Dear friends and partners in ministry:
 Grace and peace to you in these Lenten days in the spirit of the one who may "grant us true repentance and the Holy Spirit, that those things we do may please God this day, through Jesus Christ." (Service for Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer.)
I love the words of the service for Ash Wednesday that begin the season of Lent. As the ashes are imposed, the celebrant says the following words:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
The ashes and the words are to serve as a reminder to us of our mortality, our sin and the ways in which we are separated from God by our actions and our inactions. They let us know of our continuing need for God's gracious action in Christ to overcome the separation and sin and restore us to the fullness of life that God desires.
In what sense are we something as insubstantial as dust? Well, first, we may need to say that as dust we are part of the universal stuff of creation. We share our dusty nature with all of God's creation. That's not a bad thing. It's something to acknowledge more than lament.
"And the Lord God formed the human from the dust of the ground and breathed in the breath of life and the human one became a living being."
"And God saw everything God had made, and behold it was very good."
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 Family Systems Workshop 
The church, as a family of God's children, works in many of the same ways. Understanding some of the key dynamics can help us navigate meetings, transitions; even critical moments in the life of the faith community.
Cathy Wille is a Licensed Professional Counselor with the Samaritan Counseling Center of the Fox Valley and has worked with family systems throughout her career.
Friday, March 12, 2010
10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Wisconsin Conference Center, Deforest
Registration Deadline: March 5 Fee: $40.00
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Tax Resources Through The UCC Pension Boards
Are you taking advantage of all tax benefits Uncle Sam has to offer? The goal of tax planning is to help you minimize your federal income tax liability as much as you are allowed by tax law. You can achieve this in different ways.
The Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ have compiled a page of resources to help your tax planning.
While many of their resources are directed at both laity and clergy, there is also an online Tax Guide for Ministers. |
| Fall Lay Academy Classes
The Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ is pleased to announce registration for the 2010-2012 lay academy is now open. The lay Academy program offers five different courses of study to pastors and lay people who seek to: deepen faith, strengthen Christ's church,
grow in spiritual maturity.
 Each course meets five weekends per year at the Wisconsin Conference Center in De Forest. Faith Foundations is a two year course of study that will introduce a wide range of topics pertaining to Christian faith and the church. No prior education or experience is necessary, only a willingness to explore together in community; Schedule for 2010-2012. Lay Leadership Skills
is a one-year course of study focuses on preparing members to be leaders in their local church setting by engaging five specific ministry topics. Emphasis is placed on understanding the context of your local church and community; then applying the weekend topics to your setting through skill building and drafting ideas for possible implementation. Schedule for 2010-2011
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Activity Time at New Glarus Home by Nancy Potter The Wisconsin Conference has had long standing relationships with numerous human service agencies through the Wisconsin Council of Health and Human Service Ministeries (WCHHSM). One of these agencies is The New Glarus home, located in New Glarus, Wisconsin whose mission is to serve older persons, responding to their social, physical, emotional, spiritual and economic needs. One of the ways they live out their mission is through creative activities. Every Tuesday afternoon a group of New Glarus Home residents gather for an hour of creative activity. The leader of the group is artist/volunteer, Pat Sellon, ably assisted by members from the activity department. The group has been meeting for over two years and is still coming up with fun things to do.
Pat stresses that the purpose of the group isn't product and perfection, but rather being together for a sense of community and for fun. "We've created some pretty awesome projects," Pat said, mentioning painted silk scarves and their famous painted cows, which were wonderful centerpieces during June, dairy month. "We've also had a few flubs," Pat admits, "but we always have fun."
Pat said she especially enjoys the sessions when friends or family members drop by and join in, calling it a wonderful opportunity to connect. Margaret Gruenenfelder, whose husband, Henry, sometimes stops by to participate with his wife, says she comes to the group because she loves it. "You do something productive and make something you can use," Margaret said.
Pat's other work with the senior population involves a presentation to activity professionals on the importance of creativity and a workshop on care of the caregivers. "We've got to take care of ourselves so that we're able to care for others," Pat said, whose dad is 95 and a resident at the New Glarus Home. Pat also conducts creativity programs for libraries and at other senior facilities. "I'm always learning," Pat said, "and I'm grateful for the residents who have become such a special part of my life." |
Shepherding the Shepherd, a gathering of the 2030 Clergy Network
 On Tuesday, June 1st, through Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 the 2030 Clergy Network of the United Church of Christ will gather at Chicago Theological Seminary for a special event. Grounded in the theme "Shepherding the Shepherd", UCC clergy in their twenties and thirties will meet for a time of renewal, connection, professional resourcing, and vital worship. They will draw on the wisdom within the group through sharing, experience excellent preaching and worship from among their own demographic, as well as the wider church, and remember together why we followed God into this calling in the first place! Come for rest, come for connection with other young ministers, come for ideas to revitalize your ministry, and come just for fun! Come to let someone else "shepherd" you for a while. Cost: $50, a limited number of $100 scholarships are available
| Start Time: |
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 2:00pm |
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Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 5:00pm |
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Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL |
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Chapel Sound System
And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. Exodus 19:19
The trumpets in the Wisconsin Conference Frederick R. Trost Center can now be heard by every person in the room, thanks to donors who generously gave to the Special Gifts Campaign.
