To set up your 2023 HealthFlex medical, dental, vision, and health account benefit enrollments, visit BenefitsAccess.org.
Visit Wespath’s Annual Election website to learn more about these benefit options. Taking no action will result in your enrollment in the default plans: H3000 health plan, no dental plan, Exam-only Vision plan, and no health account contributions.
To change your 2023 Basic and Supplemental Life insurance choices, complete the NC Conference’s Annual Election Form. Taking no action will result in your enrollment in the same plans next year as you have this year.
Effective Leaders
Suicide Prevention – Equipping Faith Leaders
The Center for Leadership Excellence invites clergy and laity to a free webinar on suicide prevention…
QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer – the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. This popular, evidence-based, nationally recognized training is modified for faith communities using supplementary material from the QPR Institute and can be provided in approximately 90 minutes.
QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer): Suicide Prevention Equipping for Faith Leaders
Presented by the Center for Leadership Excellence
with Justin Powlison
Wednesday, November 16, 12pm–1:30pm
About the Presenter:
The mission of E9:4 is to equip the Christian Church to prevent suicide through training, consulting, and resources. E9:4 was launched in 2022 by Justin Gabriel Powlison, a mental health and suicide prevention expert. Justin has a B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in Pastoral Counseling. He has worked in the Mental Health field since 2006 and has 8+ years of Suicide Intervention and Prevention experience. Justin is a certified Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) and Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) trainer.
QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer): Suicide Prevention Equipping for Faith Leaders
The Center for Leadership Excellence presents a webinar with Justin Powlison…
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About the Webinar:
QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer – the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. This popular, evidence-based, nationally recognized training is modified for faith communities using supplementary material from the QPR Institute and can be provided in approximately 90 minutes.
About the Presenter:
The mission of E9:4 is to equip the Christian Church to prevent suicide through training, consulting, and resources. E9:4 was launched in 2022 by Justin Gabriel Powlison, a mental health and suicide prevention expert. Justin has a B.A. in Psychology and M.A. in Pastoral Counseling. He has worked in the Mental Health field since 2006 and has 8+ years of Suicide Intervention and Prevention experience. Justin is a certified Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) and Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) trainer.
Note: This webinar will not be recorded. Please make plans to join us live on November 16, 12pm ET!
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Invitation to the Special Called Annual Conference Session 2022
Dear Friends:
Grace and peace from Jesus Christ.
You are receiving this letter because you are a member of the NC Annual Conference, either lay or clergy. You are therefore invited to attend the Special Called Session of the Conference to be held on Saturday, November 19, 2022, beginning at 10:00 am in Huff Concert Hall at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC. The called session has previously been announced by Bishop Fairley; he is calling it to deal solely with the question of ratifying the disaffiliation agreements of the various churches in the NC Conference that have requested disaffiliation from The United Methodist Church. No other business is allowed per The Book of Discipline.
All clergy are members of the Annual Conference. Lay members are those who were elected to serve as lay members of Annual Conference for 2022 (or the elected alternate for the elected lay member if the elected lay member is unable to attend).
Methodist University is a gracious host, and we thank them for their hospitality. However, there is limited parking, so carpooling will be helpful. The University asks that we help them with security, so please keep the parking permit you receive in the mail and put it on your dashboard as you approach the Welcome Center at the entrance to the University; using the permit establishes you as a member of the Annual Conference. If you are not the lay member who will attend to represent your church or charge, please make certain that you give your alternate the permit to use so that they can readily enter MU’s campus.
Registration starts at 8:30 am. There is sufficient seating for all the voting Conference members. It is possible that any guests or visitors will have to stand as is often the case at sessions of the Annual Conference. The Session will be livestreamed, so watching from home is a ready option for those who will not vote at Annual Conference. We anticipate that the Special Session will not last past noon. Childcare for a limited number of children is available thanks to St. Andrews UMC, immediately adjacent to the University.
You can find the agenda, a pre-Special Session briefing video, and the Conference Board of Trustees report, including a list of churches asking for disaffiliation, on the NC Conference website at nccumc.org/scac2022.
I look forward to seeing you on November 19. Please keep the NC Conference and our ministries in your prayers as we honor the Lord and go forward as Bishop Fairley calls on us to do in his letter.
In Christ,
H. Gray Southern
NCC Secretary
Thoughts from National Young People’s Ministry Gathering (Part 3)
On September 26-28, the Rev. Jason Villegas, our Conference Director of Youth Ministry, went to a gathering of other youth ministry leaders from other United Methodist Annual Conferences. He reflects on the gathering in this series of posts. Read part 1 and part 2.
While together, we also thought about family systems theory and how, whenever a single piece of the family is changed, it affects everyone.
We see this most clearly with the schism we are experiencing and many churches either leaving to become independent or join the Global Methodist Church. (In my opinion, it is less a divorce and more like the so-called Prodigal Son saying, “drop dead and give me my half of the inheritance,” leaving some like the sad dad, hoping they’ll come back and some like the embittered older brother) However, we can also see family systems theory at work in the needed change that’s happening. In the same way that parents have a hard time adapting to their children’s changing patterns of living, so too does the United Methodist Church have a hard time adapting to youth who are more active in their world and less likely to silently sign their name to a church role sheet unless they know that it will better their lives. For many reasons, the UMC is experiencing the pains of a changing family structure.
The average age of worshippers in the UMC is older than my parents, and the average youth in the UMC has or may soon leave the church. But the average is not everything. My fellow directors of youth ministry taught me that in many ways. We are yet alive. The Holy Spirit is not done with us.
Even while I could talk a bit more about the ways Spirit showed up or other things we talked about, I’ll leave you with this:
Our time together was both soberly awake to the challenges that youth and church ministry hold, and it also dreamt of possibilities. It reflected our collective pain and the trauma of the young members of our church family systems. The time was also healing. It was both filled with lamentation and also, therefore, freed up for the guilt-free fiesta that comes when you’ve shared the weight of the burdens you’ve silently been carrying. It was a time of being burnt out and consumed by God’s fire that quenches while it warms and enlightens. But for me, most importantly, it was a time when we could celebrate life in service together, having a celebration of the promise of life like we have at a funeral — a service of death and resurrection, in which we know that it may feel like Good Friday, and we may not know how long we shall endure the descent into hell of Holy Saturday, but we also know that eventually, thanks be to God, Sunday’s coming. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Insurance Annual Enrollment Starts Next Week!
Start making your Insurance Plan Enrollment choices on November 2nd. Visit Know Your Insurance Plans for directions. The Annual Enrollment Period ends November 17th.