Faith CRC in Holland emailed the congregation this afternoon to let them know that they were following the guidance of government health officials and Classis Holland leaders to cancel worship services this week and likely for a few weeks. They will continue live streaming services on Facebook and our website, in addition to a local cable TV broadcast. Our pastor made special note that, "The service will be different in that I will create space in worship for you to participate in your homes through readings and prayers. I will also leave space for you to engage each other on Facebook during the service. I imagine this is going to be rough, but we can still glorify God through this." Notes about opportunities to pray and connect in other ways, as well as notes about changes to specific programs were also included.
A great book on the topic of having good conversations around faith, politics, and the intersection of faith and politics is David Dark's, "The Gospel According to America". Bad title (in my opinion) but a truly great book.
Susan, reading this article has truly made my day. In Scripture we are given a heavenly vision and told to pursue it (knock for it to be opened, ask to receive it, run the race, even fight the good fight as Joshua and Caleb were prepared to do). We are promised success, not through our efforts, but through our faith in the Lord who owns the vision and leads us to what we see only dimly now. Whatever our weaknesses, be they smallness, dimness, mistaken-ness, or even sinfulness, His power will be perfected in our weakness. He will one day return to fulfill the yearnings of Joshua, Caleb, and all the rest of the faithful. Meanwhile may the accusations, fears, and grumblings of all Israel never defeat your faith (or mine) in His vision!
One way to think through this is how many hours you expect the pastor to spend preparing and delivering the message. For a sermon where I pick my own text I have the option of choosing a text I've already studied fairly deeply. I spend about three hours in preparation: reviewing my study, rewriting or updating an existing sermon, and practicing out loud. Then the service lasts an hour. So four hours total.
If I am given a text I haven't studied deeply before then I require at least a month's notice and I will average about 12 hours of total work for study, writing, practice, and delivery.
I'd like to ask What are some similar professions? How much would you pay in labor for an hour of their work? But honestly most of a pastor's pay is simply in the reward of the work itself. So instead, maybe the best question is, How much would you like to compensate the pastor's family for the time he/she spent preparing the message for you?
Jeff - I think that's pretty fair. I would say most minister's work more hours than that in a year. And it's probably worth double checking whether the pulpit supply is getting paid more than the regular pastor for time on a sermon. So in smaller churches I think it's fine to lower the total a bit. But your calculation comes in around what's normal in West Michigan right now.
I should also mention that many of us would be happier to preach for what a church can honestly afford. If I go to a church in a very poor area I don't want the Word of God to be a burden. Some of the smallest paychecks have nearly brought me to tears because of the generosity and sacrifice behind them. But when I'm in a church with a handful of other professionals that charge hundreds/hour for their services then I start to wonder what we're saying about the value of God's Word with how little the preacher gets paid.
Just finished "The Cross and the Lynching Tree", by James H. Cone. While Cone's theology and mine aren't an exact match, his conclusions are still poignant. The lynching tree is symbolically, and thereby, theologically, the closest example in modern American times of what Jesus' crucifixion was like. After Pilate declared Him innocent, Jesus was lynched and hung on a tree. Thousands of similar stories played out against blacks in America. The fact that this connection has been overlooked by biblical/theological scholars while black artists from the Harlem Renaissance, Christian and secular, have featured the connection prominently is robbing the American Church of a truer understanding of Christ's sacrifice. Pairing this lack of understanding (unorthodoxy) with the unresolved grotesque injustice of lynching (un-orthopractice) puts much of American Christianity, especially (but not only) in white churches, in a precarious spot in relation to their professed faith.
One point of clarification though, the full council includes the minister(s). Maybe a better historian than me can weigh in on this, but I believe for hundreds of years the supervision of every council member, including the minister(s), was done through mutual censor. That means the pastor wouldn't get singled out for evaluation, but every member of the council was up for evaluation simultaneously. Though I've never experienced mutual censor it intrigues me as perhaps a better approach to the parity of offices. Singling the pastor out for evaluation is a double-edged sword. On one hand it can make being a pastor feel very isolating and thankless. On the other hand, it plays into the misguided notion that the pastor is a bigger deal - as if it should take a whole group to check and balance the one person.
When I was pastoring churches I tried to instill in my elders and deacons (with poor success, I'm afraid) that their meetings weretheirmeetings. The point was simply to have good communication and good decision making together, and the form/format should be whatever worked for them. Synod, Classis, Robert's Rules, etc. did not have the right to dictate much, if anything, to what worked for them. Structure is a great, necessary, and (I think) fun thing. But the fun thing about structure is finding/creating the one that fits and benefits all the participants - maybe in this case the one that moves them from one set of "F" words to the other!
I disagree. Only God can truly join people together in marriage. And only the Church is empowered to be God's voice on the matter (and even then only in a limited way). It is a matter of convenience for the state that the state recognizes marriages as helpful to it and provides certain tax benefits or burdens. What the state recognizes as a marriage should not be taken in any way to represent a God's-eye perspective on the situation.
In the past decades the governments of Canada and the US have been slowly encroaching on authority given by God to the Church. In the US that is in direct violation of our constitution, but the Church can do nothing but air its grievances. This is a rare moment when the Church actually has the ability to take action and refuse to recognize the usurpation of authority by the state.
Posted in: COVID-19 And Your Congregation
Faith CRC in Holland emailed the congregation this afternoon to let them know that they were following the guidance of government health officials and Classis Holland leaders to cancel worship services this week and likely for a few weeks. They will continue live streaming services on Facebook and our website, in addition to a local cable TV broadcast. Our pastor made special note that, "The service will be different in that I will create space in worship for you to participate in your homes through readings and prayers. I will also leave space for you to engage each other on Facebook during the service. I imagine this is going to be rough, but we can still glorify God through this." Notes about opportunities to pray and connect in other ways, as well as notes about changes to specific programs were also included.
