GLC 2023 Annual Celebration Highlights

The 2023 GLC Annual Celebration took place at Thornapple Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, MI on Friday, April 21-22. Every year, the conference office organizes this event so that the congregants, pastors, and the church delegates from our conference (and anyone else who would like to join) can get together to see what is occurring and developing within our churches.

The GLC Ministerial Association met on Friday morning for their Annual Meeting. During the meeting, the Ministerial Association elected officers and elected members for the committee on Ministerial Standing. They also approved ordination candidates (Matt Ness, One Church, Louisville, KY; Rebecca Homan, Covenant Community Church, Fairfield, OH; and Josh Hinken, First Covenant Church, Grand Rapids, MI) and approved a $30 dues increase.

The GLC offered several workshops on Friday afternoon. The workshops offered were:
• Walking Like Christ- Today
• But I Don’t Like to Meditate…Walking with God Through Spiritual Practices
• Walking with the Community: MissionInsite
• Walking with Purpose; Overview of Evangelism and Discipleship Tools
• How is Your Walk Growing in the “Third, Third” of Life?
• How Goes the Walk of the Church?
All workshops were well received. Thornapple engineered both a beautiful lunch and dinner with numerous food options and everyone was able to enjoy a time of conversation with new and old friends.

2023 Award Winners

After dinner, we gathered everyone for an awards ceremony where we honored this year’s recipients. Garth McGrath (GLC’s Superintendent) presented the awards to each church and the respective people that were present for the ceremony. The four awards were: The Church Planting Award – Mosaic Covenant Church of Grand Rapids (MI), The Church Outreach Award – Christ Community Church (Allegan, MI), The Church Leadership Award – First Covenant Church (Youngstown, OH) and The Church Vitality Award – Kingdom Embassy Covenant Church (Muskegon, MI). It was very interesting to hear from each group as they responded to receiving their award.

Praying over President Swanson-Draheim

Immediately following the awards ceremony, Thornapple’s worship team led us in a time of uplifting and worshipful music. What a talented group of individuals using their gifts to glorify God. Tammy Swanson-Draheim (the Evangelical Covenant Church’s president) provided an engaging and relevant sermon and the service ended with some additional time of lively worship music.

The Great Lakes Conference’s Annual Meeting began the next morning at 8:30am. Doug McCann (GLC’s Board Chairman) called the meeting to order and asked that the agenda be approved – it was approved. Doug continued to welcome everyone to the meeting and the Standing Rules and Committees were approved.

Tammy Swanson-Draheim gave greetings from the ECC and offered encouragement to all in attendance. Sara Charlton spoke on behalf of the Nominating Committee and the election of the GLC Officers and Board Members commenced. All on the election ballot were approved. Garth expressed his (and our) thanks to the retiring Board Members. The GLC delegates also affirmed the ordination candidates.

Brian Rudy, Treasurer

There were several Good News Reports given throughout the meeting – LifeChurch Riverside, Detroit, MI spoke about church planting. Covenant Community Church, Fairfield, OH talked about Church Vitality. Garth McGrath spoke about Church Leadership and the Church Chair Event that took place for the church chairs at Faith Covenant in Farmington Hills, MI. Garth also spoke on the many Baptisms that were performed throughout our conference in the last year.

Brian Rudy gave the Treasurer’s report, and the new budget was approved. An interim budget was also discussed.

The GLC would like to give our sincere thanks to Thornapple Covenant Church for hosting the 2023 GLC Annual Celebration. Everyone at the church was so welcoming and extremely helpful. They were truly instrumental in making this year’s event a success. Next year, the GLC Annual Celebration will be held at Faith Covenant Church in Farmington Hills, MI on April 19-20, 2024. We look forward to seeing you there!!!