Wisconsin Conference This Week | | Join us in planning Annual Meeting 2027 | Planning is underway for the 2027 Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Conference, and we would love to have your help. We're looking for creative volunteers who enjoy working in a team setting to serve on the Annual Meeting Planning Committee. It’s a chance to help shape the theme, worship services, and workshops at Annual Meeting to ensure the best possible experience for attendees. Planning Committee members will meet online once a month from August through January. Take it from us: It’s a deeply satisfying way to share your gifts with the wider Wisconsin Conference. Interested? To learn more and sign up, email Jaime Craig by Aug. 15 | | Clergy retreat to explore wellness | | |
Living Well, Leading Well is the theme of this fall’s clergy retreat, which has the goal of nurturing the whole person in ministry. The retreat will take place from 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct.11, through 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Daycholah Center. Through workshops, guided reflection, and time for rest and renewal, participants will explore practices that support mental, spiritual, physical, and financial wellness so clergy can continue to lead with resilience, joy, and purpose. Featured presenters will be the Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, UCC minister for disabilities and mental health justice, and the Rev. Dr. Paul Leon Ramsey, pastor director for church relations and philanthropy for the Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ.
Register today.
| | Damascus Project to launch lay faith formation cohort | | |
Are you a lay person in the Wisconsin Conference? Do you want to deepen your faith and expand your knowledge of the Bible? If you answered yes, the Damascus Project has something just for you: It’s the Rooted and Growing in Faith Spiritual Formation Cohort, scheduled to launch in late August. Learners will explore theology and gain practical skills for lay ministry, all in a spiritual community of like-minded people from the Conference. The cohort will combine retreat-based spiritual formation, online learning, and monthly group spiritual direction over an 18-month period. The cohort will kick off with an Opening Retreat set for Aug. 28-29 at Daycholah Center. Questions? Email the Rev. Stephanie Perdew, director of the Damascus Project.
Read more about Rooted and Growing in Faith.
| | Catalyst funds help get River Falls tiny-house project off the ground | | |
What’s the best way to attack the housing crisis? In River Falls, it’s one tiny house at a time in an initiative called Wellspring Village. The project was hatched by a collaborative of six congregations, including First Congregational UCC of River Falls, which received a $5,000 Catalyst Grant from the Wisconsin Conference that will go toward construction of one tiny house. River Falls is a 45-minute drive from the Twin Cities, and housing prices are out of reach for many, Pastor Chris Myers said. The goal of the project is to provide tiny-house guests a bridge to long-term sustainable housing.
Read the full story.
| Small Church Working Group to tackle legacy planning | |
If you’re a pastor, lay leader or member of a church that’s on the smaller side – say your worship attendance is 20 or 30 people a week – check out tonight’s meeting of the Small Church Working Group. The discussion will center on the legacy process and how leaders can help congregations interested in exploring where they might be in their life cycle. The group meets by Zoom from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month. It’s a great forum for discussing best practices and for celebrating the joys and navigating the challenges of small church life.
Register for tonight’s meeting.
| Conference launches appeal for earthquake relief | |
The Wisconsin Conference is now accepting donations to support the relief effort in Venezuela, where the death toll from twin earthquakes on June 24 has surpassed 4,700, and thousands more people have been injured and left homeless. News reports citing estimates by the United Nations and other international organizations say anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 people are still unaccounted for. Donations to the Conference relief effort will be forwarded to Church World Service.
Donate to Venezuelan earthquake relief.
Watch CWS’s message to the Wisconsin Conference.
| ICYMI: Registration opens for online confirmation program | |
Registration is now open for the 2026-2027 Living Faith online confirmation program designed for eighth-graders in Wisconsin and Minnesota UCC churches. Living Faith, offered by the Damascus Project, is tailored to small and rural congregations that can’t support a confirmation program on their own. You can learn more about it at one of two virtual information sessions hosted by Living Faith’s director, the Rev. Uriah Williams. Sessions will take place at 6 p.m. on July 22 and 26. Two Living Faith cohorts will meet twice monthly beginning in September. Questions? Email Uriah.
Register for the Living Faith program.
Join one of the information sessions.
| Registration is open for 2026-2027 Communities of Practice. Register here for a clergy group and here for a Christian ed/faith formation group. . . . The monthly meeting of the Palestine Justice Working Group will take place on Zoom at 7 p.m. Monday, July 27. . . . Wisconsin Conference This Week is on a summer publishing schedule. Our next issue will reach your mailboxes on Aug. 3. | | Help others by donating now | The General Fund of the Wisconsin Conference helps us connect, support and resource pastors, leaders, and congregations. Your gift allows the Conference to provide relevant and timely help. Donate to the General Fund | | |
This newsletter is made possible by contributions to Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support.
Venezuela earthquake image: U.S. Marines 24MEU by Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Rivas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Wisconsin Conference UCC is an Open and Affirming Conference, WISE for Mental Health Conference and an Immigrant Welcoming Conference.
Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ
W1000 Spring Grove Road, Ripon, WI 54971
mail@wcucc.org
www.wcucc.org
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