USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Germantown > Minutes of the session of the Ohio Miami Conference, successor to Miami Conference, of the United Methodist Church, 1969 > Part 6
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The financial comparisons are among the most favorable parts of our records. This is, however, more reflective of the increased affluence and cost of living increases than to more devoted stewardship. For example, the giving to the Christian Service Fund has increased from $330,419.72 in 1967 to $359,696.88 in 1968, and increase of $29,277.16, or an 8.8% increase. Total benevolent giving increased from $411,600 in 1967 to $433,277 in 1968, an increase of $24,127, or only 5.3%. We had a decrease of non- apportioned benevolences from $81,181 in 1967 to $73,031 in 1968. The principle decrease is reflected in smaller giving to special mission support and a decrease of the $1-per-member goal for Otterbein College.
These calculations do not include either the giving of W.S.C.S. or non- denominational benevolence such as Church Federation, etc., which rate of giving is not increasing.
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The comparisons on building debt payments reflect the following facts : Paid on indebtedness, new buildings, and improvements was $815,552 in 1967 and $821,288 in 1968, an increase of $5,736, or less than 1%.
Current expenses other than pastors' salaries increased from $754,395 in 1967 to $881,425 in 1968, an increase of $127,030 or 16.7%. Pastors' salaries increased from $676,723 in 1967 to $715,378 in 1968, or 5.7%. These statistical comparisons say that we are not increasing pastors' salaries to the same degree we are increasing current expense or indeed benevolent giving. Need I say more than that "these things you ought to have done, and not left the others undone."
During the year we have completed some long desired improvements in Camp Miami, making it still more attractive and comfortable. There are two bathrooms on each floor of the dormitory. The dining room has been re- decorated and made more pleasant. The busy activity schedule of the Camp was not substantially reduced during the construction period. The debt of Camp Miami is $62,000 which when viewed in the light of its assets is not large.
Nevertheless, there are many churches that have not made a sufficient effort to respond to the voluntary Camp Miami Improvement Fund. One of our offerings at this session will give individuals a chance to make a generous gift.
The activity of the Board of Missions can be studied item by item in the "Reports of Officers, Boards and Agencies," including building projects in process and completed. Let us, however, list for special comment several projects. The new Hunter Community Church was dedicated last October and is a result of the generous investment of all of our churches through the "Christian Service Fund." We anticipate an excellent growth in this suburb of Middletown and indeed even now have a congregation of proven loyalty.
The Board of Missions acquired adjacent property to the Drexel Church and the local church has developed a youth center to meet the needs of a needy community. A request has been made for financial assistance from the "Fund for Reconciliation" to provide supplemental program leadership in the project.
The Board is also related to and has invested funds in our behalf in the following projects. The Parkside Homes Ministry. This is a program in which Dayton First and the Conference collaborate, Dayton First carrying the largest share of the cost.
We have invested a man and funds in the Basin area of Cincinnati to provide a ministry to people, including the most practical kind of assistance to human need.
The Residence Park Church is making excellent progress toward strength and self support in a community where rapid change endangered its institu- tions. We wish to commend Fred Heath and the congregation for their excellent work and pledge our continued support to achieve their goals.
Our project requests from the Fund for Reconciliation may make it possible to enlarge these types of ministries.
The Program Council and its director has had an exceedingly busy year acquainting our leaders with new structures and new resources for local churches. One of the terms one hears most frequently in consideration of the Council on Ministry is "goalsetting" and "evaluation." This is simply a way of stating that each church should examine its program critically and set objectives which require devotion and commitment to achieve.
The general reaction to the many new resources has been favorable. It is necessary to be selective in the use of curriculum materials to meet the age level needs of your people. There are many choices made available.
There is in the new structur and in the new resources of program aids an exciting challenge to meet our changing society with "freshness" and skill.
From the Perspective of Twenty Years
I am sure you will allow me a few observations as I reflect on the joyous
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labor of 20 years among you. These comments are not, I insist, captious.
