News

6/5/2017

Annual Conference members who attended their District Pre-Conference Briefing learned about the property management proposal from the Conference Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees and Conference Treasurer have answered questions about how the proposed conference-wide property management structure will work in a Q&A on the conference website.  Questions answered include why the change is being proposed and how funds from property sales will be managed.  Read the Q&A and view at PDF of ...

5/26/2017

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) The Peace with Justice special offering allows the United Methodist Church to have a voice in advocating for peace and justice through programs in the United States and around the world. Fifty percent of the funds collected ...

3/16/2017

Photo: Rev. Steve Wood with university scholars and almuni, all first-generation Christians, at the Toul Kork Methodist Church in Phnom Penh. "What I am seeing today is the fruit of the faithful work of many other people," said Wood. "Each acted and felt God’s hand in their lives to step forward and invest in the future." The Board of Directors of the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) held its winter board meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 4-8. Cambodia is a mission ...

1/19/2017

Photo: Sean Taylor, layperson and chair of Conference Council on Finance and Administration, presents the 2017 Budget to the Annual Conference. At the close of 2016, North Georgia United Methodist churches had paid 94.7 percent of the apportionment budget, the highest percentage of apportionments paid in 15 years. Apportioned giving totaled $20,896,626.    Six of the 12 districts increased versus the previous year, including the Atlanta-Marietta District which paid five percentage points more ...

11/23/2016

The General Council on Finance and Administration of the UMC shared the following information on the FLSA overtime provisions that were to go into effect Dec. 1.  Yesterday, Judge Mazzant of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in the case challenging the Department of Labor (“DOL”) revisions to the “white collar” exemptions to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).   Those revisions would have significantly ...

8/29/2016

On May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “white collar” or administrative employee overtime exemption rules. The Final Rule strengthens overtime protections for workers by raising the salary level for exempt status from its previous amount of $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $913 per week ($47,476 per year). This change goes into effect on Dec. 1, 2016. Employees are classified into one of two categories:   NON-EXEMPT – These ...

4/21/2016

Bishop Mike Watson, Bill McKoy, Ed Tomlinson, Keith Cox, Karen Fullerton, and Morris Henderson The Retired Ministers Foundation has made a gift of $4 million to the North Georgia Conference to go toward the Conference's Pre-1982 Retirement Plan liability. For 35 years the Conference has worked to fully fund the retirement plan, and this gift allows the Conference to realize that goal. A symbolic check was presented on April 15 by Rev. Dr. Ed Tomlinson, Executive Director of the Retired ...

3/16/2016

The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) will host its certification program, Academy of Church Business Administration, for United Methodist Church Business Administrators in Nashville June 20-30, at the GCFA Ministry Center near Music Row.    Rev. Bob Winstead will serve as the director of the Academy. For nearly 35 years, the Candler School of Theology hosted the National Institute of Church Finance and Administration (NICFA). Winstead has an eight year history as the ...

1/7/2016

Several of our North Georgia Conference churches have been the target of a fraudulent email scam this week. In each incident, an email has come to the finance director or financial secretary from what looks to be the senior pastor's email address asking to make a wire-transfer of thousands of dollars. If your church staff or volunteers are the recipient of this type of fraudulent email, please contact local authorities.  An important step to protect churches from fraudulent behavior is to ...

12/8/2015

When you give to your local United Methodist Church, much of the gift stays with that church to cover mission, ministry and expenses, but a small percent from your church is put together with gifts from other United Methodist churches in our Conference (and around the world) to fund in-part our work together as a Conference and as a denomination. We call that apportioned giving. (Read more about apportionments and your church's giving at http://www.ngumc.org/giving.) Over the next few months we...

11/30/2015

(UMNS) In this season of giving gifts to family and friends, Giving Tuesday — Dec. 1 this year — affords us an opportunity to help those we may not even know and make a difference in their lives. Now in its fourth year, Giving Tuesday is celebrated in the United States on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, encouraging participants to give back in impactful ways to the charities and causes they support. The movement is an alternative to the U.S. consumer-driven shopping traditions of Black ...

11/19/2015

After faithfully serving as President/CEO of the Georgia United Methodist Foundation for nearly five years, Rev. Charles (Chuck) W. Savage II has officially announced his plans to retire on June 30, 2016.   "GUMF's Board of Trustees, acting on the recommendation of the Personnel Committee Task Force as affirmed by the Executive Committee, unanimously elected Rev. Keith Lawder to succeed Rev. Chuck Savage during the November 4, 2015 meeting," said Zoe M. Hicks, Chairperson of GUMF's Board of ...

11/5/2015

When you give to your local United Methodist Church, much of the gift stays with that church to cover mission, ministry and expenses, but a small percent from your church is put together with gifts from other United Methodist churches in our Conference (and around the world) to fund in part our work together as a Conference and as a denomination. We call that apportioned giving. Over the next few months we'll be featuring some of the ministries that are thriving thanks to apportionment giving!  ...

10/12/2015

When you give to your local United Methodist Church, much of the gift stays with that church to cover mission, ministry and expenses, but a small percent from your church is put together with gifts from other United Methodist churches in our Conference (and around the world) to fund in-part our work together as a Conference and as a denomination. We call that apportioned giving.  Over the next few months we'll be featuring some of the ministries that are thriving thanks to apportionment giving!...

10/1/2015

The Annual Conference-wide Special Offering supporting Aldersgate Homes and Camp Collinswood is Sunday, October 25, 2015.             Aldersgate / Collinswood is a related agency of the North Georgia Conference advocating for the needs of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Aldersgate reaches out to those whose abilities do not include independence and self-sufficiency and their families. We work to serve this population through advocacy, education, inclusiveness and ...

8/20/2015

Shopping portal www.umcmarket.org gets new look The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) announced this summer that the online shopping portal, UMCMarket, has relaunched using more advanced technology and faster delivery of donations. Working with Tribute, Inc. the re-launched UMCMarket will provide an enhanced user experience, quicker access to status reports, regular distribution of micro-donations and the addition of hundreds of savings offers for participants. Doug Spear, ...

7/7/2015

Excerpt from Martin Sinderman Worship Facilities Magazine October 1, 2015 is an important deadline for churches that do face-to-face (“card-present”) credit or debit card transactions. A new payment standard, EMV, will be implemented that is based on “smart” debit and credit cards with embedded microprocessor chips. The chips and the information they generate make these cards less vulnerable to fraudulent use. This massive transition is being accompanied by an important change in who pays the...

1/22/2015

The General Council on Finance and Administration for The United Methodist Church recently announced an arrangement with Avis Car Rental that can provide discounted rental rates.    The program will benefit United Methodists throughout the connection. This global arrangement includes Avis, Budget, and Zipcar services. It provides a capped, maximum rate while still honoring any current, lower promotional rate available at the time of booking. Insurance is also included with every business rate ...

12/4/2014

Boynton UMC in Ringgold recently celebrated the results of its “Sowing Seeds Together All for God’s Glory” capital campaign directed by the Georgia United Methodist Foundation. Sixty individuals and families pledged $304,000 toward the renovation of its 25-year-old sanctuary and the construction of a new multi-purpose building. Additionally, another member paid off the $36,000 debt on the parsonage.   “As a result of our church’s generosity, more people will find Christ; more souls will be ...

12/4/2014

More than 100 college and seminary students from the North Georgia Conference received scholarships from the United Methodist Church's General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in the 2014-2015 school year.  In addition to the dozens of scholarships available from GBHEM, several students from North Georgia United Methodist churches attending UM-related institutions applied for and received a Conference Merit Award scholarship thanks to the generosity of North Georgia Conference churches ...