John Louk

Two years ago Salem's Leadership Board accepted an invitation to participate in the Healthy Church Initiative (HCI), a process of renewal for growing healthy and fruitful congregations in the Iowa Annual Conference. Initially, only a handful of congregations were recommended for this opportunity. We completed the first steps (a clergy group and a lay group) and are now ready to prepare for a church consultation. I have begun meeting with the Peer Mentor group, the continuous learning community that leads us into and supports us through the consultation process of HCI. The ultimate purpose for consulting is to help a congregation more effectively join God in God’s mission for the Church. We have a clear process to follow as we prepare for the consultation. We need to create a Prayer Team that will commit to pray regularly for the church and for changes. We also need a vision team to help develop urgency and create vision. Our Leadership Board will oversee the process and...

The week of September 4, 2012, the old Salem United Methodist Church building was torn down. It had been destroyed in the flood of 2008 and sold to the city in the "voluntary buyout" in early 2011. Much of the building was torn down when work began on the morning of Tuesday, September 4. At one point, most of the building was down except for the sanctuary and bell tower. The workers removed their equipment and took a break. In the stillness of the morning, the roof over the sanctuary collapsed on its own and brought the rest of the building down except for the bell tower and front facing. The bell tower finally came down on Friday, September 7. It was an emotional week for many of the Salem people and for many who were connected in other ways, such as through the Walk to Emmaus. We showed this video of the church building being torn down during worship on Sunday, September 9.

Over the last couple of months I posed a question to the Leadership Board. Since giving continues to grow, should Salem try to pay our apportionments in full this year? Or should we be careful about paying in full too quickly and instead use the money first to do what’s necessary to grow and be more healthy? If you don’t know, apportionments are the way we United Methodists give financial support throughout the world to things like new churches, missionaries, Africa University, ministerial education, and the cost of bishops. Bishop Lindsey Davis says “Apportionment giving financially underwrites United Methodist ministry and mission beyond the local church.” Currently, Salem’s apportionments are a little under $4,200 each month. Until the last two years, Salem has always paid its apportionments. They were paid fully in 2008 and 2009 after the flood, but it hurt the church. We used $29,000 in cash reserves to pay our apportionments and it left us in a very difficult situation. A c...