As the Oregon Conference Administration and Executive Committee work diligently under God’s leadership to restore our Conference to sound financial footing, a number of difficult decisions continue to be considered. A guiding principle is that no significantly costly expenses – no matter how longstanding and beloved – can be completely off limits as the leadership team conducts cost-benefit analyses.
‍
In that vein, on April 18, the Executive Committee, with prayerful consideration, made the extremely difficult decision to suspend Spanish and English camp meetings for 2024, with plans to fully reinstate this Spirit-filled event for 2025. As you likely know, camp meeting is one of the most expensive line items in the Oregon Conference budget every year and to produce it this year would have required the Conference to borrow approximately $380,000. As important as camp meeting is to all of us, we simply couldn’t justify taking on that much debt as we work to bring our budget back into balance.
‍
Our hearts ache with yours at missing out on the spiritual and social fellowship of camp meeting this year, but we strongly believe that God is calling us to take this step in 2024.
‍
With all of that said, Elder Linrud reached out to pastors yesterday to initiate possible discussion of implementing conversions around geographic area gatherings (regional convocations) around the Conference this year. More prayer and conversation will need to take place in this regard. Please stay tuned for possible additional news on this front.
‍
Thank you for your ongoing prayers for the continued progress in our push to achieve a balanced budget in the coming months.
‍
If you have any questions about why the difficult decision was made to not hold camp meeting this year, please reach out to info@oc.npuc.org.