Redistricting for Mission and Stewardship North Georgia Annual Conference Pre-Conference Briefings 2020
Overview • The current district structure was created during a different era in North Georgia • The new structure will improve our effectiveness and prepare us for the future 1
Current district lines were drawn during a different era in North Georgia Since the districts were designed many things have changed including: • Cell phones, email, videoconferencing • Ubiquitous public meeting spaces (e.g., Starbucks) • New highways • Greater population diversity • Changes in worship attendance patterns 2
Design Principles 1. Assure no county is “split” between districts 2. Align with major highways 3. Balance – Number of churches and clergy – Attendance – Population, and Population Growth 4. Assure each district has some “top 50” largest churches 5. Align districts with United Methodist colleges, universities and seminaries 3
Recommended 8-District Structure 1 West Central (Highway I-20) Catoosa Fannin Towns 2 North Central Murray Rabun Whitfield Union East Central 3 (Highways 316 and 78 Dalton to Monroe) Gilmer Habersham Walker 4 South Central White Lumpkin (DeKalb + I-20 to Gordon Stephens 6 Chattooga Covington and 81 to Pickens 5 McDonough) Hall Dawson Franklin Banks Hart 5 Floyd NW (I-75, 575, 76) Canton Gainesville Bartow Forsyth 6 NE (400, 985, I-85) Rome Cherokee Jackson 7 SE Elbert Madison 8 SW Barrow Polk Athens Cobb Gwinnett Clarke Oglethorpe 3 Paulding Oconee Wilkes Haralson 1 Walton Lincoln DeKalb Fulton Douglas 7 2 Rockdale Carrollton Greene Columbia Morgan 4 Newton Taliaferro Clayton Carroll Augusta McDuffie Newnan Henry Fayette Warren Richmond Putnam Coweta Jasper Heard Griffin Butts Hancock Spalding 8 Pike Troup Lamar Baldwin Meriwether Monroe La Grange Upson Harris 4 Red dots indicate the 10 north Georgia cities with over 20,000 population, outside of Metro Atlanta.
Number of clergy and churches is balanced among the new districts Churches / Clergy 160 Clergy 136 140 Churches 130 122 117 118 120 116 114 114 107 104 102 100 89 86 84 80 73 68 60 40 20 0 West Central North Central East Central South Central North West North East South East South West 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 District # Note: This graph was updated in March 2020 5
Each new district includes some high-growth counties Sources: https://www.georgia-demographics.com/custom_data, http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/georgia-population/ 6
District superintendents will collaborate to work on common priorities Potential Priorities: • Creating/supporting vibrant anchor churches in county seats • Recruiting and developing gifted local pastors • Bringing about creative vital mergers, adoptions, multi-sites and networks of churches • Engaging pastors as district leaders • Partnering with other groups and organizations • Implementing shared services* *Such as central administration of church space rental 7
Each new district has … • Some “Top 50” largest churches • Roughly equal apportionments and district work funds Most new districts have … • A United Methodist college, university, and/or seminary 8
Centralizing of certain tasks across the districts will help to reduce district workload • Recently centralized or in process – District Work Fund accounting – Payment of district expenses – Administration of closed church properties – Investment management by Georgia UM Foundation • Another potential improvement – Centralization of DCOM record keeping and candidate communication (e.g., initial walk-through of the process) 9
Please Email Questions & Suggestion to Your District Administrative Assistant (find that email address at ngumc.org) 10
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