Solar Eclipse, a Pilgrimage

     Midway through leading my congregation in this past Sunday's Psalm, I found myself thinking, "this would be a perfect scripture for the day before the eclipse!" I resolved to continue onward with the responsive reading, but to spend time this week gathering resources for possible use on Sunday, August 20th, a day that in my worship planning I had failed to note as "Solar Eclipse Eve." 
     The coming eclipse is big news here in Lincoln, Nebraska. We are located in the path of the eclipse, so each day brings with it new warnings about not looking directly at the sun, information about which stores have run out of or have shipped in a new supply of eclipse glasses, and updates about planning for students in Lincoln's schools to participate in eclipse viewing. 
     I assumed it would be simple to find resources upon which to draw for sermon content on Eclipse Eve, but what I have found is either in the death-and-destruction scripture end of things or uses a significant number of words to provide information about star charts and karma. I'll acknowledge my use of words like "theology" and "spirituality" in my search may be part of the problem. 
     I did find some advice from a specifically non-Christian astronomer who suggested eclipse viewers remember that there are two ninety minute time periods, one before and one after the eclipse, that are worthy of attention as their own special celestial events. 
    Putting the idea movement of the sun and moon towards and away from each other together with the reality that many people are making special arrangements to travel to a specific location to view the eclipse brings to my mind a word that I associate with both theology and spirituality - Pilgrimage. 
   Perhaps Eclipse Eve could be considered a time of preparation for a day of pilgrimage as we recognize both the patterns of nature, such as the way sun and moon traverse the sky and as we recognize human pilgrim journeys, both physical and spiritual.  
   The community in which I live and work has spent a good amount of time this past year preparing for the eclipse, gathering tools such as eclipse glasses, planning educational events well in advance and group viewing parties for the actual day, and plotting both viewing locations and routes to those locations to best view the eclipse. The eclipse itself will be a journey we watch as the sun and moon trace their paths across the sky, intersecting for as long as two minutes as darkness falls upon those of us directly below. 
    I think it will be appropriate for us as Disciples to spend some time the day before as we gather to worship to contemplate how we prepare ourselves for our faith journey. What tools are helpful for us our our spiritual pilgrimage? Do we make time for our spiritual journey the way we do for celestial events? What would it be helpful to learn more about in an intentional way so we can be better prepared for our ongoing pilgrimage through this life? Who might we invite to join us, and what could we learn from one another? 
  
    

roses and perennials from 33rd St in Omaha
     

Fair Trade Fun

Alert: I LOVE FAIR TRADE!!!
     I believe my first exposure to Fair Trade was shopping with my grandmother at an early version of Ten Thousand Villages in Lincoln, making me a 40+ year enthusiast. I find myself now volunteering weekly at the current incarnation of that store in Lincoln's Haymarket, and chairing the Board that operates the non-profit business that runs the place I used to visit as a child. In the 40 years in between, I've shopped Fair Trade when I have traveled, in the various cities I have lived, and was the proprietor of a combination thrift and Fair Trade shop in Omaha. It's hard to say what my favorite thing about Fair Trade is because there are so many choices. I appreciate the workmanship that goes into items themselves, and the tastiness of the chocolate and coffee that are shade grown. I enjoy the stories of the artists from throughout the world, learning more about people I know I will not meet but with whom I now share a connection. I am glad to know that my consumer dollars are being spent in a way that works for systemic change, supporting communities and families while preserving artisan craftsmanship. I like supporting a locally-run shop that is keeping alive the notion of actual real-life in-person retail in a city's downtown. This is just a start.
    So... let's talk a bit about how Fair Trade works. I'm hoping you will be as enthusiastic as I am.  
     The concept of Fair Trade has several components. When I describe it to visitors to Ten Thousand Villages in Lincoln, where I volunteer, this is how I explain it - Artisans outside the US are paid a living wage, up front, for their work. They work in a cooperative environment, meaning that ideas are shared and artisans work together not in a top-down system. A priority is placed on the environment, so many items are made from recycled, reused, and replenishable materials and foods like chocolate, coffee, nuts and tea are grown using organic farming methods that preserve old growth forests. As part of a commitment to justice, funds also go back into the communities where the artisans live for projects related to things like health and education, almost always with a specific emphasis in lifting up the most marginalized in the community.
     Given the above, it can be hard to figure out which items are Fair Trade, which is where non-profit businesses like Ten Thousand Villages and certification organizations come in to play. Usually when you examine labeling for Fair Trade items you will find they either come from a non-profit like Ten Thousand Villages or Serrv that guarantees all products with their logo on it are certified, or you will find a specific certifying organization's logo, for example Fair Trade USA. Some certification organizations specialize in different types of products, for example they might specialize in examining textiles or chocolate/coffee while others certify a more broad range of products. 
     Something to think about as a consumer is which stage of the product has been certified as Fair Trade. The more complicated the construction of whatever you are purchasing, the more stages there are to certify. Clothing is an example of a consumer product that can be very difficult to verify as Fair Trade at all stages of production. Is it just from cloth to garment stage that is being certified? Or all the way back to the field in which the cotton is grown, the person mixing and applying any dyes, and anyone involved in shipping materials between any of the stages? Some certification organizations have chosen to limit the types of products they certify because of these many layers, some use language carefully to describe which parts of the artistic process have been certified, and others dive deep to research each stage of the process. Consumers with an interest in ethical purchasing can learn as they go and form their own opinions of this process by observing both label language and which certification organizations are working with which types of products. 

