NORTHWEST WORD May 2022

Conference Annual Meeting | Report on Association Meeting | Technology Support | Creation Care Grants | Stewardship | Camps | Back Bay Mission | Pulpit Supply 

When Sue Kaiser served as a delegate to the 31^st General Synod in Milwaukee in 2019, she discovered something so exciting that she called her Pastor, Rev. Lori Steward of Ebenezer UCC in Sheboygan, right away. Kaiser asked her pastor if their church could become active in a movement only four years old at the time—WISE, Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, Engaged. WISE aims to help local congregations and their people learn about mental health issues and how to support families and church members who deal with mental health challenges. Their goal is to break the stigma that surrounds effective conversation around these issues.

Kaiser's remarks came during videotaped presentation at the 60^th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Wisconsin Association of the United Church of Christ, held on April 23, 2022, at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Eau Claire.

Kaiser continued by sharing the story of Ebenezer UCC creating a WISE team, taking more than a year to educate themselves and their congregation about mental health issues and awareness, partnering with both local and statewide groups, and voting in January 2021 to become a WISE congregation. The effort has borne fruit in an annual special Sunday in September to promote mental health awareness, including a worship service and an outdoor fair on the church's campus. Members of the Congregation, including WISE team members, have also stepped up to provide leadership for mental health Sheboygan's HOPE walk, a yearly event in October that emphasizes suicide prevention. Kaiser, who has long had an interest in wider church activities, including Social Justice ministry and taking classes at Lay Academy, told the group that her team emphasizes educating both the church and the community about mental health issues.

In other matters, delegates voted to keep per-capita dues at $4.50 and adopted a 2023 budget of $38,250—very similar to 2022's spending plan. While 2022 revenues from per-capita dues were down, 2022 expenditures also declined, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Association's financial picture remains sound, with more than $64,000 in assets. Treasurer Mike Goen-Penney stressed that Association funds play a vital role in nurturing new leaders for the church's future, offering scholarships to the Wisconsin Conference's youth camps, and funding the common services support budget of the Conference.

Moderator Terri Hansen was unable to attend because of a joyous family event, so Vice Moderator Susan Vornholt led the meeting. Vornholt, from the United Church of Christ in Neillsville, was elected Moderator, and Rev. Kathleen Remund, Pastor of the First Congregational UCC in Menomonie, was elected Vice-Moderator. Rev. David Huber, pastor of the host congregation, will continue as the Association's Secretary, while Goen-Penney continues as Treasurer. 

Rev. Rob MacDougall was welcomed back to work after a three month break to take care of his wife, Wendy, during the final days before her death on March 1. He expressed his gratitude for all of the kindness support he and his wife received during that time, and also to the Executive Committee for filling in some of the gaps in leadership during his absence. Later in the meeting, he recognized Terri Hansen, the lay pastor at the Athens and Colby UCC churches, for her leadership as Moderator of the Association.

Host Pastor Rev. David Huber thanked all who came to see Plymouth UCC's 2018 building, a space full of light and well-proportioned spaces. The congregation has wanted to show off its new structure for some time but were unable to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The congregation built its new space to replace a building lost in a 2016 fire.

Vornholt recognized 27 of the Association's churches for giving to all five of the UCC's special offerings.

The Northwest Wisconsin Association includes 60 member congregations and 105 pastors with full ministerial standing. Three members of these churches are Members-In-Discernment, working toward becoming ordained ministers under the guidance of the Division on Church and Ministry. Plans are underway for a May 15 installation of Rev. Deb Kunkel, the new Pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ in Fountain City and Hope UCC in Cochrane. Kunkel returns to the cold north woods of Wisconsin after a pastorate in Sanibel Island, Florida.

Vornholt encouraged churches to apply for the Association's Creation Care grants and its Technology grants. Cindy Halfen of the host congregation briefly described how a Creation Care grant has helped Plymouth church replace invasive buckthorn plants around the church's property and the congregation's dream of planting a pollinator garden using native plant species.

More information about WISE here

Plymouth United Church of Christ, 2010 Moholt Drive, Eau Claire, WI

People to know

Executive Committee of the Northwest Association

Moderator, Sue Vornholt, United Church of Christ, Neillsville, WI

Vice Moderator, Rev. Kathleen Remund, First Congregational UCC, Menomonie, WI

Secretary, Rev. David Huber, Plymouth UCC, Eau Claire, WI

Treasurer, Mike Goen-Penney, Community UCC Medford, WI

Member at Large, Rev. Lisa Bodenheim, Prescott UCC Prescott, WI

Member at Large, Rev. Christine Stack

Member at Large, John Parkin, St John’s UCC LaCrosse, WI

Technology Support Grant Application

 

The Northwest Wisconsin Association of the Wisconsin Conference UCC is offering grants up to $1000 for technical support to local congregations. Awards will be granted as applications are received and as funds remain available.

