Board Approves Strategic Direction and Celebrates Board Members’ Service

ROANOKE, VA, November 11, 2026. The Board of Directors of the Christian Church Foundation, Inc. (Foundation) gathered in beautiful Roanoke, Virginia, for its fall meeting. The board’s energy converged around strategic planning.

Charting Strategic Direction

The strategic planning process surfaced and then focused on one central question: How should the Foundation’s role evolve as the denomination becomes smaller, consolidates, shifts generationally, and takes new forms? The process to answer that question gathered insights from Foundation staff, its board, donors, investors, and partner ministries.

“We are in a period of significant change throughout our church, and so we intentionally chose a unique approach to strategic planning. Rather than producing a traditional three- or five-year plan built around assumptions that may quickly become out of date, we used a re

al-time strategy process that establishes a clear direction while allowing us to continually learn, adapt, and respond,” said Matt Rosine, Foundation president.

Debbie Jennison, board chairperson, noted, “This plan will offer the Foundation flexibility to respond to the church’s evolving needs.”

The strategic direction approved by the Board moves stewardship of transition and legacy to a core part of the Foundation’s role, while strengthening the programs, capabilities, and operations needed to deliver its full mission well.

“This strategy builds on the Foundation’s historic strengths while responding to what we see happening across the church. It calls us to modernize the services we already provide while becoming a more intentional fiduciary partner to congregations and ministries navigating transition, consolidation, closure, and new expressions of ministry. Ultimately, our goal is to help ensure that resources entrusted to the church continue serving ministry from one generation and one form of ministry to the next,” added Rosine. The strategic direction now turns to implementation planning, which will identify priorities, partnerships, resource needs, and key milestones.

Celebrating Service

The board also recognized members concluding their terms. Two Roanoke-based m embers, Dana Lee and Patice Hollard, are concluding their service; Lee served on the board for nine years and  Holland served three years. The board also recognized Diana Brown (Chickasha, OK) for three years of service to the board.

Rev. Ryan Pfeiffer, minister at First Christian Church, Fayetteville, AR, was elected to fill an unexpired term.

Other Business

In other business, the board approved the 2027 budget and took action to strengthen the continuity of its Audit Committee.

At the conclusion of the meeting, board members, guests, and staff were able  to attend worship with Loudon Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The board’s next meeting will be in Indianapolis in April 2027.

You can download the full release here. 

The Christian Church Foundation is a general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Foundation serves Disciples by gathering, stewarding, and distributing dollars for mission.

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