Workshop Topics and Leaders

Increasing our Knowledge

Brian L. Anderson, a shareholder of the law firm DeWitt Ross & Stevens S.C. in Madison, Wisconsin, practices in the areas of nonprofit organizations, business and tax law, employee benefits, estate planning, and charitable giving.  He establishes nonprofit organizations (including foundations for church-related purposes), obtains Internal Revenue Service recognition of tax-exempt status, and advises churches and other nonprofit organizations on tax and employee-benefit matters and governance and liability issues.

Mr. Anderson received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1980 and a master of law degree in taxation from New York University School of Law in 1982.  He is the author of Chapter 6 (Employee Benefits) of A Guide for Wisconsin Nonprofit Organizations published by the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Mr. Anderson is a former treasurer of Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Sussex, Wisconsin. He will help us learn about legal and business issues relating to church administration, including:

• Incorporation and 501(c) 3 status
• Personnel/payroll - for example: how to legally pay your custodian for funerals and weddings
• Pensions and other employee benefits
• Acceptable use of contributions collected – for example: you accept offerings for Easter lilies – must you use it all on Easter lilies?
• Receipts for tax purposes
• “Sunsetting” of funds
• Best accounting practices - how often should we have independent audits, financial reviews?
• How long should we keep documents around in a church office?

Make sure to bring your questions!                                                                                               

Nurturing our World

Church on Earth, Grounding Your Ministry in a Sense of Place
Authors: Jeff Wild and Peter Bakken

What other church is there besides institutional? Fredrick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There’s no life in the bark. It’s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it’s prone to disease, dehydration, death. So yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you have a church without bark, it doesn’t last long. It disappears, gets sick and it’s prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism. - Eugene Peterson

Church on Earth is an effort to examine the tree’s roots and calls for an analysis of the soil that anchors the tree in its place. Just as nutrients in the soil feed the roots of a tree and the roots hold the soil in place, there is a symbiotic relationship between a congregation and the place where it is located. Every congregation, though similar to other trees in the woods or orchard, has a unique identity shaped in part by its understanding of and relationship to the place where it is planted to carry forth its mission.

Church on Earth is a biblical and theological reflection contextualized in a place called Madison Christian Community (MCC). Located on the west side of Madison, Wisconsin, MCC was founded during a time when leaders of Christian denominations were seriously engaged in ecumenical discussion. 2008 is the fortieth anniversary of Community of Hope, United Church of Christ, and Advent Lutheran, ELCA, congregations from two denominations who continue living out this vision through the shared ministry that is MCC.

Jeff Wild, an ELCA pastor, serves as one of the pastors at MCC. He grew up in Beaver Dam and has served congregations in Racine and Janesville. He wrote Discovering a Place Again for the First Time while on a sabbatical in 2006.

Peter Bakken is Coordinator for Public Policy at the Wisconsin Council of Churches and is also a member of Advent and Madison Christian Community. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago and edited the works of Joseph Sitler in a volume of Evocations of Grace. Peter is also a contributor to Earth and Word: Classic Sermons of Saving the Planet.

Enriching our Lives

Rev. Holly Whitcomb, has been a pastor and clergywoman in the United Church of Christ since her graduation from Yale Divinity School and has served churches in Connecticut, Iowa, and Wisconsin. She is also a graduate of the two-year program for spiritual directors at the Shalem Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. A widely traveled retreat leader who directs Kettlewood Retreats, Holly is also a spiritual director and writer who has published dozens of articles on spirituality.

She is the author of four books including Feasting with God and Practicing Your Path. Her latest book, The Seven Spiritual Gifts of Waiting, sold out in three weeks and had to be immediately reprinted.  It also took her to New York where she did a taping for the television show, New Morning. Holly lives in suburban Milwaukee with her husband John.