by Rev Roberto Ochoa, Conferences Minister.
Given at JAM – First Congregational Church, Sioux Falls – Friday, Sept 18, 2026
Dear Delegates, Colleagues, and Friends, my Siblings of the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences of the United Church of Christ.
It is with profound honor and humility that I present to you the state of the Tri Conferences Ministries 2025-2026.
When I accepted the call to be your Conferences Minister, I committed myself to be prayerfully present, to listen, to learn, and walk the journey with the local church leaders and membership, authorized ministers, Associations and the conferences that serve Iowa Nebraska South Dakota (as well as our church in North Dakota and one in Missouri). I cannot stress enough the welcoming that I have received in all our UCC settings. Thank you for your confidence and willingness to earn your trust this past year and eight months. It has been a blessing for which I am so grateful to work together in spreading the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Prayerful presence, what I heard and learned these past 21 months:
Since my call I have visited 180 local churches and Association settings throughout the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota landscape. I have been asked to preach, to speak on the current state of the conferences and the Tri Conference Ministries and to listen, and most importantly engage in dialogue regarding the concerns that mattered most to our local UCC churches and Associations.
The most common being the lack of ordained pastoral candidates, congregational sustainability as financial concerns grew and congregations seemed to get smaller, and the lament of loss communication and relationship with their conferences and the United Church of Christ, national setting.
There were and continues to be difficult conversations regarding the financial state of each conference and the TCM. It didn’t take me long to figure the staff cuts that occurred in 2023 have made conference ministry very difficult to do.
Experiencing my staff being overworked and finding out that some had experienced salary cuts to keep their positions both took me aback and saddened me. My commitment of being present to listening and learning was also definitely extended to TCM’s amazing staff and one of the first things I was committed to doing was finding a way to restore the original salaries of the affected staff, as soon as possible. It was and is a justice issue for me.
When I arrived, the TCM and Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences had not had a financial report for at least three years and Ms. Susan Russell, the newly hired Financial Director, was on the job for about three months. She wasn’t prepared to answer my questions about the financial state of the TCM and the conferences. Going as far as cautioning me that it may take a year to straighten all of this out.
What was clear was that the conferences were in substantial arrears in taxes and OCWM payments to UCC National, with serious discrepancies on the balance sheets and actual cash on hand. It was like solving a mystery.
So, for the first six months of 2025, I was left with being provided with educated guesses on our finances, being conservative on expenses, and watching cash flow. Susan, with the assistance of Ms. Jill Korver, our finance specialist, and Ms. Kim Springer, Executive Admin, (who was able to provide historical information) worked hard to provide our first up to date financials by late July of last year.
And in the spirit of transparency, the Board of Directors of each conference and the Tri Conference Executive Committee were given monthly financial progress reports by me and Susan, sharing new discoveries, even when the news were less than favorable.
Through the amazing work of Susan, Jill, and Kim, we now have actual financial reports that allow us to plan for the future. We are fortunate to have them on staff. Gracias Susan, Jill and Kim.
Rebuilding relationships:
As I visited our local churches and Associations, it was clear there existed a disconnected connection between conference and local churches, pastors and members alike. I am grateful that we have Conference Deacons to assist our one full-time Associate Conference Minister, Rev Kendy Miller, two part-time Associate Conference Ministers, Rev Corey Larson and Rev Jeff Hagaman (before his retirement), and our part-time Resource Deacon, Rev Shonda Deranleau in attempting to keeping local churches and pastoral leaders engaged with the conferences.
What I learned was that communication with the Associations within the conferences needed improvement, as all of our Associations have relationships with the local churches in their geographical areas which seem to elude the conferences. My directions to the Conference Deacons were simple, prioritizing those congregations that are least engaged by working with the Associations and to bring those churches to my attention for outreach. My goal being that for the well-being of our conferences, we must be intentional in reaching out to those UCC congregations that for whatever reason have chosen not to participate in the works of the UCC wider church.
Every year, authorized ministers and congregations are expected to complete updates for the UCC Data Hub and national UCC directory. Ms. Jane Estrada, Administrative Support, is tasked with (among other duties like working with Committees on Ministries (COM) and local church search committees) the gathering and coordinating of info review forms from local churches and authorized ministers for the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences, with the assistance of a part-time data entry clerk, Ms. Kailee Schwartz, which is monumental.
