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This position is part-time (36 hours per week) with an immediate start date. The work combines office administration with bookkeeping and is flexible in the accomplishment of those duties. In general, this position serves as office manager and administrative support for the pastor(s) and staff. This position is responsible for managing volunteers to assist with reception, data input, publication of weekly and monthly documents, and managing donations. The bookkeeping effort is required to produce monthly financial reports, provide staff payroll, and pay bills. Knowledge of QuickBooks is important. This is a salaried position and pay is dependent on a candidate’s experience.

General Office Manager Duties:

• Maintain and train others in use of Realm database and applications
• Coordinate appointments on the church calendar for room use and meeting times
• Prepare annual church conference reports end-of-the-year reports
• Coordinate development, layout, and publication of Lifeline newsletter and bulletins
• Supervise volunteers assisting with various office processes
• Maintain office equipment, identify and report problems or concerns
• Maintain church records (baptisms, deaths, marriages, etc)
• Other duties as assigned by Pastor

General Bookkeeping Duties:

• Record weekly deposits using QuickBooks software
• Process payroll and produce pay statements for employees bi-monthly
• Track and manage tax documents and endowments (L&I, 941 taxes, W2s, 1099s etc.)
• Reconcile checking account monthly
• Prepare monthly financial reports for the Finance Committee (including balance sheet, summary of available funds, profit and loss, and budget vs. actual reports using a combination of QuickBooks and Excel)
• Assist pastor and Finance Committee in creating annual budget
• Prepare and send Conference Statistical Report
• Issue and monitor background checks for all volunteers and employees

Skills Required

• Thorough knowledge of all standard office equipment
• Competence in QuickBooks software, word processing, spreadsheets, and desktop publishing on an Mac (iOS) computer
• Excellent oral and communication skills
• Support PUMC vision and objectives as part of a team

The ideal candidate will have experience dealing with people of diverse backgrounds, strong emotional intelligence, and a willingness to learn. Send a letter of interest and resume via email to julir@pioneerww.org. Questions may be answered by calling the church office at (509) 525-1870.

In the wake of the exclusionary and punitive actions of General Conference 2019, Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky is announcing the formation of a Greater Northwest Area Guiding Coalition. The coalition will help to shape and lead a new movement of Methodism in the Northwest that fully includes LGBTQIA+persons in membership, participation and leadership, both lay and ordained.

In conversations with people inside and outside our churches, listening deeply to voices on the margins, the group will develop proposals for United Methodists across the Greater Northwest to move into a future of vital, inclusive, innovative, multiplying, engaged Christian ministry in the Wesleyan Tradition.

“We are forming this Guiding Coalition in response to many conversations since last February, and to legislation passed at the annual conference sessions earlier this year,” shared Stanovsky. “It is clear that we need to be both strategic and collaborative in this moment, when the generous practice of United Methodism is under attack. The coming months may require us to move quickly and rely on our collective strength.”

The Guiding Coalition is comprised of representatives from the three conferences that make up the Greater NW Episcopal Area – The Alaska Conference, the Oregon-Idaho Conference, and The Pacific Northwest Conference.

According to Stanovsky, the coalition will embody practices and values that build on strengths already present in the Greater NW Area. Previous discussions in the area have identified the need for deeper Christian discipleship and community engagement, including stronger ministries of solidarity, justice, and mercy.

The Guiding Coalition will invite work groups of laity and clergy to examine areas where the conferences can shape or define a way forward. One group will consider how the area can continue to resist the harmful remnants of the Traditional Plan that were passed by the 2019 General Conference while seeking to reform the Church through legislative action in 2020. Another will look at financial resources, including apportionments, seeking to align them with the values and concerns of United Methodists in the Northwest. And yet another will strive to discern what a new expression of Methodism might look like if designed for 21^st century people living in the Greater Northwest Area.

One group will envision what a “grassroots” connection might look like, built on authentic relationships. Vital conversations across difference — between established and emerging leaders, churches of different hearts, minds, and experiences — will be explored. The group will also look forward to the 2020 Shared Greater NW Annual Conference Session in June, with anticipation for the potentially monumental decisions that may need to take place.

Members of the Greater NW Guiding Coalition include: Jim Doepken, Jo Anne Hayden, Kelly Marciales and Carlo Rapanut from the Alaska Conference; Wendy Woodworth, Jan Nelson, Mark Bateman, Rick Shewell, Jeremy Smith, Paul Cosgrove, Karen Hernandez, Allen Buck, Carter Lybeck, Laurie Day, and Donna Pritchard from the Oregon-Idaho Conference; and Skylar Bihl, Brant Henshaw, Joe Kim, Marie Kuch-Stanovsky, David Reinholz, Katy Ritchey, Elizabeth Schindler, Dionica Sy, Kathleen Weber, Karen Yokota Love, David Valera and Kristina Gonzalez from the Pacific Northwest Conference.

Many more people will participate in the workgroups as they form in the weeks ahead.

Will the 2020 United Methodist General Conference bring everyone back to the table or will delegates go off in their own corners to divide the church?

At issue is the denomination’s now 47-year-long debate about the role of LGBTQ people in church leadership.

The phrase that has brought the church to the brink of breaking up was introduced into church law in 1972 when the denomination’s top lawmaking body declared the practice of homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Every General Conference since that 1972 gathering has debated that phrase. But at the end of the day, the language has stayed in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book. Also, church law has stated no “self-avowed practicing” gay person may be ordained, no same-sex marriage ceremonies can be held in a United Methodist church and no United Methodist clergy can officiate at a same-sex union.

However, the church policy book states LGBTQ people are welcome in all United Methodist churches and are of “sacred worth.”

