July/August response: Responsively Yours

Leading Into the Future

by Sally Vonner

Joy, Joy, Joy! I have joy down in my heart! This best describes how excited and honored I am to be the next General Secretary/CEO of United Women in Faith. The reality is still sinking in for me as I write my first Responsively Yours feature. By now you may have heard that I was elected by the board of directors to lead United Women in Faith into the amazing future God has for us.

I am also joyful and grateful to know that my path has crossed with many of you already and that over the coming days and months, I will be blessed to meet and engage with many more of you. Like you, United Women in Faith and its predecessor organizations have inspired, influenced, and impacted me to be the woman I am today. My journey began almost 40 years ago and will continue for the rest of my life. I am proud to be a member of an organization that focuses on mission, spiritual growth, leadership development, and transformative education for women, children, and youth around the world with great heart and intention. We make an impact believing that love in action can change the world.

I look forward to continuing the great work we have done over the years. I am grateful to my predecessor, Harriett Jane Olson, for her amazing leadership over the last 15 years. I will never forget her leading us into “A Fresh Wind Blowing,” the theme for the 2016 Jurisdiction Quadrennial meetings. We set forth with a charge from her and from you to lead us into new ways of reaching more women to join our sisterhood. Research and years of planning brought us to the rebranding of the organization we experienced first with a new name and logo in March 2022, and continues.

As a 154-year-old organization of faithful women organized for mission on behalf of women, children, and youth, we are moving forward refreshing our programs, resources, message, and story, but not our mission focus. Over the century and with every generation of United Women in Faith there have been changes, adapting to address the needs and God’s calling for them in their day and looking ahead with grace to the future, to us in this present moment!

The God who led them and gave them a vision for their day is the same God with us today. I have answered God’s call to lead at this time with faith, hope, and vision—a vision of growth in our membership, our mission giving, and reaching the Legacy Endowment Fund goal ($60 million) in the next four years. I have faith we can do it! Jesus said with faith nothing is impossible. Expect more on how we live out the vision in the coming months.

I am ready to continue the good work begun. I pray and trust you are too. Together we can do great things for God. May it be so! 

SALLY VONNER
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith

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