I recently attended the annual meeting of the Missouri Mid South Conference of the United Church of Christ. I have mixed feelings about this and other UCC meetings. I love the people who attend the meetings and enjoy Christian fellowship with them. I especially enjoy the opportunity to sing in the choir at the worship services that close our annual meetings. However, there is an undercurrent of desperation at these meetings that gives a feeling we are “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

This year’s meeting was held on the campus of beautiful Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. The meeting was well organized and accomplished the business at hand: approving a new streamlined governance and committee structure for the conference and approving the 2011 conference budget. Like the 2010 budget, the 2011 budget reduces conference support to MoVal and Shannondale. It keeps the number of associate conference ministers at 2 instead of the 3 (one for each association) we had in prior years. The current conference ministers, Marc Wessels and Dale Parson, are not assigned to one of the three associations of the conference. Instead, they will be assigned to work with congregations as needed. At the meeting, Dale asked if he could come down and visit our area. I hope we can work out dates for Dale and Marc to visit us soon.

1 Corinthians 12:23b. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Today's New International Version (TNIV) © Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica

Council Meeting
Monday, July 19, 2010, 7:30PM