IS TRINITY UMC GUILTY OF LEADERSHIP?

Q: "What evidence could be used to convict people in our church family of exhibiting leadership?"

A: We will be guilty of leadership when:

Colleagues in Ministry,

As you are by now aware, the United Methodist Church's Call to Action report has led to what is being called the UMC Vital Congregations Project. The stated goal is "to fulfill the Mission of The United Methodist Church by equipping and empowering congregations to become vital and healthy congregations in their communities and in our world."

To help us all understand this important part of the 'paradigm shift' in our churches, our August/September cluster meetings will be held jointly with the lay leadership in our churches to lay out the expectations of our denomination and our annual conference as we seek to live out the call to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Please plan on attending with the significant lay leadership in your church, including those who will be handling the statistical data usually reserved for end of year reports! They will want to learn about the 'Dashboard.'

Our cluster meetings will be: Canyon Cluster: Monday, August 29, Place and Time TBD soon Southern Nevada Cluster: Monday, September 12 at Heritage UMC at 6:30 PM River Cluster: September 13 or 14, Mojave Valley UMC, 6 PM

If you would like to do some preparation ahead of time, check out: UMCvitalcongregations.org

We will also hand out the charge conference packets at that time, and explain the format/expectations of our upcoming cluster charge conferences. I pray you are having a blessed summer!

Comments captured at Oct 24, 2010 Council meeting:
What messages did we experience in our prayers and fasting?

We will not do what we did before.
*  For last 2 years a smaller group selected good-sounding goals but resulted in no execution planning, minimal ownership, didn't explore why we wanted to accomplish the goals. We ended up with minimal investment in the church, similar goals both years, not a path by which TUMC can thrive. Whatever process we use for planning for 2011, we won't do this again.

First thing - pay our apportionments in full each month.
*  Tithing important. 10% of giving, donations, and fundraisers for each ministry should be directed to apportionments (note: pointed out later offline that this is not a legal practice in UMC!). We are $39K behind payment schedule in 2010.

Walk the campus to see if what you are seeing is what you want others (visitors) to see.
*  Is this the yard we want people to experience? Takes elbow grease to keep up campus. Construction trailer out front (St. Stephen) gives wrong impression. Go to a church that is well kept; members there love their church.

Set goals for desired outcomes.
*  We should focus on the outcome of our activities; why we believe ministries are what we want to do.

Spend some time healing this church from the inside.
*  Church no longer feels like a family. Need a place to "fill me up" with love and spirit. In past happiness was contagious; we need to revitalize that.

Go out in the community as teams to share what is happening at Trinity United Methodist Church.
*  We have a great 10:30 service; we need to let community know what we're doing and what's going on in the church.

We need more love - call on the Holy Spirit - give what you can.

Start caring about loving each other as family.
*  The church is our family; we need to get past quarrels.

Be passionate about whatever your spiritual gifts lead you in your ministry.
*  Small groups can be used to identify passions, then go do them.

Look for untapped strengths.

Be open to receive the message when it comes.

Pray Seek Ask.

Remember our traditions and the base it creates.
*  We need more of a tradition to the base of the church. People have left because they miss what they used to have.

Pray that our friends and family members will come back.

Christian growth through study by having a time set aside for study with the whole congregation.
*  We need to strive toward a thriving church (not same thing as growth). People act as if there always has to be a choice: either this OR that. We're letting a division happen, e.g., the gray hairs vs. younger members. God is expecting us to get busy. We need to eliminate the line(s) between us.

Give St Stephen Ministry a permanent home (Potter's Place?).

Buy offices to the south and east of our property - put St Stephen and other outreach ministries in the mall area to the east (along Jones).
*  Provide job counseling; some more awesome ministry together.

Reach out to our neighbors.
*  Opportunity is ripe for ministry to Hispanics

Small group ministry "families."

Start 4 groups per quarter.
*  Pastor Mark to work with Linda to start 4 groups by end of year (?); expand to 8 groups by 2011.
*  Each group will start 1 small group by the end of the year.