Photo with Fair Trade sarongs, hand-dyed using batik on rayon fabric

The Faith-based community was an early and strong supporter of Fair Trade. It's a long story and I am not an expert witness, but we can thank Mennonites and their friends for the beginnings of both Ten Thousand Villages and Serrv. Recent waves of Fair Trade entrepreneurship have included leaders like Stacey Edgar, founder of Global Girlfriend. I think her story is fascinating, and I find the emergence of new Fair Trade companies is adding to the diversity of available products, even as it has bewildered those who try to keep track of certification methodologies. More artisan groups means more diversity, but also more work communicating about standards while figuring out how to meet demand without losing ground when it comes to ethics. 

There's much more to share, so I've gathered a few favorite resources below.

Resources
For more information, including official definitions of Fair Trade and other resources, I find the World Fair Trade Organization website to be helpful. 

Learn more about Fair Trade products and artisan groups while sharing with others by volunteering at a store. Find out more about Lincoln's Ten Thousand Villages shop here Lincoln Ten Thousand Villages 

Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide, by Jacqueline DeCarlo, was originally written in 2007 and remains helpful. 

The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade, by David Ransom, 2001, is also helpful and includes chapters on specific types of Fair Trade items such as chocolate and coffee. 

Overdressed,The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, by Elizabeth Cline, 2012, is not about Fair Trade so much as about the opposite, and will break you of any habit you may have of purchasing cheap throw-away clothing. 

United Methodists might be interested to know that UMCOR has partnerships with several Fair Trade companies so that a percentage of sales made by congregations benefit UMCOR. Find out more here: UMCOR and Fair Trade

Did you know you can fund raise with Fair Trade chocolate???? Total game changer!!
Find out more here Equal Exchange fundraising

Non-profit Board recruitment resources

Board recruitment is on my mind because I'm starting my second year chairing a non-profit Board and the personnel committee, which in our organization serves as the nominations committee, has asked me to help them think through the framing of our nominations process. As a pastor in the United Methodist church, I also serve as the chair of our congregation's nominations committee, so it also true that I've always got nominations thoughts in the back of my mind. 

I remember the first non-profit Board on which I served. It was a local Board, and I remember looking around and noting that I was the youngest one there and likely the only person of my generation. I was also the only pastor. In retrospect, I had likely been invited to join the group in large part because someone had been working from a Board matrix and was hoping to fill in some spots that had looked empty. That Board was where I gained my working knowledge of profit/loss reports, donor relations and personnel committees; and in my second term learned how to conduct organizational merger due diligence when our affiliate merged with one in a city a few counties away. Since then I have served as the Executive Director of two non-profits, Interim Executive Director of two others, and been a member and/or officer of at least twelve others. I've learned a great deal along the way, including the value of taking the time to recruit a mission-focused Board of Directors. 

Some Boards on which I have served have fairly well-defined recruitment plans accompanied by firm two three-year term rotations for service, but many others have found themselves dealing with some stress when they realize that several long-term Board members are retiring from service at the same time. I went searching online for some of my favorite tools for considering both recruitment and composition, and have assembled some here.

