1. This weekend is our first (hopefully annual) all-church retreat. This is something that I have spearheaded, though the wonderful retreat team has done most of the work. Ah! Leadership at its best! Come up with a great idea and get other people to implement it! 
One of my jobs is to work on Sunday morning worship. We will be in an outdoor amphitheater, though with amplification available. I am looking for a creative and interactive way of doing both a prayer of praise/confession at the beginning of the service, and the great prayer of thanksgiving before communion. We can make bulletins for people, though I don’t want either element to be too wordy or tied to the paper. Any suggestions?
2. Whenever we baptize a baby, we give him or her a book. I’m not wild about the one we have been giving for years. Senior Pastor asked me to suggest another one. A nice picture book with a good faith message, something suitable as a keepsake but not too expensive. Any suggestions?
3. I am collecting information on both study leave and book allowances for pastors. We are right at the presbytery minimum at Suburban Pres. So I’m looking for some numbers: if you’re happy with your study leave amount or know of other churches that do this well, comment or e-mail me with the amount. And/or, are there conferences and workshops that you find particularly great, and you know how much those events usually cost, I am collecting that information as well. Suburban Pres basically provides enough for one moderately priced conference a year—and that’s if you don’t travel to get there. Yet we get two weeks a year. So either they anticipate that we will spend one week a year in study leave without going anywhere, we will pay our own way to the second conference, or they just don’t know how much things have gotten. I admit that we are fortunate compared to many other pastors, but I also think the congregation has the wherewithal to do better.
4. The editor of Denominational Magazine e-mailed me yesterday. Someone sent her the Harry Potter sermons and she wanted to know whether I would expand them to another 10-month series of articles for 2008-2009. I could, but I just don’t think they would be timely anymore, even though as she said, there are still two movies to be released. But I’m trying to decide how to handle her request.
I would like to continue to write for them—I’ve enjoyed it and it pays better than most writing gigs I am currently qualified for—and she should know her market and what they’d be interested in, right? On the other hand, I’d like to suggest that the idea be expanded or modified to include not just Harry Potter, but other children’s literature. What I’m kicking around is taking “Great Questions of Faith” and addressing them with scripture and children’s books in dialogue with one another. I think it would give the series a more timeless quality. But this may be way different than what she’s envisioning.
I think the issue is working up the confidence to say, not in so many words, “Ms. Editor Person, I don’t think the idea you present really works. However, here’s what will work, and here’s why I’m the person to do it.”
26 Responses to “a few questions, mostly churchy”
Leave a Reply
Search
Asides
» The latest on SBJ: at one year, he weighs 30.5 pounds (99%), is 32 inches tall (97%) and is 100% cute.
» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
» Aaaaaand little she-who-is lost another tooth this week!
Links
Join | List | Prev | Next Random | Prev5 | Next5
Skip Prev | Skip Next
Join | List | Prev | Next |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Re a book for a child -
PRAYER FOR A CHILD by Rachel Field with illustrations by Elizabeth Orton Jones was one I had when I was little - and that was in the late 1940’s! It’s still in print - the artwork is lovely and the sentiment direct, and spiritually thoughtful without being strident or preachy.
Only problem with that as a choice is that is this politically correct age, the child pictured is a girl, and I certainly hope you will be baptizing boys as well as girls.
It’s available at Amazon and I’m certain that religiously oriented bookstores will at least know about it and can order it.
Re the worship - “Morning has Broken” is a marvelous song to open the service, at least once!
Cen’t be too helpful on the suggestions for the study leave issue.
And just go for it with the magazine editor! Make your proposal and see what happens!
Have a good retreat!
I get $500 for books, and $1000 for study leave.
This year, Festival of Homies cost me about $760, leaving me $240 to spend on the remaining 8 days of leave I am taking in September. That is not even close to covering what I’d like to do. I think I will be staying home for most of the 8 days.
The book allowance is adequate. I could stretch it out a little by not buying the Festival CD set. I have $31 left in it as of this week.
There is a rumor floating around that the new Dinky Presbytery minimum for study leave will be $1500 in ‘08. St. Stoic will probably grumble, but will meet the minimum.
Thank God for minimums. I’d hate to think what I’d get otherwise.
My resource center director, who is also a member of the congregation reccommended (and donated!) the following book for us to use for baptism. It is small enough for little hands, but has a dustjacket and a “given to” page. It does have a line for Godparents, and in this community we tend to have sponsors more often than not and will list them there. The book is a mix of poetry, scripture, Psalms sotries and prayers. It even had a ribbon bookmark. I highly reccommend it. And just realized I have not given the info:
My Baptism Book
Author: Sophie Piper
Illustrator: Dubravka Kolanovic
Paraclete Press
ISBN: 1-55725-535-0
http://www.amazon.com/My-Baptism-Book-Sophie-Piper/dp/1557255350/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0017591-4483245?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188327069&sr=8-2
I also reccommend the one paired with it “Water Came Down”
As for Con-ed I am in a similar position. I was abel to convince the finance committee to rename “mileage” as transportation for plane tickets if I needed to fly somewhere. Last year i did not use my whole allotment and this will help me be able to go to other confrences. the Alban Institute usually has good stuff.
