|
Dear Folks:
The 141 st Montana-Northern Wyoming Conference Annual Meeting in Helena ended on Sunday September 27. Over the three days Plymouth church members treated us to homemade meals and hospitality. Rev. Jennifer Sowell, the new Associate General Minister for Love of Church at our national setting, challenged us to be invested in the work of the Conference. Dr. Lynnell Kruckeberg, music director at Red Lodge Community Church, who has a doctorate in vocal performance shared her voice in a workshop on the UCC Musicians Association and then again in a solo during Sunday worship. She has offered to lead a workshop on music in the church as well as direct the Conference Choir next year. We debated decreasing the amount of Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM) sent to national ministries to 10%; the vote was unanimous to continue to send to national 15% of what is collected.
There is always a question of what national has done for us and why we should support them. In the next few weeks, watch for a list of programs that we have taken advantage of, including various webinars (Church and Ministry Commission attended 3 different MESA-led webinars in the last year), daily devotionals, and worship materials. We will send out a more complete list in the coming weeks.
As we talked about the budget, Conference Treasurer, Rev. Teressa Clark (Red Lodge), noted the use of our endowment to close gaps between revenue and expenditures. In doing this, we drew down our endowments by some $60,000 last year. We actually removed $180,000, which was offset by favorable markets for our investments. We estimate if we continue this way, we have about 10-12 years before our endowment is totally sapped. A proposal was made that we build up the endowment and the Friends of the Conference line item. I’m betting that there are 100 people in our Conference who could pledge $1000 or 200 who could pledge $500 each to gather $100,000 each year to bolster our endowment. This year, we will be working toward a more formal program to boost the Conference’s funds.
Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund could not join us due to flight delays and rerouting. We will be hosting a Zoom gathering with her in the coming months. Look for a Conference wide discussion on her book Blessed are the Crazy soon.
Next year, our Annual Meeting will be in Miles City. We are hoping to get details out earlier this year, with clear directions on hotel registration. Save-the-date info will be coming soon. We hope you can join us!
In peace and prayer,
Pastor Tony
| 
