It has been an eventful three years in the Lake Union Conference Information Systems Department since our last Constituency Session, and we have felt and experienced blessings from the Almighty One in so many unique ways that we just feel honored to work in His vineyard at this time. From guidance that helps us in our day-to-day activities to the divine appointments where we are able to assist users through challenging technical issues, and when we are able to solve programming problems in unexpected ways, we know that He is with us and His Spirit is present in our ministry.
We are blessed with our current staffing levels that continue to make it possible for us to support many areas of ministry across the Lake Union footprint. Kong Yoong continues to be our primary support technician for many business applications and is assisting with implementing new accounting software. Ben Rietman has now been on our team for several years and has helped build an excellent web application to support the Religious Liberty campaign and is a top-notch technician to assist users with their daily needs. With Ben Freeman’s departure in September, we had an opening last fall, and we are pleased to welcome Ricky Moore to our staff. He is handling the workload for overseeing our firewalls, servers, cloud systems and much more and is no stranger to the Lake Union, as his dad has been an associate treasurer here for many years. Sean Parker continues to lead the department and is primarily responsible for LUCIS Software and software implementations.
One of the major changes over the course of the last five years is a decision to transition the Lake Union Treasury department from using LUCIS software to AASI software. AASI software is provided by the North American Division and is currently in use by most of the Unions and Conferences within its footprint. This was a challenging decision, as the department has developed and supported LUCIS Software for over 50 years, but the decision was made with treasury staff and administration, and we have now completed nearly two years on AASI software. Subsequently, we have assisted both the Wisconsin and Illinois Conferences with successfully implementing AASI software and have plans for the Indiana Conference to transition soon. As other entities are interested, we will assist with their implementation and transition, as well.
LUCIS software is still widely used across our territory and in other conferences by churches, schools, academies and a smattering of conference offices. We continue to support and maintain this software and will do so for some time. We have also delved into building a new web app for the PARL department, which will aid in managing the Religious Liberty campaign. We believe this is a user-friendly system that will reduce the workload in collecting subscription information from churches. Big thanks to Ben Rietman for his work on this project.
Another area we have been working in these last five years is moving from on-premises Active Directory to Microsoft Entra. We have completed the move at the Lake Union office and are starting the process of assisting conferences in this direction. This transition allows us to manage all devices via a cloud-based system and reduces the cost and maintenance time of having on-premises servers. We also believe it will provide better security for our users. In addition, we continue to maintain network infrastructure at four of our conferences and provide technical assistance as needed for the conferences and academies.
Our motto is Philippians 2:3–4, which reads in the NIV: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
The Lake Union is an awesome place to work in multiple ways, but one characteristic stands out for us above the others — the staff at our conferences, academies, churches and schools are dedicated to self-sacrifice and serving others. It is our desire to replicate that principle as our guiding mission as we move forward together in service for Him.
Sean Parker is director of Information Systems at the Lake Union Conference.
Sean Parker – director
Kong Yoon – systems analyst/programmer
Ricky Moore – systems administrator/ITS support specialist
Ben Reitman – systems analyst/programmer