Folks who are concerned deeply about the possibility of nuclear war have what is known as the Doomsday Clock.  It isn’t really a clock, but a visual representation of how close we are, at any time, to an atomic and later nuclear war.  Midnight is doomsday, the closer to midnight, the more serious the threat. […]

Friday afternoon in my Local Church Committee we came across three interesting petitions.  The topic was how the annual conference should deal with the assets of a local church that had closed. The petitions came from GCF&A, GBOD and UMRA.  Oh, wait, I forget that you, my dear reader, have not been immersed in United […]

Yesterday at General Conference we finally made it to our committee meetings. I’m working with the local church group, responsible for how local congregations operate. This is the section of the Book of Discipline that talks about Charge Conferences, committees, all that good stuff. In our first introductory meeting we (and all of the other […]

Yesterday, during the first day of General Conference, I was in a huge exhibit hall of the Oregon Convention Center that will be my home for large chunks of the next 10 days. Looking around realized that it was probably the most diverse group of people I had ever been a part of. I joke […]

My trip to Portland started Monday afternoon with a flight to Chicago, then on to the west coast. I wasn’t looking forward to the 4.5 hour flight and plane traffic, lousy weather and a slight mechanical issue in Chicago meant we were on the plane together for even longer. As we boarded we were three […]

The following is a letter sent by many of the United Methodist Foundation Directors in our jurisdiction to our General Conference delegates concerning two areas of potential legislation: On behalf of the undersigned leaders of the United Methodist Foundations across the North Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church, we are writing first and foremost […]

Here at the Foundation we manage about $30 million in endowments and other long-term funds for our account holders. All of these investments are in full compliance with the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Guidelines of The United Methodist Church. Specifically we are forbidden in investing in any company that receives more than 10% of its […]

It was a meeting unlike any other in my years in the Foundation. The topic was money, a long-held fund at the church that had always been used for X but the committee was discussing using it for Y. But it wasn’t really about the money; it was about control of the money. It was […]

Last week I had a chance to be part of a conversation with a local church leader who was feeling some tension about reserve funds. One on side is the argument for strong financial reserves. I have heard discussion advocating as much as three months’ worth of expenses in a rainy day fund. On the […]

On Sunday morning I woke up but then began dreaming again.  No, I didn’t go back to sleep.  Instead I checked the news. No one had won the Powerball jackpot.  I had four more days to dream. So from now until Wednesday night I can dream and the scale of the dream is amazing.  An […]