Your monthly news & updates
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This month's newsletter includes important dates, documents and events around the District.
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A Message from your District Superintendent
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
He is alive! He is alive! He is alive!
These are the words that the spirit put on my heart in the middle of the night to share with you; words
that speak new life into all times and places. May they speak new life to our minds, hearts, souls, and
lives now.
These witnesses from the tomb of Jesus are the very foundations of our faith. This is so important for us
to remember, to believe, and to know. We are Easter people every day!
Easter 2020 will long be remembered as a very different Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. We have our
traditions, practices, and rhythms of these days and weeks that for many have become habits. This
year, most of these opportunities are not available for us.
This interruption in our expectations has really gotten our attention. We find ourselves in places of
isolation. Some are frustrated, and maybe even angry, that we cannot gather to worship to celebrate
the Resurrection of Jesus together. Although these changes are difficult, may we be reminded that
nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:39b)
This is real. Whatever you are thinking or feeling is real for you. Some have found this time to be a
welcomed change of pace, a time to really return to the Lord. Some have found this time to bring
loneliness and fear, maybe even depression. Some have found creative and inspired ways to use their
unique gifts to share the love and presence of Christ with others. Some have been unable to move for a
place of desolation in their minds, hearts, and souls. Some have experienced all of the above and more.
Let us seek God in all of these.
Still, we are the body of Christ, part of one another. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if
one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (I Corinthians 12:26) Loving God and our neighbors
and living as the body of Christ is foundational to each day. “Whether we suffer, or sing rejoicing, we
belong to God, we belong to God. We belong to God, we belong to God.” (Pues Se Vivimos)
I pray that we will be able to experience deepening connections with God, ourselves, and others. God
can use this time of challenge to bring transformation to the world, our nation, our churches, our
families, our very lives.
The life, witness, suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus provides the foundation for abundant life.
God is faithful. “All I have needed, thy hand hath provided; great is they faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
He is alive! Jesus is alive! I have seen him! I have seen him in your Facebook, YouTube, and live-stream
messages. I have seen Him in your faces as we have connected. I have heard him in your suffering and
in your celebrating by phone, text, and email. I have experienced the living Christ in you often and
regularly during our ministry together.
Jesus is alive. And because He lives I can face tomorrow; because he lives, all fear is gone; because I
know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives.”
In the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus!
sylvia
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Bishop Sharma D. Lewis and the Cabinet of the Virginia Conference
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I
f the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
— Psalm 11:3
Ours is a faith that is built to shine in hard times. As the Bishop and Cabinet of the Virginia Conference, we recognize that these are hard times and share with you what we believe.
We believe that God does some of God’s best work when the going gets tough. At the center of our faith is a Messiah, crucified yet raised from the dead to show how God’s love and power work. So, when our world is facing pandemic…when our congregations are refraining from in-person worship…when people are retreating into isolation for the common good…when we are overwhelmed by fear and foreboding...what is Christ’s Church to do?
We believe that now is the time for us to be the Church, for the sake of the world. Now is the time to bear witness to the God who is able to make all things new, who redeems even the most desperate of situations, and whose grace is always sufficient. Now is the time to let our light shine in the midst of the world’s despair, to bring healing in the midst of brokenness.
Because we believe this, we want to ask you to join us in acts of living faith. We encourage every congregation, every pastor, every church member to:
— Draw near to God for the strength that God alone supplies, through daily prayer and Scripture reading, taking time to let God’s love fill us, reassure us, replenish us.
— Reach out into the world as agents of good news. Practicing social distancing does not mean we are relationally distant, even if our touch comes via the phone or supplies and notes dropped at the door. People need to know that they are not alone, that there is someone who will walk with them, listen, understand, care, help, and pray with them.
— Be creative in worship by exploring digital media, home-based devotions, and other means.
