tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61675344782964651462024-02-06T18:40:28.325-08:00CalledMusings on Religious LeadershipMasasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-17808152102691663082011-02-23T08:37:00.000-08:002011-02-26T20:18:38.340-08:00Repost ExplanationBelow, I am going to republish some posts that I wrote between October and December of 2010. The posts are three in a series on "church and the economy." <br />
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The reason I am reposting this series is that I realized I have been cited in the current print edition of "UU World Magazine," from part 1 of the series, and I want to put all those posts together in one space on the front page of the blog so they are easier to find.<br />
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I do plan to continue writing posts to this series. When I do that, I will change the dates on the posts such that they remain clumped together, in order starting with post 1 and going down through later posts. I hope that is helpful.<br />
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Thanks for reading! And I hope you'll leave comments. The underlying goal I have for this blog is to engage in an interesting conversation, which means that my goal is only met when this is a dialogue.<br />
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See below...Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-70831597818010918682011-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:002011-02-23T08:41:38.442-08:00On Economy and Church: Part 1 (originally posted 10/2010)<div style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Less in the collection plate this year? In a survey of Protestant pastors, 57% said the poor economy was hurting their church." border="0" height="121" src="http://i.usatoday.net/news/religion/collection-topper-HO.jpg" width="200" /></div><strong>Here are some of my observations: </strong><br />
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<strong>1. The economy is still on shaky ground.</strong> I am far from alone in questioning whether the economy is sustainable. I still find the following link really interesting, even if I don't agree with a lot of what is on the website, and I hope others will as well (it is over 3 hours, but soooo worth the time and extremely thought-provoking): <a href="http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse">http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse</a>. I especially find it interesting that I watched these videos long before the election of President Obama, and I am witnessing the predictions of his actions, as our next president, come to fruition, as I now believe they would have with either a democrat or republican in the White House.<br />
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<strong>2. If the above is true,</strong> that there is a fair chance that the economy is not sustainable, <strong>then our churches need to prepare to see our communities through some rough seas ahead.</strong> Many of our churches as they exist now could not survive those seas themselves. <br />
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<strong>3. Currently, environmental activists and fiscal conservatives are seen as warring parties. Bridges need to be built</strong> between the reality that economic resources as we currently know them are not going to be available forever, and perhaps not even in the near future, and the reality that our use of those resources to date has been tremendously destructive to our shared home, the earth, and that this also is a threat to us and our children.<br />
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<strong>4. One advantage of the economic difficulties </strong>of the last several years is that <strong>many actions toward sustainability became more mainstream.</strong> I don't have research to back it up, but I have a good feeling waste levels on the individual plane have been reduced. At the same time, <strong>however, because sustainability is currently a largely <em>individual or small group</em> action, in order to survive, many families had to resort to environmentally harmful and economically unsustainable action.</strong> <br />
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For example, Americans benefit from what is seen as a highly efficient agricultural system and food manufacturing and shipping system. The prices we pay for food do not reflect the food's ultimate cost, to the environment, our health, and so forth. However, our entire sense of the cost of living is built around the availability of this system. People own the houses that they can afford because of this system. <br />
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The shaky foundation underneath it all, as the environmental and health costs are more and more visible, however, is also contributing to initial signs of breakdown. Food prices have been driven up and up from what was comfortable for the majority five or six years ago. Those of us who own homes or pay rent based on what we can afford because of a lower cost of food, especially in a time of job loss and jobs at risk, aren't able to keep it all balanced.<br />
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Because of the higher cost of food, for instance, my family can't afford to eat anymore except to the extent we shop for the vast majority of what we eat at places like <a href="http://www.priceritesupermarkets.com/">Pricerite</a> (discount grocer shipping food in from all over just like BJs, Costco, or Walmart). With the exception of organic milk, no organics are available. We've thus reduced the organics we eat to "occasional foods" when we can afford local. With the exception of locally prepared pita breads, this is not local food. We've thus reduced our locally grown and prepared food (we couldn't afford even a half share at a CSA this summer) to "occasional foods" (though to our credit, we buy very, very little pre-prepared foods, and cook nearly entirely from scratch). On the <em>individual level</em> we can't afford the sustainable practices that will ultimately save <em>our community</em>.<br />
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<strong>5. While questioning sustainability is more accepted now than it was even a few years ago, questioning sustainability is not yet seen as mainstream.</strong> Those who question sustainability are largely still seen still as alarmists and millenialists. Those who are preparing for a major economic shift are marginalized as if they are preparing for "the end of the world." Even within "green churches," we have not yet reached a tipping point of preparation for a new economic era.<br />
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<strong>6. The status quo has been maintained just enough that as communities, we have largely been settling back into a place of comfort about things.</strong> Economic distress is still high, but the stress levels have been reduced just enough that we aren't questioning the entire system. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, I was still functioning under the illusion that I can hold onto my house that I really need to sell in order to move into a position more sustainable on the individual and community level. I was still thinking I could get a renter and downsize to a small apartment, and that everything might still be okay. <br />
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<strong>7. One tension: in what might turn out to be a major shift in the entire world economic system, the things that are good for us in the long-run do not feel attainable in the short-run.</strong> Just as in my example above regarding the cost of food and the way my own family is surviving on the cheap stuff from the discount grocery outlet, our churches are also finding it difficult or impossible to choose a way of being in the world that is best for the long-run. Our churches have staff people and ministers who need these jobs in an economy where jobs are scarce. These jobs serve an important function for the things that churches do <em>currently,</em> even though those things may not be what is needed to help our communities through the rough seas ahead in the next 10, 20, 30...years. <br />
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On the institutional level, we don't know how else to structure ourselves, and we are afraid to make any changes based on predictions of an unknown future because what if those predictions don't turn out to be true? Won't we then just be irrelevant? Major change is needed, but every incentive is toward the maintenance of the status quo (to understand this, please, please take the time to check out the link in observation #1). The chance of popular support for critical changes in our churches seems remote at best.<br />
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We look at churches <a href="http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/172162.shtml">like those of the Rev. Ron Robinson</a>, and we say, "Oh, that looks interesting. What great stuff. I want to support what they are doing. But that is not what my own church's unique identity is all about. That wouldn't fit us at all. I wouldn't feel at home in that church. Here at my own church, we're about Sunday worship..." etc. etc. It's scary to reimagine ourselves. And it's scary to reimagine ourselves in a future that seems uncertain. And it's scary to imagine ourselves taking actions now based on what seem like potentially alarmist predictions, especially when those decisions involve tough issues like the jobs and the position descriptions of good people who have done good, important work and who need jobs in an economically difficult time, and whose current job descriptions make sense to what we feel like we need right now.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-13458512633893810632011-02-23T07:40:00.000-08:002011-02-23T08:45:26.170-08:00On Economy and Church: Part 2 (originally posted 11/2010)<span style="color: blue;">Click</span> <a href="http://religiousleader.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-economy-and-church-part-i.html">here</a> <span style="color: blue;">for part I of this blog series on economy and church. </span><br />
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In part one of this blog series, I referenced an economic <a href="http://www.blogger.com/In%20part%20one%20of%20this%20blog%20series,%20I%20referenced%20an%20economic%20%22Crash%20Course%22%20website:%20http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse">"Crash Course" website</a>. In this post and probably other posts that follow, I am going to include some videos from that site because talking about the economy and church requires a foundational understanding of what is happening economically beyond our awareness that we are still trying to recover from a recession that has been hard to shake, and we're all feeling a little vulnerable and unsure. <br />
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I want to say that I recognize that in referencing this particular "Crash Course," I'm using a reference point with some particular assumptions behind it. However, I think the author of the "Crash Course" does a pretty good job at distinguishing between facts, beliefs, and opinions as he states is his goal in the first video. I also think the "Crash Course" is the most accessible explanation and history of the United States economy for non-economists available, which is the primary reason I use it as my reference. <br />
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The "Crash Course" website consists of twenty very short videos that are as short as one minute and 46 seconds to no longer than twenty minutes. The entire course is 3 hours and 20 minutes long, and I think this subject is important enough to call upon that length of time, whether by short spurts or sitting down with the videos for an evening.<br />
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However, knowing that we need some common information right now on which to base this conversation, I am going to include some of the video segments here and hope that the lack of context won't unnecessarily confuse the issues.<br />
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First a couple of the fundamentals of what our congregations are facing in terms of a massively shifting economy. If you don't have a lot of time, and feel pretty confident about your knowledge level regarding assets and debt, I'd say it starts to get most interesting around the eight-minute mark:<br />
