Story by Heidi Shoemaker/Photo by Kasper Haughton Jr.
At the 42nd Regular Constituency Meeting of the Ohio Conference, recently held at the Worthington church, a quorum of 289 delegates and 92 delegates-at-large met to elect officers for the 2018-22 quinquennial term and conduct church business. Delegates voted to re-elect both President Ron Halvorsen Jr., and Secretary Oswaldo Magaña, and elected Michael D. Gilkey as treasurer and CFO.
“It hasn't been an easy journey these past four years, but God has been with us,” Halvorsen shared. “We need to bring help to the local churches. ... I see small churches dying. ... I’m tired of seeing us lose the younger generation. ... We need to focus more money and energies on youth and young adults ... get them involved in the ministry of our church,” continued Halvorsen, as part of the conference report.
Delegates also voted to make the gifted $3.2 million headquarters and furnishings in Dayton the principle office for business transaction in the conference. As a result, the body voted to discontinue the use of the current conference office, located in Mount Vernon, in as timely a manner as possible. Constituents granted authority to conference officers to work with both the finance and executive committees to take the necessary steps to sell the Mount Vernon property at fair market value.
The delegate body paused to sing the doxology, and Julian Antoine, a member of the Village church in Mason, offered a heartfelt prayer for the gifts, blessings and revival happening within the conference.
Constituents voted four new churches into the sisterhood of Ohio Conference churches: the Dayton Korean church in Centerville, the Springfield Spanish church, the Prince of Peace Ghanaian church in Columbus and the Hispanic church of Akron.
After a lengthy discussion about proposed changes by the Articles and Regulations Committee, constituents accepted all revisions. Regular conference constituency sessions will now be on a quinquennial (five-year) basis rather than the current quadrennium (four-year) basis.
Unlike the meeting four years ago, conference finances were shown to be healthy and continuing to improve. Halvorsen reported that working capital will once again be at 100 percent in the coming weeks and months. Gilkey reported that tithe for 2017 was at nearly $11 million, up $1.32 million from the last quadrennium in 2014. “That is a very substantial increase,” he said. Tithe so far in 2018 is up 10 percent over last year. This earned a hearty “Amen!” by the delegates.