Leadership Team meets at Mt. Morris

Chairman Anna Lee Hisey Pierson opened the meeting with Scripture from Matthew 9: 35-38. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” She reminded us that we are among the workers sent out to bring in the harvest.

Mt. Morris hosted the District Leadership Team June 5th. Esther Fry represented the congregation with history from the West Branch and Silver Creek that significantly contributed to the establishment of Mt. Morris. One of the first Love Feasts at Mt. Morris was held in a barn on a farm south of town. When the barn was torn down a gavel was made from the timbers and passed down from Moderator to Moderator. At the present time no one seems to know where the gavel resides. Pastor Virginia Haney was out of town on a previous commitment.

The minutes of May 1 were approved and we moved on to the District Executive, Kevin Kessler, Report. Kevin is very busy meeting with churches seeking Pastors, meeting with the Visioning Team, attending the New Church Planting conference at Bethany, meeting with other District Executives in Dayton, Ohio, hosting an Illinois Conf. of Churches meeting in Peoria, and participating in a very successful Pot Luck sponsored by District Deacons.

Jim Lehman reported on the finances of the District which at the present time show us at 28% commitment with 33% of the year just past. We are meeting expenses. The subject of a Stewardship Letter outlining the accomplishments of the District Teams will be prepared for distribution throughout the District.

The Douglas Park Steering Committee reported that things are positive. Pastor Ware and the congregation have initiated a feeding and clothing program. The question of when the Glory to Glory would become a congregation, what happens to the NCDT support. The Steering Committee will explore alternatives when they next meet.

The next Leadership Team meeting will be held at Douglas Park on July 31st. That will also be a District Work Day at Douglas Park the same day.

Polo Church of the Brethren is the first to file property covenants with their deeds. Canton will file theirs shortly. Many Churches have the property covenants in their constitutions but have not officially filed with their respective counties. These covenants protect the integrity of the property of local Church of the Brethrens.

At 11:00 AM the New Church Development Team joined the Leadership Team for “Visioning Together.” The Scriptural reference for the joint group is John 15: 1-17, “I am the vine , you are the branches.” and “Love one another.”We spent the next hour sharing what these verses meant to the mandates given our two teams. The result of discussions ultimately came down to, “Shouldn’t these two teams not only be working together but become ONE team again.”

At this point we adjourned for a wonderful lunch prepared by the Mt. Morris Church.

The two teams reconvened after lunch and proceeded to discuss the pro’s and con’s of bringing the two teams under one roof and the requirements needed to do that. One of the problems with separate organizations is that the New Planted Churches do not feel that they are part of the community of Churches because they are not represented by the Leadership Team. NCDT has been doing a great job mentoring these churches but when do they become part of the greater District?

From this discussion came a motion that we establish a working team to prepare a proposal for combining the NCDT and LT. It was 2nd and passed. The group will be Anna lee, Lynda DeVore, Jim Lehman, Vernon Showalter, Dawn Blackmon and Kevin Kessler.

In closing Anna Lee said that we read about the Great Harvest and the Vine and vineyard. I had no idea where this meeting would go. The Holy Spirit certainly is moving within this meeting.

Kevin dismissed the combined meeting with prayer. After the meeting Vernon Showalter gave a tour of the Mt. Morris food pantry. Mt. Morris also has a community garden and distributes fresh vegetables in season through the food pantry.

Submitted by Gil Crosby, Secretary, Leadership Team.