Many churches in our conference are serving their communities during the recession by offering seminars in financial planning. How is your church addressing this issue? Tell us: mkuzma@umcnic.org

Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Hinsdale UMC, 945 Garfield (Corner of 55th Street & Garfield), 630)325-1280

Sessions:

• The Economic Prognosis for 2009 and Beyond
• 10 Strategies for Protecting and Growing your Net Worth during Volatile Times
• How to search for a Job during a Recession
• Opportunities to Refinance Mortgage and Other Personal Debt and College Financing

May Schedule - Come meet Bishop Jung!

May 1-8:   General Church:  Council of Bishops Meeting (Semi-Annual Meeting)

May 10:   Preaching at Chicago: First UMC (Temple) 8:30 and 11:00 Worship Services

May 11-13:  NIC Cabinet Meeting

May 13:  Order of Deacons Annual Dinner with the Bishop

May 14: Bishop and Cabinet meeting with Black Methodists for Church Renewal

May 17:  Preaching at McHenry: Mount Hope 10:30 a.m., 50th Anniversary Celebration

May 18:  Chicago: Southern District Cluster Visit - Beverly Cluster - Evening Gathering @ Morgan Park UMC 7 p.m.



May 19:  Aurora District Cluster Visit - Joliet Cluster - Evening Gathering @  Joliet: Trinity 7 p.m.

May 20-21:  Bishop's Ordination Orientation for Full Elders and Deacons

May 26-28: NIC Cabinet Meeting

May 31: Preaching at Prophetstown UMC - 10:30 p.m. Ecumenical Celebration of 150th Anniversary of Community, Joint Confirmation Service for Prophetstown, Lyndon, Leon and Tampico UMC @ Prophetstown 3:00 p.m.

By Matt Kuzma, Communications Team

1. NIC Reporter: The Reporter is published biweekly. The release dates for May and June are May 1, May 15, May 29, June 12 and June 26. Please send stories two weeks before the release date. Each local church is given a number of free subscriptions for lay people and clergy. Paid subscriptions are $25. PDF copies of the Reporter are available on the NIC website before they hit mailboxes. Convenient!

If you would like to subscribe to the Reporter, please contact us.  If you currently receive the Reporter for free and would rather read online and lower conference expenses, please let us know.

2. A lot of folks have been looking for help with their websites and launching online communications. We are happy to help however possible. We can offer free consulting at a general level and can offer referrals for web services for more advanced and specialized cases. We are here to help!

3. Communications tip: Remember that your church will communicate with very different groups of people-the greater community, participants who are potential members, regular church members and core leaders. When designing a flier, email, letter or ad, be sure to decide who the audience is!

 














Resources for conferences and churches are available at www.rethinkchurch.org, a Web site that offers tools and resources to United Methodists for the Rethink Church launch. Just added to the site's "Getting Started" area is new information on how congregations can get involved, including tips for launch-date activities. Also included is a conference- and church-level strategy for staging random acts of kindness events, similar to the event scheduled for New York City. Ideas range from cleaning up graffiti to bagging groceries.

With recent floods in Illinois, Iowa and the Dakotas, Crossroads of Faith UMC has offered to serve as a drop-off site for any churches who are collecting flood buckets or supplies for the Midwest Mission Distribution Center.  Crossroads of Faith is located at 1570 Rodeo Drive, Bolingbrook.  For more info, please email the church at xrdsfaith@sbcglobal.net