NWC Calendar
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January 8
Recharge - Berean Baptist Church, Burnsville, MN
January 31-February 4
Covenant Midwinter Conference, Chicago, IL
February 12
Advocacy for Victims of Abuse (AVA) Informational Meeting, Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, MN
March 25-26
NWC Women Ministries Spring Renewal Event, Minnehaha Academy
April 1-2
M.O.V.E. 2011 - First Covenant Church, Minneapolis, MN
April 28-30
NWC Annual Meeting - Crossview Covenant Church, North Mankato, MN
May 16-18
Youth Pastor's Retreat, Adventurous Christians, Grand Marais, MN
June 11-18
Adventures in Leadership - Adventurous Christians, Grand Marais, MN
June 25-28
The Feast - Estes Park, CO
June 28-30
Evangelical Covenant Church Annual Meeting - Estes Park, CO
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| New homeless shelter to operate during winter months at First Covenant in Minneapolis | |
The Minneapolis City Council approved a permit for First Covenant Church to operate a homeless shelter just hours before the congregation welcomed their first 18 "guests" on Friday, Dec. 10. First Covenant expects to serve as an overnight shelter for up to 50 homeless people a night during the winter months. Read the full story and link to a video online
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CONVERGE workshops to be offered again at 2011 NWC Annual Meeting
'Mission Friends: The Next Chapter' chosen as meeting theme
Despite the largest November snowstorm in 19 years, 90 people braved the elements to attend the first NWC CONVERGE event at Roseville Covenant Church in Roseville, MN on Nov. 13. Because the workshops were so well received, and because weather and travel restrictions prevented many from attending, the NWC will offer many of the same workshops for delegates and attendees of the 2011 NWC Annual Meeting in Mankato on April 29-30.
"We believe that providing these practical workshops can be of great assistance to our churches, as it allows us to lean into our NWC mission of empowering and equipping healthy missional leaders," said Mark Stromberg, current NWC associate superintendent and nominee for superintendent. Some of the workshop topics to be offered will include: church finances, communications strategy, demographic research, church governance, community mission, and children and family ministry. As part of the meeting registration, delegates will be asked to sign up ahead of time for a specific workshop. Look for more details on the 2011 Annual Meeting soon.
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Communications Corner
Involving creatives in ministry
By Bryan Malley There are many good arguments for the benefits of churches forming a communications team. Most of them relate to how a church's ministry will be the beneficiary. Pastors will be able to hand off communication duties, efforts will be streamlined and consistent, your church will be able to reach more people with your message, and so on. Here's an argument that's been made far less often: The creative people in your congregation need to create to be excited about ministry. Creatives have a hard time being excited while pushing a broom or moving chairs. Forming a communication team and populating it with creatives will engage those people in the life and ministry of the church much more effectively. Doing so will give meaningful opportunities for creatives to volunteer and flourish in your church. A few helpful pieces of advice as you consider involving creatives in ministry: Pastors: "Surround yourself with people smarter than you and be smart enough to listen to them. If you don't have a creative on your leadership team, you're planning with half your brain." Creatives: "Your job is not to fix the leader, it is to breathe creativity into their vision."
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Developing a reading list for 2011
By Jim Fretheim NWC Superintendent
I encourage leaders to set up a reading list for 2011. The list should be varied from devotional materials to discussions of planning and leadership.
Leaders should be "hunter-gatherers"-always looking for new information. If you need suggestions about where to start, feel free to contact me at the Northwest Conference office.
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Bottom-Line Training: Contribution Summaries
At the beginning of the year most church treasurers prepare contribution summaries that are mailed to members of the congregation. Some churches only send members an annual summary of contributions, while others send out summaries quarterly or semiannually.
Church treasurers should understand three very important points concerning contribution summaries.
Read the full story online
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Video series highlights ministry priorities of the NWC
The Northwest Conference recently released a series of video
segments designed to highlight ministry priorities of the conference,
including: "Congregational Vitality," "Church Planting" and "Children, Youth
& Family." Each video features interview segments with NWC staff, lay
leaders and pastors-intermixed with photos and video footage from the churches
highlighted-telling stories of how the conference has influenced and aided ministry
on the local level.
The videos are designed for use throughout the year in
church new member classes, services and other adult education opportunities to
help congregations better understand and engage the work of the Northwest
Conference.
Each church's delegates left the NWC 2010 Annual Meeting
with a DVD copy of the videos. Because of the range of DVD players and
technologies available in our churches, we are aware that the DVD copies may
not work perfectly in all instances.
The series is currently available on the new NWC web site's
video page.
The videos are also available in even higher definition on Vimeo (click here)
and this would be the ideal source for streaming the series in your church or
group.
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The Northwest Conference on Facebook
Become a fan of the Northwest Conference on Facebook to receive important notifications and see photos from events.
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