is an exciting time to be a part of the Alliance!

Celebrating

As the Board gathered in Chicago, we donned our party hats, enjoyed scrumptious homemade cupcakes, and took time to give thanks for the Alliance as we explained why we’re grateful for the Alliance’s ministry and mission.

  Carol Collins, director for finance & operations

           Carole Collins and lifetime partner, Leslie Lowe in the heart of Africa.

Mary Andreolli, Paula Clayton Dempsey and I are the current leadership team for the Alliance of Baptists, working as co-ministers for the Alliance of Baptists and making most decisions about the work of the Alliance together. Because we live in different cities, much of our work together is done virtually. Each week, we trade hundreds of emails and speak on the phone for hours. About every six weeks, we meet for three or four days. These in-person times are critical to our work together; we always have a list of items we need to address. Sometimes we couple these times with visits to churches and individuals or meetings with consultants who work for the Alliance.

In August, we met at the Shropshire House in Bryson City, N.C., which is adjacent to the Sabbath House run by Jim Strickland and Rachel Lackey. To focus on our relationships with each other, we had asked Rachel to facilitate our work with the Enneagram. Rachel is a certified Enneagram teacher in the narrative tradition, a method created by Helen Palmer and David Daniels to help people understand themselves and others through understanding the nine human personality types.

As Rachel carefully led us with thoughtful questioning, we each gained clarity about how we approach experiences in our work and lives. As she helped us see each other differently, we gained new respect for one another. As she guided us through conversations that were admittedly difficult at times, we discovered new ways to work together more effectively and witnessed our relationships deepening.

In our work together now, we regularly refer back—with gratitude—to our Enneagram work with Rachel. Because we work as equal partners to manage the work of the Alliance, we spend time processing our strategy for everything: from how many envelopes will we need this year, to what churches do we need to visit, to what articles should we put in VOICES. The discernment that we do together often yields a result that none of us would have thought of independently. The flip side is that this decision-making approach takes time. However, because we understand each other better through the work we did with Rachel, the processing time is shorter. We still reap the rewards of the collaborative model, just more quickly than before.

Under the benefits column for working for the Alliance, I gratefully add 1) learning to work collaboratively and 2) having relationships that defy the typical definition of “work friends.”