Message from the Conference
I'm Becky Jo Messenbrink, the Conference Superintendent for the Headwaters District, the district in which Motley United Methodist Church is in the Minnesota Annual Conference. I'm coming to you today to update you on the journey that Staples United Methodist Church has taken, and I'm sorry, as they contemplate whether they're interested in merging with your congregation. If you were here, I think back in June, your then-Pastor Greg made an announcement that Staples United Methodist Church was considering merging with Motley. And their main purpose and goal is to strengthen the United Methodist presence in this region. And when they think about the resources and assets they have, as well as the people, they want to keep all that local so that we can bless this region of Staples and Motley. And so, as they have been journeying through that process, they have chosen 2 dates in September to come, suspend their worship at Staples, and worship with you. So, I'm hoping you'll be good hosts to them. And meet them and get to know them a bit. They will be coming September 13th and September 20th. Pastor Jonathan will have to leave quickly after worship on the 13th to head to Park Church in Brainerd for some events there. So, all of you can be the hosts that day, right? And make a great welcome for folks. They'll come and worship with you on the 13th and 20th of September. And then they will spend some time having conversations at Staples Church about their experience and whether they'd like to keep moving forward with a merger process. I just want to remind you that you have discernment in this, as well as within the congregation. And there will come a time when we will likely hear from Staples that they indeed want to move toward a merger decision, and that will also be your opportunity to decide on your intent to merge with Staples. There'll be 2 congregational votes. One is not official; the other will be official. I like congregations to have an opportunity to sort of take the pulse of an intent to merge. We intend to merge. Do you agree with that or not? Okay, so you'll have an opportunity to do that, as will the Staples Church. And then, if you do that, a merger team will be formed to work on all the merger documents and determine which assets Staples Church would bring with them, or not, according to your needs. They also have a beautiful grand piano, so you might not need 2 of them in this building. You know, there are things to decide, right? And, um, and that whole merger team will work together, um, to decide all the details about the merger, and then each congregation will vote separately on those merger documents. Okay, so you'll get a chance to vote twice—once with intent, and then the official vote to merge. While this takes some time to get to that, the merger documents and the actual merger, if both churches vote to intend to merge, Staples will suspend worship and begin joining worship with you. So, that's the journey we're on. I have some two-sided sheets of paper. I'll be in the back; I have 35 of them, and if we need more, we can make more.
(See the attached file for the papers that Superintendent Becky Jo Messenbrink shared.)