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Announcements
Leadership Fellows – Is this the right year for you?
Why choose Leadership Fellows this year?
New to Your Church? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a strong relationship with an energized lay member of your church, eager to partner with you in dreaming and enacting a vision for your congregation’s next steps in ministry? Pastors who begin Fellows in the first year of their appointment often have the best experience in using the program and relationship-building toward a strong start in their new community.
Need an Advocate in Your Congregation? We find that lay Fellows increase their commitment to their church as a result of the Fellows experience. New knowledge and familiarity with the UMC often translate to saying yes to preaching or teaching and yes to expanded leadership roles. The Fellows experience can transform laity with potential into true ministry partners.
Established in Your Ministry? Leadership Fellows is a program with benefits for every stage of pastoral ministry. Often, it is our more seasoned pastors who are able to both contribute the most and make the best use of the material they are learning alongside their lay partner.
In Need of Renewal? These past few years have been tough. Wherever you are in ministry, consider giving yourself the gift of joining the Leadership Fellows community. Take time to be filled spiritually, to be inspired and energized for ministry, and to gain a lay partner who is equally inspired and energized to renew the ministry of your congregation.
Let’s schedule a 15-minute Zoom call to answer your questions! The application is open until September 5, so it is a great time to start talking with someone in your church who might become your lay partner in this nine-month journey.
Retreat One: Grounded in God and Self
Oct 16-18, 2023 @ Camp Rockfish
After introductions and some focused time on experiential spirituality as a critical facet of leadership, Fellows will explore their EQi results and learn effective strategies to build relationships and build connected ministry teams. Retreat Facilitators: Lisa Yebuah, Heidi Gailor, and Donna Banks.
Retreat Two: The Arc of Change
Feb 5-7, 2024 @ Camp Rockfish
Spiritual discernment and decision-making are critical to ascertain where and how the church needs to change. This retreat will outline a discernment process and equip Fellows to move their churches through appropriate and thoughtfully-considered change. Retreat Facilitators: Heidi Gailor and Erin Lane.
Retreat Three: Transforming Community
May 6-8, 2024 @ the Trinity Center
During this final retreat, Fellows explore strategies to transform conflict in churches and how to fully embrace this liminal season of church leadership to see it as a gift and an opportunity. Retreat Facilitators: Teresa Holder, Margaret Brunson, and Lisa Yebuah.
Volunteers Needed for Tornado Response
Disaster response and recovery efforts are ongoing in Nash and Edgecombe Counties following an EF3 tornado on July 19, 2023. Early Response Teams (ERT) and volunteers from across the NC Conference have been working in the area over the last several days to help remove debris.
On July 23, over fifty youth and adults from fifteen United Methodist Churches volunteered to help with clean-up efforts. Rev. Dr. David Joyner, pastor at First UMC in Rocky Mount, said, “We have really seen the Connection be the church! The future is bright, and I am proud to be UMC!”
Volunteers are needed to help with debris cleanup. Volunteers do not have to be Early Response Team certified. Volunteers must be 16 years or older. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the Disaster Ministries Call Center at 888-440-9167 or disaster@nccumc.org to schedule your team.
Please continue praying for those impacted by the tornado. We will continue to share more information on our Tornado Response Updates page.
Tornado Response: July 19, 2023
On July 19, 2023, an EF3 tornado caused damage in Nash and Edgecombe Counties. NC Conference Disaster Ministries will have assessors in the counties on July 20.
Information on the need for Early Response Teams (ERT) is anticipated. Please remember that even with valid ERT credentials, outside teams only enter the affected areas once we are cleared and invited to go unless you live in the affected district.
We will continue to share more information on our website. Please continue to pray for all those affected by the tornado.
Photo credit: Chris Daniel, NC Conference of The United Methodist Church
AC 2023 Final Wrap-Up
The North Carolina Annual Conference met in Greenville, NC on June 15-17, 2023. 1,183 persons attended the conference, which worshiped around the theme of Graceful Hospitality. Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton presided over her first NC Annual Conference as the episcopal leader.
The conference began with executive sessions for the clergy and laity. In the laity session, members heard from several presenters about how the churches of the NC Conference are making disciples and extending Graceful Hospitality in their communities. From clothing drives to pop-up picnics, the work of the laity was celebrated. In the clergy session, members approved the ordination of 8 persons (2 deacons and 6 elders) and the commissioning of 11 persons.
Following executive sessions, Bishop Shelton officially convened the annual conference. Worship and work were woven together throughout the opening session, with the business of the conference punctuated and enlivened by music led by a conference choir of eighty! Opening worship wrapped with a duet by Bishop Shelton and rising seventh grader, Josiah Curry, singing “I Just Want to be Where You Are!” An attitude of prayer and discernment permeated holy conferencing.
The Thursday afternoon session provided an opportunity for the North Carolina Conference to officially welcome Bishop Shelton and her husband, the Rev. Dr. Joey Shelton. Reports and presentations included a celebration of Laity and Connectional Ministries. Rev. Wes Neal (clergy), Daewon Goldenbaum-Yang (laity), and Gabi Loaiza (youth) were honored as the recipients of the Harry Denman Evangelism Award. Business concluded with Holy Communion with an offering for Congregations for Children (C4C). Thursday evening was an opportunity for gathering and fellowship with ice cream, a welcome treat as the first day ended.
On Friday, Home Missioner Steve Taylor, Executive Director of Connectional Ministries, and Rev. Laura Wittman invited the Annual Conference to enter into a time of using our imaginations to enter into the world of Scripture. They modeled Steve’s creative, dynamic, and interactive way of engaging biblical texts by walking the gathered body through Luke 7:36-50. A diverse group of clergy and laity reenacted this passage from Scripture, interspersed with questions and responses that Taylor and Wittman exchanged with the gathered body using Mentimeter.