I remember the first time I heard of something called a Board Matrix. I think it was about 15 years ago, and I was probably attracted to it because it involved a chart and the word "matrix." When I searched for more information about the board matrix, the first thing I found was a critique of it from Blue Avocado, the enewsletter of American Nonprofits (find out more and sign up for the enews here: blue avocado This article matrix critique describes both the board matrix model of analyzing board composition and then proposes a better way, which hinges on recruiting Board members to help meet the goals of the organization.

The idea is this: determine what your organizational goals are, figure out what your Board’s role is in meeting those goals, and recruit people who can help you achieve those goals. This might sound like an obvious recruitment strategy, but often we use other strategies, such as replacing a Board member with someone we already know well; finding someone who reminds us of the person who is departing; or continuing to mine a particular institution or workplace for volunteers who serve in sequence.

I suggest reading the Blue Avocado article above deeply but then returning to some of the notions of what made the matrix popular a decade or so ago. Here’s a link to a sample template I found online: matrix template While the formulaic nature of the matrix can be problematic, stifle creativity and prevent the nominations or governance committee from recruiting new members with the overall vision and/or near-term goals in mind, I do think it carries with it the asset of accountability when it comes to having a lens for diversity within the governing body. Any time we are intentional about saying, “who is at our governing body table, and are they representative of our community and people who might be overlooked?” I think we are helping our Board of Directors become stronger.

I think diversity in a Board of Directors strengthens the group, and this includes personal demographics as well as knowledge base, constituent and affinity groups, and local/regional perspectives. While I was looking for a sample board matrix, I found this article, which is one of many on different topics related to diversity on non-profit Boards. I think it is helpful and compelling: racial diversity on nonprofit boards

I like to include a garden photo - this is a photo of the Botanicial garden in Berlin, from September 2016

 

 

Resources for new SPRC members

One of our new members to the Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) at South Gate asked me if I could help locate some resource to help them become more familiar with both the work of that committee and general United Methodist structure. I thought this was a good question, and figured I'd post what I found all in one place so I could share it with the other members of the committee and anyone else who found it useful. There are many resources out there; I thought these would be a good starting point.

Staff Parish Relations Commitee
Let's start with some basic information from Discipleship Ministries. Formerly known as The General Board of Discipleship, it is one of what we call the General Agencies of the UMC. The current General Secretary, or person with "the buck stops here" status, is Rev. Junius Dotson, a pastor who most recently served in Wichita, Kansas. The offices for Discipleship Ministries are located in Nashville, Tennessee, and include the Upper Room Chapel. Find their SPRC information here: SPRC leadership info

UMC Church Structure
The rule book of the UMC is called the Book of Discipline. It is revised every four years at General Conference by a group of 850 or so people. At the 2016 meeting of General Conference, it was decided that a free copy would be posted online. Here's the link: Digital Book of Discipline  for those who are interested.
Discipleship ministries has clickable links from the SPRC page that provide additional information about other church committees and general structure. Another excellent source of information about UMC structure is the website for the church itself. Start here: UMC church structure and click articles of particular interest.

Information to gather from the local church
I'm thinking each year it is a good plan to make sure all SPRC members have copies of the following for their congregation, and they aren't available to consider creating them:

Written job descriptions
Line item budgets for the previous and current year
Any staff/pastor evaluations from the past year, or a summary if that is more appropriate
Staff organizational chart
Summary of payroll deadlines/timelines with notes about who does which parts of the process
Review of any insurance related to employees
Review of how vacation/sick time/time off is recorded and calculated
Review of which employees are salaried/hourly/contract
Safe Gatherings policy

Any blog with the word garden in it should have at least one photo of something garden-fresh; this is a bouquet from a wedding we attended in Brooklyn last February.

Death Penalty: Resources for Study

Nebraskans will be voting this fall on whether to retain our current law that abolishes the death penalty in our state. The Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church, which includes both Kansas and Nebraska, passed a resolution at our June meeting asking all congregations to study the death penalty.

What follows are some resources that I think would be suitable and helpful for congregations anywhere in the US - not just Nebraska and Kansas.

