Pastor – Limina Grace Harmon
Music Director Emeritus – Lee H. Pritchard
Co-Lay Leaders – Jane Ruback & Steve Rappleyea
Administrative Council Co-Chairs – Jane Ruback & Steve Rappleyea
Let’s start with what we are NOT. We are not the Board of Trustees. The Trustees are… entrusted with the physical plant of the New Paltz United Methodist Church. A representative of the Board of Trustees is a permanent member of the Ad Board and reports to the Ad Board on the needs and conditions of the facilities “owned” by the NPUMC. They contribute to the decision-making process of the Board and will make recommendations to the Board on matters affecting those assets as well as money that the Trustees oversee as a part of their responsibilities. While the Trustees are stewards of the architectural and physical assets of the NPUMC, the Ad Board stewards the living resources of the NPUMC. If the church is a person, maybe the Trustees are the body and the Ad Board is the breath? The Spirit? The Life of the Church?
What we generally refer to as the Ad Board is the leadership team that coordinates the activities and life of our congregation. In the United Methodist Church, the leadership team may be called the administrative board, church council, or council on ministry. We are structured according to the Methodist Book of Discipline, the “rule book” for us Methodists. While the other boards I spoke of before were wholly governed by their charters and by-laws, we report to a “higher authority”. While we use Robert’s Rules of Order to run our meetings like most other bodies, the Ad Board is the “administrative agency of the charge conference to envision, plan, implement, and annually evaluate the ministry of the congregation.” (The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2016, ¶252) As the chair of this group I am elected annually by the charge conference (¶251.3). It has been a recent practice for the Chair of the New Paltz United Church Ad Board to serve no more than three one-year terms, though there are currently no formal term limits.
The Book of Discipline states that our purpose as a group is,
“reaching and receiving with joy all who will respond; encouraging people in their relationship with God and inviting them to commitment to God’s love in Jesus Christ; providing opportunities for them to seek strengthening and growth in spiritual formation; and supporting them to live lovingly and justly in the power of the holy spirit as faithful disciples.” (United Methodist Book of Discipline ¶243)
So we do all that! Pastor Grace, myself, Linda Mellor, the Rubacks; many people you know and many you might not all come together once a month as the Ad Board to report on committee work and discernment activities to speak about our vision for our congregation and to strengthen and grow our little church on Grove and Main. We use that information to make decisions as a board and ultimately continue to function as a living, breathing, vital church body. We sometimes struggle with hard questions such as what to do with the building behind the Youth Hostel that we own; sometimes mundane ones such as approving funds for use by the Trustees for repairs, and sometimes with easy ones like approving money for wonderful missions; but we always make sure that we are seeking to reach and receive with joy “all who will respond.”
Trustees President – John Bautochka
Financial Chair – Margaret Howe
Staff Parish Relations Chair – Mary Edwards-Ransom
The privileges of this committee are summarized in the awareness of a healthy relationship in our church. We strive to understand the calling to ministry of our Pastor as well as the communal and personal calling of our congregation. In this role, the committee performs more as a bridge.
The Book of Discipline states among other things: “In conducting its work, the committee shall identify and clarify its values for ministry. It shall engage in biblical and theological reflections on the mission of the church, the primary task, and ministries of the local church.”
New Paltz United Methodist Church has the benefit of leadership in all these areas by different members of the community as well and primarily by our Pastor. Our congregation is constantly encouraged by our pastor to explore opportunities of service and ministry and to act on it. All this transforms the duties of the committee into blessings and privileges for having a “front seat” to all our church is and can be to our community at large.
We look forward and prepare for changes as we move forward to parish focused ministry and anticipate that opportunities will be met with creativity and innovation and challenges with wonderment as we explore the possibilities that lay ahead.
Meanwhile, we invite you to be in touch with any member of the committee to share with us what it means to you to be part of New Paltz United Methodist Church and how we can support our pastor and each other as we strive to witness and share the gospel with the community at large.