This year the Conference Deacons helped with the task by reaching out to churches and authorized ministers, by phone, mail, and even visits, to complete the info forms. I felt this was a great opportunity to rebuild relationships. Though we did see an increase in participation, it still could be better.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Jane and Kailee for their hard work, along with our amazing Conference Deacons: Rev. Emily Munger and Rev. Lorah Houser Jankard for South Dakota; Rev Jeff Hagaman and Rev Shelly Moock for Nebraska; Rev. Chad Savage, Rev Dixie Laube, Rev Dr Charles Kniker, and Rev Bob Molsberry for Iowa. Rev Jeff serves as Lead Conference Deacon and Rev Shonda coordinates church resources for Iowa Nebraska South Dakota.
Also, I want to express my deepest gratitude and thanks for the tremendous work of our Associate Conference Ministers Rev Kendy and Rev Corey, who have faithfully served all three conferences. Working side by side with such dedicated and committed colleagues is a blessing that I thank God each day. Gracias Kendy and Corey.
One area that we have tried to improved was how we communicate to our churches and settings by revamping our Fast Five e-mail newsletter and conferences websites. Restricted finances haven’t allowed for a new system, however Ms. Tami Spindler has done and continue to do wonders as TCM’s part-time (15 hours a week) Communication Specialist with what we have, keeping information flowing not only the websites, but overseeing each conference’s Facebook as well. Thank you, Tami, for all your hard work.
Finally, before I continue, I need to acknowledge the one that has been my right hand person throughout the 21 months I have been your Conferences Minister. Ms. Kim Springer’s smiling, optimistic and gentle – yet type A, presence has enabled me to do the work I have been called to do. Our time of prayer together, and her ability to keep me grounded when I get too far off the ground is part of the reason, I have kept going. Kim keeps my schedule, she screens my calls, she alerts me when I need the heads up, especially when conferences receive calls of concerns or crisis, let’s me know about notable anniversaries and other milestones, and is just a human that is a joy to work with. Kim, along with Janey and Rev Kendy have been the heart of the TCM and the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences for the past five years and most don’
realize that they remain being so after receiving a 10% pay cut in 2023. So, gracias gracias gracias Kim, Janey, and Kendy for hanging in there and for all you do for us.
On behalf of the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences we lament and ask for your forgiveness for having you give up so much to continue your ministries with us. I vow that we will do better and honor our commitment to you for all you do for the church.
Thank you, Tri Conference Ministries Executive Committee, for partially restoring their salaries level this year. Thank you Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences for increasing your contributions to TCM this year and for making this possible.
Even in the light of our financial anxieties…you have proven that when we must correct an injustice, there is always abundance with the help of God.
Accomplishments and Action:
As Susan was solving the financial puzzles for Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences plus the Tri Conference Ministries, I could clearly see the trend of less giving to the conferences by local churches. By June 2025, as Susan began providing me with previews of each conference’s income statements, I knew it was time for a deep discernment to determine if the TCM was sustainable as it was originally covenanted. So I created the Conferences Minister’s Task Force to Reflect Discern and Re-imagine the Tri Conference Ministries. This 21 members Task Force, with 7 representatives of each conference, was to thoughtfully discern and make recommendations regarding the future of TCM by the summer of 2028. This concept was passed by all three conferences Board of Directors by the fall of 2025. The Task Force was scheduled to begin their tasks in 2026. More on that later in this address.
Another major accomplishment in 2025 was my decision that each conference was to determine and discern their own budgets before approving a budget for TCM in 2026.
The past practice of budgeting was that TCM would complete a budget and then would “inform” the three conferences what their contributions to the TCM would be. Since an estimated 80% of the conferences budget went to TCM, I strongly felt conferences needed to have a say on how and why their respective conferences were contributing to TCM, especially now that all conferences had real-time financial reports, in accordance with the agreed covenants signed in 2016 by each conference.
I hosted a joint gathering of the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences Boards of Directors via zoom to explain the new budgeting process being used. As expected, there were volumes of questions and some surprises.