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I show that video first because those are not unfamiliar economic realities, especially given the economic strains of the last couple of years. Somewhat more vague for most of us are the concepts related to the intersection of energy and economics. It takes "Crash Course" author Chris Martenson seventeen chapters to work up to them, but these concepts may be some of the most important:<br />
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Around the five-minute and twenty-second mark in the video above, Chris Martenson makes a particularly heart-wrenching educated prediction. He says: "The status quo will be preserved at all costs. Politicians will hide the truth, economic statistics will become even fuzzier, and central banks will continue to throw more and more money at a system that at its core is out of tune with reality."<br />
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I want to stop here for a minute and say that it was in October 2008 when Chris Martenson completed the "Crash Course" series. However, I believe I first was introduced to the series in 2007, before its completion, and only in what seemed like the early phases of the recession. By that time, Mr. Martenson had apparently been giving workshops and working on the course for several years. I've been stunned but unsurprised to watch President Obama, a president who had my vote and who continues to have my general support, do exactly what was predicted in his response to what some call "the great recession." That is, he has maintained the status quo at all costs. Again and again. ("Quantitative easing" anyone?) I do not believe this would have been any different with any other politician in the office, nor do I believe it will be any different with any politician who comes after him. <br />
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What we are facing is the possibility of deep change:<br />
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My basic question is, if there is even a 50-50 chance that such a change is occurring under our feet, what is our religious and moral call to the people in our congregations, our communities, and the world? Who are we called to be at this turning point in history? And how can we actually survive to live out that call?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-15949606261332674362011-02-23T07:20:00.000-08:002011-02-23T08:47:44.640-08:00On Economy and Church: Part 3 (originally posted 12/2010)This is part of an ongoing exploration of the economy and church. To see part II, where I cover some fundamentals of American economics and the current American economic condition (some of which may be applicable in some form outside of the United States) click <a href="http://religiousleader.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-economy-and-church-part-ii-some.html">here</a>. <br />
Let's now talk a little about "class."<br />
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First, the "knowns." My source(s) here is not a primary source and is six-years-old, by the way, but my blogging practice is to post sources if (1) they are either primary or can be backed up by primary sources if I took the time to do so, and (2) most of what is said in the source still applies at the time I am posting it. Here is some of what we know about class, as outlined in a 2005 New York Times series called "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html">Class Matters</a>." I especially recommend that first full article in the list.<br />
<ol><li>There is a class system in the United States.</li>
<li>The "American Dream" of upward class mobility is more dream than reality.</li>
<li>Upward class mobility is declining such that my generation became the first generation that will probably and almost uniformly make equal amounts or less than our parents, unlike the generations that have come before us for quite some time.</li>
<li>The chasm between rich and poor is indeed growing.</li>
</ol>Now let me add to the above list the following, all of which I have not yet but at some point I hope to come back and backup with sources. In the meantime, I think some of the videos in part II of this series are good starting sources.<br />
<ol><li>Consumer debt is rampant among all classes. In fact, in some cases it may be how we Americans have tried to equalize ourselves among class levels (just compare <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283">average house sizes</a> from 1950 to 2004).</li>
<li>Lenders have historically preyed on folks in vulnerable positions.</li>
<li>Across the country, individual rates of debt have far exceeded our rate of savings.</li>
</ol>Okay, so let's consider the above in relation to the economic state with which our country has been struggling for a few years, most of which is talked about regularly on the nightly news. Consider this:<br />
<ol><li>In many areas of the United States, unemployment is still a big problem.</li>
<li>Even in places where there are jobs, economic contractions from the recession have not lifted. People who have jobs are often working fewer hours, at lower rates of pay, for fewer benefits, with reduced levels of compensation for costs such as health insurance. </li>
<li>Despite some loan modifications, for the most part, the great many people who have jobs but who are working fewer hours, at lower rates of pay, for fewer benefits, with reduced levels of compensation still have their pre-recession mortgages or close to pre-recession rental costs. They also have greater health care costs (not only have benefits lowered, but prices have continued to increase). And the cost of food is up. So as a whole, we are trying to stretch less into more.</li>
<li>Folks are shouldering these burdens on top of their high rates of consumer debt and low rates of savings. </li>
</ol>In our congregations, we must sustain our commitment to those most vulnerable among us. This is even more true now than it ever was, as the poorest folks got hit the fastest in the economic troubles of recent years, and in many cases the hardest. Social programs, meanwhile, that help folks when money doesn't cover the basics (food banks, utility assistance programs, and so forth), have in many cases a decreased level of funding since Americans have had to tighten our belts more collectively. So the resources for those in greatest need are stretched even more thin at a time when they are more needed. That's not new news, but it continues to be critical news.<br />
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Making our responsibilities even greater, in addition to that, there is an emerging need among a whole new group. This need is found in the middle class folks, especially the lower-middle class folks, who have gotten themselves in over their heads with house payments and so forth that they can't support with post-recession levels of income and inflated costs of living. Even if our country recovers and we can eventually return to the "status quo" (which I questioned in part II of this series), it may very well take years. Though the need is probably less urgent than among the "working class," the suffering is largely silent. The reasons for this include:<br />
<ol><li>The problem surfaced in part as the result of high debt levels, and people feel ashamed. While high debt levels have never been part of good financial management, the truth is that what seemed to be reasonable debt to the majority of Americans five or six years ago no longer seems reasonable. Consider the mortgages some of us were willing to pay (hey, even me just back in 2007, which is after the "bubble" started to burst).</li>
<li>Because the issues are so entwined with debt for this particular class level, these are people who are not qualifying for the safety nets available to the "working class." Until they lose their jobs, despite lower incomes than pre-recession and higher costs, they can't get foodstamps, their children don't qualify for free or reduced lunch programs at school, they won't likely receive utility assistance even when the power is turned off or the oil company refuses to deliver, and the food banks may not serve folks from their zip codes.</li>
</ol>There is a lot of shame and regret tied up in the struggle of a declining middle class right now. It is entirely possible that without anyone else knowing it:<br />
<ul><li>A committed, pledging single member or family (with or without children) of your church has bounced checks trying to make a pledge payment.</li>
<li>Someone you know in a middle class profession is skipping lunch to make sure their kids can have dinner.</li>
<li>A seemingly middle class family in your church has had the electricity or heat turned off or nearly turned off sometime in the last month, and fears CPS would be called regarding their children if anyone finds out.</li>
<li>A parent you know in the so-called middle class isn't eating fruits and vegetables (is putting their own nutrition at risk) in order to ensure that produce is available for their children.</li>
<li>Someone in a middle class neighborhood near you (maybe even your own) is calling the water company to make payment arrangements this month so they can afford to pay enough of the natural gas bill that it won't be turned off. Meanwhile, they haven't paid the phone company in two months and are waiting for the inevitable cancelation notice.</li>
</ul>I realize, of course, that folks spent more money on "Black Friday" than expected, and that we're all supposed to feel good that this means the above issues are unlikely as we continue our so-called economic "recovery." But I've seen enough suffering going on with folks I know and love to trust "Black Friday" as a good indicator. I also think our spending shows an unfortunate willingness to return to the status quo, to continue increasing our debt at the first signs of economic recovery. This isn't a good sign. This is a sign of more and greater trouble to come. <br />
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If I am right, what does this mean for us as a people of faith?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-73234724288892608802011-01-13T17:18:00.000-08:002011-01-13T17:19:15.398-08:00Discernment and Call<em>Lizard Eater has been talking about </em><a href="http://uuminister.blogspot.com/2011/01/group-discernment-and-superheroes.html"><em>Group Discernment</em></a><em> on her blog. Peter Bowden recently talked about </em><a href="http://uugrowth.com/2010/12/18/uu-candyland/"><em>UU Spiritual Gifts</em></a><em> and discernment on his blog. And others have been blogging about this kind of stuff recently as well. It got me to thinking, and led me to post this (edited slightly here) as a response to Lizard Eater's questions on her blog:</em><br />
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On the start of my going-to-seminary-to-pursue-ordination journey, I had a whole series of lengthy and numerous conversations with family members, friends, and the ministers (ordained and otherwise) in my life.<br />
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Once I got accepted into several seminaries, I held a conference call with a handful of these folks to discuss my next steps. While the decision at the time was less important than that of actually discerning a call (and really was mostly about which seminary was the best fit for where I was in my journey), drawing on the wisdom of a community of folks felt important to me. <br />
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When I set up the structure for the conference call, some family members gave me a hard time because I did things like ask folks to leave a minute or two of silence between each person talking. We didn't end up sticking to it exactly, but I feel that just by sharing my hope that we could really hear one another, it created sort of an open, ongoing silent prayer in the conversation that was ultimately important to the level of clarity reached. <br />
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In an ideal world, the communal discernment is really what the MFC process would be. I am not confident that's what it is (it may be in part, but I doubt it is in whole), yet I do think it should be. Communal discernment looks, feels, and <u><strong>is</strong></u> <strong>much different</strong> than gatekeeping, standards-measuring, determining, evaluating, or testing. <br />
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For one thing, it has the power to lead to something much more powerful than a "yes" or a "no..." it can lead to a "here's what..." <br />
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For UUs, the call comes from community (even if it also comes from God). We call one another into ministry. Unfortunately, in current form, I think that all too often seems to translate into more of a reality of people trying to discern their call on their own. Or heading off to seminary, ready to pour all kinds of money into it, without a clue of what they are getting into.<br />