The campaign, which served two purposes, the first being to honor Dr. Ley and Dr. Trost and the second was to provide new facilities and development at our outdoor ministry sites and at the Conference Center, has reached its pledge goal of $1,000,000. The chapel is now equipped with an indoor/outdoor sound system and wireless microphones. This addition will allow the Conference Center to be a downlink location that will greatly expand access to programs.
Thank you! | |
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Online Discussion Group Grows
"As I just finished chapter 5 - "Can We Be Friends?"....tears came down my face. After 35 years in the social work profession where we know how to do boundaries(!)....and always wondering how ministers could keep boundaries AND be friends.....it was refreshing to read this story. Refreshing to see the parishioners recognize this challenge and find a way to truly be in a friendship relationship!" Linda Buchs-Hammonds
 In preparation for our 2010 Annual Meeting we have established an online book discussion group. We are honored that authors Lillian Daniels and Martin Copenhafer will be keynote speakers at our Annual Meeting in June. Their book, This Odd and Wondrous Calling will be provided at no charge to all persons who register for the Annual Meeting.
Contact the Wisconsin Conference Office to reserve your copy.
Join our online disussion. |
Hospitality Online with Steve Clapp
 We are a friendly church..... Of course we are, we belong to Jesus Christ who ate with sinners, welcomed all, and knew just what to say to strangers. Sometimes what we intend to be and what we really are don't match as well as we hope.
Steve Clapp is President of Christian Community, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the health of congregations and their surrounding communities. Christian in name, ecumenical in nature, Steve has taught the Wisconsin Conference Lay Academy program and offered numerous onsite workshops. Now he's willing to use a new method of learning to help you build your hospitality ministry. Steve has continually offered researched, practical, and enjoyable strategies for sharing the good new of Jesus Christ.
Suggested Reading: Deep and Wide: Hospitality and the Faithful Church By Steve Clapp, Fred Bernhard and Ed Bontrager (2008)
* Tuesdays from 11:00 am to 12:30 (Online, via WebEx)
- April 13 - Biblical Understandings of Hospitality: Who is my neighbor? What's radical about hospitality?
- April 20 - Church Check Up: What are we doing right? How could we do things better?
- April 27 - Hospitality with Children, Youth and Adults: Being intentional about our welcome to all Bridging those generational gaps
- May 4 - Healthy Churches: Eight characteristics of a healthy church Welcoming and involving new members Where do we go from here?
Deep and Wide is available from Christian Community, Inc. 6404 S. Calhoun Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46807 or visit www.churchstuff.com
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Prisoners and The Christian Perspective by Jerry Hancock, Director of the Prison Ministry Project
 This Spring marks the twentieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison after serving 27 years for his struggle-sometimes violent struggle--against apartheid. From his prison cell on the Alcatraz- like Robben Island in the middle of Cape Town Bay, Mandela was not only the leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa but a beacon of hope for oppressed people all over the world. He was able to turn his imprisonment into a source of enormous power for justice. He joins a long list of prisoners who fundamentally changed the way we see the world because of the way they saw the world through razor wire and iron bars.
In his Letter From Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. answered his critics, who accused him of being an outside agitator. The letter was addressed to the white Christian ministers in the city. He said, "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here." He might well have said that he was in the Birmingham jail because injustice was there. He is writing from a perspective that is unknown to his intended audience.
A generation earlier, writing from a German prison and under a sentence of death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behavior must be determined not by the way others treat him, but the treatment he himself receives from Jesus." Those words, written in the shadows of the gallows, have a power that could not be found outside the walls of prison.
Earlier, Bonhoeffer quotes a well-known prison adage: "Care for your cell and your cell will care for you." For two thousand years--since the imprisonment of St. Paul--prison cells and the people in them have been caring for all of us. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that we should visit people in prison. One reason He wants us to go is to see and hear people that will fundamentally change our perspectives and our lives. |
Spring Training Imagine the art of faith formation!
 This workshop is designed for Pastors, Education Directors, Teachers, Boards of Christian Education, Sanctuary Committees, Worship Teams and all creative people interested in the arts and teaching ministries of the church Keynote Presentation by Dr. Jann Cather Weaver, Professor of Worship, and Theology and the Arts, United Theological Seminary. April 17, 2010 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
First Congregational UCC - Eau Claire, Wisconsin
This event is sponsored by The Christian Education Commission and The Arts Committee of the Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ.
