World Convention Faces Staff and Financial Challenges
World Convention is anticipating staff cutbacks amid financial shortfalls and immigration issues affecting its leadership. Executive director Jeff Weston is expected to end his service later this year, while Clinton Holloway has concluded his part-time role. The article also raises questions about the future of international gatherings as a way to connect the Stone-Campbell family globally.
- World Convention is facing financial pressure from reduced giving, lower endowment yields, and convention deficits.
- Executive director Jeff Weston will end his service later this year after U.S. residency was denied.
- The article questions whether the convention model can still capture the support of the Stone-Campbell Movement.
By Mark A. Taylor
World Convention Anticipates Staff Cutbacks
Amid financial shortfalls and immigration problems, Nashville-based World Convention is anticipating staff cutbacks. As reported by Disciples World in a January 13 article by Ted Parks, World Convention executive director Jeff Weston will end his service with the convention later this year. Clinton Holloway, assistant to the director, concluded his six years of part-time service with the convention at the end of January.
The World Convention, which first met in Washington, D.C., in 1930, is a one-of-a-kind ministry seeking to build connections among believers with a shared heritage in what is often called the Stone-Campbell Movement.
The convention’s financial problems, according to the release, result from “diminished giving and smaller investment yields from its endowment” during the current recession. And the two most recent international gatherings—Brighton, England, in 2004 and Nashville in 2008—“finished in the red, producing a deficit of $100,000.”
The Nashville convention attracted perhaps 3,000 attendees, according to Weston. Of these, 1,615 were paid registrants, “well below the number we had hoped for,” he added, “and 900 below the budgeted number. I am very disappointed by this.”
Leadership and Immigration Challenges
Equally disappointing is the fact that Weston and his wife, Rosemary, have been denied permanent residency by the U.S. government. Weston’s five-year work visa expires this year. This setback is significant, because the convention needs a director based in the U.S., close to most of its financial base.
More than half of the convention’s annual operating costs are covered by support from the Disciples of Christ Mission Fund, according to the convention’s volunteer treasurer, Rick Reisinger. Figures provided by Weston show that almost a third of those registering for the Nashville convention identified themselves as members of the Disciples of Christ. (Christian church/church of Christ members were about 17 percent of registrants; only about 4 percent were from churches of Christ. Almost half, 47 percent, identified themselves as “other.”)
Questions About the Convention’s Future
Some may wonder if a convention is the best way to build relationships among members of these three groups today. If they do not embrace its mission enough to attend the convention or pay for its ministries, their apathy may provide the answer.
The convention’s next director will be charged with a lofty task: in the language of Parks’s article, to “connect the diverse Stone-Campbell family globally.”
Time will tell if this vision can be carried out in a way compelling and creative enough to capture this family’s imagination and support.
To read the whole Disciples World article by Ted Parks, go to www.disciplesworld.com/newsArticle.html?wsnID=14626.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
