Greetings to each of you as we celebrate the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. As you reflect on the past and anticipate the future, may your …eyes see, your ears hear, and your heart conceive of what God has prepared for you (I Cor. 2:9-13). With joy, a strong Missional Leadership Team has been working this past year alongside our conference minister, Michael Danner, to address some of the issues before us, and I want to bring you up to date on some developments.

1. Annual Assembly: Because we struggle with how to allocate time between worship, inspiration and business when we gather for one weekend, we are dividing our assembly into two separate gatherings this year.
2. A one-day delegate meeting at Metamora Mennonite Church on February 17 to discuss and discern financial and structural concerns facing the conference. Delegates will assist leadership in setting a direction for our work, (see 2C below). We will also affirm IMC leadership at this meeting.
3. A two-day gathering at Sonido de Alabanza in Cicero on Friday and Saturday, October 19, 20. The focus will be on worship, equipping and learning more about the challenges and ministries of the churches in this area. As we plan, we hope to include workshops, tours, music from different churches, and a few speakers. Participants are invited to stay an extra day to worship with a local church on Sunday morning.
4. IMC Financial and Structural Resources: Delegates asked the MLT to address a multi-year pattern of insufficient funding for conference that has resulted in a depletion of reserve funds. We believe that conference resources should be funded by contributions from member churches. There is no endowment to draw on and we don’t believe using reserve funds nor private fund-raising are acceptable long-term options.
5. Expenses have been cut as much as possible while maintaining a part time administrative assistant and the equivalent of one full time conference minister. Martín Navarro was hired on marginal time to assist in exploring stronger relationships with churches that primarily serve the Latino community. His position is funded by an offset in Michael’s salary.
6. Not all of the member congregations in the conference financially support the conference, but Michael responds to the requests of all congregations regardless of financial support.
7. The MLT is meeting with a few additional people in January to shape questions that delegates will be asked to address at our February 17 meeting. Your counsel is vital in determining the nature of our conversation and the proposals that will ultimately come back to the delegate body.
8. Year-End Giving: The conference fiscal year ends on January 31, 2018. If your church has not made a contribution to IMC this past year, I encourage you to do so. If you have contributed, we thank you, and ask you to consider including IMC in any special year end giving that you might do. I can assure you that your conference staff works very hard and maximizes every dollar that is given.

Please continue in prayer for us as we discern God’s call and the Spirit’s leading for our future as a conference. Feel free to contact me or Michael if you have any questions.

Don Rheinheimer,

Moderator, Illinois Mennonite Conference