The debate reached a crescendo in 2016 and the whole issue was put on pause. The Council of Bishops was asked to appoint a commission to come up with a way forward to present at a special called General Conference.

In the meantime, the Western Jurisdiction elected the Rev. Karen Oliveto as the denomination’s first openly gay bishop. She was consecrated on July 16, 2016. The married lesbian has been leading the Mountain Sky Area since her election, even though The United Methodist Church’s top court ruled consecrating a gay bishop violates church law.

That 2017 ruling, which did not specifically name Oliveto, said a gay bishop who had been consecrated remained in good standing until an administrative review process was complete.

Three months after the end of GC2016, the bishops announced a 32-member Commission on the Way Forward charged with completely examining every paragraph in the Book of Discipline related to human sexuality. A special called General Conference was set for February 2019. Based on the commission’s work, the Council of Bishops recommended a plan that would have left questions of same-sex weddings up to individual clergy and congregations — and questions of gay ordination up to individual conferences.

The 2019 General Conference ended with a vote to reinforce the current language in the Book of Discipline concerning homosexuality, strengthened enforcement for violations and provided a process for those who cannot live with the Discipline to leave.

But that is not the end of the story. Rolling into the 2020 General Conference, rebellion has broken out and plans to split the church have been floated.

Most recently, the Filipino College of Bishops “intensely” opposed dissolution of The United Methodist Church and called for regional autonomy to deal with divisive issues like homosexuality.

The African College of Bishops also stated they oppose a split in the denomination but reiterated their stance that homosexuality is incompatible with the teachings of Scripture.

Since the Feb. 23-26 special session in St. Louis, giving to general church ministries has dropped.

An investigation into voting at the February 2019 General Conference found evidence of four ineligible people casting votes using the credentials of delegates who were not present. Because of that investigation, a key vote on how congregations can leave the denomination was nullified.

However, seven Mississippi churches already have left the denomination using that legislation’s provisions.

Several of the denomination’s U.S. annual conferences meeting this summer looked at plans for a new Methodism centered around how to divide The United Methodist Church.

More than 20 of the regional gatherings rejected the Traditional Plan approved by the 2019 General Conference and voted to remove the phrase that the practice of homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching” from the denomination’s policy book. The 54 U.S. regional conferences met in May and June.

Other conferences had passionate discussions about the future of The United Methodist Church but stood by the action of the 2019 General Conference.

At least nine U.S. conferences commissioned or ordained openly LGBTQ individuals including Baltimore-Washington, Michigan, North Texas, New York, Northern Illinois, Oregon-Idaho, Desert Southwest, Mountain Sky and California-Nevada.

U.S. conferences also elected a significantly different slate of delegates to make the big decisions in 2020.

The pain over the deep divide that has occurred among United Methodists since February’s General Conference has permeated all parts of the denomination, raising questions about the impact on its mission projects and goals.

Roland Fernandes, in his general treasurer’s report for United Methodist Global Ministries, pointed out that most Advance projects — mission work that relies on voluntary contributions — had a significant income decline in the first quarter of this year.

Overall, Advance giving to the United Methodist Committee on Relief dropped by more than $24 million from $58.4 million in 2017 to $34 million in 2018. But the higher funding in 2017 reflected donations aimed at responding to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

The 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis will have 862 delegates overall, equally split between clergy and laity.

Of the 2020 delegates, 55.9% will be from the U.S., 32% from Africa, 6% from the Philippines, 4.6% from Europe and the remainder from concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church. Compared to the 2019 session, the U.S. will have fewer delegates overall while African delegations gain 18 and the Philippines gain 2.

Delegates to General Conference make decisions that affect the entire denomination and they vote by secret ballot as moved by the Holy Spirit.

This principle is underscored in the words of the denomination’s top court, Judicial Council.

“Delegates to General Conference, just as members of an Annual Conference, are bound to do as their conscience dictates what is good for the Church of Jesus Christ, The United Methodist Church, in particular, and that only.”

Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. Information for this story was compiled from reports by UM News reporters Linda Bloom, Eveline Chikwanah, Heather Hahn, Sam Hodges, Gladys Mangiduyos and Jim Patterson.

Cindy Caldwell, United Methodist Communications, created the timeline graphic. Updated by Laurens Glass, UM News.

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What will the future of The United Methodist Church look like in the coming years? Who is shaping that vision, and what are the most important values?

From November 14 to 16, 2019, the Western Jurisdiction (WJ) Mission Cabinet is hosting a Fresh United Methodism Summit consisting of the WJ Leadership Team, WJ Workgroup Leaders, 2020 General Conference delegates from the WJ, and other emerging leaders. Beginning with reports from each Annual Conference and several WJ workgroups, attendees will be listening for areas of alignment and opportunity so that the jurisdiction can collaborate for broader impact. Then, participants will go through a process of envisioning and innovation around the next steps for the Western Jurisdiction and The United Methodist Church.

The Western Jurisdiction is known across The United Methodist Church for its diversity and justice-seeking spirit. With this event, we hope to live into that reputation more fully by bringing together institutional leaders and some of the emerging voices that we need to hear today.

How will this event shape the future of the Church? We don’t know but we are convinced that this is a season where we need to hear new voices, fresh ideas, and perspectives.

United Methodists and friends beyond the denomination are excited about the possibility of attending this event. But the event facilities limit the number of participants and observers. For that reason, a formula mirroring the delegate allotment for General Conference was used to designate seat allotments for each WJ Conference. Respectively, a limited number of observers will be determined through a random name draw. Significant sessions of the Fresh United Methodism Summit will be live-streamed.

Go to www.westernjurisdictionumc.org/fresh to find details about the groups selected to participate, how to apply to be an observer, details about the location, and details about the live stream.