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I can imagine an ideal world in which, when a person first is told or begins to feel that they have a call to the ministry arising, and they want to explore that, a community of folks -- both people who know them and people who don't -- are gathered to walk with them in the continual discernment required to uncover a true calling and then refine it. The end result may or may not be ordained ministry in any of its current forms (community, RE, or parish). But no particular outcome is a goal in the beginning except to help the individual uncover the nature of his or her call. <br />
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This could be the start, middle, and end, of the credentialing process. <br />
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Can you imagine, for example, after you get the required career assessment, and you get your evaluation back, being able to go to this community whose soul purpose is for you to uncover the nature of your call, and really *process* it with them in such a way that more and more the specificity of your call emerges. There is so much rich stuff in the assessments, why not?<br />
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It would be a whole different form, and much more powerful. I also think it would make room for the emergence of other uses for the spiritual gifts of UUs in the world, other than ordained ministry (along the lines of what Peter Bowden has suggested).Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-70054317500688927582011-01-09T21:57:00.000-08:002011-01-09T21:57:54.694-08:00Takeoff and Landing TurbulanceHere is something that rarely gets talked about among religious leaders, and certainly is not covered on any regular basis in seminary, but is important nonetheless: takeoff and landing. That is to say, entrances and exits, hellos and goodbyes, or integration and disintegration of leadership relationships under relatively healthy conditions.<br />
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Some religious leaders, both those who are paid and those who are unpaid for their leadership, will stay in one place for a long time and only say a conclusive hello and goodbye once or twice. Others will have a few such experiences. Hopefully for most of us, we won't do it so much that we become well-practiced at it. Therefore, for the best of the reasons, it is easy to do with relatively little grace.<br />
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I'm approximately halfway into a yearlong goodbye, and I am realizing how much I struggle with it. When I resigned from my last church in order to fly across the country, challenge myself in a new setting, and bring my wife closer to her aging parents, I had about half the goodbye time that I have now, and I dare say it was easier.<br />
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Today was one of those days when I felt myself stumbling through it all. I wasn't graceful in the least. I was cranky, whiny, and less than present. I was not ministerial in the way that I know I should and can be. <br />
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After some reflection tonight, I realized how important it is to keep regular in my spiritual practices during "takeoff and landing." Unfortunately, my spiritual practices seem to get lost during the inevitable complications of trying to adjust to a new setting or prepare to leave a setting. It happened when I came to my current church, and seems to also be happening as I leave.<br />
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I haven't been regular in my prayer practice since just before I started talking with my congregation last spring about the possibility of me leaving. And I let myself slip out of the habit of keeping a Sabbath. So tonight I did a "spiritual check-up" and realized I am experiencing spiritual disease. I had already re-determined to get back into holding the Sabbath last week during a therapy session. But after today, I am recommitting to my prayer practice too.<br />
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Takeoff and landing is, on one hand, not for the faint of heart. It can be a rough ride! But, on the other hand, even under the best of circumstances, all of us are going to do it at least once or twice. Faint of heart or not, we don't really get a choice. As long as we must say goodbye, why not do it in a spiritually healthy manner befitting of the religious leadership legacy we are leaving from our good work when we had the stability of an ongoing relationship between us and our congregations? I recommend keeping regular spiritual practices toward that end. As for me, I am getting back to mine!Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-22519605244231251452010-12-28T23:37:00.000-08:002010-12-28T23:37:39.237-08:00Leaders: Say LessOne of the double-edged swords with blogging is that it is a written form of communication in the public sphere, and it is simultaneously a fairly spontaneous form of communication. We can all write whatever we want on our own blogs and any blog accepting comments, at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. <br />
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On our own blogs, we can go back and edit, or if we object to editing, write lengthy follow-up posts clarifying or changing our positions. On blogs that don't belong to us, once we make a comment, it is out of our hands and continues to live on the internet for as long as the blog author feels the blog should exist. I say this is a double-edged sword because it is indeed both a "blessing and a curse." <br />
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On one hand, we can regret something we say and not have the control necessary to go back and make it right. On the other hand, it can also be a record of our growth, our changing thoughts, and most importantly, *what was really said.*<br />
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Last spring, I walked into the center of a heated debate on a blog. Though I tend to process information through conversation, I also often prefer to do so in small gatherings of company rather than in the public sphere. For this reason, I am usually fairly careful about what I say out loud while trying to make sense of things. I definitely didn't mean to end up in the center of the debate, to say the least. <br />
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Once I said what I said in this particular blog debate, however, the focus shifted to me and my arguments, and I couldn't extricate myself. I was in the center. The blogger wrote what I felt was a scathing post in response to my comments. At the time, I was hurt. I felt what I said had been misconstrued. I felt false assumptions had been made about me. I felt misunderstood, misrepresented, and humiliated. I felt like I'd received a verbal lashing...and I still felt *right*!<br />
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I tried to respond, but my comment ended up being too long. I hadn't saved it, so I couldn't paste it into my own blog and post a comment on the other blog with the link. I thought about writing it again on my own blog, but my energy had been sapped, and I decided to just be done. <br />
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Some things really are best left unsaid. <br />
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Something a close friend mentioned to me today reminded me of the debate, and I had a tiny temptation to email her a link to my "lashing" to show her how terribly I'd been treated (Who me? Licking wounds?!). I knew that was something of a triangulation-type response to hurt feelings, though, so I decided not to give into temptation. Instead, tonight I got online and pulled up my original comments and the response post. <br />
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You know what? What had been said wasn't unfair. It was super harsh, maybe even a tad unkind, but it wasn't unfair. There was something I needed to learn from the rebuke that had been offered, and it wasn't until my feelings weren't so raw that I was able to see it.<br />
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When I read the response again, I found it a well-reasoned set of arguments. I didn't agree with everything said, but I could understand why the blogger had come to the conclusions she had and why she felt so strongly about them. In one or two cases, the arguments she made were in fact stronger than my own, and the points she made more important. In other words, in at least a thing or two that I had said originally, I was wrong. <br />
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Thank goodness my response to the blogger's response was rejected by her blogging program as being too long. It would have sounded defensive and fearful. If I wanted to write a new response now (I don't! I've moved on to other debates LOL), it would be a more knowledgeable, more thoughtful, more complete and better reasoned response because of the things the blogger had said. This is a good reminder for me in my relationship with my congregation.<br />
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Good leadership, to me, is in large part, deep listening. <br />
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In the church, there can be a lot at stake. Liturgical issues, theological questions, budget decisions, staffing matters...the list goes on. Religious leaders are bound to feel strongly about a thing or two! We could, of course, through the sheer brilliance of our arguments demand the solidarity of others...win people over to our points of view. Surely then, if everyone did things exactly our way, the church could be saved, the people of the congregation all the better for it. Right?!<br />
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Perhaps.<br />
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But that is not the kind of leadership to which we are called in the religious setting. In the religious setting, leaders nourish discernment in people of faith. Discernment is fostered through the thoughtful back and forth that occurs when a leader says, "what is so urgent that we cannot slow down and truly hear one another?" Discernment is fostered by leaders who do not allow themselves to be seen as the "go-to answer people."<br />
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Leadership is not lawyership. Winning people over isn't a sign of good ministry. In fact, you don't have all the answers and nor should you. Leaders: say less and less frequently. God can't be heard when your own voice is doing all the talking.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-17200718091662968942010-12-14T22:49:00.000-08:002010-12-28T21:35:30.295-08:00On Economy and Church Part III: Who Among You Is In Need?This is part of an ongoing exploration of the economy and church. To see part II, where I cover some fundamentals of American economics and the current American economic condition (some of which may be applicable in some form outside of the United States) click <a href="http://religiousleader.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-economy-and-church-part-ii-some.html">here</a>. <br />
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Let's now talk a little about "class."<br />
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First, the "knowns." My source(s) here is not a primary source and is six-years-old, by the way, but my blogging practice is to post sources if (1) they are either primary or can be backed up by primary sources if I took the time to do so, and (2) most of what is said in the source still applies at the time I am posting it. Here is some of what we know about class, as outlined in a 2005 New York Times series called "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html">Class Matters</a>." I especially recommend that first full article in the list.<br />
<ol><li>There is a class system in the United States.</li>
<li>The "American Dream" of upward class mobility is more dream than reality.</li>
<li>Upward class mobility is declining such that my generation became the first generation that will probably and almost uniformly make equal amounts or less than our parents, unlike the generations that have come before us for quite some time.</li>
<li>The chasm between rich and poor is indeed growing.</li>
</ol>Now let me add to the above list the following, all of which I have not yet but at some point I hope to come back and backup with sources. In the meantime, I think some of the videos in part II of this series are good starting sources.<br />
