News

In 1949, a conversation between four men returning from a threshing reunion in Illinois sparked the idea of hosting an Iowan version in Mount Pleasant and formed the Midwest Old Threshers Association. The first reunion was held in 1950, and the Mount Pleasant First United Methodist Church started hosting a food stand as a fundraiser at the reunion in 1952.  This year, they have marked 71 years of fellowship and connection, where they raised over $30,000, served nearly 1,800 blue-ribbon ...

Judi Calhoon has accepted a new position with the Iowa Conference of The United Methodist Church as a Database Coordinator and Communication Specialist.   This newly developed position will work with all departments to ensure the integrity of information within the conference database. In addition, Calhoon will manage the website and assist in coordinating branding and communications.  Calhoon has been an Iowa Conference District Administrative assistant for 25 years. She has worked in the ...

Submitted by: Julie Poulsen, Chair, Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministries Our college chaplains and Wesley Foundation directors had a busy week last week as students moved in and classes started. If you have students from your church or town who are United Methodist or are looking for a place of faith and acceptance, please let the chaplain/directors know.  On freshman move-in day at Morningside University, there was a "Family Blessing & Sending" service to name God's promises and ...

Midwest Mission Sunday is a day to celebrate the joy of serving and encourage churches to do this with their congregations and communities. There is nothing like being the hands and feet of Jesus to lift our spirits and remind us of our calling to serve one another. This year, Midwest Mission’s goal is to have 2,023 people serving on that Sunday and to make an impact from Christ around the world and around the corner. Midwest Mission wants you to help start a revolution to expose new people to ...

The Iowa Annual Conference offered its first Oasis Church training via Zoom last Saturday, reaching 50 people representing three different conferences addressing grief and loss when members of disaffiliating churches seek out a new United Methodist Church.  Oasis Network churches are congregations that remain confident in their United Methodist Church identity and mission and whose desire is to welcome, care and reach out to laity who want to retain a United Methodist membership after their ...

This summer, the Lake View United Methodist Church began a successful new ministry giving 83 school supply-filled backpacks to preschool through 6th-grade students in their community.   “Our church works with the food pantry that’s located here in town. We knew that the need for donations to the food pantry kept going up and up. And if the needs at the food pantry are up, the needs are also obviously up in other areas of people’s lives,” said Deanna Berry, member of Lake View UMC.    Inflation ...

A new Facebook group has been created by the Communications Engagement Team of the Iowa Conference to encourage conversation between local church communicators across the state. The page's goal is to be "a place where conversations about church audio, video, social media and more can be discussed. We are a community where church members involved with their congregation's communications efforts can brainstorm and share resources with one another." It is open to both clergy and laity with an ...

The Iowa Conference Communications Office is assembling a list of ways you can continue socially engage in worship while practicing physical distancing. We will update this story with new streamed services as they become available. To submit a service time, please fill out this form with your church name, service time and a link to where the service is found online, Facebook, YouTube, television or radio station. Services won't be listed if URLs are not made available.   Thinking of starting to...

Please find attached the NEW 2021 Special Sundays Digital Pew Cards to be posted on all your media outlets.    The Connectional Giving Team has created new resources to allow us to be even better stewards of the church’s money. We have created one envelope that represents ALL Six Special Sundays with offering, and a pew card for each Special Sunday to promote and teach members about the importance of giving.   Listed below are the links to each Pastor’s Kit in a new format. Please link each pew ...

The Conference Connectional Ministries Council is looking for a Vice-Chair for 2019-2020 program year who would be willing to become the Chair of the Council in July of 2020.  While the position could be open to anyone in the Iowa Annual Conference, female laypersons are strongly encouraged to serve in order to maintain a good rotation of leadership.   The Council normally meets 2-3 times per year and is responsible for overseeing the program ministries in the Annual Conference. The Chair of the...

A beloved community was in full bloom at the spring Order of Elders, Order of Deacons, Fellowship of Local Pastors & Associate Members Gathering on April 26, 2018. Clergy gathered at Ames First United Methodist Church to address the common anxiety in the Iowa Conference around the upcoming General Conference sessions.   “Today is an opportunity to be together, take a deep breath, and address our common anxiety about where our church is right now,” said Rev. Scott Lothe, an Orders planning ...

The 10-member Faithful Stewardship Team, which meets monthly and has gathered together four times so far, is fully into the process known as ‘loving, learning, and leading’. The team’s convener, Rev. Ron Carlson, says, “Our coaches, Betty Stone and Karen Kirkpatrick, have been leading us and guiding us as we’ve learned about each other and tried to get a feel for what was going on – a lot of the preparatory work, developing our team, understanding who we are and what assumptions we operate with....