| Ministry brings, keeps people working at BWC center BY ERIK ALSGAARDUMCONNECTION STAFF The 2004 budget of the Baltimore-Washington Conference is large compared to most local churches. Set at just over $15 million, the budget provides mission and ministry to countless thousands of people in West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and around the world.  The Baltimore Washington Conference employs more than 50 people to carry out its ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. These staff and employees are just the tip of the iceberg for doing ministry, helping to gbwc_superusere, resource and empower dozens of groups, committees, boards and agencies, enlisting the help of hundreds of people, all working on their piece of Gods Kingdom.
Take Sandy Ferguson, for example. As an associate council director, she relates to no fewer than 18 boards, agencies, committees or groups in the church. She may be meeting with a group that deals with issues of racism in the church one day, and in Annapolis at a rally trying to stop the spread of gambling the next. Twelve- to sixteen-hour days are not uncommon for her, sometimes seven days a week. The Rev. Ed DeLong, associate council director, works in the area of church growth and development. Together with the Board of Congregational Life, part of the Baltimore-Washington Conference has continued an ambitious effort to start new churches and bring new people to a relationship with Christ. Tim Warner, director of Holy Boldness Ministries, works with local churches to provide Saving Stations tent ministries that provide drug and alcohol resources to deliver people from the grips of addiction. The Rev. Vivian McCarthy, associate council director, assists committees working with Christian Education, camping, worship, Leadership Days and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women. Everywhere you turn in the new Conference Center, it seems, someone is working on a project that touches a persons life with the good news of Jesus. It is this commitment to hands-on ministry that brings people to work for the Baltimore Washington Conference. Ive worked here eight years, said Gary Ball, central services coordinator. I was led here, I believe, by God, to do ministry in the church. Ball is involved in many things, he said, from setting up tables and chairs for meetings, making copies, receiving and getting out the mail and whatever else needs to be done to make the conference center run smoothly. I guess anything that involves working in the church is ministry to me; thats how I look at it, he said. Over in the finance office, Veta Sparrow works in accounts payable. Shes been on the job less than a year and likes the fact that she is able to work with local churches on a very personal level. I work with gifts that come in from the different churches to different organizations, she said. Im also the person to call when the churches are looking for money, like loans or grants. They call, looking for their money, she said with a laugh. Natalie Davis and Jason Simering help keep the conference center running as facilities coordinator and administrative services, respectively. I work here because I believe in the mission of the organization, said Davis. Her duties include making sure the building is operational, functional and comfortable. Davis said the new conference center suits the needs of the conference just right. I think the new conference center is comfortable and business-like, she said. It is not as palatial as they had it before, not as plush, but in terms of our being good stewards to the rest of the conference, we made the best decision. I think the new conference center is suitable for the needs of what theyre trying to accomplish here, said Simering, who started in the conference as a temp and was hired full time when a position became open. All the departments are getting settled in and everythings getting going and it should be a good thing. In the Episcopal Office, Margie Green is administrative assistant for the Rev. David Simpson, administrative analyst for Bishop Felton Edwin May. I guess I feel working here is a mission, she said, as well as work. Being involved in the programs here is how I see my ministry, and just my working here has made more people in my congregation aware of the conference center and what the conference center does, what the Bishop does. Working for the conference for the past three years, Green said the environment of the conference is one of the draws to working there. A former legal secretary, she took time off to raise a family and joined the work world again at Oakdale-Emory UMC, where she is a member. When a position opened at the conference center, she applied. I had not worked in a long time. I did not want to go out into the secular world and work; the environment had changed so much, she said. I like being part of a ministry, and I think my own faith has grown since Ive worked here. | 
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