A Values Centered Reimagination
Friends,
Guided by our mission to nurture and create communities of compassion and care for the wellbeing of all God’s humanity, we find ourselves “leaning forward” into meaningful conversations and a strategic process of how NBA can best live into our values. Our work as a ministry is grounded by our core values, which also means assessing everything that we do through a lens of equity and inclusion.
Over the past 13 years (indeed, I said “yes” to the role of President and CEO over 13 years ago!), we have seen and experienced the needs and demands of NBA’s programs and partnerships across the life of the Disciples church. In particular, we understand how communities of color and those harmed by systemic injustice are primary communities that we are called and committed to accompany. How we respond to this call depends on how effective we can mobilize our resources now and into the future. Today, NBA is in a position of strength, with a combination of effective programs, deep financial resources built through generations of generosity, and strong partnerships across our denominational community.
As the NBA reflects on how we live out our values across all aspects of our work, we have embarked on the Strategic Asset Management (SAM) Process. This process is an equity-centered learning process that will lead to recommendations regarding how we manage and mobilize our assets for the greatest impact both today and for the long term. In the language of our church, we are in a season of discernment. We hope you find the information here informative. We welcome your insights, questions, and – most definitely – your prayers of support.
In partnership and service,
Mark D. Anderson
President and CEO
NBA is part of how we live our values as a Church. Across more than 130 years, the National Benevolent Association has helped partners across the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) develop a range of health and social services that strengthen and transform communities through compassion, healing, and justice.
Proactively living our values means looking at everything we do through a lens of equity. To fully “be the Church we say we are,” we must lean forward in considering how we can best advance the wellbeing of humanity with an attention to questions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
A just world needs more from us. As our programs have grown, we’ve seen how much demand and possibility for impact we truly have and how many communities—especially those harmed by systemic injustice—we still have yet to reach.
How we respond to this call depends on how effectively we can mobilize our resources now and into the future. This is why we are now embarking on a new inquiry into how we manage our assets as an organization to ensure we are able to support and sustain our greatest impact.
We enter this moment from a position of strength, with a combination of effective programs, deep financial resources built through generations of generosity, and strong partnerships across our denominational community. As we steward our resources responsibly for the long term, we must also examine whether we, as a ministry, are doing all we can to have a positive impact for the flourishing of communities and ministries whom we accompany.
As NBA, we look forward to sharing more in the future about our learnings and the decisions that will emerge from the Strategic Asset Management (SAM) process. To sign up for updates and for additional questions, please complete the form below. Thank you!