<ol><li>Consumer debt is rampant among all classes. In fact, in some cases it may be how we Americans have tried to equalize ourselves among class levels (just compare <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283">average house sizes</a> from 1950 to 2004).</li>
<li>Lenders have historically preyed on folks in vulnerable positions.</li>
<li>Across the country, individual rates of debt have far exceeded our rate of savings.</li>
</ol>Okay, so let's consider the above in relation to the economic state with which our country has been struggling for a few years, most of which is talked about regularly on the nightly news. Consider this:<br />
<ol><li>In many areas of the United States, unemployment is still a big problem.</li>
<li>Even in places where there are jobs, economic contractions from the recession have not lifted. People who have jobs are often working fewer hours, at lower rates of pay, for fewer benefits, with reduced levels of compensation for costs such as health insurance. </li>
<li>Despite some loan modifications, for the most part, the great many people who have jobs but who are working fewer hours, at lower rates of pay, for fewer benefits, with reduced levels of compensation still have their pre-recession mortgages or close to pre-recession rental costs. They also have greater health care costs (not only have benefits lowered, but prices have continued to increase). And the cost of food is up. So as a whole, we are trying to stretch less into more.</li>
<li>Folks are shouldering these burdens on top of their high rates of consumer debt and low rates of savings. </li>
</ol>In our congregations, we must sustain our commitment to those most vulnerable among us. This is even more true now than it ever was, as the poorest folks got hit the fastest in the economic troubles of recent years, and in many cases the hardest. Social programs, meanwhile, that help folks when money doesn't cover the basics (food banks, utility assistance programs, and so forth), have in many cases a decreased level of funding since Americans have had to tighten our belts more collectively. So the resources for those in greatest need are stretched even more thin at a time when they are more needed. That's not new news, but it continues to be critical news.<br />
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Making our responsibilities even greater, in addition to that, there is an emerging need among a whole new group. This need is found in the middle class folks, especially the lower-middle class folks, who have gotten themselves in over their heads with house payments and so forth that they can't support with post-recession levels of income and inflated costs of living. Even if our country recovers and we can eventually return to the "status quo" (which I questioned in part II of this series), it may very well take years. Though the need is probably less urgent than among the "working class," the suffering is largely silent. The reasons for this include:<br />
<ol><li>The problem surfaced in part as the result of high debt levels, and people feel ashamed. While high debt levels have never been part of good financial management, the truth is that what seemed to be reasonable debt to the majority of Americans five or six years ago no longer seems reasonable. Consider the mortgages some of us were willing to pay (hey, even me just back in 2007, which is after the "bubble" started to burst).</li>
<li>Because the issues are so entwined with debt for this particular class level, these are people who are not qualifying for the safety nets available to the "working class." Until they lose their jobs, despite lower incomes than pre-recession and higher costs, they can't get foodstamps, their children don't qualify for free or reduced lunch programs at school, they won't likely receive utility assistance even when the power is turned off or the oil company refuses to deliver, and the food banks may not serve folks from their zip codes.</li>
</ol>There is a lot of shame and regret tied up in the struggle of a declining middle class right now. It is entirely possible that without anyone else knowing it:<br />
<ul><li>A committed, pledging single member or family (with or without children) of your church has bounced checks trying to make a pledge payment.</li>
<li>Someone you know in a middle class profession is skipping lunch to make sure their kids can have dinner.</li>
<li>A seemingly middle class family in your church has had the electricity or heat turned off or nearly turned off sometime in the last month, and fears CPS would be called regarding their children if anyone finds out.</li>
<li>A parent you know in the so-called middle class isn't eating fruits and vegetables (is putting their own nutrition at risk) in order to ensure that produce is available for their children.</li>
<li>Someone in a middle class neighborhood near you (maybe even your own) is calling the water company to make payment arrangements this month so they can afford to pay enough of the natural gas bill that it won't be turned off. Meanwhile, they haven't paid the phone company in two months and are waiting for the inevitable cancelation notice.</li>
</ul>I realize, of course, that folks spent more money on "Black Friday" than expected, and that we're all supposed to feel good that this means the above issues are unlikely as we continue our so-called economic "recovery." But I've seen enough suffering going on with folks I know and love to trust "Black Friday" as a good indicator. I also think our spending shows an unfortunate willingness to return to the status quo, to continue increasing our debt at the first signs of economic recovery. This isn't a good sign. This is a sign of more and greater trouble to come. <br />
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If I am right, what does this mean for us as a people of faith?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-8212881688549611392010-12-01T13:19:00.000-08:002010-12-01T13:20:46.462-08:00"Sympathy is our strongest instinct"<object height="261" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0ZLy81gpebs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0ZLy81gpebs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="420" height="261"></embed></object><br />
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I think this video gets really interesting around the 2 minute and 50 second mark. I am looking forward to exploring this very soon in a newsletter column or sermon.<br />
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It's worth watching, religious leaders. Pay special attention to what is said at the 4 minute and 30 second mark, and then consider possible implications for religious leaders in the church context. What do you think?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-65306649642614473142010-11-30T21:47:00.000-08:002010-11-30T21:48:39.719-08:00Religious Leaders...Watch This!<object width="450" height="278"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RgdcljNV-Ew?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RgdcljNV-Ew?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="450" height="278"></embed></object>Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-78231145954100497082010-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:002010-11-29T21:27:03.285-08:00Why I Can't Wait To Be An UsherGood ushering is church leadership. Most people don't think of it that way, but it is. Ushers are spiritual leaders in the church by modeling religious hospitality. Ushers can really set the tone of a church.<br />
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While I am taking a break from my professional work in the church to attend grad school, one of the things that I am looking forward to doing in the church I attend is ushering. When I say I am looking forward to it, what I mean is that I am doing a happy dance about it.<br />
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Why? Here are some reasons, both semi-silly and serious:<br />
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1. I won't know anybody, and I will want to get to know them. Ushering is an easy way to come to know the church regulars, and a good way to meet the not-so-regulars. Within a few months, I may not know everyone's names, but I will know whose names I "should" know (this way I don't have to worry so much about accidentally introducing myself to someone I've met five times already).<br />
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2. Ushering isn't labor intensive in the least, and yet it is high reward. <br />
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3. Ushering doesn't require a longterm commitment like many volunteer jobs, and since I know I am going to be overcommited in school, I am eager for a way to contribute my volunteer time to a church without getting myself in over my head.<br />
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4. Ushering will help me achieve my goal of being one of those people who has laugh lines in the mix of her wrinkles. Smiling is good for me. I am glad for the opportunity to be forced to spend a half hour stretch on Sunday morning just smiling away.<br />
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5. There is no view of the congregation that replaces that of the viewpoint of the usher. <br />
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Can I make a suggestion? I think everyone should usher -- even ministers, music directors, and religious educators, every now and then. It is true that not all ushers are leaders, but all leaders should sometimes be ushers. Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-41482676767888930362010-11-23T21:12:00.000-08:002010-11-23T21:50:13.450-08:00On Economy and Church Part II: Some Fundamentals For the Conversation<span style="color: blue;">Click</span> <a href="http://religiousleader.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-economy-and-church-part-i.html">here</a> <span style="color: blue;">for part I of this blog series on economy and church. </span><br />
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In part one of this blog series, I referenced an economic <a href="http://www.blogger.com/In%20part%20one%20of%20this%20blog%20series,%20I%20referenced%20an%20economic%20%22Crash%20Course%22%20website:%20http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse">"Crash Course" website</a>. In this post and probably other posts that follow, I am going to include some videos from that site because talking about the economy and church requires a foundational understanding of what is happening economically beyond our awareness that we are still trying to recover from a recession that has been hard to shake, and we're all feeling a little vulnerable and unsure. <br />
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I want to say that I recognize that in referencing this particular "Crash Course," I'm using a reference point with some particular assumptions behind it. However, I think the author of the "Crash Course" does a pretty good job at distinguishing between facts, beliefs, and opinions as he states is his goal in the first video. I also think the "Crash Course" is the most accessible explanation and history of the United States economy for non-economists available, which is the primary reason I use it as my reference. <br />
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The "Crash Course" website consists of twenty very short videos that are as short as one minute and 46 seconds to no longer than twenty minutes. The entire course is 3 hours and 20 minutes long, and I think this subject is important enough to call upon that length of time, whether by short spurts or sitting down with the videos for an evening.<br />
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However, knowing that we need some common information right now on which to base this conversation, I am going to include some of the video segments here and hope that the lack of context won't unnecessarily confuse the issues.<br />
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First a couple of the fundamentals of what our congregations are facing in terms of a massively shifting economy. If you don't have a lot of time, and feel pretty confident about your knowledge level regarding assets and debt, I'd say it starts to get most interesting around the eight-minute mark:<br />
<object height="325" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fUJU1aLEQQA?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fUJU1aLEQQA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="325"></embed></object><br />
