The Goshen Regional Council is excited to welcome you to Annual Sessions 2020 this summer, June 18-20 via Zoom.  Guest speaker Safwat Marzouk will challenge us to consider how God is “building together” the varied people and congregations of a newly emerging Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. We hope you will join us! Registration is $20, the cost of which will go towards speaker honorariums and the surplus will be donated to the MDS, Everence and MCC COVID-19 Congregational Relief Fund.

 Registration begins May 18^th and will be available on the conference website.

* the resurrection of Christ as witnessed in the New Testament, and as experienced in IMMC congregations!
* plans for Built Together, Annual Sessions 2020 to be held completely online. (See separate announcement about registration!)
* the careful way congregations are thinking about returning to in-person worship.
* three Zoom delegate meetings in April, a first! And the feedback received.
* the ongoing work of conference leadership teams. Zoom is the primary way teams gather to work, and we are grateful for this technology.
* the April 30 presentation of Steve Slagel’s doctoral thesis. Congratulations, Steve!

* Dan met April 28 with Marlene Kroeker and Vyron Schmidt of Everence to explore options to work together on stewardship education and development. How do we continue to cultivate generosity?

* Michigan Pastors and Leaders Summit met April 30. Attendance was lower than in-person meetings have been. Good interaction with those who were present.

* Dan interviewed a Journey applicant interested in beginning this fall.

* Sharon and Dan participate in with weekly conference ministers Zoom calls. These began in late March as conferences and congregations were adapting to COVID-19.

* Sharon participated April 21 in a zoom meeting sponsored by Mennonite Health Services (MHS) for  the Midwest Chaplain Affinity Group. The focus was to offer support and encouragement to our chaplains in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

* As  search and credentialing processes continue, several congregations are deciding how best to move forward when Zoom is the norm for meeting together – whether it be for applicant interviews or committee processing. One search committee chose recently to do an in-person interview, meeting outdoors to facilitate effective social distancing.

* In April Sharon had contact with _13_ potential pastoral applicants and with _8_ congregations in various phases of transition.

* A couple of search committees are waiting for applicants for their pastoral ministry positions. A couple of others are receiving new applications and discerning who to interview. Two others have been interviewing and are discerning who to present as a pastoral candidate. We invite you to join in prayer for God’s wisdom to guide these important discernment processes.               

We are thankful for your contributions for the month of April.  Income was $1,189 above budget.  Our expenses were unusually high for this month and were $467 above income.  However, we received the PPP loan from the Stimulus program in the amount of $31,750.- Jim Norton, IMMC Bookkeeper

Bethany Christian receives grant from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County

The Great Strides capital campaign continues, even while students are away from campus. Bethany just completed a challenge grant from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County and will receive an additional $390,000 towards the project. Read more about the grant and the campaign here.

When God calls someone to leadership, a journey begins. Perhaps you are on that journey. Perhaps you are looking for mentors and companions along the way. Indiana-Michigan Conference invites you to join Journey: A Missional Leadership Development Program.

This program is for lay leaders, pastors, church planters, and other emerging leaders who are called without specific training for ministry or who are exploring a call to ministry. The early registration deadline to apply for fall 2020 is July 14 with the final registration deadline on August 11. For more information visit www.ambs.edu/journey, or contact your pastor, or Dan Miller at dan@im.mennonite.net or at 574-534-4006.