131st Annual Meeting | April 24, 2021 – Online
PacNWC Vision:
To be a mosaic of churches working interdependently together to transform lives and communities.
PacNWC Mission priorities:
Start New Churches | Strengthen Churches | Support Pastors.
Highlights from the Ministerial Association Meeting
Our Ministerial Association met in the morning of April 23 to cover business in supporting our pastors, staff and their families. Three candidates for ordination and 54 licenses were approved for recommendation at the ECC Annual Meeting in June.
Claire Strunk, Communitas | Mark Neely, Pine Lake | Sally Carlson, Bethany
Highlights from the Annual Business Meeting
The 131st Annual Meeting was attended by over 200 delegates and general conferees. Delegates met through Zoom Meetings and General Conferees were able to watch via YouTube Live.
Two new member churches were voted on to join the ECC: Bread and Wine Covenant Church, Portland, OR and St. Thomas Covenant Church, Salem OR.
Two new amendments were approved. The first is to add language to the current instructions in the event of a permanent superintendent vacancy to also add temporary as well. The second was to finalize the Youth Commission to be a standing commission.
Superintendent Greg Yee was unanimously re-elected for a third term as our superintendent. He reflected on the eventful and traumatic past year as well as his excitement for our current season of opportunities and fruitfulness highlighting our three mission priorities; Start Churches, Strengthen Churches and Support Pastors.
- Summary numbers included: 1) we were unable to count attendees accurately for 2020. We have 185 actively credentialed ministers in our 75 churches, and 3) giving was down by only 0.73% overall.
- Under Start Churches Greg highlighted the addition of two new plants: Bread and Wine Cov, Portland, OR, and a new plant led by Phil Moore planting out of Immanuel, Spokane. We also are seeing potentially four established churches looking to adopt into the ECC this next year. We also have contributed $30K to our sister conference, the Southeast Conference, toward planting two churches.
- Under Strengthen Churches Greg highlighted resourcing, working with transitions, NextGen Ministries, and mosaic ministries. Kim Thomas was brought on as the new Mosaic Coordinator .
- Under Supporting Pastors Greg highlighted credentialing, connections/cohorts, pastoral care, and spiritual direction/coaching. We were able to financially support 70 church staff people and their families to retreat at Cascades Camp.
- Greg interviewed Pastor Grant Christensen about the miracles God showed Grace Cov, Bremerton to start an online Iraqi campus with Seal Team 6. This testimony was an encouragement to stay on mission going forward. How are we making disciples? How are we joining God’s kingdom building work in transforming the world.
Brian Whitaker, PacNWC Executive Board Chair, proposed a revised budget for 2021 of $975,414 and $873,747 for 2022 that were both approved.
Executive Minister Paul Lessard, Start and Strengthen Churches, brought a greeting and reinforced Three Strand Strong. Jim Sequeira also introduced a video to encourage delegates to be prepared for the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery at Gather.
Elections for new members of the Executive Board, Youth Commission, Children and Family Ministry Commission and Nominating Commission were held. All elections were approved. For a list of boards and commissions go to pacnwc.org and click on 2021 Annual Meeting.
Greg Yee, Becca Worl were elected to represent the conference as delegates for Gather 2021 online. Brian Whitaker is an alternate delegate.
Rob Mohrweis shared a report from Cascades Camp & Conference Center.
Concert of Prayer was led by Dawn Taloyo at the end of the meeting to pray for each other as we commit together again to our shared mission.
Michael White from Harbor Covenant extended an invitation to the 132nd Annual Meeting April 29th – 30th 2022 in Gig Harbor, WA.
Please help connect people in your church to the Pacific Northwest Conference website, our monthly e-newsletter, The Catch, and our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
[Click Here] to visit the 2021 Annual Meeting Resource Page
- Annual Meeting Report in English and Spanish
- Agenda
- Delegate’s Notebook
- Superintendent’s Report Slides
- Superintendent’s Letter to Churches
- Video Introductions of Candidates for Ordination
- Virtual Ministry Fair