2015 Annual Meeting

Explore Congregational Vitality with us as we consider the theme Strengthen Churches 

The 2015 NWC Annual Meeting will take place April 16-18 at Salem Covenant Church, New Brighton, MN. We've got great speakers and events lined up this year! Registration materials should have arrived at your church by mail. 

Highlights from throughout the weekend:

Theme

Our theme this year is about fostering a healthy missional church culture within our region. We are convinced that God desires for every church to be faithful and fruitful in its context.

Congregational Vitality is about God's Spirit renewing peoples' ability to notice and experience God in their midst, and partnering with God in achieving His purposes in the world. This is why it is a NWC priority and something we are looking forward to exploring deeper together as we gather for our 2015 Annual Meeting.

Speaker

John Wenrich serves as the Director of Congregational Vitality for the Evangelical Covenant Church. In that role he works with regional staff throughout North America to provide ministry resources, guidance, and support to established churches. John also speaks internationally on the topic of congregational vitality and leadership.

View, download and share a video invitation from John Wenrich 

Ministry Fair

The "Celebration of Mission" Ministry Fair will take place throughout Friday afternoon of the 2015 Annual Meeting. Delegates and attendees will have an opportunity to learn about and interact with a whole host of conference-related ministries including representatives from our camps, Women Ministries, Covenant Trust Company, CHET and more.

Northwest Conference Authors

We are fortunate to have many great authors in our Conference, and this year's Annual Meeting and Ministry Fair will feature opportunities to learn more about their books, shake their hands, and perhaps take home a few new good reads!

NWC Spiritual Directors to gather for training session 

April 6-7, 2015 // $40 // St. John's Abbey Guesthouse, Collegeville, MN 

Retreat begins at 1 p.m. on Monday, and concludes at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Three meals and individual rooms with all linens and private baths are included in the fee.  

TRAINING SESSION TITLE: Boundaries for Spiritual Directors 

LEADER: Millie Lungren, on ECC staff serving with Make and Deepen Disciples

PURPOSE: The participant will become aware of the responsibilities and competencies of those called to and serving the spiritual direction ministry within the Evangelical Covenant Church. Topics will include:
ethical guidelines for the ministry of spiritual direction, collegiality, personal health and boundaries. 

REGISTRATION: RSVP by Monday, March 30 to Judy Peterson (judyp@excelcov.org)

QUESTIONS? Contact Judy Peterson or Judy Swanberg (judy@northwestconference.org)

Download a Retreat Flyer 

Adventures in Leadership (June 20-27) promo materials available 

Nominate one or two of your students who have strong leadership traits for a transformational, weeklong leadership development experience. AIL is for select high school students and is based at Adventurous Christians camp. It's a powerful time of exploring Christian leadership principles and putting them into practice, all in a guided, challenging environment.

Information and materials are available on our AIL page.  

Youth Ministry 

Did you go to CHIC? 

As a CHIC alumni, you know how God works in high school students' lives at this triennial Covenant event. Would you help a teenager get to CHIC? It's expensive. $649 for registration + $205 for transportation makes it a challenge for a number of our kids. 

We want to raise enough money to fund 100 $100 scholarships to invest in students who desperately want to go but can't quite afford it. This CHIC, we're planning on over 1,500 people from the Northwest Conference alone. Please partner with us to get each kid who wants to go to CHIC to CHIC. Every dollar helps us reach our goal.  

http://www.youcaring.com/other/get-northwest-conference-kids-to-chic/265502 

Lakeview Covenant loads shopping carts with 9 tons of food 

When a local food bank at the Union Gospel Mission ran out of food earlier this month, more than 600 attendees of Lakeview Covenant Church in Duluth, MN, went shopping at local Super One grocery stores and purchased nearly 18,000 pounds of goods.

Congregants filled more than a dozen pickup trucks at both store locations as part of the church's "Operation Empty Shelves." The entire undertaking took only three hours.

Pastor Eric Bain said the event helped increase awareness of the plight of people in desperate need of food. It also gave the church a chance to demonstrate how Christians respond to needs, said other members.

The event took place Sunday, Feb. 8, and member John Mulder wrote on Facebook that it was a "good worship experience."

Covenant Quarterly staff needs your help to complete a survey 

The Evangelical Covenant Church staff responsible for producing the Covenant Quarterly are working to transition the publication to a digital, open access format. The ECC hopes this new medium will increase the accessibility of the journal.  

From the staff:

This transition presents us with the additional opportunity of re-envisioning the Quarterly a bit. Maintaining continuity of mission, we hope to increase the relevance and value of our ministerial journal.

To this end, we have created a survey for Covenant pastors in order to ascertain (1) current use and perception of the Quarterly and (2) what changes might increase the journal's value to pastors.

Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women Board NWC Liaison letter 

The Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW) is a subset of the Covenant Ministerium that works to help women clergy fully live into their calls. The women and men of ACCW work in advocacy, education, resources, and fellowship to move toward a stronger and more egalitarian minsterium.

At Midwinter, Daphne DeMaris was elected as the ACCW Board Liaison for the Northwest Conference. In efforts to increase awareness and membership in the ACCW, and increase support for women clergy who are either awaiting or in call, DeMaris has outlined several ways the ACCW is offering support in the following letter.