For the first time in over 100 years, Oregon might not have its annual July Campmeeting in Gladstone, OR, due to lack of funds.

A memo was passed out that indicated $250,000 in pledges would be needed by March 30, 2010, otherwise the campmeeting would be cancelled this year.

It was mentioned that virtually all conferences are having financial difficulties, and the Oregon Conference was seeing a big drop in income due to (among other things) lost jobs within its membership, reflecting a loss in tithe income. The Conference has had to cut back on jobs, dropping some positions to part time, and eliminating others completely.

RUDYWOOFS

WOW this is sad but this just shows that
the time is very close to being over

dgrimm60

The Oregon Campmeeting I believe is the 2nd largest campmeeting in the NAD. It's possible that some people will be able to pony up the cash for it to continue. There are a number of multi-millionaire SDA's in this Conference who could contribute larger amounts as well as members who could just do smaller sums. It would be a shame to discontinue the campmeeting - Ellen White spoke there once or twice.

RUDYWOOFS

WELL I HOPE these members can pull through

dgrimm60

me too

Me three. I know here in the southern NE campmeeting will only be the weekend I believe.

pk

I'm wondering if campmeeting is a dying thing. With streaming internet that people can watch at home and avoid the heat, rain, or other discomforts. I haven't gone in about 5 or 6 years. That doesn't mean I won't this year. Our church has services and SS during campmeeting with the senior pastor, so not many people go. Just my $.02

I live in Oregon & I heard about this in church. It's sort of like a headline out of the Twilight Zone.

I'm certainly not in much of a position to help financially. I do pray that others are able to help pull this off. How many opportunities to help folks might we lose w/o campmeeting? After all, cm is for folks already in the church. The purpose leans heavily toward reform and fellowship, not evangelism. In this time, we need campmeeting more than ever.

Yes, it may have to be shortened. It is already shorter at 1 week than it was when I was growing up. Folks used to start gathering on Tuesday, meetings started on Wednesday and lasted thru the next Sabbath.

When I was a kid our campmeeting was two weeks plus the third weekend, beginning on a Friday and ending three Sundays later. It was a great social gathering which I enjoyed very much. Now, I haven't been to a campmeeting service in many years. They hold very little interest for me. And I question the wisdom of contributing money for the continuation of campmeetings. But I would be more than willing to follow the Lord. I will pray a silent prayer for a certain thing to happen if the Lord wants me to donate money for the purpose of campmeeting. I cannot reveal this request to anyone but the Lord, because if I did I could not be sure that the answer was coming from Him.

Campmeeting is a time set aside for the church to come together and focus on spiritual things in a location set aside for this outside of everyday life. More and more conferences are finding that the costs are very high for the time set aside: maintaining special locations, costs of bringing in special speakers and music presenters along with electricity, air conditioning, perhaps rental of location etc. More and more people are unable to set aside the time to go: work commitments and family also are an issue. Some conferences have a full eight days and are finding more and more of the church only attending on weekends.

We know that in end times money will become tight...we sure do see that today. Church schools are closing for lack of funds and SDA students.Where have the children all gone anyway? Churches are barely making it and are not growing at all. Some are not growing because the congregation is aging and others because the members are moving out of state for jobs or retirement. Other churches the members do NOT want to witness at all....they are afraid to go outside their walls..they really do not know their BIBLE.

Someone told me that the Michigan conference is having a really hard time because so many of it's members have moved and young people are not staying because there are no jobs. As a result their tithe is way down.Their church schools are not making it and churches are withering away. I was also told that in Montana over half of the churches have no children...TIME TO WAKE UP CHURCH.

Putting this all together: Jesus is coming soon and we need to be sharing our faith. We need get our priorities in line. HE IS COMING.