Finally, this is a great opportunity for us to ask people to give. Our ministries have not shut down; they are simply taking new forms to meet the needs of this crisis. In such a time, we are reminded why we are the church and why we give. Of course, we are sensitive to those whose incomes are imperiled by the crisis, and can communicate with them that we value all that they give through their prayers and acts of love for God and others. We can also encourage all of our financial supporters to keep giving to the church even though we are not meeting in person, either through
online platforms
or through old-fashioned mail. Beyond this, we can challenge ourselves and others to deepen our generosity for this season, giving more so that the church will be strong to meet these challenges and opportunities.
In hard times there are usually three responses: there are those who run toward the trouble, those who hunker down to wait it out, and those who run away. As your Virginia Conference Cabinet, we believe it is time to run toward the crisis because that is where we believe Jesus is. It will take all the gifts that God has given us, spiritual, physical, and financial. And it will take all of us.
There are very real structural and financial challenges in front of us but, as the Church of Jesus Christ in hard times, we discern even more very real spiritual opportunities. We give thanks for your generosity, for your willingness to try new and uncomfortable things, and for your perseverance in enabling the church to move with God into a new chapter in ministry in these unprecedented times.
In Christ,
Bishop Sharma D. Lewis and the Cabinet of the Virginia Conference
(
Click here
to download a pdf copy of this letter or see attached)
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A Message from your Director of Congregational Excellence
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Friends-
For a full worship service, they require a person watch 50% of the service to be counted as "present." It is worth nothing that a "view" for a video on Facebook only requires the video to have played for three seconds (if a person just scrolls by, that will likely count as a view). As a result, using Facebook "views" is not going to give you a good number. Facebook does offer more in-depth metrics, but I have yet to find an easy way to see how many people watched 50% of a video (if you have, please let me know!).
The takeaway
: if you can't figure out a way to determine how many people watch 50%, simply put 0! Having zeroes does NOT impact your average weekly worship over the year as any Sunday with a zero is removed before the average is taken. I would recommend that you find a place to record your metrics for online worship (write down your Facebook views and number of comments each week) in order to determine if your reach is growing and if any promotions you are doing (such as Facebook ads, inviting members to share links, etc) are being effective.
Here's the specific instructions from the Conference:
The Line 7 attendance at all weekly worship services for March 15, 2020, and March 22, 2020, needs to be entered as 0.
The Line 7a online weekly worship participation will be the data they have for Online Worship.
We track, and EVC calculates Average Worship
. Where attendance is 0, the data is removed from the data before the average is calculated.
We do not monitor, nor does EVC compute
Average Sunday Worship
. This is the sum of worship attendance divided by 52.
We have several churches who are on 3-5 point charges. The churches are often geographically spread apart, making it difficult for a pastor to have Worship in every church on every Sunday. If we tracked Average Sunday Worship, the churches who do not meet every Sunday would have skewed data, which is unhelpful.
Thank you all for finding creative, Spirit-led ways to be the church during this crazy season. God is in the business of doing amazing things in unprecedented times, so trust God is at work now!
Nurturing Hope.
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Bishop Sharma Lewis Announcements
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Bishop Lewis Daily Prayer Invitation
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Bishop Sharma D. Lewis has issued an invitation to the Virginia Conference to join her at noon every day in praying a prayer she has provided. "Let us invoke the power of the Great Physician to do a mighty work in eradicating this disease all over the world," she writes.
Click here
for the invitation and the prayer or see attached.
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United Methodist General Conference to be postponed
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Nashville, Tenn.: The Executive Committee of the Commission on the General Conference has been notified by the Minneapolis Convention Center that they are restricting events at the venue through May 10, 2020, following recommendations by the Minnesota Department of Health, the Governor of Minnesota and the Mayor of Minneapolis to postpone or cancel events involving 50+ people in order to slow the spread of coronavirus. As a result of this decision, the Executive Committee is announcing that the General Conference will be postponed and will not occur May 5-15, 2020 as planned.
Out of concerns for the health and safety of all those affected amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Executive Committee has been monitoring the situation for some time and had scheduled a teleconference meeting of the full Commission of the General Conference for March 21 to discuss plans for the event. Only the full commission is able to set a new date or decide on an alternate plan. That meeting will go forward as scheduled, although it is not known at this time how quickly they will be able to announce new dates.