Posted in: Good Conversations on Polarizing Political Issues
A great book on the topic of having good conversations around faith, politics, and the intersection of faith and politics is David Dark's, "The Gospel According to America". Bad title (in my opinion) but a truly great book.
Posted in: Whose Report Do You Believe?
Susan, reading this article has truly made my day. In Scripture we are given a heavenly vision and told to pursue it (knock for it to be opened, ask to receive it, run the race, even fight the good fight as Joshua and Caleb were prepared to do). We are promised success, not through our efforts, but through our faith in the Lord who owns the vision and leads us to what we see only dimly now. Whatever our weaknesses, be they smallness, dimness, mistaken-ness, or even sinfulness, His power will be perfected in our weakness. He will one day return to fulfill the yearnings of Joshua, Caleb, and all the rest of the faithful. Meanwhile may the accusations, fears, and grumblings of all Israel never defeat your faith (or mine) in His vision!
Posted in: Compensation for Pulpit Supply?
One way to think through this is how many hours you expect the pastor to spend preparing and delivering the message. For a sermon where I pick my own text I have the option of choosing a text I've already studied fairly deeply. I spend about three hours in preparation: reviewing my study, rewriting or updating an existing sermon, and practicing out loud. Then the service lasts an hour. So four hours total.
If I am given a text I haven't studied deeply before then I require at least a month's notice and I will average about 12 hours of total work for study, writing, practice, and delivery.
I'd like to ask What are some similar professions? How much would you pay in labor for an hour of their work? But honestly most of a pastor's pay is simply in the reward of the work itself. So instead, maybe the best question is, How much would you like to compensate the pastor's family for the time he/she spent preparing the message for you?
Posted in: Compensation for Pulpit Supply?
Jeff - I think that's pretty fair. I would say most minister's work more hours than that in a year. And it's probably worth double checking whether the pulpit supply is getting paid more than the regular pastor for time on a sermon. So in smaller churches I think it's fine to lower the total a bit. But your calculation comes in around what's normal in West Michigan right now.
I should also mention that many of us would be happier to preach for what a church can honestly afford. If I go to a church in a very poor area I don't want the Word of God to be a burden. Some of the smallest paychecks have nearly brought me to tears because of the generosity and sacrifice behind them. But when I'm in a church with a handful of other professionals that charge hundreds/hour for their services then I start to wonder what we're saying about the value of God's Word with how little the preacher gets paid.
Posted in: What Books Are You Reading This Summer?
Just finished "The Cross and the Lynching Tree", by James H. Cone. While Cone's theology and mine aren't an exact match, his conclusions are still poignant. The lynching tree is symbolically, and thereby, theologically, the closest example in modern American times of what Jesus' crucifixion was like. After Pilate declared Him innocent, Jesus was lynched and hung on a tree. Thousands of similar stories played out against blacks in America. The fact that this connection has been overlooked by biblical/theological scholars while black artists from the Harlem Renaissance, Christian and secular, have featured the connection prominently is robbing the American Church of a truer understanding of Christ's sacrifice. Pairing this lack of understanding (unorthodoxy) with the unresolved grotesque injustice of lynching (un-orthopractice) puts much of American Christianity, especially (but not only) in white churches, in a precarious spot in relation to their professed faith.
Posted in: Who Supervises the Minister? The Answer Might Surprise You
Great article!
One point of clarification though, the full council includes the minister(s). Maybe a better historian than me can weigh in on this, but I believe for hundreds of years the supervision of every council member, including the minister(s), was done through mutual censor. That means the pastor wouldn't get singled out for evaluation, but every member of the council was up for evaluation simultaneously. Though I've never experienced mutual censor it intrigues me as perhaps a better approach to the parity of offices. Singling the pastor out for evaluation is a double-edged sword. On one hand it can make being a pastor feel very isolating and thankless. On the other hand, it plays into the misguided notion that the pastor is a bigger deal - as if it should take a whole group to check and balance the one person.
Posted in: Coaching Corner: Belonging and Family Faith Formation
Great article Trudy! I'm going to share this with my church's Discipleship Committee.
Posted in: The Four "F" Words Deacons Utter About Classis and Synod
Good article!
When I was pastoring churches I tried to instill in my elders and deacons (with poor success, I'm afraid) that their meetings were their meetings. The point was simply to have good communication and good decision making together, and the form/format should be whatever worked for them. Synod, Classis, Robert's Rules, etc. did not have the right to dictate much, if anything, to what worked for them. Structure is a great, necessary, and (I think) fun thing. But the fun thing about structure is finding/creating the one that fits and benefits all the participants - maybe in this case the one that moves them from one set of "F" words to the other!
Posted in: Ecclesiastic Marriage
I disagree. Only God can truly join people together in marriage. And only the Church is empowered to be God's voice on the matter (and even then only in a limited way). It is a matter of convenience for the state that the state recognizes marriages as helpful to it and provides certain tax benefits or burdens. What the state recognizes as a marriage should not be taken in any way to represent a God's-eye perspective on the situation.
In the past decades the governments of Canada and the US have been slowly encroaching on authority given by God to the Church. In the US that is in direct violation of our constitution, but the Church can do nothing but air its grievances. This is a rare moment when the Church actually has the ability to take action and refuse to recognize the usurpation of authority by the state.
Posted in: Ecclesiastic Marriage
Thanks Bill, you said it better than I did :)