Thank YOU!!!!


Rev. Joshua Patty
Regional Minister and President


Upper Midwest Disciples – your generosity and financial support of our shared ministry is amazing! I have a few important details to share from our preliminary 2021 regional financial report.

There is a lot of gratitude to share for the congregations and individuals in our region. You increased your financial support across the board and you helped us to control costs. Gifts to Disciples Mission Fund (50% of which helps to fund our region’s ministry) increased 4.8% compared to 2020. And all special offerings, which also provide support for our region’s ministry, increased significantly – so that your total support of our region increased 8.24% in 2021.

It was a challenging year, especially for our Christian Conference Center. The ongoing pandemic continued to lead to cancellations and smaller groups. Our summer church camps were smaller too. Smaller revenues meant that our conference center operated in the red last year. However, that deficit was partially offset by the generous response to the CCC’s year-end letter campaign – more than twice as much money given as average.

Here’s the punchline: overall, our regional ministry (including the deficit from the CCC) ended in the black. This is phenomenal given the challenges of 2021. And it isn’t the result of accounting gimmicks or receiving large grants. (We ended 2020 in the black, but only due to the government’s Payroll Protection Plan forgivable loan.) Good stewardship of resources by regional staff and leaders helped us limit some spending. Better than expected returns on investments that support parts of our annual budget certainly made a difference.  

Mostly, though, this is the direct result of your generosity and the way you value the ministry we share as Disciples Together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!