Christian Reflections on the Death Penalty: Discussion Guide. Published by Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, this four-page discussion guide is found under the “resources” tab on the their website, nadp.net, or by clicking here: http://nadp.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Discussion-Guide.pdf

The discussion guide includes scriptures from both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and provides questions for reflection related to the scriptures, which are grouped into thematic areas, such as “An Eye for an Eye,” “Redemption, Compassion, Mercy,” and “Jesus’ Teaching.” Statements from faith groups on the topic of the Death Penalty and a current fact sheet about the death penalty are also included.

I think this guide could be used as a single-session class, or split into 2-3 sessions if your group is one that enjoys a longer conversation. Because it is available online, it could also be shared via social media on a congregation’s website or facebook page for those who are unable to attend a small group conversation.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson, 2015 Spiegel and Grau (division of Random House). New York Times bestseller, available in paperback, and listed as a “bonus book” in the 2016 United Methodist Women’s reading program list.

    Would you believe I read a book about the death penalty while I was on vacation at the beach? The topic was sobering, but this non-fiction, first-person narrative was so compelling I had a hard time putting it down. While the book is broken into 16 chapters and Stevenson shares about many different cases and many different laws that relate to the death penalty, he weaves the stories together in such a way that I think this book would be best discussed as a whole or perhaps in two sections, allowing for a check-in at the halfway point and then a full discussion after everyone in the group has completed the book.

    I think this is the kind of book that could be shared: as a book review in a Sunday School class, church newsletter or UMW group; in a one- or two-time discussion for people who have already read it or listed to the e-reader version; or as a promoted book for the UMW reading program.

There is another option: the accompanying (Common Core-approved) world’s most thorough book discussion guide, which is found on the author’s website.  http://bryanstevenson.com/discussion-guide/ I regret not finding this until after I had read the book, as I might have benefitted from checking in after each chapter to see the discussion guide overview and related questions.

Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us, by Shane Claiborne, 2016 HarperCollins.    

    I met Shane for the first time when he visited the church I pastor, South Gate UMC, in Lincoln Nebraska on the second day of his book tour for this book. I wondered out loud, “why would he be coming to Nebraska to launch a book tour?” and finally realized that it was on purpose - he’s committed enough to ending the death penalty and current enough on national politics to know that the Nebraska fall ballot initiative is significant for the lives of many. 
     Claiborne's book has 14 chapters, which can be read in order, out of order, or individually. This means it is well-suited for a weekly study group that may have members that are unable to attend every week; a class that plans to focus on just one chapter for one meeting; or for a group that either hears a book review or reads the whole thing and gathers to discuss the book in its entirety. I find this flexibility attractive for local churches, as discussion leaders may be able to focus on a particular chapter that they think would be of the greatest interest to their congregation as a way of introducing the topic (or the book) to a group. 
     The website that goes with the book is found here: http://executinggrace.com/ and includes a video interview of Shane, a resource page, and other information. A study guide is also available from Harper Collins. 

Favorite public health resources

I'll write another post with some strategies for local churches to become more aware of and active in public health initiatives. For now, here are some resources that might be helpful in learning more about Public Health. 

One way to learn more about Public Health is to select a particular project and then begin to learn about the component parts to the underlying cause of whatever problem is being addressed. For instance, hunger advocacy might emerge from working with a particular food pantry and learning more about the needs of the people being served, the root causes, and then discovering interventions related to policies and practices that have led to the situation of people not having enough food.

General Board of Global Ministries: Find organizations doing solid public health work around the world. A wide range of topics, geography and scale are represented on this site, which has been revised to become much easier to navigate than "in the old days." http://www.umcmission.org/

United Methodist Women: Public Health issues are included throughout this website; see the Advocacy and Press Room tabs for clickable links to particular topics. http://www.unitedmethodistwomen.org/

General Board of Church and Society: Click on the "Explore Topics" link or use the search bar in the upper right corner to look for particular health-related issues. http://umc-gbcs.org/

American Public Health Association: resources on many, many, many public health topics. This is the national membership organization for public health practitioners. See the "policies and advocacy" tab to read about current issues and sign up for action alerts. https://www.apha.org/

Influenza: everything you could want to know, including maps and statistics.  http://www.cdc.gov/flu

Ebola: course for the general public from the Nebraska Medical Center. Home to one of four biocontainment facilities in the nation, the Nebraska Medical Center has produced an online course with basic information about this disease. http://www.nebraskamed.com/nebraskaebolamethod

Local Health Departments: If you are having trouble locating your local health department, this site should help.  http://www.naccho.org  Don't let the fact that the acronym seems to spell a tasty snack through you off; it stands for National Association of County and City Health Officials. 

