Thank you for your patience as we worked to finalize the January Pension Statements. The statements are available now on the Online Data Collection System.
The usual due date is the 25th of the current month, but because these were not published until January 22nd, we are extending the payment due date for January invoices to February 25. Please be assured there will be no impact on participants’ benefits as a result. Do not hesitate to contact benefitsteam@nccumc.org if you have any questions or see any discrepancies between your January pension statement and your church records.
Announcements
Conference Connectional Table: Meeting Updates from 12-8-2020
The Conference Connectional Table (CCT) met December 8 by Zoom. A meeting summary follows.
Devotion
The Reverend Alma Ruiz, lecturer and evangelism director of the Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School, offered a devotion based on Isaiah 58:6-9. These verses summarize the ministry God calls us to do: to loose the chains of injustice, to set the opposed free and break every yoke, to share our food with the hungry, to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, to clothe the naked, and not to turn away from our own flesh and blood. It is clear what is our divine call, yet we don’t seem to understand it. What God asks of us is to have a simple faith – a faith that allows us to recognize the face of Christ in the face of the poor, marginalized, and oppressed people.
Structure of the CCT
Each of the 24 members of the CCT have voice, and 12 of these have voting privilege. These 12 voting members are divided (and rotate yearly) among the four ministry teams within the CCT: Christian Formation, Leadership Development, Outreach, and Racial Equity and Justice. Each member, including the youth president who serves as a full voting member of the CCT during his/her tenure as youth president, offers voice to the CCT’s work of understanding, casting forth, and implementation for the conference vision. The CCT reiterated that if the input from a particular ministry is needed in their conversation, the CCT will extend that invitation to appropriate persons. The CCT abides by an opening meetings rule.
COVID Grants Available to Churches
The conference has COVID grant funds for churches that are still available. The CCT encourages clergy in churches having financial pressure to apply for these COVID grants. The grants are offered for any church in the conference. In receiving COVID assistance, we demonstrate that the connection is a web of interactive relationships. God’s blessings and our Methodist theology teach us that grace flows both ways. Sometimes we are giver; sometimes, a receiver.
The Reverend Chris Brady, pastor of Wilson Temple UMC, shared his church’s good experience with a COVID grant that helped to supplement the church’s food ministry and pantry, and pastor’s insurances. Read his church story, along with more information about these COVID grants.
CFA Announcement Regarding Disbursements
Over the last several decades, our Council on Finance and Administration (CFA) leaders have made wise and careful decisions about investments that are resulting in strong market returns. As a result, the reserves are in a very good place right now. In their December meeting, CFA looked at what they had and said we want to give.
As a result of past generosity from United Methodist people and congregations of our conference, the CFA, after prayer and discussion, designated full apportionment payment to the general church and designated the same amount to be set aside to help local churches across our Annual Conference who are impacted by the continuing COVID pandemic. The CCT encourages churches to apply for COVID grant funding if your church is in need of funds to continue your ministry and strengthen vitality.
These disbursements do not take CFA past their reserve minimums or close to it. The CFA retains operational and functional funds that they can use for the financial ministry of the Annual Conference. The CCT gives thanks to God for CFA’s ability to offer these allocations and for the past leadership that has enabled the CFA to be in a position to assist. Read more at Connections: Generosity.
Year-End Budget Updates (updated with numbers from 1-14-2020)
As of January 14, we are at 85.57% in apportionments, with several churches still coming in. We hope to reallocate some line items that we are not spending during the pandemic (meeting and training expenses, etc.) and utilize savings from these areas to support other areas in 2021. In February, CFA will set the final operating budget for 2021. With the challenges surrounding 2020, this is a real success, speaking to our connection and our desire to be bound to each other.
Budgeting Process for 2023 Budget
Committees are in the process of completing their budgets for 2023, based the two primary purposes for Annual Conference: equipping local churches and providing for a connectional means of ministry. Committees submit these budgets to their appropriate CCT team, and these team budget compilations are due to Treasurer’s Office January 15. The next steps include approval by the CCT, CFA budget committee, full CFA, and Annual Conference. The approved budget will then be apportioned out to local churches, raised the next year (in this case, 2022), and spent in 2023.
Purpose of CCT
Because it’s important to rehearse and re-identify its responsibilities, the CCT emphasizes at each meeting its task at defined in the Discipline. Summarized, its purpose is the work of ensuring faithful alignment between the vision the CCT holds and the protocols and various ministries that evolve from it. The CCT is responsible for the overall conference visioning and priority.
Next CCT Meeting
CCT’s next meeting by Zoom is scheduled February 24.
Handbook for Local Church Lay Leaders
The role of Lay Leader in the local congregation is a position of responsibility and it opens opportunities to guide the mission and ministry of the congregation. There are numerous responsibilities in that role and how those roles are fulfilled is largely dependent upon the culture of the congregation and the gifts and abilities the individual brings to that role.
Click on this link for a Lay Leader Handbook. It offers information and ideas about effectiveness in this unique role.