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I show that video first because those are not unfamiliar economic realities, especially given the economic strains of the last couple of years. Somewhat more vague for most of us are the concepts related to the intersection of energy and economics. It takes "Crash Course" author Chris Martenson seventeen chapters to work up to them, but these concepts may be some of the most important:<br />
<object height="325" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6w6gf3tSGTg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6w6gf3tSGTg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="325"></embed></object><br />
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Around the five-minute and twenty-second mark in the video above, Chris Martenson makes a particularly heart-wrenching educated prediction. He says: "The status quo will be preserved at all costs. Politicians will hide the truth, economic statistics will become even fuzzier, and central banks will continue to throw more and more money at a system that at its core is out of tune with reality."<br />
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I want to stop here for a minute and say that it was in October 2008 when Chris Martenson completed the "Crash Course" series. However, I believe I first was introduced to the series in 2007, before its completion, and only in what seemed like the early phases of the recession. By that time, Mr. Martenson had apparently been giving workshops and working on the course for several years. I've been stunned but unsurprised to watch President Obama, a president who had my vote and who continues to have my general support, do exactly what was predicted in his response to what some call "the great recession." That is, he has maintained the status quo at all costs. Again and again. ("Quantitative easing" anyone?) I do not believe this would have been any different with any other politician in the office, nor do I believe it will be any different with any politician who comes after him. <br />
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What we are facing is the possibility of deep change:<br />
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My basic question is, if there is even a 50-50 chance that such a change is occurring under our feet, what is our religious and moral call to the people in our congregations, our communities, and the world? Who are we called to be at this turning point in history? And how can we actually survive to live out that call?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-84301500289045545922010-11-15T07:21:00.000-08:002010-11-15T09:17:48.419-08:00Haven't We All Heard Enough About Church Websites: The DiscussionThanks so much to all who engaged in the conversation about church websites. We definitely all had different sensibilities about website content. That said, while people will always have varying needs and interests in a website, establishing general trends is useful.<br />
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I'd argue that congregations that want to remain vibrant should consider tracking those trends particularly as they relate to "upcoming generations..." because in terms of technological stuff, often the trendsetters tend to be younger, and older generations eventually fall in (think Facebook).<br />
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Based on the discussion sparked by part II of this series of blog posts, if I was going to summarize suggestions for someone looking to design or redesign their website, I would say:<br />
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1. Photos of people are absolutely key. Especially of ministers and staff but also "candid ones" from church activities or worship. We all agree on that.<br />
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2. Sermons are important. Posting just a few of the best ones is useful. Posts should include text. Additional audio (or video) is helpful for those who like what they read and want to follow it with audio or share it in audio. <br />
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<em>I still argue that more and more with people my age and younger, the audio and video will be important.</em><br />
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3. Go ahead and include your calendar if you would like, but be sure on your homepage to highlight what is happening with "happening this month" type lists that include the highlights. <br />
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Prioritize keeping calendars and lists updated so that newcomers don't ask about that book group, etc. only to find out it is defunct. People want to know what you are really doing.<br />
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4. Folks say that they really like to have congregational business online. I will not sway from my position that this stuff is more appropriately placed online somewhere other than your billboard for the world (website). However, as evidenced in this conversation, people do feel it is important to have this stuff online, so by all means, put it somewhere...I recommend private or public blogs, google docs, Constant Contact, etc. A single "congregational business" link should suffice if you want to link it from your website. Link to directories, password protected, if you need to, but I hope you will consider whether there are alternatives.<br />
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5. Know yourself well enough to keep your "headlines" clear in that "about us" link.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-48290554409423651422010-11-13T11:21:00.000-08:002010-11-13T11:21:04.492-08:00Adding a BlogI'm adding a blog to my list of blogs. My latest blog will be tales from downsizing with children. Just FYI:<br />
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<a href="http://downsizingwithkids.blogspot.com/">downsizingwithkids.blogspot.com</a><br />
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I will of course continue posting here on all things related to religious leadership. Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-42234872542317441522010-11-11T07:31:00.000-08:002010-11-12T13:43:27.746-08:00Haven't We All Heard Enough About Church Websites? Part IIIHere is a link to one of the church websites I've recently been admiring: <a href="http://www.uuccharlotte.org/default.asp">UU Church of Charlotte</a>. Considering the amount of content they have on the site, it is easy to navigate and engaging. I did notice today that I have to scroll the site, which I don't like, but check it out because it's pretty great.<br />
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Here's a screenshot:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T7i1-Anj4c9c0S6Td3Ws-YkpxLYIiohadCwxTQ67hG4GB3fA6-vaxbzrBj5Y2k_iPjdI-0ra1Cqk07P6XtkW0HzbZ60LiJrRrDNKLZDnh6-DnKJDCDjWF47Bxszeb_9ezkl0MCtfYGk/s1600/screenshot2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T7i1-Anj4c9c0S6Td3Ws-YkpxLYIiohadCwxTQ67hG4GB3fA6-vaxbzrBj5Y2k_iPjdI-0ra1Cqk07P6XtkW0HzbZ60LiJrRrDNKLZDnh6-DnKJDCDjWF47Bxszeb_9ezkl0MCtfYGk/s320/screenshot2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
So now that I've contributed my voice to the many out there calling for better church websites, I want to go back to my question, haven't we all heard enough? Why are there still so many bad sites out there?<br />
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Here are some of my observations:<br />
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In all the churches I have been in, as either vocational staff or congregant, since the time that churches started having their own websites, I have noticed one problem that seems to be common among them, and it inevitably results in bad websites.<br />
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The problem is as follows. A website is generally considered a one-person project, and for good reason. While a "communications committee" or similar body can help with planning and design, one person -- a volunteer with website building experience, an administrator, and sometimes even the minister -- needs to be the webmaster.<br />
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The webmaster has to play the role of the gatekeeper. It's a necessary function. And yet, if the gatekeeper doesn't have enough time for the job, nothing ever gets through the gate. No changes or improvements, and only the most minimal updates. The most common problem I see is that churches don't ever have someone doing the job who has time for the job, or for whom that particular job is top priority.<br />
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Sure, there are plenty of other reasons for bad church websites too: lack of vision, uncertainty about whether the website is for members or for folks just learning about the church, poor graphic design, and so forth. But I really think that all the problems would be much easier to solve if the gatekeeper was doing more than just standing in front of the gate. <br />
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(By the way, sometimes the pressure starts to build outside the gate, so the gatekeeper opens the gate a little to relieve the pressure, and every idea the congregation has ever had comes through like a flood. I have seen more than one church website go from fine to terrible as congregants excitedly chatter on about how great it would be to, for example, get meeting minutes up on the website, even though those really belong in another medium such as a blog, Google Docs, or something like PB Wiki.)<br />
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What are models that eliminate this challenge? Do we have to have webmasters on staff for that purpose, or are resources like <a href="http://www.cloversites.com/">Cloversites</a> able to take away enough of the website design challenges to provide more time for actual design? What of these models, if any, would be sustainable in a problematic economy?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-22192994840549887122010-11-10T22:14:00.000-08:002010-11-12T13:28:08.493-08:00Haven't We All Heard Enough About Church Websites? Part IISo I am probably going to be moving this summer, and for the first time in ten years, I am looking for a church not for vocational reasons, but to be a member. I'm looking at church websites with fresh eyes, and friends, it is a frustrating world (wide web) in which to be a seeker.<br />
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To be clear, I am not church shopping. Well aside from one thing. See, my children have been happy participants in a <a href="http://www.spiritplay.net/">Spirit Play</a> ministry now for two years, and it has made a tremendous difference in their spiritual lives. I really, really want them to have that ministry for at least another year or two. So yeah, in that way, I am shopping for a program (largely unsuccessfully I might add, since it seems the closest church with a Spirit Play ministry is about an hour's drive away).<br />
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No, I'm not church shopping, but seeking. <br />
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<strong>I am seeking a tribe.</strong> I am seeking a band of folks with whom my family can join for the next three to six years. Though three to six years is a relatively short-term prospect, it will cover the span of my children's lives all the way from ages five and six to ages eight and nine at least, if not to ages eleven and twelve. Those years of their lives will be significant.<br />
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It's a big deal, this finding a tribe for my family thing. <br />
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Huge.<br />
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So, religious leaders, how can I say this delicately? <strong>When I visit a church website and can't find a photo</strong> of the minister or the professional staff, or real photos of real members, I can't really envision myself in the tribe, you know? <br />
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<strong>When I click on "leadership" and your website takes me to a list rather than a series of photos</strong>, I am just a hop, skip, and a jump away from closing out the window. I'm still browsing a few sites. I don't really care what your names are yet. I want to see some faces behind all that text on your site because it is actually true that a picture is worth a thousand words.<br />
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<strong>When I click on "sermons," I need to hear something</strong> so I can imagine myself sitting amongst the other members of the tribe, hearing what you are hearing. Better yet, I'd love a You Tube video (parceled into parts) so I can see and hear as if I was there. This isn't a research project. I don't want to sit and read your sermons, I want to hear your voices.<br />
