GOOD NEWS

from the

Presbytery of Great Rivers

We are called to share Christ's love by partnering in service, 

uniting in worship, and risking in ministry.

November 11, 2022

Announcements

Assembly Approves Lead Presbyter Position

The Search to Begin Soon!

After almost 2 years spent seeking God’s plan for our Presbytery, a major step forward was taken at our August 30th Assembly held at Hope Presbyterian Church in Springfield.

In early June the Task Force on Staffing and Finances presented their findings to the Leadership team, and after much discussion and prayer, that group voted to seek a full time leader for our Presbytery. The Personnel Committee developed and presented a job description and financial call package which was approved at this recent assembly.

Take note, however, that the description approved for this new leader has new emphases and priorities. The job description was realigned to be much more relational and participatory in the everyday lives of our congregations. To develop connections, to offer support, to help find resources of assistance, to encourage new forms of ministry, to cultivate accountability, and to help lift up new leaders will be the primary tasks of the person we call. Personnel was excited to discover that another Presbytery in our Synod has already travelled down this path, and we were able to gather input and wisdom from their experiences.

To make our congregations, and thus our Presbytery, stronger and better able to meet the needs we encounter is the goal. That means that some of the more mundane administrative tasks will fall back to our committees, and in some cases to our Stated Clerk who has already begun to do background checks for new pastors.

While the Leadership Team recognizes the finite nature of our finances, they believe that calling a full-time Lead Presbyter is our best opportunity to address some of our most pressing problems. It is thus an investment in our combined health. The contract will be for 3 years with the possibility for renewal.

It’s an exciting time! Please be in prayer for our Presbytery as we endeavor to call the right person to help lead us forward into health and faithful witness to our Lord.

Personnel Chair

Joyce Chamberlin

PRESBYTERY ASSEMBLY REGISTER NOW!

Saturday, November 19th, 2022

Grace Church PC(USA)

2324 18th Avenue

Rock Island, IL 61201

(Former Good Shepherd Building

&

Via ZOOM

Call to Order 10 a.m,

Site opens at 9:30 a.m.

The meal reservation deadline is November 16th at 5 pm.

For COVID safety, masks will be required during the meeting. It is also expected that all in-person attendees will be fully vaccinated.

OPPORTUNITY – PART TIME TRANSITIONAL/INTERIM PASTOR

20 hours per week

near Springfield

$25,000 – $30,000

TO REQUEST THE MINISTRY INFORMATON FORM, EMAIL THE COMMITTEE ON MINISTRY AT greatriverscom@gmail.com

PGR Newsletter

Our Newsletters will go out the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month. The deadline for adding information is the Wednesday before, but the deadline for the November 25th Newsletter is Tuesday, November 22nd by noon.

Clerks Corner

Big things coming! First of all, it is important to know that the Presbytery, which includes all Ministers of the Word and Sacrament and all elder commissioners, will be voting of the 33 amendments to the Book of Order at the Presbytery's first meeting of 2023! What to know ahead of time what those amendments are about? Join me and General Assembly commissioners as we discuss these amendments and how they might impact the presbytery as a whole, as well as our local congregations!

The scheduled events will be over zoom on

         November 10th at 3pm

         November 10th at 6pm

         November 14th at 10am

         November 14th at 4pm

         November 15th at 6pm

In order to sign up, please follow this link (or email me at pastorebailey@gmail.com): https://calendly.com/pastorebailey/book-of-order-amendment-discussion

Our next Clerk's Convo will be on Tuesday, November 29th at 11am. This is a time for clerks and those who assist clerks to gather for questions and discuss whatever is happening in the clerking world! The zoom link is: 



Elissa Bailey (she/her/hers) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Clerk of Session Meeting

Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82477487297?pwd=ZXNIc29YRit3cTE2SGhsK0N5YzUrZz09

Meeting ID: 824 7748 7297

Passcode: 832216

And lastly, there are some important changes coming to the church's annual statistical reports! The portal will open on December 2nd for clerks to begin getting access. I will be scheduling events, much like the BoO amendment events, in order to discuss the changes and how to help clerks fill them out. Stay tuned for more info!

--

Rev. Elissa Bailey

Presbytery of Great Rivers Stated Clerk

Presbytery of East Iowa Stated Clerk

Last Chance to Give! Presbytery of Great Rivers R.I.P Medical Debt Campaign

Join the campaign!

The Presbytery of Great Rivers Visioning Team has selected R.I.P Medical Debt as a Presbytery-wide mission project. The Visioning Team will match up to $8,000 in donations by churches and individuals. R.I.P Medical Debt empowers donors to forgive billions in oppressive medical debt; every dollar donated forgives one hundred dollars of medical debt.

Medical debt devastates American families. In the last year alone 75 million people had to choose between paying medical bills and basics like food, heating or housing. RIP is dedicated to removing the burden of medical debt for families, individuals, and veterans across America. Since its beginning in 2014, over $5 billion of debt has been forgiven, giving struggling individuals a fresh start, allowing them to seek the medical care they need, and helping them along the path to financial stability.

R.I.P purchases the oppressive debt of those most in need at significantly reduced rates. Then, instead of collecting it, they forgive it, no strings attached. RIP also helps recipients repair their credit reports.

Visit https://ripmedicaldebt.org/about/ for more information, or visit https://ripmedicaldebt.org/campaign/great-rivers-presbytery/ to donate online. Checks with R.I.P Medical Debt in the memo line can also be sent to the Presbytery of Great Rivers Office at:

3601 N Sheridan Road

Peoria, Illinois 61604

From Your Finance Team

Preparing Church Finances for Year End Processes

Tuesday November 15 6:30-8:00PM Zoom

The Presbytery of Great Rivers will be hosting a Preparing Church Finances for Year End Processes Zoom class taught by Amy Gardner (Presbytery of Great Rivers’ former Accountant). A week before the presentation, participants will receive via email a zoom link, pdf copy of slides as well as a survey to ensure everyone has an opportunity to ask any pressing questions. Class size is limited to 18 participants. 