May I say in the spirit of St. Paul and without claiming too much for myself that I love the churches. I am heartened by your successes and sad- dened by your failures. It is not a little surprising that the revolution which engulfs society is also deeply in the churches. There are churches repre- sented here today that are dying. Sometimes this is the fault of the member- ship of the church and sometimes it is not. Where a church has lost its com- munity because of the decreasing population of an area, particularly where once an agricultural economy required and encouraged family farm opera- tion, there is little that can reverse the trend of slow death. To fight to main- tain such organization is often a waste of spiritual resources, to say nothing of financial and human resources; or, what may be even worse, is to deny ourselves the blessing of a church life that can be challenging and inspiring.
Some of our churches are trying without success to maintain themselves in location where community change has been ignored or resisted through the years, as if the church were a preserve of special people of a particular race or class. It seems to me abundantly clear that whatever may have been mo- tives or methods of these churches, they have missed the opportunity to render significant service. While social change is so rapid these days, I think a few of our churches are yet able to make changes which will enable them to remain vital.
I am not necessarily talking about exhilarating achievements. I am ap- pealing for a depth of commitment which will in the name of Christ offer His ministry of healing and forgiveness.
Too many churches are tempted by the easy answer of blaming the pastor for their failure. I have often thought that our church policy works against more creative solutions. The luxury of using the pastoral appointment system overmuch is that neither churches or pastors have sufficient oppor- tunity for growth by working through differences. There is some evidence today that churches want to keep themselves free from the revolution in which we are engaged and they blame the pastor for too frankly facing the church with its obligations to society in the name of Christ. The conflicts of the human family, if they are to be solved correctly, will find their way into the church. A pastor or church which does not engage itself in these strug- gles is either not Christian or not relevant. This attitude on the part of some of our people runs from a rejection of the challenges of the Fund for Reconciliation to a refusal to participate in a general conference initiated program concerning what a local church might do in its own parish to help understand the victims of injustice and assist in its solution.
Another mood which I find in some of our churches which disturbs me is the tendency to be self-centered. There are far too many churches that have their priorities mixed up with regard to benevolent giving, for example. On occasion I will have reason to say to a local church which neglects its financial obligations to the Conference: "You can ill afford to neglect this part of your ministry." Suppose you pay nothing to the Conference for benevolences. It will not help you to live longer or more effectively. Such an indifference will hasten the death of that church. It will likely find other ways of reducing its witness. It will soon thereafter reduce the pastor's salary and seek some way of further retrenchment. The Christian Service Fund, or World Service Fund as now we know it, is a means of vital spiritual relation- ship with the work of Christ in the entire world.
One of the concomitants of church union of the denomination is the union of local cogregations. We have had a few examples of local unions which give us great encouragement. I would urge all our former E.U.B. people to be magnanimous and open to this prospect wherever it would strengthen the work of Christ in your parish.
Do not understand me to be impatient. I am not. But I appeal to you to proceed to bring our forces together with the former Methodist churches in many local parishes for the sake of effectiveness. The reluctance to do this in the near future may say to our constituents that we are too tied to the past for an effective witness to the present and future.
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There are at least eighteen of our churches where local church unions is in my judgment indicated. Experience has taught even now that the most successful local church unions are those that are self initiated by the local church membership. There are several of our churches that ought to unite with a church of another denomination, to make their witness more united and stronger within their community. I am convinced that where two churches unite that are of different denominations they should affiliate with a de- nomination. This offers the best chance for success and security-to accept the discipline of a denomination. I can assure all of you that even though my new assignment will not bring me in such intimate contact with these churches I have visited through the years, I will maintain a lively interest in your future.
The Ministers
I would like to use this, my last report, to make some observations to my brethren. If experience has taught me anything, it has taught me that the most effective minisers are pastors. Not pastors in the caretaker sense, but pastors in the tradition of leading people to Christian growth in every dimension of the gospel. There is no personal ideal more demanding and more rewarding than to assist persons to become more fully Christian in attitude and deed.
Whatever I can say here will not be profound, but let me say it as a member of the circle of pastors. Nothing is more rewarding than being a part of the brotherhood and I am thankful that my new assignment simply enlarges the number of ministers with whom I may develop new associations.