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Yearbook Forms Due In Conference Office
Many of the Wisconsin conference churches have returned their yearbook forms to our office already, thank you! Your diligence ensures the records of the National office are up to date. If you haven't returned your forms yet please do so today either by faxing them, scanning and attaching to an email or putting them into USPS mail. Please contact Susan Taylor with questions at 608-846-7880 or [email protected] |
Continued from above by Rev. David Moyer
Human nature is a fundamental shared nature with all creation. In Lent we are reminded to identify all those things that divide us from other persons and other parts of the created order. Sometimes people forget that to be dust is to be reminded we were created, and the Creator loves the creation. To be dust isn't to be dirt. Creation is declared "very good." That means you. Lent isn't for seeing how bad we can feel, but about seeing if we can allow the Holy Spirit to let the created good out; to set free in us all God intended.
The sense of our mortality that is expressed in the reminder we are dust also is a kind of equalizer, because all die. You know the old bumper sticker: "The one who dies with the most toys wins." Well, I was visiting one of our churches recently, and they had a poster up which said, "The one who dies with the least needs wins." Not a bad Lenten thought.
Recognition of our essential created nature and our mortality puts us in the place of being right with God, of coming to know ourselves as God knows us, not focusing on our material success or our social status or our attainments, but on the fact that like all human beings, we are beloved of God and made for life with God.
Our Lenten journey reminds us of our humanness, offers some boundaries and limits, but also means that we are so much more that we have attained or imagined, through the grace of God. We are dust into which the eternal and Holy Spirit has been breathed, and we are intended for the freedom that is perfectly expressed in Christ.
Lent. Dust. Mortality. Sin. Separation. Alienation. Losses. They are realities in life. They can get us down. We can choke on the dust. But Lent reminds us that they aren't the ultimate reality. God has a way through, if we will only trust God and allow the Holy Spirit to form us after the pattern of Christ.
Let grace take hold in Lent. That's the purpose, after all. To simply give things up for Lent can become an obsession. To dwell on one's sins can become narcissistic. The point in focusing on our being dust and on giving up things is that the space of our sin or our habits is to be filled with welcoming grace and praising God to the end that it allows us to be filled with hope.
Let's understand the dust and ashes of this Lenten season as an encouragement that if we are quiet and humble before God, God will lift us up. If we turn over the anxiety of our work to God, God will show us a more grace-filled way to approach our days and will offer hope and courage. If we genuinely are doing our best, and we humbly accept that there are limits to what we will accomplish, we will find Christ, "the perfecter of our faith," who will bless our work and allow it to prosper to the glory of God.
Many blessings to you all.
David Moyer
Conference Minister | |
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Updated Suggested Internet guidelines now on our website
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WI UCC is offering free, unlimited access to MissionInsite, a tool for you to utilize to locate church members, acquire instant access to community information, and access demographic data.
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Great Lakes Region
Youth Event
June 17-20, 2010
Location:
Defiance College, Ohio
When: June 17, 2010,
Where: Defiance College
Ohio
Contact: Sharon Nelson
Email:
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Nollau's 200th Anniversary in Germany
Louis Edward Nollau
A Silesian from Upper Lustatia
Son of Reichenback,
Emigrant and Missionary, became one of the founders of the United Church of Christ
Let us celebrate his 200th Anniversary on July 1-5 in Reichenbach Germany
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Links
Announcement: Your congregations can now download several dozen free resources from the www.TheParishPaper.com Web site.
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Where is Your Neighbor?
Wisconsin Conference Evangelism Event
Nov. 12 & 13, 2010
Honduras: A Reverse Mission Trip
Here is your opportunity to join our Wisconsin Conference UCC Work Team to Honduras July 6-18, 2010, in our efforts to accomplish this goal. Mike Krabath has led many mission trips to Honduras and will continue as the main leader on this trip.
Cost: approximately $1,100. A non-refundable $100 deposit is due by April 15.
The Additional $1000 is due May 15, 2010
UCC Office Support Staff Network 23rd Annual Meeting
April 8-11, 2010
Together, we can - and do - make a difference.
In a few months the UCCOSSN will meet in Cleveland and we will have an opportunity to hear from two members of the Collegium of Officers - Edith A. Guffey, Associate General Minister, who will be our keynote speaker at the welcome dinner and the Rev. Geoffrey Black, General Minister and President, with whom we will engage in conversation on Friday morning. We will also hear presentations from the UCC Insurance Board, Parish Life and Leadership Ministry Team, and the Pension Boards.
Registration fee is $100.00.
Please feel free to contact [email protected] if you have any questions, or visit the UCCOSSN website.
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