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Members & Friends,
We generated potential new church names today. You will have one more opportunity to give ideas next Sunday. The new church name vote will be March 26th toward the end of service. All those in attendance on March 26th will have an opportunity to vote. The three names suggested brought up so far for consideration are: Benton Community Church Benton Christ Church Benton Christian Community Church Please be in prayer as God continues to guide us into a new future. In Christ, Church Leadership ________________________________________________________________ Beloved, Today (3/5/2023) our church had its vote on whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. We had a wonderful turnout with 32 of our members voting this morning. This required us to have at least 22 members voting to disaffiliate to achieve the 2/3rds majority to continue with the disaffiliation process. The disaffiliation team and our District Superintendent led the service as well as the vote. The vote was as follows: 94% of members in attendance voted for disaffiliation. I want to remind everyone that we are still a United Methodist Church until after the annual conference taking place in June. At the conference, there will be lay delegates voting on each church’s disaffiliation. If that vote passes we would no longer be a part of the United Methodist Church. The vote today was bittersweet. There were many different emotions. This church was a Methodist Episcopal church before becoming United Methodist. The history of this beautiful church is extraordinary as well as the families that built it. Even though the name of our church will eventually change, the wonderful people that make up this church will not. Our history is something we can be proud of and celebrate. It made us who we are today. And we are more than a name. As the wonderful pastors have told me when I began attending this church, we will continue to be a church that accepts every sinner at the foot of the cross. Peace and blessings, Becky Korleski Lay Leader |