In the words of Bishop Gerald Kennedy: "Preachers are the most won- derful people in the world. They are critical and kind, serious and humorous, sensitive and brave, humble and proud, tough and gentle, dramatic and sin- cere. I would rather be with them than with any other group. To be accepted into their fellowship and receive their friendship is a blessing greater than any man deserves. No earthly honor can ever give me greater satisfaction than to take my place in this wonderful fraternity of preachers."
I think the concept of the minister as pastor has within it every possible prospect of greatness. Paul pointed out to his young charge, Timothy, how great is the requirement of outgoing love if man is to fulfill his ministry.
I think that one of the greatest perils to the minister is that most people love us and respect us too easily. We do not need to earn this. It is a given, an inherited, blessing. Now, unless we build our generation's part of that great tradition of pastor and people, we are impoverishing those who will come after us. The way to build this relationship of respect and love is to be outgoing and faithful in our respect and love of others. Nor can we use this inherited respect and love to press any advantage for ourselves, or to betray any trust. Situation ethics may be a point of view interesting for discussion, but if it is the basis of our behavior, it can come dangerously close to destroy- ing us.
Alexander Whyte wrote, "Self love is that master passion in every human heart. Let us give self love the first place in the inventory and catalogue of our passions, because it has the largest place in all our hearts and lives . It is out of self love that evil passions spring. The whole fall and ruin and misery of our present human nature lies in this, that in every human being self love has taken, in addition to its own place, the place of the love of God and of the love of man also."
The most vital pastors have learned the simple yet profound practice of loving their people. This love is healing, redemptive and creative.
Another needed dimension of the pastoral ministry is to be intellectually alive. It is almost frightening how much new knowledge we must seek to absorb. Keeping intellectually alive, I must confess, has not been easy for me and so I take this counsel for myself! Jowett is quoted as having said, "We are not always doing the most business when we seem to be the most busy. We may think we are truly busy when we are really only restless, and a little studied retirement would greatly enrich our returns." One of my colleagues
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on the Cabinet reported a quip which we can easily understand. A layman said to him, "I am sure my pastor is on the pill. He hasn't given birth to a new idea in five years."
We may be tempted to disdain Biblical scholarship when there is so much contemporary material to comprehend, but I hope we will never cease to keep alive our "search of the scriptures." I am sure that the scholarly example of Bishop Ensley will inspire us all to greater devotion to this facet of our ministry.
As all of you know, in a few days I will begin a new assignment. I am very grateful for the new challenges which are offered. Someone has recently written that I don't sever my relationship with the churches and ministers of our Conference; I will merely enlarge the area and change the scope of re- sponsibility. For this I am very grateful.
One of my colleagues on the staff was kind enough to say when I asked, "What do you want me to include in the staff report?"-"You use the report to say whatever you may want to say personally." After twenty years of service as a superintendent there are some aspects of the tasks that I will willingly forego! Be that as it may, I am not unaware of the adjustment that will be required. Being with the churches and ministers on a day-to-day basis is being where the action is. This I may miss. You as churches and ministers have been the source of more joy than frustration and disappointment. I could not have been treated with more cordiality and kindness. This I will always re- member when the agonizing problems I have had will slip into dim memory.
As I have reflected on my approaching termination of my tenure as a conference superintendent, I have been given a few facts that I have hardly ever reported. I have never been one to report the number of meetings held, the number of interviews held, the number of letters written. and the number of miles traveled. These are sometimes indicative of a boastful spirit. But let me include a few such items here, even if it is a quantitative rather than a qualitative list. I have traveled about 3/4 million miles in my car; never less than 35,000 miles per year and often more than 40,000. I have, if averages are to be trusted, held several thousand quarterly conferences, local conferences, or charge conferences (take your choice of your favorite title). I have inter- viewed hundreds of committees and thousands of individuals, and often these have had momentous consequences for the destinies of ministers and churches.
The record will show and some of your memories will confirm how often I have been wrong in judgment. No one pays more dearly for mistakes in downright anguish than have I. The heart of the task is to deal fairly and honestly with preachers and church leaders. More than seldom have I been put in a corner and I have usually come out fighting, and not always as graciously as I might have later hoped.
