A Day in the Life of a Regional Connector

Standing in my kitchen, I wait for the coffee to be done. I walk over to the fridge to grab some cream, wondering what’s on the agenda for today. I boot up the computer to check my calendar and realize that since it’s Monday, I get to see all my Thrive friends on Zoom today! Yay! I suppose for many the idea of working remotely from the comfort of your home may seem like a wonderful idea. I know, however, that connection is vital for faith and working in ministry—so Zoom meetings are my lifeline. 

I love it when the Thrive team can all come together in person, but every day I am thankful we have the technology that allows me to connect in seconds with team mates. Mondays are the day that I get to hear what people are doing on our team, what resources people are working on, and whom I should connect with afterwards to get more information on something that would help churches that I serve. In my role as a connector, I look at myself as the bridge between churches and all the great work Thrive is doing. But it also takes a lot of work to keep that bridge sound.

Besides our weekly Thrive meeting, I have a number of other items to do today; I look down my list to think about how I can prioritize. 

• I am working with a number of churches across my region who are without a pastor. That always makes my heart a bit sad. I know that this could be a long season for a church and it can be disheartening. I keep these churches front and centre to my work, encouraging them and supporting them as much as possible. I pause to pray for those tasked with the work of searching for a pastor. 

• However, I am not alone in this project! I am constantly sending a quick email or chat to Kim Rankens to discuss the churches, and occasionally I also reach out to Susan LaClear in Candidacy and Bryan Hayley of Church Juice to get more people supporting a church dealing with a pulpit vacancy.

I pause in this work as I answer a phone call from a church. They are looking for suggestions for resources around supporting children’s ministry work. I just watched the roundtable conversation that Thrive hosted on accessible worship - this would be the perfect resource to share with this church! I ask them for their email address so I can send them the link to the videos. I am really looking forward to their feedback on this series and am thankful I could support them in this way.

• Back to work. I check my emails — oh good! A church has agreed to participate in a listening circle I want to host. This circle will focus on hearing from parents in their congregation regarding what they need in terms of support for their children’s faith formation. 

I love these conversations! I love watching parents get excited about their children’s faith! Additionally, being in these conversations helps me to build my relationship with the church. I want them to feel comfortable reaching out to me at any time to provide them with support and resources.

• One more Zoom call, this time working with the prayer team as we look towards June and think about the next synod and how we can support the event through prayer. Some of the faces on the call will be familiar; some are congregants from local churches I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet. I love how this job brings me into connection with so many people across Canada and that I have a strong team I work with that can help me support them. Teamwork makes the dream work!

There are 6 of us who make up the Regional Connector Team:
Trudy Ash — US Midwest — also our illustrious team lead!
Liz Tolkamp — Canada West
Elaine Lee — US West
Sandra Gonzalez — US East
Idella Winfield — Great Lakes
And me — Becky Jones — Canada East

We are connectors — bridge builders extraordinaire. We love hearing from you — we love building the bridge!