UNICEF: Their website includes articles that help explain global public health issues from a local context. http://www.unicef.org/

American Community Garden Association: Community Gardens are an excellent way to strengthen local food systems, which then strengthen local public health and entrepreneurship. Find out more at this website, which includes a map of existing community gardens. https://communitygarden.org/

This was the last bouquet of the season from my yard, taken about two weeks ago before unseasonably cold air descended on Nebraska... and most of the nation. I'll look forward to seeing my flower friends again next year.

Pizza Crust, a recipe

I had a brief pizza crust crisis yesterday. I had planned for us to make our own pizza at youth group, but my cookbooks are now divided between two houses and the pizza crust recipe was in Omaha, not Lincoln. I did some research, and this is my working version of pizza crust. 

Stir one package of yeast into one cup of warm water. 
Add some honey, and let sit a bit.
Remember to turn on the oven, probably to 400 degrees. 
Stir in 1/2 cup flour with a fork. 
Add a tablespoon of olive oil.
Add another 2 1/2 cups flour, perhaps a cup at a time. 
When stirring doesn't seem to work any more, start kneading the dough.
Stop kneading once the dough seems elastic-y. 
Shape dough into a lump, set in a bowl in the back seat of your car, where it will remain while you do your errands. This works best on a warm, but not scorching, day. 
A couple hours later, divide the dough into two parts, spread out onto a pan (check to be sure baking sheet fits into your oven)(sadly, not all baking sheets you find in the parsonage actually fit in the oven).
Bake about 7 minutes, enough to get the dough to a place it won't absorb all the tomato sauce while you continue baking. Proceed with topping pizza, and bake about 10 minutes, maybe more depending on how reliable the temperature setting on your oven really is. 

The petunias and snapdragons on 33rd St are holding up well this fall. I like mixing peach and pink together in planters.

 
 

UNICEF Sunday - best Sunday ever!

Ahhh, UNICEF Sunday. My favorite Sunday of the year. 

My own giant UNICEF box = ministry highlight

My passion for UNICEF in general and Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF in particular began in the 1970s. I grew up in a household that did not believe children should “go begging for candy,” so we did not trick or treat on Halloween. I did, however, grow up in a household that believed it was important to learn about the global community and that children could make a difference in the world, no matter our age.

So, my brother and I would go trick or treating for UNICEF. On a sunny afternoon. Several days before Halloween. In our costumes. I think after a year my brother made the choice to avoid the humiliation of daylight trick-or-treating on the wrong day in costume for pocket change, but I persisted, motivated by the illustrations on the back of my UNICEF box that documented just how far a nickel or a quarter could go in the world of global public health.

One year, I had a revelation. What would happen if I took my UNICEF box around on the actual night of Halloween? Perhaps people would be more ready and willing to donate if I made my rounds at a time and on a date the neighbors were expecting children to come by and ask for stuff? I presented my case to my mother, who was wary until my father spoke up and volunteered to go with me. It would be dark, after all, and it would be reasonable for me to have an adult nearby.

We set out that night, and I remember returning from the first house to my father – UNICEF box clinking and my hands full of candy. “What do I do with the candy?” I asked. I was unprepared for the sweets, having set off with only my UNICEF box in hands. He replied, “I happen to be wearing a coat with very large pockets.” And so I learned about grace, care, and teamwork. We went door to door that night, bringing home the heaviest UNICEF box of all my years and my first-ever haul of Halloween candy, which of course was shared with the man who carried it in his pockets for me.

I remain a huge fan of trick-or-treat for UNICEF. I’ve convinced the last two churches I’ve served to join me in an annual tradition, celebrating a day when kids make a difference by advocating for other kids and raising funds to provide for basic personal and public health for our youngest global citizens. At South Gate, we hand out boxes on both of the Sundays before Halloween, and during the Children’s Message our organist plays “scary” music while they trick-or-treat up and down the aisles. Our congregation enjoys helping our kids help other kids, and they come prepared with plenty of change to fill the boxes. I usually tell the story of trick-or-treating for UNICEF with my father, explain the importance of kids helping other kids, and on the way out of worship everyone receives a reverse trick-or-treat fair trade mini chocolate from Equal Exchange.

