Leading In This Season: The Connectional Connection

Zionites gathered from around the world as Connectional Council 2026 convened in Greenville, South Carolina, hosted by Bishop Eric L. Leake, Missionary Supervisor H. Jean McMurray-Leake, and the South Atlantic Episcopal District. Surrounded by Greenville’s scenic beauty and Southern hospitality, leaders from across the breadth of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church came prepared to share reports that enlightened and informed the Church at large about the scope and impact of Zion’s ministry. Each report, in its own way, reflected how leaders and their teams have stewarded their assignments in this season.

Although the Church Universal has experienced a myriad of changes since the COVID-19 pandemic began, leading in this season does not require us to choose between tradition and transition. It does, however, require us to rely on God’s direction through spiritual discernment - to know what must remain rooted, what must be reimagined, and how to move forward without losing the identity that has carried our beloved Zion this far.

Every generation of Zion has been required to answer the same essential question within a different context: What does faithfulness require of us now? The foundation for that mindset was laid in the opening prayer, which helped define this purpose-setting moment. The Connectional Council corporately asked God to grant the Church “unity, humility, and clarity as we lead Your Church in this season,” while renewing our passion for evangelism, holiness, and servant leadership.

Through the work of ministry - restructuring, communications, church growth, budgeting, Christian education, social justice, global missions, benefits, records, and other institutional concerns - issues that unmistakably speak to transition and directly impact the denomination’s future were before the Connection. Yet all of that work was framed by historic Methodist worship, hymnody, preaching, prayer, and ultimately Holy Communion. As the body worked, the body worshiped!

What does faithfulness to God and His purpose require of ‘The Freedom Church’ in this season? Scripture introduces us to a group of Israelite leaders who understood how to navigate transition without surrendering identity: “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…” - 1 Chronicles 12:32 (KJV). The text offers important insights for leaders navigating change. It is important to understand what is happening around us; it is equally important to know how to respond to what we have discerned.

Five qualities emerge as essential for servant leaders who successfully lead through seasons of transition: understanding the times requires DISCERNMENT; knowing what to do requires CLARITY; acting together requires UNITY; admitting that yesterday’s methods may not answer today’s challenges requires HUMILITY; and choosing what serves the people while advancing the mission requires SERVANT LEADERSHIP.

Perhaps the answer to “How do we understand the times without surrendering who we are and then discern what Zion ought to do in response?” was reflected in the very breadth of the work before the Connectional Council.

Restructuring asks whether the structures that have historically served us are still structured to serve our mission effectively now. Church Growth & Development raises the question of how a historic denomination continues reaching people whose patterns of worship, community, and belonging are changing. Communications points toward our responsibility not only to preserve Zion’s story, but also to tell that story effectively through the platforms and languages of this generation.

Budget and Financial Stewardship challenges the Church to consider whether its resources are aligned with our present priorities and future mission. Christian Education reminds us that transition is unsustainable if we fail to form disciples and prepare emerging generations to carry both our faith and our identity forward.

Social Justice & Economic Development keep before the Church Zion’s historic commitment to freedom and public witness, while asking what that witness requires amid the social and economic realities of this moment. Global Missions broadens our discernment beyond local contexts, reminding Zion that understanding “the times” means recognizing how God is moving across cultures and continents.

Zion Benefits Services brings the question of institutional care into the conversation: How do we sustain and support the people who carry the work? And Statistics, Records & Archives remind us that looking forward does not require forgetting where we have been. Our history, records, and institutional memory can help us distinguish between traditions that preserve our identity and practices that may simply preserve our familiarity.

Together, these areas suggest that leading in this season requires neither the wholesale rejection of the old nor the unquestioning preservation of it. Rather, it requires prayerful discernment to determine what must be preserved, strengthened, reimagined, or released so that Zion can remain faithful to who God has designed her to be while becoming prepared for where He is leading her.

So how does Zion effectively fulfill her mission in the world as it exists in 2026? Her work is forged in her worship. While the Connection discussed the future, Zion - a Church still rooted - preceded that detailed discussion with worship. Our tradition includes hymnody, and “We’re Marching to Zion” was the opening hymn that helped set the atmosphere. Tradition was not merely ceremonial nostalgia; it provided theological grounding for the work of transition.

The operative word is “marching.” Marching means Zion is not stationary. Movement is built into the hymn. Yet the people who are moving are still clearly identified: “we that love the Lord.” Our destination is still Zion, our center is still the throne, and our movement is still rooted in worship: Progress does not require us to abandon our identity; faithful movement actually begins from identity.

The hymn, with text by Isaac Watts and the familiar refrain associated with Robert Lowry, offers multiple connections to the qualities servant leaders need when navigating seasons of transition.

“Join in a song with sweet accord” evokes the unity named in the opening prayer of the Council - not sameness, but people moving together toward a common purpose.

“And thus surround the throne” establishes the source of our authority. Before Zion determines where she should go, she gathers around God.

And “We’re marching upward to Zion” introduces a sense of directionality.

Change, by itself, is not the goal. The question is whether our movement is upward - toward greater faithfulness, stronger mission, deeper discipleship, and more effective Kingdom witness. Significantly, this hymn opened the Connectional Council worship service, placing the language of movement, unity, and God-centered direction at the threshold of the Council’s work.

The hymn also reminds us that once discernment occurs, God’s people must be willing to move. Understanding the times without movement becomes observation. Movement without understanding the times becomes a reaction. Successful leadership requires both discernment and direction.

Successful transition also positions us within the tension between preservation and purpose. Everything old does not need to be discarded simply because it is old, and everything familiar cannot be preserved simply because it is familiar. The leadership question becomes: “Does this still serve the mission?” And, perhaps even more importantly: “Zion, does this move us closer to that spiritual Zion?”

What successful leadership requires in this season of transition is much deeper than “traditional versus contemporary.” We must return to the language of the opening prayer: unity without demanding uniformity; humility enough to listen; clarity about the mission; discernment concerning our methods; and servant leadership that makes institutional decisions in service of Kingdom purpose. Leading in this season means being rooted in tradition and ready for transition.

We are challenged to consider what faithful leadership requires when preserving our identity and preparing for our future must happen at the same time. The question before us is not whether we will change - time guarantees change. The question is whether we will allow prayer, purpose, and spiritual discernment - not preference, fear, or familiarity - to determine how we lead through it.

Zion has never been called merely to stand where she has been… She has been called to faithfully carry the faith forward! The Greenville gathering revealed that Zion IS marching to Zion.