We will focus on financial and HR steps that your church can take in 2022 that will make the beginning of 2023 go a little smoother. Making sure that your church is prepared for the January 31 deadline for tax documents before the end of the year can save a new Treasurer additional stress as they step into this position with the church. 

Topics will include advance preparation for 2022 W2s and 1099, being prepared for your church’s 2022 Annual Financial Review and using your 2023 budget to help get your 2023 Terms of Call forms done as painlessly as possible. 

To enroll, please email Crystal (office@greatriverspby.org) and include your name, church, phone number and email that you can be reached at the evening of the class.

Sabrina McGrath –Bookkeeper    

Bill Strawbridge - Treasurer

Greetings,

As we finish out October and race quickly toward the end of the fiscal year of 2022

We’d like to pass along a few reminders

Every time you submit funds to the presbytery office please use a remittance form

Be sure to fill this out completely - including contact information & a breakdown of how you want your funds distributed.

Be sure to use the correct PIN # -- we’ve had some churches submitting under the wrong number -- see attached list.

If you send funds using on-line banking or another agency please feel free to scan & email the remittance form to smcgrath@greatriverspby.org.

If you are unsure of what amount you still need to pay for Per Capita in 2022 – just ask – we’re happy to double check for you.

Back in September the annual Per Capita packets were mailed out

These were mailed to the attention of the Clerk of Session

If for some reason you didn’t receive it – just contact us & we’ll email you another copy

These included

• a letter from our Treasurer -- Bill Strawbridge
• listing of 2023 Per Capita dues owed in 2023
• 2023 remittance form
• 2023 church-wide mission pledge form – indicating your intended mission giving for 2023
• Visioning Grant information page

If you have any questions, please reach out to us.

Dates to remember

2022 contributions need to be mailed by Friday 12/23/22 to be received & processed prior to the end of the year

The office is closed the final week of the year 12/24/22 to 1/3/23

Sabrina McGrath –Bookkeeper    

Bill Strawbridge - Treasurer

Please click on the blocks below to follow the links:

COM Meeting updates

COM met in its regular Thursday meeting on Zoom at 10 AM November 3rd and conducted the following business:

• Prayed for our congregations and pastoral leaders
• Heard more details from the Stated Clerk about the meetings scheduled in November on Zoom about proposed amendments to the Book of Order. These amendments will be voted on at the Assembly scheduled at First Normal for February 2023. Sign up details are in a separate article under the Clerk’s Corner in this issue of the Good News. Proposed changes include providing a 12 week paid family medical leave for pastors; anti-harassment and anti-racism policies; naming all retired ministers “retired” rather than “honorably retired” when they retire from active service; changes to the Rules of Discipline. This is a great opportunity to become informed before voting.
• Adopted a COM Job Description handout developed by Training and Resources for use in training new COM members, recruiting, as a Session handout and more
• Received the T & R minutes
• Received updates on our 33 congregations in active transition or with immediate support needs
• Approved a MIF for CLC, a Mission Study and financials, job status changes, contracts, a call, re-certified ruling elders for three years to serve communion in their home congregations and approved the 2023 Contract and TOC forms, and added them to the PGR website, under “Forms”, “COM forms”.
• The 2023 forms are also available through your Ministry Partner. Your MP’s email is in the updated listing in that same area of the website (click the box labeled PGR churches/ministry partners). You will notice that the 2023 forms ask for the contact information for both the pastoral leader and the Clerk. This will expedite the timely return of signed forms to you once approved and give us someone to contact if something needs to be tweaked. Please reach out to us through greatriverscom@gmail.com which will connect you with a friendly person to troubleshoot with you.
• COM brainstormed ways to increase the number of ruling elders in service on COM and committed to recruiting and providing training and support. We are presently at 2/3rds of our roster size.

The meeting was adjourned with prayer by TE Christian Choi at 11:28 AM. The last COM meeting of 2022 has been set for 12/8.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Presbytery Assembly being held on Saturday, November 19, 2022 at 10:00 AM at Grace Church PC(USA), 2324 18th Avenue, Rock Island IL 61201 (the former Good Shepherd building).

SOULstice is a three month wellness program for pastors and faith leaders hosted by the Synod of Lincoln Trails. For more information, please check out https://lincolntrails.org/soulstice/

2022 Assembly Dates

November 19, 2022 at 10:00am - Grace Church PC(USA),

Rock Island (Former Good Shepherd Building

Presbytery of Great Rivers Virtual Office

Virtual Office Assistant Crystal Goforth 309-683-6980 Email: office@greatriverspby.org

Crystal works remotely from South Carolina (Eastern Time)

Please leave her a message & she will return your call.

Bookkeeper Sabrina McGrath 309-683-6981 Email: smcgrath@greatriverspby.org

Sabrina works from Peoria IL.

Her regular schedule is Tues & Thurs between 8am-4pm (Central Time)

Bridge Presbyter John Rickard 309-683-6983 Email: jrickard@greatriverspby.org

He works remotely from Northern Illinois.

His regular schedule is Mon – Fri between 9am -5pm (Central Time)

Stated Clerk - Elissa Bailey- 309-371-2511  Email: pastorebailey@gmail.com

Starting May 1st: the Stated Clerk's Office hours will be Mon - Thurs from 7:30am - 3pm. (Central Time)