As the Greater Northwest Area of The United Methodist Church continues moving into its shared services office of finance and administration, there is a need to add a new person to the team.
The GNW is seeking a director of property asset management to help live into the goal of aligning physical resources with ministry priorities. This position is full-time and will be based out of either the Pacific Northwest Conference office in Des Moines, Wash., or the Oregon-Idaho Conference office based in Portland, Oregon.
“Our churches are wanting to do more creative things with their spaces beyond Sunday morning worship,” said Sara Goetze, director of finance for GNW Shared Services. “This has added additional layers of complexity to the work of a local church trustee, so they need expertise in this area, which hasn’t been available to them before.”
Goetze said the GNW Area leadership has placed a value on shifting the focus on the practice of closing a church and immediately selling the property to a community partner. The hope is to have conversations between the conference boards of trustees in the Alaska, PNW and Oregon-Idaho Conference, congregational boards of development, cabinet members and district leaders to work through the options for a church setting before it is closed.
“We know that when we sell a church, we have ended an opportunity for ministry in that area as we won’t be able to buy back in the current market,” Goetze said.
Brant Henshaw, executive director of finance and administration for GNW Shared Services, said the director of property asset management will also be responsible for caring for physical assets such as laptops, vehicles and residences and will be a resource in assisting with property insurance programs for local churches as the market has become more challenging.
Each Conference (PNW & Oregon-Idaho) is managing close to 16 properties each right now, not including things such as laptops.
The funding for this position comes through shared apportioned budgets between the Oregon-Idaho and PNW Conferences (the Alaska Conference is consulted in the development process). Henshaw said this is a re-alignment of already existing budgets to make this part of the GNW Ministry Priorities such as addressing housing and hunger, securing preferred and in-common vendors, and supporting information technology and tech for local ministry teams.
“This is an example of how collaboration can leverage our capacity,” Henshaw said.
If you know of someone who would be a good fit for this position, please share with them this link. The closing date to apply is April 23, 2025.
