West Michigan Annual Conference
June 4-7 2009, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The West Michigan Annual Conference met at Calvin College. The theme –“Vital Signs of Hope” – was highlighted by six video presentations on vital local churches including Concord United Methodist Church; First United Methodist Church, Grand Rapids; Harrison: The Gathering; Korean United Methodist Church in Lansing; Indian River United Methodist Church; and Plainwell United Methodist Church.

In two presentations, Dan Dick addressed the theme and pointed to several of the churches as examples of vital, sustainable congregations. A key characteristic of vital congregations is a “strong sense of identity and purpose.” Dick is a consultant in conference and congregational planning based in Nashville.

The conference celebrated another new church start, the Valley Church in Allendale. The Rev. Brad Kalajainen, pastor of Cornerstone Church, south of Grand Rapids, introduced the Rev. Matt Bistayi, the pastor of the new church. As the pastor of an earlier new church start, Kalajainen noted West Michigan’s strong history of new church starts, but said “one thing about West Michigan culture ... (it) has to change.” Every church, he said, needs to support new churches. “In the past, most nearby churches have been supportive, others lukewarm, and some even hostile.”

After conferencing for at least a decade in the Fine Arts Center at Calvin College, members convened this year in a new arena at the college, allowing members to sit at tables for legislative work. However, the fourth resolution adopted was a call for the program committee to “explore and prayerfully consider moving the location of the West Michigan Annual Conference back to United Methodist-related Albion College as soon as possible.”

Conference members voted to change the name of the Central District to the Heartland District, effective July 1. A part of the rationale for the proposal from the Central District Leadership Team stated, “The word ‘heartland’ speaks of fertile soil capable of producing abundant fruit or growth. That is what we claim for our district by this name change.”

Members also voted to adopt the common title, “director of connectional ministries,” in place of the current “conference director.”

The Abuse Prevention Team was instructed to “design a plan for situations in when an adult convicted and/or registered as a child sexual offender is involved, or seeks involvement, in the conference, its activities or facilities.” The report plan is to come to the 2010 annual conference.

Other legislation included:

• Adoption of a master group plan for insuring all churches and property that will provide competitive bids and premium savings (474 yes, 260 no.) Later legislation to reimburse churches who could find lower premiums than in the group plan was referred to the conference council on finance and administration.
• Authorization for the Conference Board of Pension and Health Benefits to implement a self-funded medical benefits plan with “stop loss” insurance, effective no later than Oct. 1; additional legislation amended the Conference Policy for Health Insurance to help implement the new self-funded medical benefits plan.
• Retained the Minimum Salary schedule for 2009 into 2010, voting down a proposed 1.1 percent increase to demonstrate solidarity with church members challenged by the current Michigan economy.
• Referred a petition and response petition on the conference’s Flexible Housing Policy to a task force to be created. Among the issues the task force will consider is provision of a parsonage or housing allowance for pastors.

Conference members voted on the 32 Constitutional Amendments and approved Amendment #1 which states that “all” persons are eligible to become members of the church. If adopted by a 2/3 vote of all conferences, this will amend the section on “Inclusiveness of the Church.” The vote in West Michigan was 70.3 percent yes, 29.7 no. Some other amendments were approved by significant margins but none of the amendments related to the Worldwide Nature of the Church received the needed 2/3 vote.

The conference also amended the proposed 2010 conference budget to restore Equitable Compensation line item to 2009 level, adding approximately $7,500. Budget adopted for 2010: $6,209,076.

The membership and worship statistics are not available.

—Ann Whiting