April 2, 2009

Editor: Brian Bakeman, 1501 NW 24^th St, Oklahoma City OK 73106

Phone: (405) 530-2067; Email: bbakeman@okumc.org; Website: www.okumc.org 

 

 

 Ministry Protection Minute

 Connectional Giving

 Pension changes for 2010

 

 

 

Sunday, April 26, is Native American Awareness Sunday which recognizes and supports the contributions of Native Americans to the church and our society. The observance, approved by the 1988 General Conference, is one of six special church-wide Sunday offerings. Last year, over $14,000 was received for this special offering.

 

Funds that are collected are split with half going to the general church and half staying here in Oklahoma. The funds collected will allow The United Methodist Church to partner with existing native ministries and create programs on behalf of Native Americans. Money collected also supports seminary scholarships for United Methodist Native Americans. The funds that stay here in Oklahoma have been used to support our Native American campus ministries around the state and other projects sponsored by the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

  

Information on Annual Conference is being mailed out this week, but can also be accessed online at http://www.okumc.org/page.asp?PKValue=924. This information includes the agenda and housing information. I encourage everyone not to wait until the last minute to book your hotel rooms. Two years ago, we had a tough time finding rooms for everyone so we have added additional rooms this year.

 

It is also important to update information on your lay member to Annual Conference to be sure they receive information. The pre-conference journal will be mailed out in May and it really helps during registration to have the correct information when the delegates register.

 

 

 

This year I received several phone calls from clergy upset over the fact that their costs for changing appointments were not tax deductible and they had to declare the moving check they received from the Conference as income.

 

The IRS has been very specific about this issue for a number of years now.  A move that is less than 50 miles is not tax deductible. The wording is this: “Your new job location must be 50 miles farther from your former home than your old job location was.” If you qualify for this, you can file a Form 3903 showing all of your allowable expenses. Regardless, you must report the income you received from the Conference Moving Fund.

 

By Rick Carlin

 

Many churches are preparing for Vacation Bible School in the coming months and PACT is ready to help with those preparations. PACT is presenting two webinars, one in April and one in May, about Safe Sanctuaries.

 

The April webinar has been changed from the April 2^nd to April 9^th and it is entitled “Safe Sanctuaries and Completing a Thorough Background Screen”. The May webinar, presented on May 7^th, is entitled “Safe Sanctuaries – Operation Procedures and Vacation Bible School Staffing”. Both webinars are on a Thursday at 3:00 pm Central time. Joy Thornburg Melton, the author of Safe Sanctuaries and the Chief Resource Officer of PACT, will be participating in the webinar to answer questions.

 

There is no need to register ahead of time for these Webinars, a few minutes before 3:00 pm on the day of the webinar simply go to http://ajg.acrobat.com/bestpractice and follow the instructions on the screen. If you can not attend the live presentation, they are all recorded and you can watch them later or show them to others at your convenience.

 

If you have any problems signing on to the webinar please call 1-877-UMC-PACT.

 

 

 

Connectional giving for the month of March dropped significantly. Apportionment receipts dropped to $2,699,510, the lowest amount since 2004. This represents a drop of $409,126 or 13.16 % over last year. A special thanks for the churches in the Clinton District who paid the highest percentage of their apportionments at 22.13%.

 

The special offering for One Great Hour of Sharing also dropped from last year. As of the end of March, our office received $13,467 compared to $27,412 collected last year.

 

Several people have been asking about the status of their payments for the Ministry Center and the OCU/St. Paul assessments. My hope is in the next couple of weeks to get a mailing out to every congregation with that information.

 

Information for the offerings at Annual Conference will be going out shortly. This year, the offering will be split with half going to create a new fund to help our seminary students with the education loans and half going to a ministry initiative to support the United Methodist Church in Liberia.

 

 

 

The Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits will be proposing an increase in the rate billed to churches for clergy pension benefits for 2010 at Annual Conference. The proposed rate increases from 10.2% to 12% of the clergy billable compensation up to the denominational average compensation (DAC). This increase is necessary due to the drop in the stock market and is outlined in the report in the pre-conference journal. It should be noted that this is the first increase that we have had in a number of years for clergy pension plans.