The good news, by the end of 2025, the conferences were making good progress in paying back taxes and arrears owed to UCC national. The not so good news, giving had fallen between 30-40% by local churches.
One positive discovery is that each conference has various types of substantial restricted discretionary funds at their disposal that haven’t been used in several years to service local church ministries, local pastors, and for those seeking ministerial vocation. I have encouraged each conference to develop a finance team to determine how these funds could be used for the continued well-being of the conferences.
The process continued when each conference was given the opportunity to call a special meeting of the local congregations and authorized ministers to approve their budgets for 2026, which would then inform the TCM budget.
All conferences budgets were completed by the end of winter in 2026. The TCM budget was passed in July 2026, which provided a slight percentage increase towards restoring original salaries to staff that experienced pay cuts in 2023 and for cost-of-living adjustment for full-time staff.
Well done Iowa Nebraska South Dakota!!!
This past August, the Nebraska Conference Board of Directors voted to present a resolution to their annual meeting at the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Joint Annual Meetings (JAM), September 19, 2026, to create a process to discern their continued relationship with the TCM based on “fiduciary stewardship” and be completed by February 28, 2027. Mirroring the purpose of the Task Force with two clear exceptions: first, to do so themselves as a conference (though their resolution calls for Iowa and South Dakota to do the same) and secondly, for the discernment to be reduced from two years to five months. I have expressed my support for this resolution and as of this moment, Iowa and South Dakota will be offering similar resolutions at their annual meetings.
The Task Force has pivoted, as the members would be available as resources for each conference as they were trained in special leadership and relationship training this past Thursday.
At tomorrow’s 2:00 pm JAM assembly, the first half of the meeting will be dedicated for each conference to report back their deliberations to the whole body of TCM and planned next steps, allowing a time for us to collectively have a conversation, ending it with a special prayer.
Also, our Conference Deacons and other ministerial volunteers will be serving as chaplains for those needing someone to talk or pray with this weekend. Our Conference Deacons can be identified in Red T-shirts and special stoles that read “chaplain”.
As we know, 2026 is our Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) year and it’s my first one. Over one hundred folks made up of TCM staff, Iowa Nebraska South Dakota conference board members, camps staff, and local church volunteers have created an ambitious three-day event featuring workshops, fellowships, music, and worship, including a first time ever Confirmand Youth Rally in Sioux Falls, SD.
Will the Confirmand Youth, chaperones and Youth Rally volunteers please stand so that we can offer you a special round of applause.
Praise God…and so glad you are here. If you notice each conference has a different color t-shirt…and I request you wear them proudly!
Iowa Yellow…please stand
Nebraska Green… please stand
South Dakota Blue…please stand
Confirmands…when you see someone your age…wearing a t-shirt…based on the color..you now know what conference they come from.
As for our administrative staff and volunteers…stand please…to be recognized.
I am grateful to the sponsors, workshop presenters, and marketplace vendors that supported JAM and most of all, I am so thankful for our host congregations First Congregational UCC and Spirit of Peace UCC.
We are so fortunate to have the Associate General Minister for the Love of Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, Rev Jennifer Sowell (acknowledge to stand) and Rev Brian Fredrick-Gray, Director for Justice and Advocacy Ministries for Disciples of Christ (acknowledge to stand) as our two keynote speakers.
Welcome to you both to South Dakota!!!
A crossroad of hope, faith and love:
So, as we gather these next few days in Sioux Falls, celebrating our Confirmands Youth Rally and coming together to worship, attend workshops, see old friends, make new ones, and fellowship in the theme “Living Together as Neighbors in Christ”, we find ourselves at a crossroads as the Iowa Nebraska South Dakota Conferences of the United Church of Christ. Whatever is coming our way, please know that I will be with our conferences, Associations, local churches, ministers and members all the way through. For Jesus Christ gives us the hope, faith, and love to continue spreading the good news gospel through the Holy Spirit for the dawning of a better day.
Thank you, my friends, for the privilege of being your Conferences Minister and look forward to the days, weeks, and months ahead in Christ’s Name.
Bendiciones y Paz,
Rev. Roberto Ochoa