Announcement from the Bishop

Bishop William T. McAlilly of the Nashville Episcopal Area has announced the following leadership changes in the Episcopal Office and Tennessee Conference Connectional Ministries staff.

Lynn Taylor assumed the new role of Director of Missional Alignment for the Nashville Episcopal Area on July 1.  She has served as the Coordinator of Emerging Ministries for the Episcopal Area since July of 2013 and additionally as the Interim Director of New Church Development & Missional Faith Communities since July of 2015.

In her new role, Lynn will assist the bishop in ensuring missional alignment in all facets of the Tennessee and Memphis Conferences.  In addition to her current role as Cabinet Secretary, she will also assume the disciplinary responsibilities for the Executive Assistant to the bishop.  She will support and collaborate with the bishop and district superintendents in a variety of areas including operational teams, data research and analyzation, special projects and implementation of ministry action plans.

In the Tennessee Conference Connectional Ministries staff, Brad Fiscus has assumed the role of Director, Next Gen Discipleship which includes discipling for children and families, youth, college students, young adults as well as camping/retreat ministries. Brad previously served in the role of Director of Young People’s Ministry.

Patty Smith has been named the Director of Learning and Innovation.  Smith will collaborate on both district level and episcopal level initiatives.  She will create leadership training models for both lay and clergy tailored for the purpose of fulfilling our mission to create lay and clergy leaders who offer Christ to a hurting world, one neighborhood at a time.  Patty previously served in the role of Director of Children and Family Ministries.

These new roles are based on an ongoing study of the conference staff structure and the missional needs of the Tennessee Conference.  Rev. John Collettwill continue to lead the conference staff as the Acting Director of Connectional Ministries until his retirement on December 31, 2016 after 44 years of service in the Tennessee Conference.

In speaking about his upcoming retirement, Rev. Collett said, “I have been honored to serve as Acting Director of Connectional Ministries for the past few months. This experience has been as enjoyable as any ministry I have rendered in my years of service in the Tennessee Conference. I hope I have added to the life of the conference, the Council on Connectional Ministries, and the staff of the CCOCM. I expressed to Bishop McAlilly my preference to retire effective the end of this calendar year. We still have much good work to do as the conference and staff in the balance of this time, and I look forward to doing everything I can to make these months fruitful.“

–Courtesy of TNUMC News. https://www.tnumc.org/