At its regularly scheduled meeting today the Mid-America Union Conference Executive Committee received reports, discussed various issues relevant to ministry in the union, and voted ordination recommendations for five pastors. 

Gary Thurber, president of MAUC, shared updates from General Conference Annual Council, North America Division year-end meetings and AdventHealth. MAUC vice president for administration Gil F. Webb presented a five-year comparison of membership numbers in the six conferences that comprise the union, showing a slight drop in total third quarter numbers. The presentation from Troy Peoples, vice president for finance, reported net assets up despite a .12% decline union-wide in tithe remittances through September 2019.

Board member Ken Bacon, group president of Centura Health Denver Metro, reported that the Audit Review Committee recently gave MAUC the highest level of recommendation possible for 2018. “It was a very clean audit,” Bacon stated.

In preparation for the General Conference Session in Indianapolis next summer, the committee voted names of 16 delegates who will represent Mid-America Union.

As a means of assisting one conference dealing with a major disaster, a recommendation was brought to the Executive Committee from MAUC President’s Council proposing that the union distribute funds from its reserves to Union College to cover the amount of subsidy that Dakota Conference is not able to send this year due to the impact on their farming communities caused by extreme weather. “Many farmers in North Dakota didn’t get a crop and many in South Dakota didn’t even get to plant,” said Gary Thurber. A large number of Dakota farmers have lost everything in the wake of these weather-related natural disasters.

After some discussion, the committee approved the recommendation. The Mid-America Union welcomes your prayers for our communities in all the mid-western states impacted by this year’s severe weather.

Photo: Hugh Davis