Missouri River District
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Missouri River District Missouri River District January 2017 Missouri River District News 2016 Wrap Up Any churches that didn’t submit a 2016 parsonage report or a 2017 budget please email a copy of both to Kris at missouririv- [email protected] right away. Mission Share payments for 2016 can be made up until January 9, 2017 (see page 2 for more information). Please make January 2017 sure to like our ALL CHURCHES are required to enter Yearend Statistics (Table 1, Facebook page. 2, 3) into Ezra no later than 5:00 p.m. January 31, 2017. Please Click on the above icon do not wait until the end of January to complete this task. Infor- for a direct link. mation can be found on page 3 or by going to the on the Great Plains website at www.greatplainsumc.org, under Administration > Church Council and Leader Resources > Yearend Reports. SPRC Training will also be held in January on Saturday the 21st Hungry? Join Lefler from 9:00-11:00 a.m. at Springfield UMC, 480 Main St, Spring- or Nehawaka for one field, NE. ALL SPRC Chairs need to attend. Pastors and other or all of their upcom- SPRC committee members are welcome to attend as well. ing dinners! CLICK HERE for a link to signup or more information on page 4. —————————————————- February 2017 Lefler Dinners 2017 dates to be District Training on Multi-Media in Worship will take place on Sat- announced. urday, February, 18, 2017 at Omaha Living Faith UMC from 9AM- —————————————————- 4PM. This event is open to both clergy and laity. CLICK HERE for Nehawka Dinners 2017 Wednesday a link to signup or see page 5 for more information. dates to be announced. March 2017 Missouri River Mashup will take place on Saturday, March, 11, 2017 at Bellevue St. James at their new facility located at 43rd & Capehart from 9:30AM-2:30PM. This event is open to both clergy and laity. CLICK HERE for a link to signup or see page 5 for more information. A list of daycares and preschools available in our district has been published on our website at www.greatplainsumc.org/ missouririverdistrict. If you do not already have a daycare or pre- school in your church please feel free to direct anyone who inquires in the area to this list. We are better together when we’re sharing infor- mation. Missouri River District Page 2 As printed in the December 7th issue of the GPConnect Deadline set for payment of 2016 mission shares All 2016 remittances must be postmarked on or before Jan. 9, 2017. Mission share remittance sent after Jan. 1 must clearly be marked with “December 2016” if they are to be counted with 2016 money. Money postmarked after Jan. 9 will be considered 2017 money regardless of how the remittance is marked. Tips for submitting final payment: Verify that the total of your remittance form and the check amount agree. Make the check payable to the Great Plains Conference and mail it along with the remittance form to P.O. Box 4837, Topeka, KS 66604. Do not include benefit payments in this mailing as they go to a dif- ferent P.O. Box. If you are unable to meet the mailing deadline, contact the conference office in Topeka at 844-972- 9222 to authorize a one-time automatic debit from your church account. You must turn in the ACH withdrawal form no later than 10 a.m. Jan. 9 to ensure the payment is received at the bank by the deadline. Mission share letters for 2017 are already posted on the conference website. Remittance forms for 2017 will be loaded there Jan. 9, 2017, after the 2016 remittances close. Missouri River District - Mission Shares Update from Dan as of December 19: Greetings all: As I like to do this time of year, here is an update on our Mission Share giving for the Missouri River District. As a dis- trict, we are up 4.52% from this time last year (as of 12-16). We are at 78.95%. Flint Hills has the highest payout so far, at 85.97%. Five Rivers is the lowest at 65.40%. Missouri River has 19 churches who have paid 100%, with a number over 83%. Those who have paid 100% include: Blair First, Brock, Brownville, Burchard, DuBois, Falls City Bethel, Gretna, Hooper Faith, Johnson, Julian, Nebraska City First, Nehawka, Nemaha, Omaha Olive Crest, Omaha St. Andrew’s, Omaha Water’s Edge, Pawnee City First, and Table Rock. 16 more churches are over 85%. Thank you for your great effort and commitment to our connec- tional church. I will bring you an update after Christmas and you have until January 9th to submit pay- ments counting toward 2016. