On Sunday, October 13, 2024, Tuckerton United Methodist Church held its annual Church/Charge Conference. This meeting is the church's primary administrative meeting. It reviews and approves pastoral compensation, lay leadership, and nominations, and it is an opportunity for us to review what has been accomplished over the last year. Below is the report submitted by Pastor Jason.
Friends, we come to another charge conference, giving thanks to God for His blessings. We continue to journey together, experience God’s grace together, and serve together, believing in His promises and trusting He will provide for our needs and the needs of our community.
The Church continues its mission of loving, caring, serving, and sharing the good news of the Gospel to all. Every Sunday, I finish the worship Service with the invitation to be the Jesus someone can meet. To be the reason someone believes in the goodness of God. With that in mind, we strive daily to be the beacon of God's love to our community, the Shore, and beyond. We do that by building community and doing outreach. We created spaces where the church can connect and engage with families. Spaces like the Easter Festival, great Summer and Fall events, and Christmas events like the Live Nativity continue the tradition of connecting with friends and families to celebrate important occasions in the church's life. These activities have been an engagement point for us to share our faith and build community. We connected with families, we heard their needs, and our Missions Committee continues to work hard to develop spaces and ministries that can create a strong connection between church and community. We plan to continue creating spaces for people to connect and engage with our faith community. Opportunities like Breakfast Church, Workshops, and new small groups will bring spaces for people to engage with the church in new creative ways.
As you can see, we are on the road to making our congregation vital again. It is a difficult road in our world, but one we continue to take, knowing that the work being done can make a lasting impact in our community and the world. The mission of The United Methodist Church is to “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” (Matt. 28:18-20; Matt. 22:36-40). This mission is achieved through vital congregations that equip and empower people to be disciples of Jesus Christ in their homes and communities around the world.
Vital congregations are:
Spirit-filled, forward-leaning communities of believers that welcome all people (Gal.3:28)
Places where disciples of Jesus Christ are made through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:18-20)
Communities that serve like Christ through justice and mercy ministries (Micah 6:8, Luke 4:17-21)
Vital congregations have:
Inviting and inspiring worship
Engaged disciples in mission and outreach
Gifted, empowered, and equipped lay leadership
Effective, equipped, and inspired clergy leadership
Small Group Ministries
Strong children’s & youth ministries
A church is vital when:
Growth in worship during three years.
60% of worshippers connect with a small group.
50% of worshippers engage in hands-on mission
18% of expenses are given to shared ministry and mission
New disciples through profession of faith.
Currently, TUMC achieves two out of five categories. Our church leadership started a new program called Pathways that helped us develop a plan for our congregation to continue to grow in vitality. I am grateful for Cary Varn and her team, who did the work to achieve this goal. The team established three goals:
Transparency and sharing of information
Growth and Development of our Hispanic Ministry
Leadership Development
These goals will lead our work forward as we continue our journey to be a vital and fruitful congregation.
Let me share how we worked in the past year to achieve vitality.
Worship
The average attendance for in-person worship in the sanctuary continues to be an uptrend. Between both services, our average attendance is 85 people worshiping in person every Sunday. This is still 50% less than pre-pandemic numbers. We had Sundays when our attendance was above 100 people, and we are working hard to maintain our average attendance to reach that goal.
We added new media resources, and our engagement through social media has grown, connecting more people to our church. I thank Alyss Hess for her work on our social media channels and invite you to share them with people you know. Online Worship viewing continues to be steady after a decline in numbers. However, as more people return to in-person worship, finding new ways to engage with new people online is still challenging. Still, online worship has been a blessing as we connect TUMC to people in the US and the world. It is also a blessing for homebound and those who travel during the year. Our online worship services and sermon podcasts have been seen and heard in:
US:
Ohio, Missouri, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Delaware, Alabama, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Boston, Puerto Rico
World:
Peru, Kenya, Australia, Argentina, Germany, The UK, Dominican Republic, Finland, Scotland
What a blessing to share the good news of the Gospel with friends, family, and neighbors!
Our Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany celebrations were in person and online. During Christmas, we connected with over 550 people, including our live nativity celebration.
We had a great Holy Week and Easter celebration. We celebrated the Easter Eve Jazz Vigil. Easter Sunday was beautiful, with a full house.
As Pastor, I have guided the Worship Committee through Worship design and planning. We incorporated the choir in the worship planning and had meetings to review the worship hymns and songs. In addition, I served in Worship Services by leading, preaching, and officiating Holy Communion in the morning service and Casa de Esperanza. I officiated a wedding this year, multiple funeral and graveside services, and baptisms.
New Disciples
We have seen new faces in our in-person worship services, and family members have joined our family of faith.
We have 35 people participating in service each Sunday, from greeters, readers, acolytes, our Senior Choir, and organist.
