Upper Columbia Conference is reorganizing its approach to family ministries — incorporating men’s, women’s and children’s ministries under the youth and young adult leadership team.
“After much prayer and deliberation, it was decided that combining our ministry efforts was the best path forward,” said Jeffery Wines, UCC youth, young adult and family ministries director.
Recent financial challenges brought several discussions on how best to serve the conference as a resource center more efficiently. Following the retirement of Patty Marsh, former UCC director for women’s ministries, children’s ministries, urban ministries, disaster relief and Adventist Community Services, the executive committee decided not to rehire her position as part of cost reduction measures.
“Given the limited financial resources that we have and limited personnel, we really needed to take a closer look at how best to organize our ministries in a way that can help facilitate volunteers while maintaining our service as a resource center to the entire conference,” said Eric Brown, UCC vice president for administration. “Moving our family ministries together under one roof made a lot of logical sense, and we pray that God continues to bless these ministries and that our churches are able to use these resources.”
Departmental directors submitted reports on their current operations and capacities to the administrative committee and the executive committee. In this process, the youth and young adult department team saw several ministry areas that fit closely with its current ministry focus. After discussion, the administrative committee decided to merge youth and young adult ministries with family ministries.
“Our primary concern was maintaining and supporting the vitality of our ongoing ministries, while facing the reality of less office staff,” said Wines.
While time has been needed to adjust to the new integration, some areas have already shown promise. Planning events has remained a strength for the department. For example, since several ministry events take place at Camp MiVoden, communication and planning require fewer steps than before.
“There is a good amount of overlap,” said Ryan Whitehead, UCC youth, young adult and family ministries associate director. “Our team is well-suited for event planning and coordinating volunteers, skills that all these ministries rely on.”
Wendy Urbin, who has served for several years as UCC administrative assistant for women’s, children’s and urban ministries, along with Adventist Community Services, will be continuing her role in these various ministries and coordinating the many events and resources available.
Youth, young adult and family ministries has a unified goal: growing and nurturing church families, bringing men, women, children, youth and young adults into connection with Christ.
For more information on these ministries, see uccsda.org/youth and uccsda.org/familyministries.
