Ministers' Business Meeting

By Kenneth Wengerd

Wow! There is no other way to explain my feelings as we traveled the twenty-eight miles from State College to Belleville. The "wow" comes from hairpin turns, narrow roads, and slow trucks chugging their way up the mountain. I reflected as we traveled this hour sojourn through God's beautiful creation. Can it really be that I am about to sit in a business meeting for eight hours on such a beautiful day? Well, I did sit in the meeting with about two hundred other pastors and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Allen Yutzy started us off on the right note by leading us in singing "Come Thou Almighty King," and "Breathe on Me Breath of God." I found them to be very fitting songs that helped us get our perspective on the way we were to conduct our meeting.

Harley Troyer gave a devotional meditation taken from 1 Corinthians 1:1-17. He stated that one of the characteristics of the Godhead is unity, and that there is perfect harmony between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He went on to assert that as children of God, our desire should be harmony with His Word and His character. His challenge to us as ministers was to focus on Jesus in all that we do.

Most of what goes on at the ministers' meetings is reporting on activities, elections to committee positions and budget items. The reports cover items that are important for the well-being and direction of our conference.

There were several reports that were highlights for me. Congregational membership and transfers were important and exciting reports. It was reported that one church was requesting transfer out of the conference while five others were requesting transfer in. Our conference is growing!

Other reports that were great to hear about were five men from various locations having been ordained, nine others had their ministerial licenses renewed, and seven new licenses were issued with one new license authorized. There were ten overseer renewals and three new assignments.

One of the great times of this meeting is when we share testimony and prayer concerns, and then we take time to pray for each other. We gather together and pray for the concerns mentioned in our meeting. Two of the concerns we prayed for this year were Richard Showalter (who was scheduled as the main speaker on Sunday, but who had a heart attack, resulting in surgery) and Tom Berlin's family (Tom was a CMC minister who died recently).

There was much discussion and spirited conversation about moving the date of annual conference to a week earlier. There was no action taken at this meeting. The item will receive further attention in February during Ministers' Fellowship.

As pastors, we are constantly working with accountability issues. This year we adopted a policy of corporate accountability that is to be placed in the CMC ministerial manual. These manuals are available at the CMC office. It was discussed and decided that it would be a good idea for leadership teams (elders, pastors, and overseers) to have these manuals.

RBI board president James Miller and school president Leon Zimmerman both gave year-end reports concerning the school. Enrollment this past year increased by 35% --a positive sign for the school. Nathan Miller, RMM president, and Levi Miller, treasurer, gave their positive reports concerning our conference mission office.

The date for the next annual conference 2001 is August 9-12 in Kalona, IA. After we closed the meeting in prayer, it was off to the big tent for supper, fellowship, and encouragement.

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