Discipleship elements:  include prayers, presence, gifts, service, witness. We need to be willing to participate in all of these. Need to be a disciple/ practice discipleship in order make others disciples of Christ (per our mission statement)

Covenants accepted by Church Council on Feb 28, 2010
Raising the Bar per Our Agreed upon Goals
for 2010 (Charge Conference Report p. 33)

All members (current and future) are expected to complete Membership 101 taught by the pastor.

All church leaders are expected to:

Complete Membership 101 (leadership example to other members).
Pledging and Tithing (10% of income) to the church budget. If not yet giving 10% then working towards increasing their giving until the full tithe is achieved.
Participation in a small group study outside of Sunday morning.
Regularly attend Sunday worship services when in town.

Adopt a covenant for our community life together.  The following covenant would be adopted each year by our Church Council as the mutual expectations for our congregational life and work among our leaders.

We seek to follow God's will in our lives and provide a safe environment where differing viewpoints are welcomed, sought, heard, and respected. Therefore, we individually and as a Church Council covenant to:

Be open to discerning God's will through attention to Scripture, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the opinions of others.
Be positive and constructive, focusing on important goals, issues and problems, not on personalities.
Be respectful, receptive, patient, and understanding listeners, creating opportunities for everyone to express needs, viewpoints, opinions, and passions.
Be honest and responsible in expressing oneself directly and with sensitivity.
Presume that each person at Council is well intentioned in his/her opinions and decisions.
Be tolerant and seek to understand our differences and, if necessary, be able to agree to disagree.
Be ready to forgive, as well as accept God's forgiveness and the forgiveness of others.

To improve our communication:

Council will support the robust discussion of diverse points of view and support a final shared decision.
We will conscientiously communicate, factually, timely and positively, between board and committee leaders, the pastor and staff, and the Trinity community.
We will communicate to the congregation this new covenant we are making.

To resolve conflicts:

When conflict arises, we will acknowledge that it exists; we will approach it fearlessly; we will address it respectfully and in a timely manner; and we will seek a collaborative resolution.
We will always go directly, face to face, to the source of the conflict.
We will resolve no conflicts through letters, email, or third parties. We will use Matthew 18:15-17 as our model, and begin the process with group prayer.

To follow through:

We will hold each other accountable with respect and honesty, speaking the truth in love.
We review how well the covenants have been honored at the end of each meeting.

Urban Academy Recommendation:

See some progress photos on Facebook.  Click here .  Below is satellite photo of finished installation -- look at all the panels!

Please see the additional information below provided by Tim Fromhart of Service 1st Energy Solutions. This information pertains to a proposed photovoltaic electric system for our Church. I hope the size or number of the attachments  do not overwhelm you or your computers! I know that this subject has been presented to our church before and I would like to acknowledge and thank Ann Jerrell for doing this. As she said she planted seeds on this subject about 3 years ago. Ann also suggested that someone contact Bombard Electric or the church in Ely or Elko to find out pros and cons on installing a system like the one proposed.

Explanation: First, an average monthly power bill for 2009 was calculated. Then based on an installed system that produces approximately 30% of the power we use Service 1st estimated that we would pay this off our portion of the installation cost  in about 3.5 years.  I used the example of an $1800 per month power bill that we would reduce by a third to $1200 and said that the $600 we saved would go to Service 1st month-by-month until we paid off the approximately $32,000 installation cost.  I should have used a larger monthly average of $2400 which I believe is more accurate (it was late and I was sleepy).  At any rate, if we reduced a $2400 power bill by a third then we would owe $1600 to NVEnergy and $800 to Service 1st until we pay off our portion of the installation cost.  The bulk of the installation cost is financed by Federal grants administered by NVEnergy.  The proposal didn't mention any alternative financing arrangements but I'm sure they would consider something that paid our $32,000 portion of the cost at the time of installation.

See the attachments below. This includes the final revised proposal for the front meter that comprises about 70% of the electrical consumption of our facility. Also included is another proposal for the school and library which eliminates virtually all of the consumption at that meter. Also included are electronic brochures on the Grape 220 Watt panels and the Fronius inverters which have the pictures and specifications attached.