Sixty men have joined our conference from elsewhere in the church during these 20 years. These are the subsequnt facts about them. Five have passed away, two have retired, nine have transferred to other conferences (usually returning to the conference from whence they have come). This has been more often than not men who have served student pastorates and remained for a time following graduation. Three men have left the ministry, two have affili- ated with other denominations, three have joined seminary staffs and one has entered the military chaplaincy. Forty-three of these men are still serving in pastoral assignments in our present conference. Of the present list of 94 active itinerant elders presently listed, 75 entered our conference ranks either by transfer or ordination during the tenure of your present superintendent. During these 20 years we have ordained 55 men and one woman as elders. Here is a sketch of what happened to this group. Two have passed away, one has retired, one has entered military chaplaincy, three have entered other conferences, six have transferred to other denominations, seven have left the ministry and 36 are still serving in our conference.
I have been blessed with loyal colleagues during these years and I want to record my thanks, in order of their seniority in service, to Charles Messmer. Louis Odon, and Owen Delp. These men have been faithful to their task and only seldom did our opinions sharply differ, and even then immediate resolu- tion of differences has been easy.
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Anne Moore and Dorothy Miller are the present occupants of the confer- ence office staff. They follow in a succession of faithful and effective persons who have served both me and the conference during these years. May I here record my thanks to both Anne and Dorothy for their understanding and assistance, without which the achievements would be much less noteworthy. They are not only efficient, but add a great deal to the pleasant atmosphere which always obtains in the office.
This has been a difficult year in my work partly because Mary has had perplexing health problems. She has always been a more than a little source of joy and strength. I am pleased to report that she is gradually gaining her health again and I am grateful to God for it.
I have received numerous letters of congratulations and good wishes, for which I am very grateful. May I thank each one, pastors and laymen, for your loyalty and friendship during these years and wish you all Godspeed.
Respectfully submitted, CHARLES MESSMER LOUIS ODON OWEN DELP WILLIAM K. MESSMER
REPORT NO. 3
Summary of Actions Taken by the Council of Administration
The Council met two times in 1968 following the session of Annual Conference, October 1 at Ft. Mckinley Church, and December 10 at Van- dalia Church. Reports and recommendations were received from conference officers and boards.
Actions Taken October 1, 1968
Upon recommendation or request of the Program Council:
1. Elected Mr. Herbert Henderson to fill the lay vacancy on the Board of Christian Education.
2. Elected Mark Freshley as the youth representative to the Conference Department of Social Action.
3. Named Rev. Eugene Risch, Chairman of the Conference Council on Ecumenical Affairs, as a member of the Conference Program Council.
Approved the action of the Program Council permitting local church youth groups to establish volunteer W.S.F. quotas for 1969.
Authorized the Committee of Six (a joint committee of the Board of Missions and Department of Social Action) to receive proposals and to dis- pense undesignated funds in relation to the "Crisis in the Nation" offering.
Voted to approve the appointment of the following to a Committee for the Otterbein College Capital Funds Crusade :
Mr. Robert Corbin, Dr. R. L. Pounds, Rev. James Wagner, Dr. M. B. Klepinger, Rev. Howard James, Rev. Owen Delp and Dr. W. K. Messmer.
Elected the following to a Distributing Committee for the Conference and as Conference representatives on a Joint Distributing Committee of the united conferences in matters related to pensions:
Rev. Howard Hahn, Rev. Demi Edwards, Rev. Charles Messmer.
Alternates: Rev. Clifford Stearns, Rev. Emerson Bragg, Rev. William Worth.
Voted to combine Christian Service Fund allocations of the Troy Street Church and Zion Church (Dayton) as the allocation for Faith Church (Day- ton).
Authorized Dr. W. K. Messmer to confer with Rev. Walter Dickhaut, District Superintendent, and work out details concerning the Christian Serv-
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ice Fund allocation for Lockland and Fletcher Churches.
Voted to approve the actions of the Board of Trustees in the sale of the Zion Church properties (Dayton) and of a loan to Arlington Church.