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! Dan Flanagan Missouri River District Page 3 Year-End Reports Statistical reports are due Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at 5:00 p.m. Churches cannot update after the deadline. Any input, updates, changes, correc- tions, etc., after the January 31 deadline need to be made through the district su- perintendent’s office. The “Book of Discipline” states that one of the administrative responsibilities of the pastor is “to give an account of their pastoral ministries to charge and annual con- ference according to prescribed forms.” Once the statistics are reported to the con- ference, they are compiled and checked for accuracy. The bishop and the cabinet use the statistical reports to assist in the clergy appointment process. The results assist local churches in identifying ministry areas that are extraordinarily successful and in determining the success of ministry and discipleship plans. The information also is used by annual conferences to calculate local church apportioned funds and by the general church to apportion local conferences. Access to the data entry website by clicking GCFA Stats Data Entry. Please see the Great Plains website at www.greatplainsumc.org, under Administra- tion > Church Council and Leader Resources > Yearend Reports or Click Here for more information from GCFA, entry instructions, stats FAQ, stats entry video tutorial. Stats Table Forms - The links below (also found on the website) can be filled out and printed to make the data entry easier. Table 1 (PDF) Table 2 (PDF) Table 3 (PDF) These statistical forms are not optional and must be filled out by every church. Please do not wait until January 31, 2017 to complete these forms and enter them in Ezra. If you have any questions please call Kris at missouririv- [email protected] right away. Missouri River District Page 4 Staff / Pastor - Parish Relations Committee Training On Saturday, January 21, 2017 there will be a SPRC District Training ses- sion held at Springfield UMC in Springfield, NE from 9:00-11:00AM. District Superintendent Dan Flanagan would request that the SPRC Chair from each church attend this training session. SPRC committee members and pastors are welcome to attend as well. The meeting will start promptly at 9:00 a.m. so please arrive a few minutes early to get coffee and a donut before finding your seat. Please CLICK HERE to RSVP for this event so that we have an idea of how many will be attending. If you have any questions or need help signing up please contact Kris at the district office by email at [email protected] or by phone at 402-934-5441. Missouri River District Page 5 The Missouri River District will be offering two training opportunities to the clergy and laity of the district. If you are interested in either event, it is not too early to signup. Multi-Media In Worship Date: 02/18/2017 (Sat.) Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm Location: Omaha Living Faith, 5310 S 182nd Ave, Omaha, NE Learn more about using multi-media in worship. Potential topics are tips for buying projectors and screens, sound, pro- jection software, videotaping sermons, resources available, and/or legalities of music and video usage. There will be no cost for the training and lunch will be provid- ed although a free will offering will be taken to help defer costs. If you have a laptop computer with PowerPoint software, you’re encouraged to bring it. Several lap- tops will also be available for others attending to experiment with the software. Please CLICK HERE to register for the event. Please register each attendee individually so that we have an accurate headcount and each person’s name. Any questions please contact the district of- fice. Missouri River Mashup Date: 03/11/2017 (Sat.) Time: 9:30am - 2:30pm Location: Bellevue St. James UMC 43rd & Capehart Road Join in this free event that is open to all clergy and laity of our district to come together as one body for a “Mashup” day of fun and learning from district clergy in their area of expertise. Please CLICK HERE to view a list of classes offered and then register for one morning and one afternoon the session. Please register each attendee individually so that we have an accurate headcount and each per- son’s name. Any questions please contact the district office. Missouri River District Page 6 Health Health and Healing Ministries at Omaha First UMC And Healing Our Health Equipment Loan Program (H.E.L.P.) is for any- Ministries one. Please check out items at the reception desk and sign waiv- er. These items are for Members and the Community. The waiver must be signed when checking out the equipment. Please clean the loaned equipment before returning to the church reception desk. We appreciate any donated equipment, however all items should be clean and in good condition.