Attendance: Ryan Russell, Lonnie Chafin, Jim Searls, and Paul White.
Call to Order: Ryan called the Zoom Conference Call meeting to order at 12:04 p.m. CST by offering an opening prayer.
Financial Items: Lonnie reported he had a request from the Korean Mission to distribute funds for this year in the same manner as previous years to various local churches. It was agreed Lonnie would distribute the funds as requested.
Lonnie reported the NCJ Hispanic Ministries are sending persons for training to a site that may not have the best United Methodist ethos.
It was agreed the Mission Council needs to have conversation with the College of Bishops on such issue for funding decisions in the future.
We had 100% giving to NCJ apportionments from every conference except Michigan and Iowa. Lonnie is communicating with these conferences.
Request from Young People’s Ministries: Carl Gladstone had sent an email request for the NCJ Mission Council to take over the http://ncjyoungpeople.org URL. This request comes as the Board of Discipleship restructures and will no longer have regional staff. Jim will attempt to find out the cost to continue the URL. Ryan will contact the BOD for further information as to who might manage the web page.
Grant Application Process: We talked briefly how the process has not brought new ministries that we may have wished and some possible reasons for this. We reviewed both the Concept Grant Form and the Grant Application Form.
It was suggested we make clear on the Grant Application Form for persons to attach a budget for the project for which money is being requested as well as indicating what additional revenues are expected for the project.
It was also suggested we need to ask which conferences are involved in a program/project and to what extent; how other conferences could and/or will be involved and how many folks from each conference. Perhaps also ask what kind of networking is being done with other groups.
Jim will make changes to the applications with these suggestions before downloading them to the website and sending them to groups that have previously received funding.
Jim reported we had only received three Progress Reports from groups funded in 2018. Progress Reports were due in January. Ryan will send an email reminder to those groups that have not yet submitted such reports.
Minutes: A synopsis of all Mission Council and Executive Committee minutes should be made after each meeting and posted on the NCJ website for public information. Ryan will write a synopsis of the fall 2018 full Board and Executive Committee minutes to be posted on the jurisdictional website. Paul will provide a synopsis of this meeting.
General Conference: There was a brief discussion of what effect the special General Conference may have on the jurisdiction. At this time there is much unknown.
NEXT MEETING: The Executive Committee will meet by Zoom Conference Call on Friday, March 29, 2019 at 12:00 noon CST and/or 1:00 p.m. EST.
