IMC Gatherings in 2018!

The Illinois Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly is the central yearly gathering of the delegates of the conference. This event has taken many forms through the years. One consistent piece of feedback we receive about the annual assembly is “There is not enough time for business” and “There is not enough time for worship and equipping.” By trying to do both things in one gathering, we’re wondering if we are doing either of them as well as we can.

In 2018, we are experimenting with a new pattern of gathering.

  • On Saturday, February 17 we will have a one-day delegate business meeting. The purpose of this meeting will be to review the past year’s financials, approve the budget for the upcoming year, and to make strategic decisions about the future direction of IMC. Imagine the business portion of the annual assembly, with more time and space to fully consider various options for moving forward. The meeting will be held at Metamora Mennonite Church.
  • On Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20, we will gather for a time of worship and spiritual formation at Sonido de Alabanza.  We will gather around a theme, which will be the focus of IMC for the upcoming year. We will worship together, in styles that represent the breadth and depth of the conference. We will have various teaching/equipping tracks. We will fellowship together and build relationships.  As part of the gathering, you will have the option of staying an extra evening and worshipping with one of the many IMC congregations in Chicago.

Keep your eyes out for more details as they become available. Delegates will get more information about the business meeting agenda items beyond the budget so that you can prepare for the gathering. There is also no cost for the business meeting and will be a modest registration cost for the worship and equipping gathering.

Price vs. Cost in the Church

Price vs. cost

Price is a simple number. How much money do I need to hand you to get this thing?

Cost is more relevant, more real and more complicated.

Cost is what I had to give up to get this. Cost is how much to feed it, take care of it, maintain it and troubleshoot it. Cost is my lack of focus and my cost of storage. Cost is the externalities, the effluent, the side effects.

Just about every time, cost matters more than price, and shopping for price is a trap

– Seth Godin

This is an important word for churches, too. Sometimes, as we make decisions in the church, we consider the price but do not adequately consider the cost.

In my experience, the concern for price over cost is most dangerous when congregations need outside help, like mediation, to restore health to the congregation. Many congregations have said no to mediation because of price without fully considering the long-term cost of unhealth. Congregations have closed their doors because the cost of congregational unhealth was much greater than the price of mediation.

This is also true for persons. The concern for price over cost is damaging in circumstances where a person or couple need counseling to restore health. Yes, counselors cost money. But there is a greater cost to unhealth that goes unchecked or unaddressed.

If you are a leader in the church, part of your work is helping those around you consider all the costs involved in doing particular things or not doing other things. Price is in the mix, to be sure. But it isn’t the only factor. Sometimes the cost of inaction is much greater than the price of action.

If you are a leader in the church, part of your work is also practicing this in your life. Are there areas of your life or leadership that need to be addressed? What is the price of addressing them?  What is the cost of not addressing them?

If you are not dealing with your stuff, it will be very hard for you to help other people deal with their stuff.

There is a cost beyond price.

 

An introduction to Women and Money

New monthly series focuses on financial education and women’s stories

Written for women, by women – the new Women and Money series by Everence® aims to share the unique experiences women face and how these experiences affect their lives and finances.

This series is inspired by Women and Money educational seminars led by staff in several communities for the last few years. The seminars addressed financial concerns women may deal with, with the goal of helping women learn more about finances and feel more confident about their financial decisions.

Rhoda Blough, Everence Stewardship Consultant, advocated to start the educational seminar for women because she saw the importance of talking with women about the financial situations they may encounter. Blough felt this acutely because her husband died unexpectedly, and Blough had to quickly figure out their finances while also trying to grieve.

“Reflecting on my own experience, I recognize the importance of women being knowledgeable in all aspects of their finances,” said Blough in the first article of the series.

Although many of the financial principles are universal, the common thread of the series is women sharing their experiences with other women.

Find the series at everence.com/articles-and-stories and select Women and Money on the topic list.

About Everence

Everence helps individuals, organizations and congregations integrate finances with faith through a national team of advisors and representatives. Everence offers banking, insurance and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education.

 

Sara Alvarez

Content Marketing Director

sara.alvarez@everence.com

AMBS co-sponsors Believers’ Church Conference

Release by Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

AMBS faculty, staff and students were among more than 150 participants in “Word, Spirit, and the Renewal of the Church,” the 18th Believers’ Church Conference. The event was held Sept. 14–16 at Goshen (Indiana) College and was co-sponsored by Goshen College and AMBS.

Safwat Marzouk, AMBS associate professor of Old Testament, and Jamie Pitts, AMBS associate professor of Anabaptist studies, played major roles in planning and hosting the event, and other AMBS faculty and students presented papers, led worship and participated in other ways.

Above, several AMBS students visited with renowned theologian Miroslav Volf, Dr. Theol., a professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, following his lecture on Sept. 15 at College Mennonite Church in Goshen. Volf’s presentation, “Humility and Joy: What We Can Still Learn from Martin Luther,” was sponsored by the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Series; he was also a speaker at the conference. AMBS President Sara Wenger Shenk introduced Volf, a friend from when she and her husband, Gerald, served in the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s.