Grants are available for a broad definition of technology: hardware (computers, cameras, microphones, projectors, screens, recording equipment, etc.), software, and/or training (e.g., at your local technical college, seminars). We say broadly because each church knows its needs better than we do. For some churches this might be a first step into "technology" while others might be upgrading.

Any congregation of the NW Association may apply for a grant up to $1000.

Application can be found here

Strengthen the Church - June 5 (suggested)

The Strengthen the Church (STC) Offering reflects the shared commitment of people across the United Church of Christ to cooperatively build up the UCC. Conferences and the national setting equally share the gifts given by members and friends through their local congregations. The funds raised support leadership development, new churches, youth ministry, and innovation in existing congregations.  By your generosity to this offering, you build up the Body of Christ.

More information here

OCWM Bulletin Insert for Congregations

The Conference has created a bulletin insert about OCWM detailing how the gifts of a congregation to OCWM Basic Support make a real difference in the life of congregations across our state. Please share the bulletin insert in an upcoming worship service or e-newsletter from the congregation to members.

Bulletin insert (PDF)

Bulletin insert (Word)

Wisconsin Churches to Back Bay Mission

Ten Wisconsin United Church of Christ people, including the Northwest Association's own Bill Clyma (pictured), spent five days from February 28 to March 4 at Back Bay Mission (BBM) in Biloxi, Mississippi. The group caulked and painted a house in nearby Gulfport and replaced its dining and living room floor. A few members of the group helped with BBM's Loaves and Fishes Breakfast program and the Micah Day Center, where homeless people can get a meal, receive their mail, take a shower, and receive other services. Many of the Day Center's participants move on to stable homes and long-term jobs with help from BBM.

The group also brought home information about BBM's new Capital Campaign. Named “Making Good Trouble on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 100 Years”, the Campaign plans to raise $3,600,000 to upgrade and maintain its buildings, expand its Emergency Assistance Program to help people in poverty move to sustainable lives, and build the area's first Homeless Shelter with innovative tiny homes. The Campaign's publicity and pledge period opens in April, with pledge payments from 2023 to 2025, Good Trouble (thebackbaymission.org).

The Wisconsin Conference UCC organized the Mission Trip, building on a ministry of Grace Congregational United Church of Christ in Two Rivers. Seven people from Grace took part, along with the church's Interim Pastor, Robert Gross, Petra Strieff of New Glarus, and Clyma.

Group members also enjoyed Biloxi's Mardi Gras parade and celebration, returning with plenty of beads and other trinkets thrown to the crowds by members of various clubs riding in the floats. Heavy Mardi Gras traffic ties up Biloxi and Gulfport so completely that local travel becomes difficult to impossible.

The Gulfport house qualified for BBM's Housing Rehabilitation program, and the homeowner has been waiting for groups visiting the Mission to complete the bulk of the work. Unskilled folks painted the formerly dark gray house a bright yellow with white trim on top of a coat of primer. The more skilled group members completely replaced the floor in the dining room and living room after they discovered that the original floor was much more damaged than they had anticipated. They were joined by two members of BBM's staff, one long term volunteer, and frequent BBM volunteers Doyle and Marian Luckenbaugh of Massillon, Ohio. The retired UCC pastor and his spouse have spent two or three weeks volunteering at BBM every year for decades.

Three of the four people working on the living room floor fell through the damaged boards in the subfloor. Two were injured, with wounds ranging from a scratched hand and bruised ego to rotator cuff damaged. They removed the damaged subfloor, strengthened the joists with new boards joined to them, and installed thick plywood for a new subfloor, a thin cushion and a new vinyl floor. BBM staff will add a moisture barrier to the house raised up on blocks during the next few weeks.

“We do everything in our power so that we could walk away with a good conscience,” says Craig Steencamp, BBM's Construction Manager, describes the goal of the Housing Rehabilitation Program. The 1959 house need much more work than he had anticipated when he first visited the homeowner. Luckenbaugh, a retired UCC pastor, volunteers in many housing programs, including his own community's Habitat for Humanity chapter, praises BBM's work as “head and shoulders above other places.”

COVID-19 has slowed the Housing Rehabilitation program to a snail's pace as groups canceled their mission trips because of the pandemic. After two years with an empty guest house, BBM's leaders have noticed a small uptick in mission visits, and hope to have many more groups visiting this year.

For more information, Strengthening Neighborhoods, Seeking Justice, Transforming Lives. (thebackbaymission.org)

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