NWC Calendar
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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
August 18-20
MUUUCE - Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, MN
October 10-12
Ministerial Association Retreat - Arrowwood Resort, Alexandria, MN
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Evangelism and the under-30 crowd
by Sheryl A.Kujawa-Holbrook
 A November 2009 issue of The Week featured a story, "Losing our Religion," that focused on the rapidly growing numbers of the religiously unaffiliated in the United States, the so called Nones, and asked if organized religion is fading. Younger than the general population, many Nones believe in God yet are skeptical about organized religion.
The article quotes recent statistics suggesting that if this trend continues, cohorts of nonreligious young people will replace older religious people and account for one-quarter of the American population. Another recent article in USA Today concluded that young adults born in the 1980s and 1990s, approximately 72 million people, want to make an impact and are socially-conscious yet do not relate to traditional institutional structures. A decreasing number of these young adults view churches as places to make a difference or to develop their leadership skills. The fact that nearly every major denomination is aging and losing members has been a concern for the last 30 years, yet institutional efforts to reverse these trends and to capture the religious imagination of young adults have been limited. Mainline denominations, historically and culturally self-conscious about evangelism, are further challenged to proclaim the good news in today's religiously pluralistic nation and world. What then is the role of evangelism with young adults today? What are some of the ways that the Christian church can better respond to the spiritual questions of young adults in a religiously pluralistic age? How might congregations better respond to the gifts and skills young adults have to offer? Continue reading online |
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2011 NWC Annual Meeting registration deadline approaching
Sign up now for this year's leadership workshops!
 The Northwest Conference Annual Meeting is coming to Crossview Covenant Church in North Mankato, April 28-30. The registration deadline is April 15, so please make sure your delegates are signed up for this great opportunity to learn more about conference ministry.
The 2011 meeting will feature leadership workshops for delegates on Saturday morning. Workshops to be offered include:
- "Effective Church Finances" by Sandy Norris
- "Leadership and Strategic Planning" by John Wenrich
- "Developing a Powerful Communications Strategy for Your Church" by Bryan Malley
- "MissionInsite: Practical training with a new demographic instrument" by Mike Brown
- "Church Constitutions and Local Church Governance" by Mark Stromberg
- "Exploring Community Mission" by Jon Kramka
- "KidShift: It's a New Day for Children & Family Ministry in Today's Effective Church" by Suzanne Elliott
- "Imaginative Reading for Creative Teaching and Preaching" by Jim Fretheim
The meeting's events are open to all who wish to attend, and you won't want to miss the worship celebrations and news about the exciting ministry happening throughout the NWC.
 
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To Northwest Conference churches,
The Northwest Conference is sad to inform you of the resignation of Pastor John Foley who was serving as lead pastor at Living Stones Covenant Church in the city of Minneapolis, MN. Pastor Foley's resignation is effective March 31, 2011. Pastor Foley was the founding pastor of this 4-year-old congregation.
The leadership of Living Stones Covenant Church met after hearing of Pastor Foley's decision to resign, and the decision was made to cease public worship and close. Living Stones Covenant Church had been meeting for worship on Sundays at Minneapolis South High School.
There is always sadness any time one of our churches closes its doors, but there is gratitude for all the lives that were impacted, and the role many of you played in supporting this new church as it was developing.
The Northwest Conference is committed to assisting in the planting of new congregations and to helping our existing congregations find health and vitality. We wish that these ministry emphases were always successful, but ministry in this world is always challenging, has risks and comes with no guarantees. The Northwest Conference does its best to aggressively resource every new church by Assessing, Training, Coaching, and providing Support that continues for the first 5 years. Statistics show that new churches supported in this way, grow, thrive and have a much greater chance of becoming healthy, self-supporting ministries.
The Northwest Conference is prepared to assist in the planting of new churches and this will continue to be one of the three core ministry areas we are investing in to grow the Kingdom.
The Northwest Conference is thankful for each of you, your churches and the support you provide that allows us to move forward in mission together. |
Communications Corner
Center for Church Communication's 2010 Firestarters
By Bryan Malley The Center for Church Communication has compiled a list of "Firestarters" to recognize churches that are excelling in unique efforts to connect with people. The organization's website says, "Firestarter is a way to recognize churches that have ignited ideas and sparked brilliant communication. The hope is that this project will fan the flame and spread those creative embers to other church communicators." Check out the 2010 Firestarters |
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