My Name is Mary Benin, and I'm a member of Shepherd of the Hills Congregational UCC in Phoenix.  I am also a member of Southwest Conference Committee on Church and Ministries. We are starting a program of annual visits with lay leaders of each church in the Southwest Conference.  We meet with the church council or other the main governing lay group in each church. 

The purpose of our first annual visit is to listen to the council and find out what the conference can do to strengthen the relationship between the conference and the church.  We want to find out how aware the members are of the services that the conference provides and listen to suggestions from church members on what we could do at the conference to be more helpful to the churches.