Conference News

Hope Partnership and New Beginnings at Annual Meeting

Hope Partnership and New Beginnings at Annual Meeting

Four Questions Every Leader Should Ask

Presenter: Rev. Dr. Gilberto Collazo, President Hope Partnership

Churches that are making a difference in their context have a clear sense of their mission and purpose. These are discoveries that happen when we engage in transformational work. What are the questions we need to wrestle with to go from being a church for “us” to a church living God’s mission into the world—questions that change the focus of how we use our resources? Come and learn from stories of congregations who have named a future story that reflects God’s mission in their communities.

Hope Partnership has worked with over 1,300 congregations within many different denominational contexts to help them engage in this important transformational work.

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Proposed bylaw amendments to be voted on at Annual Meeting 2019

Annual meeting delegates will be asked to approve amendments to the Southwest Conference bylaws at the 2019 annual meeting to be held in Phoenix, AZ on April 4th,5th, and 6th.

Current Southwest Conference UCC Bylaws do not facilitate the application of SWC Travel Pool assistance for use by local church representatives who are required to participate at the Southwest Conference Mission and Church Vitality Committee Meetings. On November 15th, 2018 the Southwest Conference Executive Board enacted the following Bylaw amendment pending ratification at the next duly scheduled meeting of the Conference.

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Churches Annual Reports 2018

Churches Annual Reports 2018

It's time once again for this important effort that enables the United Church of Christ to maintain accurate and current information on UCC churches and ministerial staff, as well as provide information that will assist Conferences, Associations and the national ministries of the denomination to identify and understand trends in membership, attendance and other factors that will impact programs and policies.

If your church hasn't had its congregational meeting to approve your 2019 budget, the 2019 Pledge Form should still be sent in with estimates. If the final numbers change, please send me your revisions. The SWC can't complete its 2019 budget until we have pledges from all the churches, so it's vital that we at least have estimates from you to work with.

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Widening the Welcome

Widening the Welcome

Saturday, January 26, 12:30 - 2 p.m. at First Church UCC Phoenix

Michael Curry will be our speaker, sharing his experience at the National Widening the Welcome Gathering in New York and showing how we can incorporate this knowledge into our individual churches.

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