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July 24,
2008
Dear Friends:
Thanks for making this a great summer and for each of
the ministries in which you are involved. I am always inspired when I see
what you are doing and am thankful to be in ministry with you.
As you heard at our set-up meeting, the Cabinet has
agreed to use a joint plan for this year's charge conferences. We want to
use each charge conference to follow up on your charge's work with the
Healthy Congregations materials introduced last charge conference.
Incorporating the Healthy Congregations theme into the 2008 Charge
Conferences will mean that the emphasis remains in the forefront to your
leaders and is a way to review where your charge is in its work to develop
and act on a Ministry Action Plan (MAP). (In a few cases I know that this
year we will have to introduce
the material; if that is so in your situation, please call me in well in
advance of your charge conference so that you and I can be prepared to
proceed accordingly.) Attached to this letter are several items for you to
use as you get ready for your 2008 Charge Conference.
The first attachment is the charge conference agenda which is an order of
worship as each conference will be done in the context of a worship service.
Healthy Congregations is designed to bring each congregation to a healthy
self-awareness and to direct each congregation's activities toward growing
into greater vitality. Healthy Congregations is the companion piece for the
form of clergy assessment we used last year and will utilize again. The two
pieces are designed to work together to help local churches grow in their
understanding that it is our joint ministry, laity and clergy working
together, that brings wholeness and health.
The service can be adapted by you, as pastor, to your particular
circumstance with you selecting the site, furnishing whatever music, if any,
is appropriate for your charge, and filling in the names of those people who
are to be involved in leading the conference. The message will include a
new DVD presentation so, just as last year, we will need a DVD player and a
screen large enough for everyone present to see. (If a player is simply not
available in your charge, please let me know and we will make alternate
arrangements.) The short presentation we will see illustrates what four
sample healthy congregations are doing in each of the four areas of
emphasis: hospitality, worship, missions, Christian formation.
The service/conference is built on the Wesleyan Covenant Service model and
concludes with the Wesley Covenant Prayer as modified and found at Number
607 in The Hymnal. Please either have hymnals or copies of that prayer
available for your people as well. The prayer could easily be printed in
the charge conference/service order.
The service and conference should last no longer than an hour to 1 hour and
fifteen minutes if there are a number of oral reports from your officers.
The only oral reports that must happen are: a report from your Lay Leader
about the Healthy Congregations work of your charge, a witness from someone
about the evangelism ministry of your charge, a report from the Committee on
Lay Leadership which you as pastor would ordinarily give, a report
concerning Lay Speaker(s) if any, the pastor(s)' report(s), a reading of the
Saints (those of your charge's membership who have died since last charge
conference) if that is a part of your charge's tradition or if it would be
meaningful to those present, and then someone to recommend the pastoral
compensation package(s). Oral reports from the Trustees or others are not
necessary unless offering them signifies to your leaders; if it does signify
to them to offer reports, then include a list of reports we can anticipate
in your agenda order.
Please go on-line to www.nccumc.org to the conference's data collection site
and fill out the forms you find there. The only paper forms necessary at
the conference are:
1. The
attached order which can serve as the conference's minutes once the
appropriate blanks are filled in and the order signed by your recording
secretary and myself;
2. An attendance roster, one ideally circulated for sign-up during the
conference or taken silently by the recording secretary during the
proceedings;
3. A list of the Committee on Lay Leadership's nominations. A copy
should be available for everyone present.
4. Local Officer Contact list with titles and complete contact
information including email addresses (if available).
5. Budget information sheet
6. Pension work sheet(s)
7. Lay Speaker(s) reports (if any)
8. A 2007 Audit. (Remember that the 2007 Audit is due by December 31,
2008. The 2008 Audit will be due by April 1, 2009.)
9. A Parsonage Check-Sheet
10. A written Trustees' Report (An oral one is not necessary. Please see
above.)
If you serve a charge with more than one church, you
will need to indicate that on the form by listing each church's
apportionment, share of pastoral support, etc. separately. No other paper
records are needed.
Again, the goal of the 2008 Charge Conferences is to
follow up on the progress each charge is making in determining its strengths
for ministry and what it is planning to do (and/or has already done) to
increase that strength. Subsequent charge conferences will be devoted to
the same: how is each charge positioning itself and planning for increasing
effectiveness and impact in Jesus' ministry. A key lay person should make
this witness. In the case of multi-point charges that witness should be made
by a lay person from each church, meaning that there will be multiple
sharings. Each
testimony needs to last only a minute or two, but they are crucial in
inviting those present to consider how the Holy Spirit is at work in your
communities.
You should have received your apportionments/missional
giving by now. Please explain to your people the vital ministries these
monies support in order to help them put faces on what they are doing as
they support the ministries of the Church. It is essential that our people
and our lay leaders connect this basic responsibility with the direct
outcomes in
people's lives and destinies. Thank you for helping them do that.
The 2009 Minimum Salary Figures are: Full-Time Pastors
-- Salary: $40,319; Utilities: $2,200; Total: $42,519 plus
travel, minimum $4,000 by voucher.
Student pastors -- Salary: $26,207; Utilities $2,200; Total: $28,407 plus
travel, minimum $4,000 by voucher.
These figures represent an increase of $1513 over 2008
or a 3.9% increase for full-time pastors. For student pastors, the figures
represent a $983 increase or again, a 3.9% increase. The minimum travel
allowance was increased by $1,000 for both full-time and student pastors to
$4000. These are the minimums established by June's annual conference.
The Durham District Work Fund is 4% of salary and
utilities. These monies are sent directly to the District Office.
Health and life insurance costs remain unchanged for
next year; the figures, if you need them, are available at the conference
website and through the Treasurer's Office.
Should there be other business at your conference,
please let me know that fact in advance. I understand that you may have
questions. If so, please call and I'll enjoy working with you toward
answers. If you encounter any difficulty or surprise, alert me, and we will
work on it together.
I am truly looking forward to this year's charge
conferences. I look forward to enjoying them as the unique expressions of
the Church as the healthy Body of Jesus, a gift that only you and your
people can provide.
Grace and
peace.
Yours,
H. Gray Southern
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