We remembered 21 clergy and 33 spouses at the All Saints Celebration and Memorial Service. In his sermon based on John 14, Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Dean of Duke Divinity School, shared that “Each person named today has a story, and those stories are connected in ways obvious and hidden, to the stories of those who came before us, the stories of those who will come after, and the stories of all us who are here today…The saints we celebrate constitute a declaration that the Methodist connection is stronger than death and if so, much stronger than divisions and disaffiliations. This celebration does not move me to optimism about the future of our church, because it moves me to something much better – hope.”
The Friday afternoon session began with the celebration of 22 clergy retirees, followed by the Order of the Day with Rev. Adam Hamilton, author and pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas. As he shared his thoughts on the future of The United Methodist Church, Rev. Hamilton discussed creating vital, vibrant congregations and called us to a Jesus revolution. Even in the midst of disaffiliation, our mandate remains the same: to preach the gospel and to live the gospel in our churches and our communities. Hamilton concluded with a prayer where we offered ourselves to Jesus, praying that he will work in and through us as we seek to incarnate his presence, to be the body of Christ, for our world today.
During the presentation of the financial reports, the 2025 budget proposal was approved as amended on Saturday. It was also announced that the North Carolina Conference would be receiving over 5 million dollars from The Duke Endowment over the next five years. The grant, totalling 10.5 million dollars, will be divided evenly between the North Carolina and Western North Carolina Conferences to support the creation of new faith communities in both annual conferences.
Annual Conference ended with the Ordering of Ministry worship service, where 40 persons publicly proclaimed their calling to ministry. In the sermon, Bishop Shelton focused on the story in the Gospel of John where Jesus asks a Samaritan woman to give him a drink. The Bishop reminded us that this is a beautiful story about a woman going to the well in the middle of the day to draw water because she was tired of “The Look.” Bishop Shelton asked everyone, “How will you create a culture of welcome, and graceful hospitality, and compassion for people who get ‘the look’? Each of us belongs to God and one another.”
The Conference offered many mindful health opportunities, including a masked seating area, Blueprint for Wellness Screenings, and free, confidential talk sessions with a therapist. The Glow in Greenville 5K Run/Walk drew 75 participants early on Friday morning.
Two special offerings were received: $6,060 for Congregations for Children (C4C) and $7,543.23 for Professors in Methodism.
Data and Statistics:
- Membership for 2022 was 162,625, down 5,353 from 2021, not including disaffiliations.
- The Conference approved a budget of $12,201,923 for 2025, a 22.45% decrease from what was approved for 2024. The 2025 budget is also a reduction from the 2023 and 2022 budgets (20.73% and 21.13%, respectively).
- The Annual Conference voted to formally close 12 churches. 6 new faith communities began this year. As of the Annual Conference gathering, 99 churches had voted to be Lighthouse Congregations. A motion was passed to ratify the disaffiliation agreements of 59 churches listed in the addendum of the Trustees’ report in the Conference Workbook.
- 22 clergy entered retired status.
- 6 elders and 2 deacons were ordained, with an average age of 38; 11 provisional members were commissioned, with an average age of 35; 13 local pastors were licensed, with an average age of 40; and 7 lay ministers were certified.
- 89 churches will receive new pastors this year.
- A special called virtual annual conference session will convene on October 7, 2023, to ratify disaffiliation agreements for churches that have met the requirements to disaffiliate under the Disaffiliation Agreement approved and adopted by the Conference Board of Trustees.
- Annual Conference 2024 will be June 12-15 in Greenville, NC.
Recordings of all plenary sessions and worship services are available on the NC Conference app or at nccumc.org/ac2023/watch/. You can view photos from the three-day conference online in the Annual Conference 2023 album on Flickr. The final PDF of Resolutions is at nccumc.org/ac2023/resolutions.
Más Diversity 2023 Recap
In July 2022, three Latino youth from White Plains UMC met with their youth pastor, Rev. Jason Darden, and with Rev. Ernesto Barriguete (NCC Director of Race Equity and Justice Ministries) to talk about an idea they had. Having experienced the joy of Christian conferencing at the weeklong NCC youth event Breakaway, they had a vision for creating a space for ethnic minority youth to meet and connect with each other before coming to Breakaway, doing so as a way to understand and impact the culture of NCC youth events to which many of them were new.
Over the next few months, they would meet with other leaders to try to make this dream a reality. The vision was first embraced by the Conference Youth Committee (CYC) and, eventually, the Duke Endowment, which provided a three-year grant for the event. After meeting weekly for several months, the Más Diversity design team gave birth to this event, which was June 23-25, directly before Breakaway.
On opening night, Rev. Gloria Winston-Harris preached an empowering message for the youth to be themselves. They would be led in worship more throughout the weekend, as they were encouraged to embody their worship: dancing, offering words of reflection and testimony, and finding ways to live in solidarity with each other. Each day they learned “liberating habits,” skills to heal and cleanse their nervous systems and become mindful of the presence of God and others nearby them.
They heard about the ways in which the Christian church in the United States has been complicit with the spiritual forces of wickedness through the idea of white supremacy and Jesus presented as a white man, and they were encouraged to see the presence of God at work, as Howard Thurman would say, “with those whose backs are up against the wall.”
They were also empowered to connect with the broader youth ministry setting of the NCCUMC and to grow as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ alongside the mosaic of people who make up our Church. With funding for two more years, the NCC youth leadership hopes that Más Diversity can not only be a brave space for ethnic minority youth, but that it can also be an encounter with the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, which will help these youth to grow as representative leadership in the NCCUMC, to better connect with all of their peers, and to impact the world around them where the Holy Spirit is already at work.