It’s a great day, both in terms of generosity and advocacy, and hopefully helps reframe our traditions around Halloween to include care for our neighbors around the world. 

 Church kids and parents agree - my UNICEF box costume is the best!

Trick or Treat for UNICEF information and order forms can be found here: http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/usa/trick-or-treat

Equal Exchange offers reverse trick-or-treat kits in season: http://equalexchange.coop/

GPUMC health insurance - questions for the longterm

I could also title this: why we don’t have to meet in person

The Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church is working on deciding how to care for clergy health insurance in 2015. A number of resources have been made available this week, including details of a proposal to move away from group insurance to individual coverage. The decision about whether to make this change will be made by the Annual Conference, comprised of lay and clergy members. Which brings us to a pre-question: Should we insist on meeting in person to make this decision, or is it acceptable to utilize an e-ballot with a mail-in option for those without access to email?

My first instinct was to think that such a significant change absolutely demanded an in-person meeting. An inconvenient, likely-resented ritual gathering of the Annual Conference seemed appropriate for an inconvenient, likely-resented change to clergy health insurance custom and practice.

I’ve moved away from that first reaction for two reasons. First, I think people will have already studied the issue as much as they want to before the meeting, and will not be swayed during a mid-morning meeting. Related to this, I don’t think it will help our new history together to have a meeting of the Annual Conference that is either poorly attended or accompanied by participant schedule and travel stress.  

My second reason is the one that convinced me it would be ok to meet via email. As I started to think about the topics I would want to discuss related to clergy health insurance, I realized that very few of them related directly to the short-term problem of how to insure clergy in 2015. My questions and concerns have to do with longer-term process questions. Questions that deserve a richer conversation and a longer time for pondering than a single Saturday morning. 

Here are just a few of the things I think it would be interesting and good for us as a Conference to discuss, but not for just a morning:

1) What is our theology related to health and healthcare?

2) What is the role of the Church as we seek to find and bring wholeness to the communities we serve?

3) To what degree does the overall health of clergy relate to the overall health of our congregations and faith journeys?

4) If it is true that over time it has always been “hard” to insure clergy, what interventions (such as Virgin HealthMiles) might we create so that both clergy and church members might be more healthy?

5) How might we learn to have conversations regarding health and healthcare in ways that move us from blame and individual benefit to a view of the world that embraces community and benefit to the group?

6) How does the stress some clergy are articulating over this proposed change relate to national stress over healthcare, and how are we as a Conference called to address the right of people to healthcare, both in the United States, and globally?

I am hopeful that after we get through the next few weeks of stress over the immediate decision regarding how to care for clergy health insurance in 2015, we will remember to address the systemic and long-term issues that accompany the short-term decisions. 

October roses in Omaha

 (In other news, the roses are outlasting the tomato plants on 33rd St in Omaha)

How to send email to several people

How to send email to several people

A friend of mine asked for tips on sending emails to groups of people.

I have mixed feelings about group emails, mostly because of what I feel is the overuse of the “reply all” option. I generally include everyone in the “to” line if I’m emailing a committee or small group. This way everyone can see who else was included. Once I get past about 12 people, I tend to use “bcc” and then list in the body of the email itself who is receiving the email. This way recipients know who else is receiving the info, and I can easily find the list of who received it in case I want to double-check. Here’s an article about bcc etiquette. I found it helpful to think about personal vs business email address norms. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22/email-etiquette-bcc_n_1221901.html

Another way to handle group emails is… use the group email function on your email program. You likely have this option, even if you don’t realize it. An advantage to using the group email function is that once you’ve added the names to the group, you don’t have to worry that you’ve forgotten someone – you just add the group of names as a whole.