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And friends, I know you all want to have a photo directory on your website but can't make it public for safety reasons, but truly, <strong>those "for members" links and password protected parts of your site that I stumble upon so easily communicate to me that I am an outsider.</strong> Even though I totally understand the reasons you do it, I find that somehow it still feels terribly uninviting to me, this person who is considering bringing up her family among your people.<br />
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Calendars are similar. Please, <strong>when I go to find out what is going on in your church, I don't want an actual calendar.</strong> I know you've done that cool thing of actually putting links in for each calendar entry so I can click to get more information. And truly, that's better than the way things used to be. But it's cumbersome, it's boring, and it doesn't inspire me to imagine myself with you. <br />
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Actually, the ever-fabulous <a href="http://www.ants.edu/">Andover Newton Theological School</a> provides a fantastic example of an alternative to a calendar. Stay on their homepage for a few seconds and you will see the primary graphic on the page as a slideshow with events advertised. Each one has a "headline" and a way to click for more info. Then, look over to the right side of the page. The first thing you see is "new and current." Your eyes naturally lower and then you get "fall 2010: key dates." Now <em>that's </em>the kind of thing that says, "join us."<br />
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Here's a screenshot:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6OWz-qFigjaqaAI064jCF0-BUroQ8qLkpDcaTzT0UtOMM16XDLK2BtQ-E1FnpZ1F7YIZBoZIyR8EdYTgtbVdBrCf5rmMyKwQZxAsQhmiu1tYGR_mBpKaJ2nVQVLBnRuraxp5_RWff9w/s1600/screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6OWz-qFigjaqaAI064jCF0-BUroQ8qLkpDcaTzT0UtOMM16XDLK2BtQ-E1FnpZ1F7YIZBoZIyR8EdYTgtbVdBrCf5rmMyKwQZxAsQhmiu1tYGR_mBpKaJ2nVQVLBnRuraxp5_RWff9w/s400/screenshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Another issue is that <strong>if you can't tell me in three or four sentences who you are, I get the feeling that you don't really know, and then how can you expect me to imagine myself as one of you?</strong> Yes, I will want more information, but you would do so much better to keep the headlines clean so I can settle into your picture of words for a minute.<br />
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<strong>If you have links to your bylaws and your meeting minutes, I am like "whoah, TMI."</strong> We've just met one another. I feel like you are airing all your laundry, clean or dirty, and it blocks my view of you the people. When I picture myself walking with you, I see myself carrying a big pile of laundry by your side. Not too inviting. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(By the way, your members rarely if ever use those links themselves, anyway, no matter how much they say they want them.)</span><br />
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That's actually the crux of the issue. <strong>Are our websites invitational? Do they inspire imaginings about joining our tribes?</strong><br />
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We as religious leaders need to continue to revisit our websites again and again, asking ourselves these three simple questions:<br />
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1. When people visit our website, is it clear what kind of tribe they've stumbled upon?<br />
2. Oh yeah, what kind of tribe is that? Is that an accurate reflection of the tribe we actually are?<br />
3. What sights (photos of members and staff) and sounds (sermons) do we have on our website that help people imagine themselves walking with us?Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-9126716980570791502010-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:002010-11-11T11:16:32.178-08:00Haven't We All Heard Enough About Church Websites? Part IFirst, a video just for fun. I've been reading a ton about easy church website creation through both <a href="http://www.cloversites.com/">Cloversites</a> and <a href="http://wordpress.org/">Wordpress</a>. <br />
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<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UYBGbRN3S9Q?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UYBGbRN3S9Q?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="250"></embed></object><br />
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Church consultants, blogs, and books have given us an earfull about bad church websites. We know we are supposed to do better. Here are "just a few" examples: <br />
<ul><li><a href="http://westcoastwitness.com/tag/bad-church-websites/">http://westcoastwitness.com/tag/bad-church-websites/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://coldfusion-guy.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-stock-photos-on-church-websites-or.html">http://coldfusion-guy.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-stock-photos-on-church-websites-or.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.churchwebsiteideas.com/">http://www.churchwebsiteideas.com/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.biblestorysoftware.com/webpage.htm">http://www.biblestorysoftware.com/webpage.htm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/wordpress/best-church-websites/">http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/wordpress/best-church-websites/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://djdesignerlab.com/2010/08/22/15-beautiful-church-website-designs/">http://djdesignerlab.com/2010/08/22/15-beautiful-church-website-designs/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://tonymorganlive.com/2005/05/14/10-easy-ways-to-keep-me-from-visiting-your-church-because-i-visited-your-website/">http://tonymorganlive.com/2005/05/14/10-easy-ways-to-keep-me-from-visiting-your-church-because-i-visited-your-website/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2009/01/08/interviews-with-church-designers/">http://www.darrenhoyt.com/2009/01/08/interviews-with-church-designers/</a> and <a href="http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/design-modern-church-marketing">http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/design-modern-church-marketing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://uugrowth.com/2010/04/22/facebook-like-button-will-soon-be-everywhere/">http://uugrowth.com/2010/04/22/facebook-like-button-will-soon-be-everywhere/</a> and <a href="http://uugrowth.com/2009/11/12/is-your-church-empty-online/">http://uugrowth.com/2009/11/12/is-your-church-empty-online/</a></li>
</ul>See what I mean? The talk is <span style="font-size: x-large;">everywhere!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So why are there still so many bad church websites out there</span>?<br />
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This quick post series (and yes, I am still going to return to the theme of church and the economy) will contain my recent thoughts about church websites.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-36485672114293981382010-11-09T11:58:00.000-08:002010-11-09T21:41:12.893-08:00A Response to "Fighting Bullying With Babies"I will return to the subject of church and the economy soon, but today I have come across something that is too powerful not to talk about right away. It is this opinion piece from the New York Times:<br />
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<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/fighting-bullying-with-babies/">Fighting Bullying With Babies</a><br />
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This is really powerful stuff ya'll. We need to take note.<br />
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For religious leaders I have a few special comments:<br />
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1. This is one more argument for multigenerational, family-style church communities. Older kids and teens *need* opportunities to interact with babies (and it probably is a good idea for plenty of us adults too, to interact more with babies).<br />
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2. <u>The church co</u><span class="text_exposed_show"><u>uld be a powerful agent in lowering <strong>all</strong> kinds of community violence</u>. The project described in the article actually started from the need to reduce in-home violence, not bullying. I'm dreaming up an empathy-building ministry for a whole community as we speak!</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show">3. I think that this program likely benefits the babies too. Babies who have empathetic interactions with older kids have been given a powerful gift.</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show">4. Related to the above #3, it is so easy as a church to stay out of the conversation about how to care for babies. After all, everyone has their own philosophy of parenting, and parents of babies are often inundated with well-meant but irritating unsolicited instructions from busy bodies about how to care for their babies. None of us wants to be an irritating busy body. </span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show">On the other hand, if our churches have a calling to live out God's love in the world, we need to really<em> <strong>be there</strong></em><strong> </strong>for parents as they navigate their way through all the cultural roadblocks to children's development of empathy. That starts before folks have even had babies yet, or when babies are just babies. Reassuring parents who are making choices that build empathy -- such as responding to baby's cries rather than letting baby cry it out -- is an important part of raising kids together with parents as a church community.</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show">What do you think?</span>Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-62208065179787655392010-10-29T04:00:00.000-07:002010-11-05T15:54:24.170-07:00On Economy and Church: Part I<div style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Less in the collection plate this year? In a survey of Protestant pastors, 57% said the poor economy was hurting their church." border="0" height="121" src="http://i.usatoday.net/news/religion/collection-topper-HO.jpg" width="200" /></div><br />
<strong>Here are some of my observations: </strong><br />
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<strong>1. The economy is still on shaky ground.</strong> I am far from alone in questioning whether the economy is sustainable. I still find the following link really interesting, even if I don't agree with a lot of what is on the website, and I hope others will as well (it is over 3 hours, but soooo worth the time and extremely thought-provoking): <a href="http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse">http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse</a>. I especially find it interesting that I watched these videos long before the election of President Obama, and I am witnessing the predictions of his actions, as our next president, come to fruition, as I now believe they would have with either a democrat or republican in the White House.<br />
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<strong>2. If the above is true,</strong> that there is a fair chance that the economy is not sustainable, <strong>then our churches need to prepare to see our communities through some rough seas ahead.</strong> Many of our churches as they exist now could not survive those seas themselves. <br />
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<strong>3. Currently, environmental activists and fiscal conservatives are seen as warring parties. Bridges need to be built</strong> between the reality that economic resources as we currently know them are not going to be available forever, and perhaps not even in the near future, and the reality that our use of those resources to date has been tremendously destructive to our shared home, the earth, and that this also is a threat to us and our children.<br />
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<strong>4. One advantage of the economic difficulties </strong>of the last several years is that <strong>many actions toward sustainability became more mainstream.</strong> I don't have research to back it up, but I have a good feeling waste levels on the individual plane have been reduced. At the same time, <strong>however, because sustainability is currently a largely <em>individual or small group</em> action, in order to survive, many families had to resort to environmentally harmful and economically unsustainable action.</strong> <br />