Registration Open for Online Class: Spiritual Gifts
One of the most beneficial ways disciples can discover and respond to God’s call in their lives is by discovering and serving from their God-given gifts. Whether that service is inside the church or outside in the community, God’s gifts enable us to fulfill the ministry to which God calls us and thereby give glory to the Giver of Gifts. This will be an enjoyable venture into discovering the gifts God has placed in you for the mission and ministry to which God calls you.
In this class you will:
- Discover the Biblical foundations for gifts-based ministry and the nature of God’s gifts for ministry
- Discover the definitions of ministry gifts and how scripture cites examples of those gifts
- Examine the role of gifts in effective ministry in today’s church
- Discover your own personal gifts for ministry
- Correlate your gifts to specific opportunities for mission and ministry
- Draft a gifts-based description of a ministry in the local church and explore ways to help your local church move into a gifts-based ministry leadership development system
Class sessions will begin January 25 and conclude February 5. Course fee: $30 payable upon registration. (NOTE: We no longer use PayPal but now use Stripe. There is no Coupon Code so leave that field blank on the payment page and proceed to enter your credit card information.) If you have not taken a class from NCCUMC Online Learning you will need to register on the site before registering for a class.
Course registration is available here and open through Friday, January 22. The required text for the course is Lay Servant Ministries Spiritual Gifts Participant’s Book and is available through this link. If you have concerns about timeliness of delivery, they also offer EPub and Kindle versions. The later the registration the greater the necessity for the electronic version of the text.
Additional PPP Funding Available
Applications are now available for a second round of loans for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Small Business Administration (SBA) and participating banks and lenders. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, allows nonprofit organizations, including churches, to apply for PPP funding, regardless of whether the entity received a loan in the first round. To be eligible, organizations must have 300 or fewer employees, have used or will use the full amount of any previous PPP funding, and be able to demonstrate a 25% gross revenue decline in any 2020 quarter compared with the same quarter in 2019. The same conditions for the first PPP loans continue with 60% of the funding required to be spent on payroll over a period of 8 or 24 weeks. Up to the remaining 40% may be spent on rent, utilities, and applicable mortgage interest. For the first time, this round will allow the up to 40% portion to also be used for worker protection and facility modification expenditures (including personal protective equipment to comply with COVID 19 federal health and safety guidelines), expenditures essential at the time of purchase to the current operations, and operating costs associated with software and cloud computing services and accounting needs.
Whether or not you received PPP funding in 2020, carefully look at the program requirements to determine if you are eligible to apply. If you think you are eligible, contact your bank or financial institution for help in determining final eligibility and applying for this additional PPP funding.
For more information:
Information from the SBA on the PPP and second draw PPP loans
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
Information from Wespath about 2020 COVID legislation and eligibility for churches
connections: Prayer for Inauguration Day 2021
Bishop Ward encourages us to be in a vigil of prayer today and tomorrow for the incoming leaders and for the future of our nation.
View Bishop Ward’s Prayer below the transcription.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow is inauguration day in the United States. In this country that we love, we offer our prayers for a safe and orderly transition of power. We pray for Joe Biden who will take the oath of office as President of our country and we pray for Kamala Harris who will take the oath of office as Vice President. We pray that the abundance of grace and strength and truth and love will be poured out upon them and those who counsel them in the days ahead.
We pray for all who have been injured or traumatized in violence as we approach this important day of transition tomorrow. We pray for healing for all who’ve been hurt and we pray for the families of those who’ve lost their lives.
We pray for the Congress of the United States, for the House of Representatives and the Senate, and for all who’ve been elected to serve in this area of public well-being.
We pray for a new sense of community in our nation and we pray that we will be used by God to be bearers of the peace of Christ. We pray that we will have wisdom to bring people together, to listen wisely, and to create a peaceable community wherever we find ourselves.
Thank you for your prayers and partnership as we enter into a vigil of prayer today and tomorrow for all that lies ahead. I offer a prayer attached to this video for your use and for your distribution in your congregation as you find it helpful.
May Christ be with us all in this time and always.
Prayer
Eternal God, the source of our hope in all things, we pray together for our country that we love.
We pray for a safe and orderly transition of power as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are inaugurated as President and Vice-President of the United States.
We pray for all who were traumatized, harmed and hurt in violence of the January 6 insurrection. We pray for the families of those who died. We pray for change of heart in those whose words and actions caused chaos, damage, wounding and death. Intervene, we pray, in the lives of those who persist in threat and violence.
We pray for public servants working for the safety of all. We pray for members of Congress, for those continuing, for those newly elected and for those departing. May our constant prayers sustain those elected to lead. Give them strength for the work ahead as they work to unite and lead our country in this time of great need. We pray earnestly for a spirit of cooperation for the greater good of all.
We continue to pray for healing through Jesus Christ, our Great Physician. As the pandemic continues, we pray for the bereaved, for the ill, for the aged and the young, for the fearful and the courageous, for workers who serve us seen and unseen. We pray for the medical and public health community as vaccinations are offered equitably with urgency. We pray for wisdom in gathering and in guarding the health of all our neighbors.
Through the Holy Spirit, grant to us the mind of Christ as we listen, learn, and lead day by day in this time of great need and of great opportunity. Amen.