WASHINGTON, DC – A new book from Lovett H. Weems, Jr., engages the core issues and concerns that he feels must be addressed if the church is to follow God’s leading into the future. In Focus: The Real Challenges That Face The United Methodist Church, Weems, director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, illustrates what the UMC must “reset” about itself. He suggests the church start by asking these questions:

• What will happen now that the increased giving that United Methodists have enjoyed (despite declining membership numbers) has reached a plateau and begun to decline?
• Why, with 34,000 congregations and $6.5 billion in annual giving, can’t United Methodists add a net increase of even one new disciple of Jesus Christ in a given year?
• Why are United Methodist clergy less concerned with reaching young adults than are laity? Why are laity unwilling to make the changes to worship and budgets required to attract these same young adults?
• If the percentage of married couples with young children has declined by half since the 1950s, why is that still the group we focus on reaching?
• Why are so many mid-sized churches on their way to becoming small-membership congregations?

The Disaster Response team will also be receiving various work teams for other projects in this region, tentatively scheduled through August. Contact Charles Walters at 205-609-7798 or awftornadorecovery@gmail.com to schedule a team.  Disaster response training is not required, but we recommend team leaders participate in UMVIM Team Leader Training.

ALSO:  The annual conference owns a shower trailer that has been in service this year, but needs repairs. It is currently in Linden, AL, but will soon be in Pennington, AL. If your church has an individual or team that would be willing to do some of that repair work, please contact Charles Walters at 205-609-7798 or awftornadorecovery@gmail.com.

Thank you for your service for the Kingdom of God!
Susan Hunt (posted 2/21/2012)

Crisis Communication Planning
March 15, 4pm eastern time. Presenters will be Rev. Joy Melton, Chief Resource Officer of United Methodist Insurance, and Lee Brogden Culberson of Professional Mojo.  Participants may login to the visual portion at https://umpct.ilinc.com/join/thrskfm.
Call in for the audio portion to 1-800-598-7441. Code 5596370. Participants are encouraged to join twenty minutes before the start time.

(UMNS) - The Advance Edition of the Daily Christian Advocate, the official journal of General Conference, is now online and available for download at gc2012.umc.org/ADCA. The advance contains all the legislation submitted for consideration by the delegates. The edition is available in English, French and Portuguese.

(Rev. Sean Peters) - I have been planting my new church, The Journey, for the past six months. It is something I have always wanted to do from the moment I began pursuing a call to full-time vocational ministry in 2003. I was elated when the Conference informed me last year that I would be appointed to start a new church in July. I began to immediately map out what my new church was going to look like and the strategic process that I would implement in order to ensure that The Journey would become successful. That was in June. It is now February, and I have learned a lot. Here are a few lessons I've learned that may help potential new church start pastors or any pastor for that matter when heading into a time of change or renewal. Click here for the full post. Sean's blog was also selected to be a featured blog post on www.umc.org.

The following information was shared with us from the Legal Department at the General Council on Finance and Administration regarding housing allowances for clergy:

In December 2010, the U.S. Tax Court issued a controversial decision in a case involving the clergy housing allowance. The decision held that a ministerial taxpayer could apply the housing allowance exclusion to more than one home. The IRS appealed the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

On February 8, 2012, the 11th Circuit reversed the Tax Court’s decision and held the housing allowance can only be applied to one home. We won’t bore you with the details behind the fairly short opinion, as the result was not at all surprising. Almost everyone (except for the taxpayer and a majority of the Tax Court!) had thought the housing allowance could only be applied to one home. So we are back to where we were.

This return to the status quo may be important information for any clergy who were planning on claiming an allowance for two homes on their 2011 returns or who requested designations to reflect the cost of two homes for 2012.  If you have questions you may call the Conference Treasurer at 334-274-1051 (toll-free is 888-873-3127) or ask your personal tax preparer or CPA for further information.

We have gone electronic with The Cardinal newsletter, which is more cost effective for us, and, more flexible for your use. However, we do need your help. We are asking that you forward this on to the churches in your district along with your own communications. Together, we can get the story told, and also be better stewards. May God bless you for being partners with us in God’s mission in Appalachia.  Please follow this hyperlink below to view The Cardinal Newsletter - Winter 2012 Edition: http://redbirdconference.org/library/143-Cardinal_Winter_2012.pdf

Success stories should be recognized and celebrated! That is why The Foundation for Evangelism sponsors three awards, given at the Conference and General level of The Church: >>>

WASHINGTON, DC – To help congregations better track and improve worship attendance, the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary has released CAP ($39), the Congregational Attendance Profile.  Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., says, “Though most every church tracks attendance, too few do so in a way that reveals long-range trends.” CAP helps congregations more easily see these trends, revealing clues to improve attendance.

To use CAP, a person simply enters past attendance into the CAP spreadsheet and adds new figures weekly. CAP monitors attendance against a 52-week running average, so churches will know instantly whether each Sunday’s attendance is higher or lower than the year-to-date average. Also, CAP creates a two-year trends chart that shows whether overall attendance is rising, declining, or flat. A CAP seasonal attendance chart superimposes the 52-week average over actual attendance, revealing peaks and dips. To help make sense of it all, Weems explains on a CAP video segment how to interpret and use the data from these charts. He says, “Churches have shown major improvement in attendance by acting on lessons learned from CAP.”

CAP is designed for churches with a single worship service as well as those with many. CAP begins shipping on February 1, 2012. Video and more information are here. [Posted 1/27/2012]  

(January 24, 2012) Thank you for your continued prayers for the people affected by the severe weather in Alabama yesterday. So far we have not received any requests for outside help in the areas of Clanton and Maplesville, or any other areas in our own annual conference. This includes donations as well as ERT teams. If we hear of any additional information, or any requests are made, we will let you know.  The North Alabama conference has now updated their website requesting that ERT teams only be from North Alabama at this time. 

Archived News

The Alabama-West Florida United Methodist Development Fund, Inc. was established in 1984 as the official Conference loan and deposit portfolio.  Deposit accounts are available to United Methodist churches, organizations and church members. Accounts earn a variable rate of interest that is paid quarterly. Account holders have the option to receive a check or have the interest reinvested. Deposit accounts have no maturity date; therefore, account balances may be withdrawn by written request at any time. To find out the current deposit interest rate or for local church or individual application forms continue here. >>>