These are great, keep ‘em comin’!
And I realized after reading Cheese’s comment that I didn’t post our amounts, so you don’t know what would constitute improvement. We get $725 for study leave, $600 for “professional expenses” (which includes books but also all that other clergy stuff). These amounts have been the same since 2005, if not before. $725 doesn’t even cover one conference at the Cathedral College, and that’s downtown, requiring no travel costs whatsoever.
One recommendation I have is to make prof expenses separate from books.
The auto allowance comes out of one huge pot for the whole staff. We never spend even a fraction of it. I have dipped into it for plane tickets before—that’s a good suggestion though, to formalize that agreement.
“You know, funny you should ask about those sermons, because I’ve been kicking around this idea…”
I don’t have either of these things now, but here’s what I had in the past:
a) 2 weeks of time, with the assumption that one of those weeks was spent “studying” and one was spent “away learning something,” but if I could swing 2 weeks away to learn stuff that was fine, too.
b) a continuing education/professional development allowance that was 1400 dollars at its highest, and 400 at its lowest. This amount was for the conference, the travel to/from it, and also all books and journals all year. The two were actually combined for a reason: (remember i’m using academic stuff here that was adapted to clergy) women with tiny children couldn’t go to conferences (or chose not to), and felt they were not getting their full salary, so they combined the two, and that way if you had a year where you didn’t want to go anywhere, you could buy a ton of books and learn that way. It seemed to me to be a very fair way of dealing with things. It also meant that the year there was a conference in Vancouver, I could give up a year of books, and be able to go. We had another line for “books” but those books were property of the college upon our departure (it was pretty small–mostly for worship books, etc.) and a line for “travel” but that was for travel to give presentations, not travel to learn stuff.
our older kids at church have made a “book” for the baptized baby. you could go the homemade route. cheap and clarifying exercise for the older kids.
Give Me Grace: A Child’s Daybook of Prayers
The Circle of Days
In God’s Name (Sasso)
Old Turtle…
We get $3,500 a year, and that is everything. Mileage. Travel. Continuing Ed. Books. Professional Expenses. Gifts for church members to say thank you. Lunches with potential members. I take (because I want to) meals to new mothers.
I have felt very taken care of this year. I haven’t done any wildly expensive con ed, but I have felt like I could buy some books and am hoping to get a new robe before the end of the year.
And I like that approach, Anna, where you get to choose what you want to prioritize in your budget.
The church I grew up in doesn’t give books. They give blankets or prayer shawls, depending on the age of the baptizee, all made by the old lady club. And church I was ordained to gives a nice print of the church, drawn by a gifted homeless man who lives in the church basement shelter—they do it for new members whether babies or big people.
Let me add that I get $2000 for mileage, of which I have never in three years now used more than $900/yr. Most of the visiting I do is in Stoic Village. Heck, until this last one went into rehab after a stroke, I could walk to every single shut-in, and often did, except in the dead of winter.
I don’t know if I could convince them to make it a $3500 pot like Anna’s church, even though that is how much it is in the budget, totaled. But I might, for next year, think about asking them to loosen up some of the mileage money for ConEd travel.
Small steps…
I have nothing to say on most of these issues, but I do love the idea of a children’s lit sermon series. I think you are right about the timeliness.
Yes, Yes….Old Turtle
or Ladder Of Angels by Madeline L’Engle
I Have Been Baptised by DeVere Ramsay.
About 4 bucks
Has a place for pictures and the bulletin. Also pages for the congregation to sign. Along with story and illusrations about the day.
Also a cross stitch pattern that could be done buy somone in congregation, framed and presented at baptism
1. I’ve done The Great Thanksgiving in a question-response form for families and young people, similar to the Passover questions. “Why do we eat this meal?” and so on. (perhaps you have done this before; it involved the whole family and connects the meal to its ancient roots.)
2. About continuing education and book allowance, few congregations will go over $2,500.00 although yours might if they consider the numbers of what a conference with travel actually costs. I would lay it out clearly as possible and let them decided. Of course, you know it is always great to get grants to fund your study leave and conferences. As my older daughter said to me, “Dad, people actually pay you to study with them, read good books and talk about them?”
I’ve learned that Lily is the Church’s One Foundation.
That helps supplement whatever your church decides.
3. I’m really doubtful that a 10 month series on HP in 2008-09 will carry many readers of denominational magazine and probably won’t carry your spirit either. I say go with your desire to integrate theology and children’s books, at least you will be writing from you own desire and now the plan of someone else. That kind of writing gets old very fast.