“This news is not unexpected based on the current guidance from health officials and we expect to move forward with new plans as quickly as possible,” said Kim Simpson, chair of the Commission.
While the Commission was already considering many requests to postpone the event due to the growing pandemic and processing the complexities which would result from that decision, the announcement by the convention center that those dates will no longer be possible means that the church will not incur significant financial penalties for cancellation of the contract.
“Our focus in this moment is not solely on the gathering of the General Conference for the work we have been called to do, but is on the individuals, families, churches and communities around the world whose lives are being impacted by this pandemic,” said Simpson. “We recognize the struggle to deal with the physical, emotional and spiritual needs which come with the unknown. We are confident that local United Methodist churches will be finding new ways to be in community with their neighbors and meet their evolving needs.”
About General Conference
General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church, which meets once every four years. The conference can revise church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs.
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Virginia Employment Commission
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A Note from the Virginia Annual Conference’s Treasurer’s Office
We, at the Virginia Conference office, feel for you during this unprecedented time. We would like to present you with a few resources from the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) as reference materials if you or your employees are faced with difficult staffing decisions.
For Employers:
Even though churches are exempt from the Virginia State Unemployment tax, their employees are covered by the State Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA). Therefore, employees of our churches are eligible to apply for full and partial (with a significant reduction in hours) unemployment benefits. There is an employer’s handbook for your reference on The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) website. Please visit
www.vec.virginia.gov
.
For Employees:
Potentially eligible employees could be part-time (with a significant reduction of hours) or full time. Eligible employees should apply for benefits by contacting The Customer Contact Center of the Virginia Employment Commission either by phone at 1-866-832-2363 (available 8:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday- Friday) or online at
www.vec.virginia.gov
.
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The United Methodist Credit Union is here to help
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Recognizing that both their individual members and member churches are undergoing significant financial strain during this unprecedented response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, The United Methodist Credit Union (TUMCU), has created a program of immediate financial relief available to its members.
For individuals, TUMCU is providing quick turnaround emergency loans (up to $5,000), with extremely low rates and deferred payments. Secondly, they are also offering all members the ability to skip a payment on any existing personal loan, auto loan, or credit card (also at a greatly reduced rate). Third, they are offering all members free financial counseling, bill management, and budgeting services through their partnership with GreenPath Financial Wellness.
Lastly, churches can also apply for these expedited emergency loans at reduced rates. Many churches are seeing reduced collections as they’ve needed to cancel services or provide church services online. This new emergency loan offering is designed to cut through the red tape normally associated with churches borrowing money, and can mean that critical funds reach churches in a few days instead of a few weeks.
Details on all these new services can be found at the organization’s website:
www.tumcu.org
.
For further information or questions, please contact:
Jim Eads
Chief Executive Officer
(804)672-0200
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SHARE YOUR IDEAS AND STORIES
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Let's stay connected!
One of the best things about the United Methodist Church is our connection. Many may be feeling isolated, alone, and out of touch.
I am going to create a page on the conference site (
www.vaumc.org
) especially for local church stories of how you and your church are keeping the connection alive and well during the coronavirus pandemic. You may inspire others to do the same.
Please send stories (and pictures if you have any) of creative ways your church is keeping the connection alive to
BrendaCapen@vaumc.org
Grace and Peace,
Brenda Capen
Webmaster/Database Manager
Va. UM Communications
(804) 521-1116
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Please check the District Calendar for updated information on postponed events, rescheduling, Pastoral meetings and more!
We will make it through this!
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We will have more events coming soon!
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Awards - Grants - Assistance
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Prayers of Comfort for the Family of Mrs. Caroline R. Manear
Prayers
Eric Dalton (Tom and Angie Durrance’s son)
Families affected by CORVID-19
Bishop Sharma Lewis, Virginia Conference, Cabinet, Pastors, and Churches
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Rev. Sylvia Shepard Meadows, James River District Superintendent
Keith Jordan & Gerry Fuss, Lay Leaders
Tish Borden, Administrative Assistant
Rev. Andrew Book, Director of Congregational Excellence
Ronnika Davis, Communications Coordinator
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