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)

Blog and Twitter favorites, suggestions

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Blog and Twitter favorites

Blogs

Steve Griffith is a UMC clergy colleague in Lincoln. He writes with care, intention and clarity about issues that are important to him. I think this is an excellent example of the pastor-as-author genre.   www.gatherfragments.wordpress.com

Kelli Samson is a cousin of mine who lives in Olympia, WA. I enjoy her blog because she has a very consistent writing voice, writes about food and books, posts photos that make me want to take more photos, and doesn’t mind offering an opinion. Something she does especially well is cross-reference her Instagram, blog and Facebook accounts. I usually find her blog within two hours of being posted, which I think is a sign of social media giftedness on her part.  www.freshscratch.net

Hacking Christianity. You might not agree with Jeremy’s content, but I think this is a fine example of excellent writing. He stays focused on his blog’s purpose, plans out his posts so his readers are not bombarded, and does a fine job editing. A new blogger could learn much about this communication form by studying this blog.  hackingchristianity.net

Twitter

UMNS  @UMNS United Methodist News Service

Methoblog @methoblog They post UMC-related blogs! How convenient!

Trent Rosencrans, Cincinatti Reds reporter

Indian Country Today @indiancountry “Serving the nations, celebrating the people.” also have a fb feed from their media network

The Root @TheRoot “news and commentary from a variety of black perspectives” They also have a fb feed for their digital magazine

Rethink Church @umrethinkchurch

Great Plains UMC @gpumc

GCSRW @GCSRW I chair the Justice for Women committee, please follow

Tweet Smarter @TweetSmarter  They post tips for doing better with twitter

I feel like it is smart to subscribe to at least one of each of the following on twitter, at least as you get started. I’m thinking of clergy here, but I think the list works for others as well.

Weather update source, national or local

Local news source

National or regional news source edited by people of a different ethnicity than you

Local sports team of your choice

Social justice advocacy group

Local arts or food feed

Official denominational news source

Unofficial, yet actual, denominational news source

I find the above gives me a good chance at being aware of what my parishoners are likely to bring as prayer requests and gives me a chance at knowing enough about what is going on around me to be able to converse with others.

I find the best way to add to your twitter feed is to ask friends for suggestions or check the list of what they follow. It is very easy to add and subtract accounts from your twitter feed, with little to no risk of the kind of angst that happens when people “unfriend” one another on facebook.

Steph and Biebs

Guessing that Lyn Seiser took this October 2011 photo for me. We were in Washington State for a food justice meeting, and were so pleased to have time to catch up with our friend, Justin.

Blogs and blogging. Thoughts.

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Blogs – thoughts

I think of blogs as public journals. They generally consist of a series of individual entries, each usually dated and frequently titled. Unlike a diary, where sequential pages usually move from the past to the present, blogs are usually arranged with the most recent entry, or “post,” first. Like a diary, there is likely not a safe hiding place for a blog – so don’t write things you don’t want other people to read. Blogs can be written by a single author or by several.

I have a rich history of blog-writing fear. The source of the fear is at least two-fold: 1) written words seem more permanent to me than spoken words so I worry more about errors ranging from typos to grammar to irrelevance to non-logic, and 2) my family of origin is very word-laden and I get worried that I will melt under the weight of the words I mix together, like a chemistry experiment gone bad.

Here’s how I’ve talked myself down from the blog fear: 1) I’m already in actual print every month with the pastor’s column in the church newsletter, 2) I am as word-laden as the rest of my family, so it’s too late now to traffic in word fear, 3) very few people will actually read what I write, and 4) on a practical level the blog format is better than twitter, facebook and pinterest for short essays and opinion pieces.

I find 4) the most convincing of the above reasons, and it is what spurred me to figure out my blog password, update my profile and restart myself down the written-yet-virtual word path.  For purely pragmatic reasons, a blog can be very helpful. Teaching at license to preach school but you are pretty sure the students will lose or fold into origami paper cranes anything you hand them? Give them the link to your blog and post notes there.  Do you have a bunch of book reviews from a previous life that you want to be able to find again? Post them on the blog. Doing your best to teach your colleagues about social media, but afraid someone will notice you haven’t written in your blog for a year? Post to the blog – that way there’s a current post, plus you might encourage someone else to lay aside their blog fear.

Where to blog and names: I picked blogger because it’s a google product, and I already use gmail so I figured if I could navigate one google product, I could probably figure out another one. When you pick a blog name, remember that the title of the blog can be longer and more descriptive, but the name of the blog is what your readers will use to find you online. So: the title of this blog is kind of goofy. Rev Steph’s Eclectic Garden. My guess is I was trying to give myself room for a variety of post topics without sounding too complicated. The blog name for web use, however, is revsteph.blogspot.com. The difference between the two? I advise keeping the name short and spellable, and the title as poetic and confusing as you’d like. 

Proofing: I have some typos and missing words in my recent posts. This is because I did not follow my own advice. Which goes like this: write your post in a word document and cut and paste it into the blogging tool you use. This way your spellcheck will find basic, annoying errors for you. Once you paste in the spellchecked words, utilize the draft function to proof what you have written again. Then wait at least ten minutes to post so you can read again while you feel less enthusiastic and therefore are better able to read for continuity, voice, structure, and redundancy. The good news is that after you have posted, you can go back and edit your work, so you won’t leave behind a permanent grammatical disaster.

Late July, 2014. Omaha garden

I once read that gardeners should keep a notebook, and anytime you plant a perennial you should make a note of the name and draw a map of where you planted it.  

I don't know the name of the purple plant, nor do I know when I planted it or its source.

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