What Keith suggested for a conversation opener - and I like your idea for the series, NOT the HP series (and I am only on book 4…)
Study leave and books - I get two weeks and no $ for books, but I do get tuition benefits for advanced degree work so that is a HUGE PLUS. Would figure $1500 for con ed expenses (to spend however) plus the opportunity to use transportation exp. line item to underwrite as appropriate. Presby of Greater ATL (I am not a member there) has compensation guidelines on their website -check’em out! So do a number of other presbyteries. If I think of them I’ll send ‘em to you.
Outdoor worship - what about a body prayer for the opening prayer - you and others lead with words and motion (a la a favorite Christian Education professor youth guru we know)?
You rock, RM - keep up the good and faithful life.
A book suggestion:
Leading Little Ones to God: A Child’s Book of Bible Teachings by Marian M. Schoolland (Paperback - May 1995)
Buy new: $13.60 51 Used & new from $5.75
What’s truly unique about this — it’s Systematic Theology for kids with a Reformed perspective. I know of nothing like it. Also, it’s not small. Very meaty.
I grew up on this book, and used it with my girls. Disclaimer — it uses male-only language for God.
About the HP series — it made me smile — because I thought — Gosh, she knows how to make work for herself! If they want to print your HPsermons I’d say — why not print them NOW? As is?
I’m only on the baptism gift right now, but recommend, like Knittin preacher, Water Come Down, by Walter Wangerin. Don’t know about the price requirements, though.
just looked at #4 and I really like your idea! Hope it flies, and can’t wait to find out more about it. Hope you use the book “Holes” for one of them…
love it cheesehead that you WALK to the visitations …. great
I wanted to comment on the HP series.
FWIW: The last book is out - the fever will die down (albeit slowly) but because so many many have read and enjoyed I don’t think the boat has sailed.
I’d stick to HP and write the stuff.
It will lead to an opening with more children’s literature but I wouldn’t mix it - not now.
Another children’s book I’d recommend is Margery Brown’s _Runaway Bunny_. It works as baptism gift, and a subject for your children’s lit series. In my mind, it’s a gentler version of “The Hound of Heaven”.
Re: Potter, it might be interesting to have a series come out after the heat of the hubbub has died down. It’s less “jumping on the bandwagon”. I also like Keith’s suggestion - “Funny you should mention it, but ….”
I get one amount for continuing ed and another amount, (larger) for Professional Expenses which includes travel, books, working lunches, robe dry-cleaning, whatever. My current church is okay with the “travel” including both mileage related directly to work and travel expenses to con ed events. So that helps a lot in stretching the con ed $$$.
Other ways I’ve stretched con ed bucks in the past:
Get on the planning committee for local con ed events. You’ll often get a big break on registration costs.
Apply for free programs: I just finished a three-year, Lilly funded Pastor-Theologian program where all our costs were covered for three regional plus one national conference a year.
Mentor interns: I just read the fine print on the Supervising Mentor agreement I recently signed from Nearby Seminary for the intern we will have this year. It says we supervising mentors can take one free class/semester OR get half off on tuition for the DMin program if we start w/in two years of the year you have an intern. Score!
Brew your own: Get a group of folks you’d like to spend a week with and pool your $$$ to get a scholar type to come hang out with you. This can be less expensive than going with a program sponsored by your denomination or an institution since they have to cover costs for the staff who put the event together, for advertizing, etc. etc.
I am astounded at the amounts y’all get for professional expenses. I get $500 a year for continuing ed and some amount per month for mileage (that I honestly don’t recall right now, but it’s not that much). And that’s it.
Aw, RDM! I’m sorry to hear that.
My church is generous: $1500 for Con Ed $5000 for Prof. In the prof, that is meals with members, books I give to members, mileage, etc. I also have done some travel to the conferences with it, as well as journals and books. The Con Ed is for actual conference costs– lodging, meals, etc. Like I said, they are very generous. But I do tend to spend the Prof on pastoral care things with members the most. That is the quick answer.
I too am very lucky with an extremely generous church: My prof. expense acct. (including con-ed, books, robe cleaning, stoles, lunches, whatever else I feel like, really…) is $5400. the Presbytery minimum for con-ed is $1500 (and two weeks). I haven’t even spent half my total expense budget this year yet–which means lots of new books for me!
I am thinking of using it to go to Scotland for two weeks next year.
It seems that given the cost of con-ed events and the location in which you live, you should be getting more. My presbytery minimum is for a mostly rural presbytery. I think it’s probably higher in the city. And you live in an expensive city.
A friend just shared that a friend of hers receives an additional $1000 every three years, so she can do something special.
I am putting it here since this is my only repository for this research at the moment!