Praying our Way Forward - Day One

The Council of Bishops has called The United Methodist Church to be in a posture of prayer, praying for God’s leadership to guide us as we discern our Way Forward. This week, the Northern Illinois Conference will be praying for the denomination, the work of the Commission on a Way Forward, for the leaders that will help determine the path we take. Each day, we will post a prayer on the NIC General and Jurisdictional Facebook page, and we encourage you to continue to pray throughout the day.Our first prayer comes from Bishop Sally Dyck.

Clear Open Appointments

The overall goal in appointment-making is to match clergy’s gifts, experience and needs with a congregation for missional reasons. Appointment-making is an art and not a science because there are many factors that go into appointment-making. We all recognize that there are other factors than missional ones that impact itinerancy, such as the level of financial support, spouse’s employment, ages of children, etc., which we try to take into account.

Bishops review Commission on a Way Forward sketches

In early November 2017, the Council of Bishops met and received the first report from the Commission on a Way Forward. The Commission’s mandate is to present a recommendation to the Council of Bishops at their May 2018 meeting to forward on to the Special General Conference 2019 (GC19).

Seminary students receive excellence in clergy leadership scholarships

Five seminary students from the NIC were selected as recipients of the Excellence in Clergy Leadership Scholarship by the Board of Ordained Ministry. They were awarded a total of $42,500.

Praying Our Way Forward

The Northern Illinois Conference encourages congregations to participate in our week to pray for the Commission On a Way Forward and The United Methodist Church from Dec. 3-9.

Rev. Dr. Tracy Smith Malone elected Bishop