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For example, Americans benefit from what is seen as a highly efficient agricultural system and food manufacturing and shipping system. The prices we pay for food do not reflect the food's ultimate cost, to the environment, our health, and so forth. However, our entire sense of the cost of living is built around the availability of this system. People own the houses that they can afford because of this system. <br />
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The shaky foundation underneath it all, as the environmental and health costs are more and more visible, however, is also contributing to initial signs of breakdown. Food prices have been driven up and up from what was comfortable for the majority five or six years ago. Those of us who own homes or pay rent based on what we can afford because of a lower cost of food, especially in a time of job loss and jobs at risk, aren't able to keep it all balanced.<br />
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Because of the higher cost of food, for instance, my family can't afford to eat anymore except to the extent we shop for the vast majority of what we eat at places like <a href="http://www.priceritesupermarkets.com/">Pricerite</a> (discount grocer shipping food in from all over just like BJs, Costco, or Walmart). With the exception of organic milk, no organics are available. We've thus reduced the organics we eat to "occasional foods" when we can afford local. With the exception of locally prepared pita breads, this is not local food. We've thus reduced our locally grown and prepared food (we couldn't afford even a half share at a CSA this summer) to "occasional foods" (though to our credit, we buy very, very little pre-prepared foods, and cook nearly entirely from scratch). On the <em>individual level</em> we can't afford the sustainable practices that will ultimately save <em>our community</em>.<br />
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<strong>5. While questioning sustainability is more accepted now than it was even a few years ago, questioning sustainability is not yet seen as mainstream.</strong> Those who question sustainability are largely still seen still as alarmists and millenialists. Those who are preparing for a major economic shift are marginalized as if they are preparing for "the end of the world." Even within "green churches," we have not yet reached a tipping point of preparation for a new economic era.<br />
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<strong>6. The status quo has been maintained just enough that as communities, we have largely been settling back into a place of comfort about things.</strong> Economic distress is still high, but the stress levels have been reduced just enough that we aren't questioning the entire system. Even as recently as a few weeks ago, I was still functioning under the illusion that I can hold onto my house that I really need to sell in order to move into a position more sustainable on the individual and community level. I was still thinking I could get a renter and downsize to a small apartment, and that everything might still be okay. <br />
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<strong>7. One tension: in what might turn out to be a major shift in the entire world economic system, the things that are good for us in the long-run do not feel attainable in the short-run.</strong> Just as in my example above regarding the cost of food and the way my own family is surviving on the cheap stuff from the discount grocery outlet, our churches are also finding it difficult or impossible to choose a way of being in the world that is best for the long-run. Our churches have staff people and ministers who need these jobs in an economy where jobs are scarce. These jobs serve an important function for the things that churches do <em>currently,</em> even though those things may not be what is needed to help our communities through the rough seas ahead in the next 10, 20, 30...years. <br />
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On the institutional level, we don't know how else to structure ourselves, and we are afraid to make any changes based on predictions of an unknown future because what if those predictions don't turn out to be true? Won't we then just be irrelevant? Major change is needed, but every incentive is toward the maintenance of the status quo (to understand this, please, please take the time to check out the link in observation #1). The chance of popular support for critical changes in our churches seems remote at best.<br />
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We look at churches <a href="http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/172162.shtml">like those of the Rev. Ron Robinson</a>, and we say, "Oh, that looks interesting. What great stuff. I want to support what they are doing. But that is not what my own church's unique identity is all about. That wouldn't fit us at all. I wouldn't feel at home in that church. Here at my own church, we're about Sunday worship..." etc. etc. It's scary to reimagine ourselves. And it's scary to reimagine ourselves in a future that seems uncertain. And it's scary to imagine ourselves taking actions now based on what seem like potentially alarmist predictions, especially when those decisions involve tough issues like the jobs and the position descriptions of good people who have done good, important work and who need jobs in an economically difficult time, and whose current job descriptions make sense to what we feel like we need right now.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-63977539711536464872010-10-29T02:31:00.000-07:002010-10-29T09:39:09.275-07:00RSS FeedSo if you look to the right, above "followers," there is an RSS icon and a way to put this blog site into your RSS feed if that is your preferred way of keeping up with blogs. If you are not familiar with what RSS can do for you as a blog reader, check it out:<br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0klgLsSxGsU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0klgLsSxGsU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<strong>RSS</strong> is called such because it is "<strong>r</strong>eally <strong>s</strong>imple <strong>s</strong>yndication." The implication is that anyone can do it, which makes someone like me -- who has not been able to figure it out easily -- feel <strong>r</strong>eally <strong>s</strong>illy having so many questions ;-). If you have questions, you are not alone. <br />
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<em>Edited to add: Fortunately, my questions have been very kindly answered by the very helpful person running UUpdates, so I have deleted the question originally in this post. </em><br />
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I have given my site address (now that I have done multiple things to try to make sure I have the required RSS capacity) to <a href="http://www.uupdates.net/">http://www.uupdates.net/</a>, a great aggregate of UU blogs. If you are not familiar with that site, I highly recommend it. You can go there to see who has posted what within the last 24 hours, few days, or weeks, etc. on their UU blogs. <br />
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<em>Edited to add: The helpful person running UUpdates also tells me that if you prefer to use your own RSS feed reader and don't want to have to also go to UUpdates, you can simply subscribe to the recent additions feed of UUpdates and get a list of newly added blogs that way. Fantastic stuff!</em>Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-2207398991079222862010-10-27T13:26:00.000-07:002010-10-27T13:26:26.995-07:00Characteristics of a 21st Century PastorWhile searching for something unrelated, I came across <a href="http://alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=2178">this article</a> from the highly respected Alban Institute. <br />
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I generally like the sound of the twelve listed characteristics for the "21st century pastor" (for much of the list, I'd say more broadly for "21st century professional religious leadership"). But I am curious. Is this the inspiring list toward which we should aim as 21st century religious leaders? Is the list complete? Is it accurate? Does it seem to encapsulate all that we are moving toward in a new century? Is it inspiring? <br />
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I'd love to hear what folks think of the list. Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-17910496591916380852010-10-10T23:19:00.000-07:002010-10-10T23:25:19.171-07:00Another PrayerI want to get in the habit of posting more. Today's post, however, will simply be a prayer. I'm worried about my son right now, and it is really all I can think about tonight. By the way, Lizard Eater wrote yet <a href="http://uuminister.blogspot.com/2010/10/praying-out-loud.html">another great post</a> this weekend, this time about "praying aloud." Some other UU bloggers have <a href="http://www.deepriverfaith.com/2010/10/soul-on-display-praying-out-loud.html">begun to respond</a> (and can I just say that I am so glad to have found the Deep River blog tonight?).<br />
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Let us pray together:<br />
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Today the sun rose and set.<br />
The air was crisp and autumnal.<br />
God in your greatness, we give our thanks.<br />
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Today there were lonely hearts.<br />
There was illness and grief.<br />
There was helplessness and powerlessness.<br />
There was pain and cries unheard.<br />
For those suffering, we pray for relief,<br />
and we offer ourselves as the ears for those cries yet unheard.<br />
God in your mercy, hear our prayer.<br />
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Amen.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-22065148346900215152010-09-26T23:15:00.000-07:002010-10-29T04:10:18.063-07:00Staff Management as Open, Innovative Systems Part III<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here are several more organizational management principles for supervising staff teams in the church setting. These are, of course, just some ideas I have, and they are in development...nonetheless, here they are, for whatever they are worth:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://158.132.178.85/norbert/images/ProjectManagement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" id="il_fi" src="http://158.132.178.85/norbert/images/ProjectManagement.jpg" width="200" /></a><strong>3. Our life experiences don't come in boxes, nor should our contributions.</strong> First, a necessary preface: certainly I have an area of expertise on my staff team, as does every other member of the team. I am of course only human, and I would probably resent it if another member of the team felt they knew how to do my job better than I did. We all want to be respected for our hard-won expertise. </div><br />
For this reason, no matter what opinions I have, I am not going to go around the staff team telling the Parish Minister how to preach or provide pastoral care, the Music Director how to direct the choir or play a piece of music, the Administrator what database she should use and how, nor the Bookeeper how to keep budget records or work with auditors. On occasion I share my personal experience of something if it seems that it would be a useful part of a conversation, but I have become wise enough to avoid telling people how to do their own jobs, in which they surely have far, far more expertise than I. <br />
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Folks who head staff teams are wise to keep this in mind. Ministers are usually responsible for the supervision of church staff and yet are not, as a whole, particularly thoroughly-trained themselves in all aspects of administration, education, and bookeeping (as I am making my way into seminary, the proof is in the curricula at both the school I am attending this semester and the school I will begin attending next year). There is a reason experts are hired. <br />
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When my assistant -- who despite being "just an assistant" (as if there is a "just" in that) has tons of education and life experience in all kinds of areas that enhance our "department" -- asks me what I want her to do, I don't usually tell her how to do it. I simply tell her (1) either the outcome I am shooting for, or (2) the issue at hand. Often, she contributes a way of doing things that is way better than what I would have come up with on my own. <br />