(l. to r.): Miroslav Volf; Jonathan Krull, visiting professor of philosophy at Huntington (Indiana) University; Benjamin Isaak-Krauss, MDiv student from Bammental, Germany; Scott Litwiller, MDiv student from Delavan, Illinois, and data services manager for AMBS; Rianna Isaak-Krauss, MACF student from Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Brian O’Leary, MDiv student from Seattle, Washington.

“Reading Volf at Goshen College gave me insight into how conflict and suffering in the Bible might be relevant for our theologies of suffering today,” said O’Leary. “I was honored to hear more about humility and joy from him after his talk.”

“It was exciting to hear Dr. Volf talk after reading his works for classes at AMBS!” added Benjamin Isaak-Krauss.

Read Goshen College’s article on the conference

Regional Mennonite Disaster Service Meeting – October 27, 2017

In this season of storms and disasters, both natural and man made, stretching from Puerto Rico along the Gulf Coast upto Las Vegas through Northern California, and upto Ft. McMurray in northern Alberta, may the peace of Christ be present in your lives, those of your families, and your congregations.  I am amazed how many times, despite the circumstances, when Jesus comes to his disciples his first words are “Peace; be not afraid.”  So may it be with us.

Mennonite Disaster Service will hold its annual meeting for the Illinois Unit on Friday afternoon, October 27th, beginning at 3:00 PM at the First Mennonite Church of Morton.  In addition to hearing reports about unit activity from the past year, we have an important discernment to undertake concerning the next year.

The Illinois Unit is being asked by the Long Term Recovery Group in Ottawa/Naplate for assistance in rebuilding after the tornados of last February.  Please read through the description of their work and be praying with us about whether this is something God would have us do.  Because of the importance of this request please attend or find another person from your congregation to attend the unit meeting.

Finally, the Illinois Unit Meeting is preceeding the MDS Region 2 annual meeting this year which commences right after our unit meeting.  Please consider joining us for some or all of that meeting as well.  Registration information for that event is also included.

Thank you for all of your work in your home communities and congregations.  Please contact me with questions.  I look forward to being with you.

—
Ronn Frantz,
MDS Illinois Unit Chair

Click here to view the invitation

 

Click here to view the Ottawa-Naplate request

 

MC USA Executive Director search committee launches survey

9.27. 2017  Written By: Mennonite Church USA 

The search committee for Mennonite Church USA’s next executive director invites denomination-wide participation in a Survey Monkey questionnaire to discern essential qualities and top priorities for the job description, and to nominate potential candidates for the role. The survey is available at mennoniteusa.org in English and Spanish and will be available for completion through Oct. 16, 2017.

Over the last three months, the search committee conducted phone conversations with select persons from across the church and is now broadening the scope of the listening phase of their work.

“This is an opportunity for community discernment, and we want to encourage participation from as many people across Mennonite Church USA congregations, conferences and agencies as possible,” says Joy Sutter, search committee chair. “The information collected will provide the search committee with additional clarity on the kind of person we want to invite to serve in this important leadership position in our beloved church.”

Sutter also said the search committee is working well together and listening deeply to the feedback that has been contributed through the search process.

“The committee believes that as we all work together in this important task, the bonds that connect us throughout Mennonite Church USA will be strengthened,” Sutter says.

The search committee invites continued prayer for their work and for the person whom God is calling to be the next executive director. For additional inquires or to apply for the executive director position, please contact the search committee at: EDsearch@Mennonites.org.

The committee continues to meet via videoconferencing on a weekly basis and will hold their next in-person meeting Dec. 1-3, 2017 in Dallas, Texas.

Call to Prayer after Las Vegas shooting

10.2. 2017  Posted By: The Mennonite                                     

On Oct. 1, a gunman opened fire during a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, where over 22,000 attendees were gathered. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, killed 50 people and injured hundreds of others before taking his own life. 

This tragic event now becomes the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history, surpassing the death toll following a mass shooting at the Pulse Nighclub in Orlando in 2016, an event which claimed the lives of 49 individuals. Over 270 mass shootings, defined as an event where four or more individuals are killed in the same “general time or location,” have taken place in the United States in 2017 alone. 

Michael Martin, director of RAW Tools, an organization that works alongside communities to address gun violence by forging garden tools from guns, wrote this prayer in mourning for this tragedy.

A call to prayer for Las Vegas and beyond

Lord, Hear our prayer….

We pray for the lives lost in Las Vegas that join the climbing number of those lost to gun violence in America.
Comfort the mourning, the grieving, the broken-hearted.
Compel our prayers to turn into actions.

May the triggers of our streets be beaten into plowshares.

May the triggers of our hearts be met with the open arms of our neighbors.

May we trust in the transformative power of your refining fire.
Forge us to be instruments of your peace.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

May our posture be of a readiness to steady a plowshare.
May we take hold of your olive branch that plots for peace.

May the plowshare break the earth of senseless violence.

May the furrows bring us a harvest of solace, a neverending rest from violence.

May we sit under the vine and fig, on earth as it is in heaven.

May it be so. Amen.