Here’s a discussion from the folks at googlemail regarding how to set up an email group on their system. You’ll find similar instructions for your own email program. You’ll notice they reference the “bcc” technique as a way to be “discreet.” I think you substitute the words “not annoying” and the sentence would still work.  https://support.google.com/mail/answer/8824?hl=en

A related question is how to set up an enewsletter. I’m most familiar with http://mailchimp.com/ and www.constantcontact.com  Both of these are cheap or free to use if you have a small database. Their websites have information about cost. An email tool like this is handy for many reasons, including: 1) you can import and existing database into the tool so you don’t have to retype email addresses, 2) spam filters realize they are enewsletters and not spam, 3) they come with templates so if you aren’t good at layout you can use one of theirs, 4) they come with an analytics tool so you can find out what percent of your newsletters were opened, forwarded, and stuff like that, 5) they are easy to forward and you can include information about how to sign up so people populate your database themselves.

If you are trying to decide which enewsletter tool is best for you, you might check and see what other churches your size are using and ask what they like best about their enewsletter, and if they feel strongly enough to make a recommendation. 

Frisco with Praying Hands

 Here's a photo of my Lincoln neighbor cat, Frisco. He's almost two years old, which I feel is too young to be a curmudgeon, but he's one of the crankiest cats I have ever met. In this photo he has just hissed at me from near my Praying Hands yard art. The hands appeared one weekend while I was in Omaha. I arrived late Saturday night, went to remove what I thought was a plastic bag... and instead found these. One of my friends says I should not worry unless I return home and discover "praying feet." The donor has not yet come forward...

About Social Media

About Social Media

I’ve heard other clergy claim that they plan to “have nothing to do with” social media. I suspect what they mean is that they wish to not start a facebook or twitter account, and are hoping to avoid dealing with a personal online presence.

Here’s what I’m thinking: it’s too late. Whether or not we want to be present on the internet, we are already there. Pastors are present and findable via internet search because our names are associated with our church, our photos are posted whenever we conduct a wedding, and we are listed in obituaries whenever we conduct a funeral. These and other digital references are happening, whether or not we are aware of them, so the advantage of participating in social media at least a little bit is twofold – you have a better grasp of how you are being represented online, and you can add your own perspective and stories instead of relying solely on others.

In addition, social media can be an excellent communication tool. Like all communications, how social media is used determines how effective it is. I think it was in Junior High that I was taught the two components of effective communication: 1) message sent, and 2) message received. Social media provides opportunities to both send and receive information.

As one of the two main curators of our church’s official information channels, my job is to choose wisely so we reach our desired audience effectively. This includes planning ahead and utilizing several tools so we create neither a dry spell nor a flood of communications. 

I find in Church communications that when I rely exclusively on the print newsletter and bulletin and spoken announcements from the pulpit, our information stream can have significant gaps in it. Adding social media to our information stream helps fill in gaps, engage people in new ways, and gives some of our members tools to invite others to participate.

While there are number of places a person can go to learn about how to use social media in the Church, I really really appreciate UMCommunications. Here’s a link to some of their information about social media: http://www.umcom.org/learn/connect-with-social-media

Current articles at this site include Instagram, blogging, and text messaging.

Today's garden photo is from Baton Rouge, LA.The garden is across the street from First UMC - I love the garden name!!!! You might enjoy the church's website, www.firstmethodist.org

 

Twitter: I am not an expert

This post goes with a social media class I'm leading the Thursday after Labor Day for clergy in my District. I expect a wide range of thoughts and feelings about social media from this group, so I'm posting some short essays/commentaries on social media on this blog in case they are helpful to someone from the class. 

So: Twitter. 
Twitter utilizes short posts of 144 characters or less. Content can include links to articles and photos. If you see an @ before a word, that's a reference to a person/account on twitter. If you see a # before a word, that's a tag to help people sort through the piles of words moving through twitter. 
 
One good way to learn about twitter is to set up an account. Setting up an account is very easy and I think it feels less intrusive/personal than setting up a facebook account. Each twitter account you set up will be connected to a different email address, so if you plan to have an account for both your church and yourself, plan ahead which email address you will use for which account. I suggest never using a personal email address as the main contact for a work social media account. If you don't have a separate email address for your church, it's easy enough to set up a new google account that you use only for church social media accounts. Here's where you go to set up a twitter account: twitter.com

Once you have a twitter account you can follow accounts like @tweetsmarter, which has as its purpose the posting of tips and stories about how to improve your twitter skills. 

