Update March 2023
In a Nutshell:
February 7, 2023 ARC MCN launch meeting a success
MCN Board met on March 2, 2023
Debriefed Launch Meeting
Shared Stories
Set goals for next 3-5 months
Begin paying staff at 10 hours per week
John Nyitray - Shepherding pastors
James Karsten - Missions, Discipleship
Jen Bakhuyzen - Event planning, Safe Church, admin help and Spiritual Formation
Trent Walker - Acting Exec. Director, keep ball rolling
Goals
James - begin collecting Mission/Missionary support data from churches
John - begin reaching out to pastors for prayer support and Hub encouragement
Jen - research Safe Church organization: cost, training, etc.
Trent - Connect with Branson Parler of thefoundrygr.org an invite him to discuss "Seminary at Church" with board. Continue to recruit leaders for Multiplication and Covenant Keepers Teams. Work with Bob Karel and Laura Dilly to establish Ordination Oversight Team. Work on MCN web presence.
501(3) information to churches
Annual Alliance of Reformed Churches Meeting set
Denver, CO - Wednesday, August 9 - Friday, August 11, 2023.
Focused primarily on pastors this time
Spouses welcome
Cost - approximately $350 per person.
A Little More Detail
It's been one month since we met together at Fellowship in Hudsonville. We thought it appropriate to send this update.
February 7, 2023 Michigan Catalyst Network Launch Meeting
Thank you all for participating and a special thanks to Fellowship Reformed Church of Hudsonville for hosting and to Paul & Beth Wiggers of Big Wiggs SM OKIN BBQ for providing the meal at no charge to the MCN or Fellowship Church.
We received mostly positive feedback from the Launch Meeting. A few teams remained at Fellowship after the meeting to debrief, pray and dream. We did make one significant mistake though, we failed to foresee the need to record the meeting. A few churches asked for a link to the presentation because all of their leaders were not able to attend. Our apologies to all of you for that oversight.
Official Member Churches of the Michigan Catalyst Network
We currently have eight official members of the MCN, with several others in process of choosing their network.
Member Churches
1) First Reformed Church - Grand Haven 2} Discovering Christ Church - Muskegon
3} Fellowship Reformed Church - Muskegon
Christ Fellowship Church - St. Louis, MO
Corinth Reformed Church - Byron Center
6} Forest Grove Reformed Church - Hudsonville
Orchard Hill Reformed Church - Walker 8} Community Reformed Church - Zeeland
Senior/Lead Pastor John Kenny
Scott VanArendonk Mike VanKampen Phillip Hussey Jason Nagel
Daniel DeVries Bob Karel Trent Walker
Board begins remunerating staff
To this point, all work done by the staff has been done voluntarily. Beginning in March 2023, the four members of the staff (James Karsten, John Nyitray, Jen Bakhuyzen and Trent Walker) will be compensated for 10 hours per week at $1000 each per month and will be considered 1099 "employees." An additional $1000 per month is being made available for expenses if needed. This cost will be absorbed by the Partnership Offerings of one church.
We have also agreed upon a Bookkeeper, Kim Schugars of Discovering Christ Church in Muskegon (formerly 5th Reformed). She will be remunerated at $100 per week. She will be added to the MCN bank accounts over the next few weeks.
Where will the money go?
In several of the meetings Trent has had with church leaders, a frequent question has arisen. Where will our partnership offerings go/how will the money be spent?
The board discussed this and landed in this way. There are administrative costs. We need a bookkeeper/treasurer. We want to pay the staff. We need a web presence. But beyond that, we would like the expenditures to be ministry, mission and Kingdom focused.
Some things discussed:
What if we were able to provide training for up and coming leaders within all of our churches? What would it look like if the money that churches send to us, is used to train their leaders?
Safe Church -The Alliance is dedicated to creating safe churches. What if we contracted with an organization that provided background checks, training and template Safe Church policies for our churches and our insurance policies?
New Church Starts - since we are to be a multiplying Network, our new church starts will need Network partnership funding. Christ Fellowship Church in St. Lois, MO is in need for support right now.
While no funds were set aside for any of these things at our meeting, this should give some indication of how your board intends to steward the resources you entrust to it.
Current Account Balance
The Michigan Catalyst Network's bank account balance at United Federal Credit Union is currently (as of March 6, 2023) $15,110.88 before staff has been paid.
Future Web Presence
Back in January, Trent purchased the ARCMCN.org domain name. He will be speaking with one of Community's tech staff about launching a website in the next few weeks. If Community's staff is unable to help, we will reach out to the person who helped get the arc21.org website up and running.
Tax Exempt - 501©3 Status for Churches and Umbrella Coverage from ARC
Several churches have asked about this so we asked Rev. Dan Ackerman what The Alliance has learned. Immediately below is his response and the documents needed are attached.
I've attached 4 documents for your business Administrator. The first two outline our efforts to achieve what the RCA provided which is a "Group Exemption." Group Exemptions have been stalled for the last 4 years by the IRS and no new applications have been accepted.
The last two are a letter template that can be customized to provide anyone with your status. As an incorporated church in the state of Ml, you are a tax exempt, charitable organization by federal statute as stated under the 510(c)3 rules. The government does not want to (hence the hold on group exemptions) really want churches to have a separate 501(c)3 number. Your Ml corp number and your EIN together identify you as a tax exempt charity because you are a church.
For further clarity, have your business manager go to this link.
Type in Fifth Reformed and the search will yield your church and the GR church. Click on your name and all the data will be there. At the top, is a click on "Request a Certificate." For $10.00 you can get a certificate of non-profit status.
Finally, we have webinar from March 3 of last year in which we discuss this topic and bylaws. Others who have been asking this question have said this was a great resource.
Please pass this along and have your Business Admin get in touch with me if there are further questions. Best, D
Dan Ackerman
Director of Organizational Leadership 616.741.1611
Debrief from some of our teams after February 7 Launch Meeting:
Because we are defined by who and whose we are, and not by who we aren't these sentiments have been tweaked a bit. Things we heard from our teams and others.
I heard the name of Jesus spoken more at this meeting than any other meeting of this sort I have attended.
There was a sense of excitement and legitimacy. We are excited for the future.
This is Gospel and Kingdom driven. A movement of the bride of Christ.
We are still concerned about systems (BCO, etc).
We are still deciding on a Network, but happy to have to choose between more than one good option.
The right tone was set. Reverence, clarity with humor.
We appreciated the "I don't know yet, we've never done this before" answers.
What's Next?
We will continue meeting with church leaders, answering questions and welcoming new member churches.
If you are already a confirmed member church, you will likely hear from John Nyitray in the next few
weeks. He will be asking how he can care for you, your church and your leadership (prayer, conversations, etc). He will also ask how finding a Hub is going and how we can help.
You will hear from James Karsten regarding what Missions/Missionaries you support and their
relationship to you. This information will be gathered and shared all the while keeping in mind that some missionaries cannot afford to have their names published anywhere do to restrictions in their countries of service.
Jen Bakhuyzen will be investigating how we might partner with Safe Church. She is meeting soon with Dan Ackerman to make sure we coordinate with The Alliance global for consistency.
A web presence for the Michigan Catalyst Network.
Please feel free to reach out to Trent Walker. He is willing to meet with individuals from your leadership team, to join your whole team or simply meet face to face to establish relational connections. He can be reached at twaIker@communityreformed. org.