I officiated baptisms this year.
I guided people through Pastoral Counseling via phone calls, Zoom calls, and in-person meetings in the office.
Our Congregational Care Ministry sends cards, makes phone calls, and follows up with visits and members.
We received new members to our congregation.
Small Groups
Joy Women's Group continues to bless women through in-person meetings, hosting activities like the Pancake Supper Dinner, inviting guest speakers, and other community-oriented activities.
We have seen Yoga and chair yoga groups continue to grow and expand.
I have led in-person Bible Studies: an Advent Study, a Lent Study, and a Spring Book Study. Bible Studies are scheduled for Fall and Advent.
Casa de Esperanza meets each Sunday for their Worship Service and other activities. The average attendance continues to be an uptrend, with an average of 16 people. Their Easter Service had an attendance of 35 people, and outdoor activities remain very popular, with an attendance of 25-30 people. We had a baptism with an attendance of 40. Casa de Esperanza and TUMC have partnered with Oasis UMC and Immigration Law and Justice to do clinics in our church. I see much potential for this ministry to grow and impact the Hispanic community in our neighborhood.
Mission Engagement in the Community
We have people who volunteered with the Tuckerton Food Pantry.
Shine and Serve Kids did their VBS with 62 children participating and 45 volunteers. We participated in the 4th of July Parade, a significant tradition part of our VBS.
We have celebrated Craft and Vendor Fairs.
We continue participating in the Tuckerton Decoy Show with our traditional Bake Sale.
We did the community outreach activities.
Our Live Nativity continues its tradition of bringing joy to the community.
With SPRC, we ensured that our Safe Sanctuaries Policies were followed and are currently updating our policy.
I officiated Funeral Services for community members.
TUMC partnered with Immigration Law and Justice to do a clinic in our facilities.
Giving
Pushpay online giving has been a blessing for our church.
Faithful giving has blessed our church, UMCOR, and families in our community. Through the communion fund and special offerings, we have also helped families in need.
We continue to evaluate income streams that can help fund the church's ministry. We partnered with the Country Dog Food Truck and received their offering to use our facilities. We partnered with RaiseRight for fundraising campaigns.
We achieved 100% giving in billables and 67% of our fair shared apportionments for 2023. This year, we are on track to pay 100% of our billables and are working hard to accomplish our shared ministries' giving.
In addition:
I participated in Zoom meetings and in-person meetings. I responded to e-mails and did administrative work.
I participated in Continued Education Webinars and served on Conference committees.
I supervised our staff and met with them during the year.
I was part of the GNJ Breakthrough Stewardship Writing Group.
I participated in the GNJ Annual Conference at Wildwoods Convention Center and other GNJ meetings.
I was received as an Elder in Full Connection in GNJ.
Things to look forward to:
We will ask congregants to share their stories and voice their ideas on how our church can be fruitful and relevant to new generations…Everybody tell somebody!
We will have new creative ways to worship and incorporate arts in our worship services.
We plan to have more participation in worship services.
We will provide an integrated process that moves guests into the church’s life (Discipleship Pathway).
We will provide small groups intended to care for those in need.
We will continue to grow in worship attendance.
We will continue to see ways we can give back to the community and create new ministries that will impact people’s lives.
We want to increase our giving and accomplish our goals.
Our main goals are to continue our Pathways goals set for the year. Our congregation loves and cares for each other, visitors, and our community. We want to develop new leaders. We want to encourage congregants to serve, step up in leadership, and grow in our journey as a fruitful and vital congregation. We must continue to explore and understand how our church can be more diverse and relevant to new generations. In doing so, we will be effective in community ministry and hands-on missions.
In this season, I celebrate:
Our church continues its ministry and seeks ways to engage with the community.
That we continue to work hard to be financially stable.
Tuckerton UMC has faithful members.
Challenges we face:
Relevancy to new generations
Financial challenges
Leadership Development
Growth challenges
This season, I give thanks for all God is doing in and through the life of the Church. I am deeply grateful to our leadership as we have worked together to keep our ministry fruitful. The work has been extra challenging in these unprecedented times. You have understood the complexities of our time. You have been remarkable with your resilience in all the peaks and valleys of the last year! You have stepped up! Also, I am thankful to my wife and son, who have been supportive in ministry.
I give thanks to our Lord for his blessings. I trust God will continue to guide us. I believe God has been faithful, and our congregation continues to be loyal in such times. Through it all, we will have much to give thanks for when 2024 concludes. As of this writing, we still have four months of the year to go, but there will be every reason to sing the doxology at the end of this year as we praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Thank you for your commitment and dedication to God and Tuckerton United Methodist Church.
With a grateful heart!
Rev. Jason Rios