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That said, when supervising a staff team, including volunteer staff, I expect everyone to bring their expertise -- that earned both through education and life experience -- to the table. <em>These don't show up in neat little boxes</em>. The manifestation of that is not as much that I direct certain questions to certain people (I do that sometimes too, but that isn't what I am talking about here), but that I ask questions designed to provoke collaborative innovation, and then I let the expertise come out in the way people approach the questions. In this manner I don't unnecessarily box people in and prevent good ideas from surfacing because I haven't opened up the system for the input. <br />
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Blessed is the Church Administrator I once worked with who was (and I am sure still is) the master of gathering large amounts of information. She read books, magazines, and the internet like crazy, and still found time to get out to the movies! While she could have technically done her job simply by maintaining databases, printing reports, and similar tasks, she didn't limit herself to that. She was a tremendous asset to the staff team by showing up at every staff meeting with an interesting blog or church website she'd stumbled onto, or a clipping of something interesting from "Congregations Magazine" or "UU World" or other similar resources, or a paragraph from a book, or even an idea she got from a tv show. I think she was able to do that because as a staff team we were ever-striving for an open, innovative, collaborative way of working together toward the good of the church. <br />
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<strong>4. Staff meetings are important. </strong>Some of the funniest moments in the tv show "The Office" come from bad staff meetings. I know that there are plenty of awful ways to run a staff meeting out there. I know that a bad staff meeting can be an irritation and time waster for the staff. The solution to that, I think, is not for staff teams to abandon staff meetings altogether, but to learn how to run great staff meetings. Staff need time together that goes beyond visiting one another's offices, bumping into one another at the water cooler, or even eating lunch together every day. Isolation among staff members doesn't cultivate creative, innovative collaboration. <br />
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Supervisors should not mistake their own sense of how well they are keeping up with what's going on with staff members as the fulfillment of staff meeting needs. That is, the staff meeting isn't for the supervisor. It is for the team. The more teams meet as teams, the more they will work as teams, so staff meetings should be frequent, regular, and effectively run. Because of the way most Unitarian Universalist churches are structured, it makes sense that there is a need for all-staff meetings as well as meetings just for "program staff." <br />
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<strong>5. Staff, down to the support staff, should have a part in determining the strategic direction of the congregation.</strong> Yes, it's about buy-in. Chances are, if staff stick around for a while, they will be assisting the congregation through at least a couple iterations of strategic efforts. While the congregation belongs to its members -- and the strategic direction of the congregation ultimately is a decision of members -- a strategic plan in which the staff have no personal investment will not be properly supported by staff, no matter how much they are willing to bend to congregational desire. <br />
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Staff who believe in the strategic mission and goals will work twice as hard to achieve them. In contrast, staff who simply bend to the will of the strategic mission and goals will spend more time trying to keep their head above water in meeting the new goals on top of everything else they do than creatively collaborating. Creative collaboration requires effective prioritization, which requires some buy-in and a feeling of being an active, empowered part of the process. The goal is creative collaboration.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-16545117782802970812010-09-26T23:11:00.000-07:002010-10-29T02:43:06.166-07:00Staff Management as Open, Innovative Systems Part IIHere are two organizational management principles for supervising staff teams in the church setting. These are, of course, just some ideas I have, and they are in development...nonetheless, here they are, for whatever they are worth:<br />
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<strong>1. Every single week of work together, church staff teams should have at least one opportunity in which they come together to innovate around a common "big picture" issue.</strong> It doesn't really matter what the issue is in any given week, but the opportunity must be nourished on a regular basis. The point isn't as much the resulting innovations (some may be quite good, but many will fail to get off the ground or to succeed), but rather the cultivation of a collaborative approach to innovation. Critically, this should not be framed as problems to solve, but rather "themes of innovation." <br />
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These themes or issues should also be "big picture" issues because especially in teams not yet accustomed to collaborative innovation, "little picture" stuff is often too easy to break up into individual-sized pieces that are then -- by habit and for ease but at the cost of innovation -- removed from the collaborative environment and taken on as individual pet issues at which to hammer away. That has a role too, but not in this principle. Here, it is all about the collaboration.<br />
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<strong>2. Relationships should be cultivated on the group level between staff and congregants, particularly lay leaders in the congregation.</strong> Individual staff members will naturally make individual partnerships with congregants with whom they work closely out of either necessity or affinity. This is generally good and most of the time quite healthy. It certainly shouldn't be discouraged. However, if you look at your church staff and see that each individual member of the staff has a narrow subset of congregants with whom the staff member works nearly exclusively, you can say with some certainty that your staff work in silos. <br />
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An innovative environment, as demonstrated in the TED video, is one in which collaboration is at the center. For this reason, since the Unitarian Universalist church really belongs to its members and not its staff or even its ministers (and thus the most fruitful innovations will come at least in part from the congregation itself), collaborative partnerships between staff and congregants should be nurtured in collaborative formations. Those leading staff teams should assist in nurturing between the teams as a whole relationships with sets of congregants. <br />
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I once served a church in which the staff meetings were attended not only by every staff member, but also by one of the older, retired volunteers who, among other things, spent most of her days at the church, serving folks from the congregational food pantry. While certainly she could have done her work in the food pantry without attending the staff meetings, she was a very important volunteer in the church, not to mention a mover and a shaker in the larger community. The staff team was enhanced by every member of the team having a solid relationship with her as a team. When I worked with this volunteer on a project or issue together in partnership with other staff, my relationship with not only the volunteer but my fellow staffer was enhanced. Meanwhile, our sense of "being in it all together" as a congregation was strengthened by this and other relationships with groups of volunteers in the congregation.<br />
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Staff members should <em>not only</em> have the opportunity to work with <em>one another</em> as a team, but to <em><strong>include</strong> on the team</em> (and those are the operative words) multiple volunteer leaders from within the congregation.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6167534478296465146.post-73703455930816059432010-09-26T22:48:00.000-07:002010-09-26T23:09:16.235-07:00Staff Management As Open, Innovative Systems Part IOne subject about which I am deeply passionate and interested is organizational development and "management" in religious settings. <br />
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If it were an option, rather than choosing between Community Minister, Minister of Religious Education, or Parish Minister, I would seriously consider a speciality in Minister of Organizational Development. One of the reasons that many faith communities are in decline in the United States is that religious organizations are not keeping up their development in pace with society's development. <br />
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Society is changing at an increasingly rapid rate. Meanwhile, religious organizations are for many good reasons on "glacial time." This serves no small number of important religious purposes (and I firmly believe that many religious leaders can improve their relationships with the folks in their organizations by slowing down on many levels), but in adapting ministries for changing populations, moving so slowly does nothing but hold us back. <br />
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For this reason, I think we would be well-served to expand our thinking about types of ministries to include the ministering that goes on at the organizational rather than individual level of any faith community. (That's my percolating argument for adding another type of ministry to the UUA ministry categories, if such categories must remain.)<br />
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I share all this to say that my interest in organizational development has led to some thinking recently about staff development and management in churches. In particular, I am interested in how staff teams can function in such a way that promotes innovation and outreach. My dad recently posted this TED video on the Facebook page for his coffee house (you'll see why), and somewhere around the six or seven minute mark, my ears started to perk up:<br />
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In the church in which I currently work, daily lunch table discussions are important for this reason. The tradition has long been that when folks are around and available, we eat together at noon. At lunch there is talk about everything from politics to the personal, but on occasion we talk a little business, and that serves a healthy purpose. The Director of Music is unfortunately rarely present, as he does not have an office nor "office hours" at the church, and neither myself nor the minister seem to be able to attend lunch on a daily basis, so the administrative staff and "support staff" are the most regular lunch attendees. Nonetheless, there are periodic occasions in which conversations over lunch are particularly fruitful in our work together. <br />
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Yet creating an innovative staff team, I have come to believe, takes more intentionality. Just being in the same room is as likely in the church setting to create a culture of camaraderie in the status quo, or even a place to vent and affirm fears about change, as it is to nurture the kind of open, collaborative systems of innovation that Steven Johnson is talking about in the TED video. <br />
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People want to have a meaningful part in something meaningful. All too many folks working as staff in churches come to find that they don't have a meaningful place in the life of their churches unless they inextricably link themselves to maintenance of systems. I'd like to see more churches breaking this mold and moving in the direction of properly supporting good, healthy, current, and relevant systems while also giving staff a meaningful place in something beyond the maintenance of those systems. <br />
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That's what I want to explore in part II of this (two part?) post series.Masasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00783902610798734846noreply@blogger.com0