Voted to transfer the Wrightsville-Liberty Chapel churches of the South- west Group to the Portsmouth District of the United Methodist Church, Ohio Conference.
Voted to authorize the employment of Dr. Wesley O. Clark as auditor for the Conference for the year 1969.
Actions Taken December 10, 1968
Voted to request and to authorize the Conference Board of Trustees to sign a note of $40,000 at the Third National Bank and Trust Company, Dayton, Ohio on behalf of the Conference Board of Christian Education for the remodeling program at Camp Miami. (Trustee file.)
Validated the actions of the Board of Missions concerning these churches: Cherry Grove, Normandy, Fletcher and St. Marks.
Approved the actions of the Conference Board of Trustees for Novem- ber 1. (Trustee file.)
Voted that First United Methodist Church, Dayton, be authorized to sell their share of the property located at 128 East Parkwood Avenue, Day- ton, Ohio, now held in joint ownership with First Lutheran Church, Dayton, Ohio.
Voted to rescind the previous action setting May 1969 as the period of the Otterbein College Fund Crusade in order to combine the College cam- paign and the Fund for Reconciliation Campaign into one campaign. The following dates were approved:
Week of April 20-Group meetings in churches.
Week of April 27-Conference wide rallies for workers.
Sunday, May 4th-Crusade Sunday.
Voted that the Conference Superintendent in consultation with the Staff appoint the proper persons to serve on a Conference committee for the combined finance campaign effort on behalf of Otterbein College and the Fund for Reconciliation.
Voted that the Committee be given the power to devise materials and implement the details of the financial appeal.
Authorized the Group Leaders of the Southwest Group to determine their churches' financial responsibility to the Council of Christian Commu- nions in Cincinnati.
The Conference Council of Administration met two times in 1969 prior to the session of Annual Conference, May 13 at Mt. Airy and May 1 at Camp Miami.
Actions Taken March 13, 1969
Dr. W. K. Messmer announced the following committee had been work- ing on materials and details of the combined financial campaign on behalf of the Fund for Reconciliation and Otterbein College:
Mr. Robert Corbin, Rev. James Wagner, Rev. Carl Robinson, Dr. M. B. Klepinger, Dr. R. L. Pounds, Rev. Howard James, Rev. Walter Miranda, Rev. Gerald Geiger, Rev. Paul Chastain, Rev. Harry Deaven, Rev. Clifton Hatfield, Rev. Louis Odon, Rev. Owen Delp and Dr. W. K. Messmer.,
The present term of the Conference Superintendent expires May 23, 1969. The Council voted to recommend to the Annual Conference that Bishop F. Gerald Ensley appoint the Conference Superintendent in May 1969 in accordance with the Discipline, paragraph 391.3. Since an affirmative vote is anticipated for Conference union, the appointment would be for one year.
Voted to recommend to the Annual Conference that Bishop F. Gerald
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Ensley appoint a Director of Development for the Conference in May 1969 also.
Rev. Emerson Bragg, Rev. Wendell Freshley and Rev. Charles Loveless are Ohio Miami Conference representatives on a Nominating Committee for the various boards and agencies of the united Conference.
Approved and validated the Board of Missions actions concerning Ar- lington, West Elkton, Wayne Avenue, Otterbein (Dayton), Drexel, Jackson- burg, and Residence Park Churches.
Voted to approve the actions of the Board of Trustees on the following churches:
Drexel-purchase of property; Residence Park-payment of loan; Jack- sonburg-payment of loan and refinancing; Camp Miami-note.
Voted to approve the Board of Trustees action concerning the change in interest rates related to the Church Extension Fund. Investors in the Fund are to receive 6% interest on their investments beginning with the March 1, 1969 interest payment, this rate to continue until further notice. Churches who borrow from the Fund are to be charged 61/2% interest on their loans. Authorized the appointment of Rev. Howard Hahn, Mr. James Scholl, Dr. Harold Boda and Dr. W. K. Messmer to a Resource Study Committee on the Conference related to the matter of Pension Annuity.
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