Ministers' Business Meeting

"Everything rises and falls on leadership!" That was the principle the instructor in my church administration class kept drilling into us as future pastors and leaders in the church. I understand now, years later, the real truth of that statement. Everything does rise and fall on leadership. God has given to the churches in CMC many gifted pastors to lead our conference and to set a vision for the future.

The semiannual CMC Ministers Business Meeting was called to order Friday morning by moderator, John Ivan Byler, at Fairview Mennonite Church with over eighty-five ministers present. Glen Gingerich led the pastors in several acappella hymns. There's nothing quite like listening to men sing in harmony! John Ivan shared a devotional on the theme of light and read passages from Genesis 1, Psalm 18 and 27, and John 8 and 9. He said, "Light is a reminder of the way God has made known His truth to us. We have all had dark moments in our life, but God wants to turn our darkness into light."

John Ivan Byler and Phil Stutzman, moderator-elect, led us through an agenda of thirty-two business items. The current CMC financial report was presented by Lynford Shrock, treasurer. He also presented the CMC budget and the Brotherhood Beacon budget for 2002, both of which were approved. Reports were shared with the ministers about new congregations that have applied to join the CMC and new churches being planted by current churches. It's exciting to hear reports of God's expanding kingdom.

Leon Zimmerman, president of Rosedale Bible Institute, brought a recommendation from the RBI Trustees that the name of RBI be changed to Rosedale Bible College. The recommendation was overwhelmingly passed. Keith Scheffel, chief financial officer of Rosedale Mennonite Missions, presented the current RMM financial report and the proposed RMM budget for 2002, which was accepted and approved. In his final RMM report, out-going president Nathan Miller thanked the pastors of CMC for their support during the past eleven years and shared an overview of his ministry. He called us all to keep pressing on and to support RMM's vision of local and global outreach. All of the pastors stood to their feet in a gesture of appreciation to Nathan for his faithful service with RMM.

Even with the full business meeting agenda, there were times for making new acquaintances and renewing old ones at the breaks and during lunch. The most meaningful happening of the day was seeing the pastors gather in small groups to pray for and to encourage one another right before the noon meal.

A major issue that generated quite a bit of discussion was that of "affiliate CMC memberships" for congregations wanting to "test the water" to possibly join CMC. CMC now has affiliate membership for overseas churches, but not for state-side churches. Some ministers support an affiliate relationship as a time of "courtship" to see if the "marriage" is to happen, while others fear that such a move is too easy and may result in those churches vacillating indefinitely. David I. Miller, general secretary of CMC, noted that during this past year, three new congregations transferred into CMC, two churches closed, and three additional congregations sent delegates to investigate the possibility of transferring to Conservative Mennonite Conference.

Ivan Yoder of Belleville, Pennsylvania used the term "inspirational" to describe his feelings of the meeting. He continued, "For me to say that the business meeting was inspirational - now that's really something!"

I (Stan) believe the spirit of the pastors at the business meeting can be summed up by the first stanza of the song that we sang at the beginning of the morning... "Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove, with light and comfort from above; Be Thou our guardian, Thou our guide, o'er every thought and step preside." That's the attitude of those who lead our conference.

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