March/April response: Leadership Development Days 2024

What does it mean to lead in a post-resurrection world?

by Maryann Verghese

Leadership Development Days 2024, November 21-23, explored the theme “Revive and Lead: Empowered by the Resurrection.” This event presented an opportunity for leaders within and beyond United Women in Faith to pause, connect, and reflect on their journey as women engaged in faithful leadership.

Centered on the story of Jesus’ followers’ experience after the resurrection in John 20-21, Leadership Development Days asked the question: “What does it mean to lead in a post-resurrection world?”

Expanding and connecting

Leadership Development Days is an annual event designed for spiritual women to strengthen leadership skills, be nurtured, network, collaborate, and fellowship. In years past, LDD has been limited to elected officers and included conference officer training and a specific focus on training for roles in the organization. For the past few years, LDD has focused on expanding the reach and concepts of leadership within United Women in Faith.

Francine Davis, executive for education and leadership development, described this as “LDD reimagined” with a “robust leadership focus for United Women in Faith leaders at all levels. It now also includes leaders in The United Methodist Church as well as spiritual women who are exercising leadership in their local communities.”

All 51 United Women in Faith conferences were represented with 1,049 people registered for Leadership Development Days 2024. Participants also joined from Brazil, Guyana, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and Uganda. For at least 151 participants, it was their first time participating in Leadership Development Days. Forty of the people who registered identified as non-members. The ages of registrants ranged from early 20s to 90.

All conference officers and leaders from every district were invited, along with members of the board of directors and program advisory groups, leaders from 30 National Mission Institutions, membership leaders, UMC leaders, and spiritual women engaged in local gatherings.

LDD 2024 was a true collaboration between many United Women in Faith national staff and member-leaders from across the country who formed a team to advise, plan, develop, and implement the event. Member-leaders such as Abby Gutierrez and Mikele Haskins-Delmore hosted worship and devotional times, while others such as Donna Mosby and Christian Krost hosted the three plenary discussions. Many other United Women in Faith members were on panels and led one of the 30 offered workshops.

Worship and Soul Care

“You are sacred. You are worthy of taking time to pause, attend to Soul Care, and be in community.” During opening worship on Thursday night, Elizabeth Chun Hye Lee, director of mobilization and advocacy at United Women in Faith, shared this and encouraged participants to engage LDD “in a contemplative posture.”

Noting that it can be difficult to pause in the challenges of our world, Lee encouraged leaders to do so and attend to Soul Care.

Dr. Faye Wilson, Deaconess Kay Clifton, and Deaconess Norma Dollaga (a recent recipient of the World Methodist Peace Award who is featured in this response issue), shared stirring messages during worship and devotion times.

Resources such as the new Soul Care Card Deck were used throughout the weekend within large group sessions, and the dedicated Soul Care lounge was open during networking time. The final plenary ended with a Soul Care ritual to name matriarchs who help us see the “sacred in the chaos,” inspired by the disciples rebuilding their community after the resurrection in Acts 1. Throughout LDD, participants had similar opportunities to not only practice Soul Care but consider how to model and share Soul Care rituals with others.

Highlights

A portion of each of the three plenaries included guidance and time to create a personal timeline documenting events related around their circumstances and identity as a woman, their faith journey, and their relationship to justice and social issues. Participants used this timeline throughout LDD to reflect on how their stories influence their journey as women leaders.

Participant Laura Pfeffer shared that, “As I placed reminders of the role of women and United Women in Faith on my timeline, I was able to reflect on these ways in which being a part of this organization has shaped and strengthened me. This is what I also want to share with other women as we invite them to be a part of our organization. It is a place of PURPOSE and sisterhood.”

Amybeth Lake, another participant, said, “I reconnected with the source of my inspiration in my life. I could see my life as a continuum from my past as a child/young adult and now as an older woman. The little girl/young woman who felt that I could make a difference never left. I had thought that she did.”

In the first plenary, “Leading to Inspire in a Post-Resurrection World,” Brittany Barnett, author, attorney, racial justice advocate, and founder of organizations like Girls Embracing Mothers and Manifest Freedom, reflected on the example of Mary Magdalene sharing the resurrection story in John 20.

Barnett said, “Mary [Magdalene]’s story doesn’t end at the empty tomb; it begins there” as she sparks the post-resurrection movement for the disciples. Barnett shared reflections and stories of resurrection through her life and work with incarcerated women and daughters of incarcerated mothers. She encouraged participants to revive hope through connection, advocate for justice, and invest in second chances to transform the world. Leading in a post-resurrection world and confronting issues such as mass incarceration, is “not just rising from despair, but rising into purpose, into the fullness of what God has planned for us,” she said.

The second plenary, “Leading to Influence with Hope in a Post-Resurrection World,” featured climate justice advocate Marianne Comfort from Sisters of Mercy from the Americas, and United Women in Faith’s Executive for Economic and Environmental Justice Ilka Vega.

Comfort emphasized the importance of faith communities’ presence and voices in the climate world. Everyone also had time to take one focused action to ask legislators to align with faith principles to guide future legislation around mining that contributes to the climate justice transition to just energy.

The third plenary, “Leading to Make an Impact in a Post-Resurrection World,” featured a panel of United Women in Faith members including CEO and General Secretary Sally Vonner, National President Jana Jones, community organizer Nica Sy, and the Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt Sears, the director of leadership development and accountability at the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women. The panel discussed their journey and relationship with United Women in Faith. They also shared how they see hope and resurrection in United Women in Faith, the UMC, and the world.

Sy conveyed that she engages in hope and resurrection by “believing that change can happen and taking an active role in it, even in seemingly small ways.”

Vonner and Jones emphasized the work United Women in Faith members are continually doing that honors and builds on the work and resilience of our foremothers. Smartt Sears and Vonner shared current actions supporting justice through legislation in the UMC at upcoming annual conferences. All four panelists shared tangible ways we can go forward together to continue making an impact while practicing resilience.

Workshops supported these plenaries, giving leaders the opportunity to delve deeper into specific topics, practice skills, connect with others across the world, and learn from influential leaders. For example, Vonner and Denise Sawyer led a workshop called “Discerning in Community,” and Archbishop Marcia Dinkins led a workshop on “Empowered Grace: Trauma-informed Approaches to Relationship and Advocacy for United Women in Faith.”

Additionally, there were town hall meetings and film screenings related to the social action priorities of climate justice and ending mass incarceration and the criminalization of communities of color. Two of these featured Assata Harris and Kerrina Williams from the Climate Advocacy Lab.

Other workshop topics included exploring United Women in Faith Digital, crafting your public narrative, fundraising, Mission u, inviting new members, influencing in The United Methodist Church, and using technology at virtual events. All the workshops and resources have been recorded and will be available in the Leadership Toolkit.

Beyond LDD

One way to continue your leadership journey is to join the Leadership Toolkit online.

From the Leadership Toolkit, you can access resources and links from United Women in Faith, videos and resources from LDD, and the community of fellow leaders. You can experience or re-experience LDD 2024 and 2023 through recordings and resources. This includes worship, plenaries, workshops, and all the accompanying resources.

Share the toolkit with other women in your United Women in Faith group, in your church, and in your community! Your leadership can transform our world. As Danielle Meyers said after LDD 2024, “When women come together for things like Leadership Development Days it strengthens our resolve to change the world for the better!”

Maryann Verghese is managing editor of response.

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