NZ MC Church/Charge Conference
by Tammy Phelps ,SLT Vice Chair/Secretary
Sunday afternoon October 27, 2024, New Zion Methodist Church held our first church/charge conference as a member of the Global Methodist Church. There were 17 church members, 2 constituents and 2 clergy in attendance. Our conference was opened by Rev. Charlene Mitchell, pastor at Canal Winchester Methodist Church. Rev. David Carter had designated her to be the presiding elder over our conference. She asked Pastor Mike to open our conference in prayer, then she gave a welcome from our presiding elder Rev. David Carter, the Columbus East Circuit elder.
Rev. Mitchell then invited Pastor Mike to share his 2025 vision statement for our church. Pastor Mike discussed his desire to grow our congregation at all age levels and how our work is to bring people to Jesus as Savior and Lord. He would encourage all of us to reach out to families and minister to them, build strong relationships through fellowship, care for each other and pray for each other also. He closed his vision by asking us to “work with me as God leads me in showing us where the needs are and working together to meet those needs’.
Rev. Mitchell instructed that the ballots for the 2025 Servant Leadership Team (SLT) be distributed and explained the voting process. The nominees that had been submitted to and approved by the SLT are as follows: trustees - Vera Kellner, Larry McKenzie, Lyn Tucker and Steve Wilson; SLT chairperson - Peggy Wippel; SPRC chairperson - Rhonda Miller; SPRC vice chairperson - Linda Wilson and worship/music chairperson - Jackie Brown. Our nominees were approved by the church members for their offices, Vera Kellner and Steve Wilson will be the trustee representatives on the SLT.
Terryann McCoy was invited to present the membership report. Terryann explained that we had not addressed membership issues in quite sometime, due to the COVID pandemic, getting a new pastor and disaffiliation. At a church conference held in 2022, we had a first reading of members considered inactive; in 2023, we were in the midst of disaffiliation and there was not a second reading of our membership; this conference started with 145 members. In September 2024, inactive members were sent a letter that included directions on how to remain members and that no response to this letter would be an indication the person would be removed from our membership roll. Out of the letters sent, the committee had one removal request, a request to remain on the roll, and some letters were returned by the post office indicating we no longer had contact information for the former member. 26 names were read by Terryann to be removed from the roll, Rev. Mitchell asked for a show of hands to give approval for the removal of the 26 people. This passed unanimously, after this action our membership is now at 119 members which includes the six new ho joined on October 27, 2024 during worship service.
Linda Wilson was invited to give the reports for 2024 Connectional Giving and the budget. Linda indicated that our 2024 Connectional Giving was paid in full as of October 2024, the budget and connectional giving estimates for 2025 will be figured once Finance Committee knows the church giving for the remainder of 2024. For details on the 2024 budget, please refer to the MAP in the 2024 directory. Linda also reported on the 2025 pastor’s compensation package which had been approved through the SLT at their August meeting. The this salary for the pastor was increased by the minimum recommendation (3.0%) by the GMC, Medicare reimbursement of $4250.00, an HSA account $3000.00 figured into his salary of $55,584.00. The pastor also receives a housing exclusion allowance of $5000.00.
Vera Kellner covered the Trustee Report that will be turned in to the conference. The trustee report includes information regarding the properties owned by the church, their value, maintenance needs for the parsonage and church, church property inventory lists and information regarding the property insurance coverage held by the church for the church, shelter house, playground and parsonage. The property inventories and insurance information were not included in the congregational packet due to the length of these documents. Lastly, Vera gave a report on how our church and parsonage meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities) requirements.
Terryann returned to discuss the changes to the New Zion Methodist Church Guiding Principles. This document was the original document that established the SLT to govern our church. It was revised in January of 2024 to take out all references to United Methodist Church and changed the mission statement to the Global Methodist Church mission statement. Changes were made to the number of people who can be on the SLT as well as how many years a person can serve. Other changes were changes in wording to put us in line with The Transitional Book of Doctrines and Disciplines.
Rev. Mitchell closed our conference with prayer for our church, the current and 2025 SLT members, as well as inviting people to come lay hands on Pastor Mike as we prayed for him and his family. All reports will be submitted to the Allegheny West Conference of GMC electronically and paper copies will be kept in the church office. If you are interested in reviewing the documents please contact the office and make arrangements with Karen.