Transforming Conflict in the Local Church

by Jane Anderson

We are well aware that living in community is both a blessing and sometimes a burden. In healthy communities we find love, comfort, support, encouragement, guidance, direction, nurture and much more. But, human relationships are not always easy to navigate, either in our families or in our faith families. It is often challenging, especially in the church, to navigate the multiplicity of human needs, desires, understandings, and loyalties in our relationships expressed within the church family. Also, differences of experience and opinions about our communal spiritual life and how that is expressed in word, sacrament, symbolism and song can lead to tension and conflict in relationship within the church.
Read more 

Apply now to save your spot!

Read more>>

Last month I wrote to argue that the only mass-produced evidence for American economic growth is the GNP/GDP and Stock Market numbers in the daily news. These numbers are based on dollars in circulation, as if money is wealth and is the main element that counts in our culture, a Culture of Growth. The truth is that money is not wealth; it is an abstract medium believed in as a claim on the efforts of others to provide something wanted by the moneyed. We are told by many influential " Economists" that America is the wealthiest country in the world, assuming that the amount of money in circulation determines its wealth, regardless of its distribution, which at this point is grossly uneven.

Read more

Best Practices for Church Members Serving as Staff

by The Parish Paper

Jean grew up in a large Methodist church in Ohio--confirmed there, active as a young adult, and married there. To accept a part-time job at the church, and later to go full time as the youth director, felt like a natural fit. "But to be on that side of the fence, attending staff meetings, was different," she said. "I was seeing the magic behind the scenes that I didn't know about. It was all about numbers. I still needed to be filled spiritually, to learn and to grow, and all of a sudden it was a business."
Continue reading >> 

Resources for One Great Hour of Sharing 2018

March 11, 2018

One Great Hour of Sharing® is the Lenten Offering of the United Church of Christ that supports disaster, refugee, and development activities. The suggested offering date for the One Great Hour of Sharing offering is March 11, 2018. Look for resources arriving at your church soon. If you need more, the UCC has them online. Also online are lectionary-based sermon notes for OGHS.  

Resource Center Spotlight

Congregation Care

The Wisconsin Conference UCC website has a growing resource center! Did you know there are resources available on caring for your congregation? Topics in this section of the resource center include aging and older adults, the opioid crisis, and safety and safe conduct.
Check it out here>>  

North Street Mission (NSM) is a mission trip opportunity for youth, families or adult groups. They provide the opportunity to learn about big city poverty issues in a rural setting. Groups will start off the day working in their breakfast program, then venture out to work in other community organizations in the Wooster, Ohio area. Educational segments can be arranged on a variety of issues based upon the interest of the groups. Groups are housed in the recently renovated third floor of the church in four bunk rooms. If groups can fit in a fun day in addition to their mission trip, they are close to a variety of fun venues as they are located 60 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio.

Discovering your church's ministry opportunities has never been easier. MissionInsite provides instant access to community information for your church via The MI System. As part of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ, you have free, unlimited access to MissionInsite. You'll get desktop, web-based access to demographic data for a variety of geographic levels.MissionInsite helps churches become more stable and engage more congregants, visitors and volunteers. Some of the many benefits include:

Check it out here

February 19, Cedar Valley Retreat Center, West Bend, 9am-3pm

March 17, Grace UCC, Wausau, 9am-3pm

 

Starting to think about retirement? Or recently retired?

Do you have questions about how to best navigate this transition?

 

Attend this event to learn how to plan for healthy and transformational steps in your retirement journey. Through a combination of presentations, access to resources and dialogue, you will have an opportunity to ask your pressing questions and share concerns and possibilities with other participants. Clergy and their spouses/partners who are beginning to think about, nearing and/or recently retired are encouraged to attend.

More information

Register for the event at Cedar Valley Deadline: February 1, 2018 

Register for the event in Wausau Deadline: March 2, 2018 

Suggested date: Sunday, April 22, 2018

Break The Silence Sunday is an effort to open up a conversation within the church about rape and sexual assault. Within the context of our faith communities we hope to:

• acknowledge the reality of rape and sexual violence in our world;
• support survivors by creating a place where they can tell their stories, feel loved and supported, and find encouragement on their healing journey;
• commit ourselves to the work of changing the world, creating a future where rape is a memory.

Break the Silence Sunday website 

2018 Break the Silence Sunday liturgy materials (PDF)

2018 Break the Silence Sunday liturgy materials (Word)

by Connie Larkman, United Church of Christ

A United Church of Christ congregation in Wisconsin has created a resource that helps bring the Bible to life. The 36 original pieces of art, images that represent and follow the biblical text, are used by First Congregational Church in River Falls, Wisc., to increase interest and interpretation of the Bible stories. It's called  Picture the Bible.

"We use it in worship, in adult bible study, in women's bible study, for confirmation and in everything we do with kids," said the Rev. Stacy Johnson Myers, the church's minister of Christian Education. "Children can see it and touch it. It has brought vitality to our congregation in ways that are just astonishing."
Continue reading>> 

Featuring Dr. Jennifer Harvey
Madison, February 9, 7 pm to 9 pm
Wauwatosa, February 10, 10 am to 12 pm

Dr. Jennifer Harvey, author of Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation, will be in Wisconsin to speak and share conversation on the subject of the church and racial justice.

Dr. Harvey has spoken and led workshops for faith communities and academic audiences around the nation. She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and keeps her own blog:  

formations // living at the intersections of self, social, spirit.  

Event flyer
Madison event registration

Wauwatosa event registration

April - November, 2018

Increasingly, congregations can no longer afford a full-time, fully-supported pastor.  And pastors are needing to wrestle with tough questions about how to sustain themselves while being faithful to their sense of call. The Bi-vocational Ministry Incubator provides a safe space where pastors can dig deeper into these questions, hone skills for doing ministry in a different way, develop tools to guide a congregation into making a transition into a more shared model of ministry, and find the courage to explore options. 

 
Monthly day-long gatherings over the course of 8 months will offer skill-building, peer support and coaching/mentoring. The program is offered inter-denominationally and designed for both ordained and licensed/commissioned pastors, for those who want to explore this option, and for those who have already made the transition and want additional support and tools, for those who seek additional income and for those who seek part-time arrangements in order to juggle home and care-giving responsibilities. Offered by Sand Bur Consulting, LLC.  For more information, contact Linda Kuhn of Sand Bur Consulting. Registration is limited and the deadline is March 23, 2018.
Informational brochure

Free webinar
February 7, 2018, 1:00 pm (CST)

The Insurance Board is pleased to have their partners from Praesidium present this webinar on such an important and timely topic. They will discuss what sexual harassment is, how it manifests itself in congregations, and how to respond in the current legal landscape. The presenter will share case studies and answer questions. Join in to better understand this important topic, how to prevent it, and what to do if it is happening in your church.
Register for the webinar 

Searching Churches

New Calls

• Rev. Larry Treece has been called as pastor at First Congregational UCC in Lake Mills, effective January 8, 2018

• Dorothy Hecky, mother of Rev. Steven Hecky, passed away on January 23, 2018. Obituary

The Conference Transitions feature appears monthly in the Wisconsin Conference Life. Please share your transition information, including church anniversaries, with the newsletter editor by emailing Nola.