Twitter is a fast-moving information delivery system, but users determine how much information they would like to receive by selecting their information sources. This is called following. As a twitter account holder, you'll want to remember that unless you use a "private" setting, anyone can see what you are tweeting and who you are following. 

I am not a twitter expert. I tweet at @revstephanie and am the author/curator of the South Gate account at @southgateumc. When thinking about a twitter name, try to think of something fairly short, spellable, and descriptive. Few of my social media accounts include my last name because for most people it fails the spellable test. I don't write out United Methodist Church because that's a lot of characters I could be using for content. 

Here's an article from UMCom about twitter that answers 10 FAQs: twitter FAQs answered
 

Wormwood stem

Today's garden photo is from the front yard of my Omaha house. In the middle you'll see a silvery plant. It's wormwood. I think every pastor's garden should have wormwood in it so we can pluck off a stem to show kids what wormwood looks like when we sing the hymn with the lyrics "wormwood and the gall," which I think is used to rhyme with "this celestial ball."

My favorite hippie master gardener says that wormwood repels rabbits. My spouse reminds me of this each time we see a rabbit hanging out next to this plant.

Social Media Resources. Squash and Ironing Board.

In preparation for an upcoming presentation for a group of UMC clergy on the topic of Social Media for Churches I've been gathering a list of online resources that I think might be helpful.
Links and brief descriptions are below.

United Methodist Communications has a helpful website that includes a number of topics. umcom.org is an excellent source for current UMC news; resources on the topic of digital communications and social media; communications best practices; and more.. including how to order print and digital official UMC program calendars.

Great Plains UMC communications office has a resource page: GPUMC communications resources
This website page contains links to a variety of communications resources, including photo/video release forms and how-tos for setting up church websites.

I'll update this list as I continue remembering favorite websites. I decided to go ahead and post even though the entry is not finished because I'm working on actually posting and not just thinking one day I will. 

The garden theme continues this post with a photo I took in East Tennessee, somewhere between Dandridge and Bristol. The hardware store/flea market where we stopped was also home to a vegetable garden, which was home to this squash plant... growing on the frame of an ironing board.

Ironing board with squash

missing from the conversation

I'm writing from the press room at General Conference in Tampa. It's quiet here this morning, and I'm thinking hard about the conversations that have been happening here in Tampa and what they mean for us in the context of the local Church. 

I made a mental note earlier this week that we were missing some people. We learned during the Young People's address that one of the two presenters, Joy Eva Algodon-Bohol, was unable to be physically present with us in Tampa because she had been denied her visa to enter the United States from the Phillipines, where she is president of the National United Methodist Youth Fellowship.  She was still able to present, via technology and the large screens above the floor of the plenary session area, but that left her co-presenter, Krin Ali alone on the stage. Ali is 18 years old, and is from the Rocky Mountain Conference. I was blown away not just by his presence and content, but by his ability to have a conversation on a stage in front of thousands of people - with someone on a video screen. 

At the press conference afterwards we asked Ali and Algodon-Bohol about their preparations and what it was like to present together from afar. Ali explained that the two of them have never met, and instead had prepared their joint presentation entirely through skype and email, a process that he described as "very time-consuming." Agodon-Bohol, who participated in the press conference via skype, but who was not miked, said through Ali that her visa process had started in January with a denial and then a reapplication for which she has not yet had her interview. Asked what he thought about the situation, Ali said, " We have a lot of issues to address as a global community. The person who should have presented with me couldn’t be here." 

Later in the conversation, when Ali was asked about his thoughts on the future of the United Methodist Church, he spoke of others who are missing, saying " I feel like what we need to do is go beyond our church, go beyond our ways, reach people who are not in our religions. Religion has created many boundaries. Keep your beliefs, but don’t push it on others. Preach love, humility. Then we could get somewhere. We need to go beyond our own church, our own customs, embrace more people."

I think the United Methodist Church has more to learn from Krin and Joy than just what they said in their presentation to the General Conference. I think we can learn from them about what it means to find new ways to connect, in spite of significant obstacles. I think we can learn from them that the work of making room for others can be very time-consuming, and that the results can be profound. I think we can learn from to spend less time focusing on the times we have been excluded and more time and energy into welcoming others who have been excluded. And I think we can learn from them the value of seeking out, making a place, and showing hospitality to all God's children.