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| "Pacific
Currents"
by Rev. Dr.
Mary Susan Gast, Conference Minister, November, 2000 WHAT A COVENANT! WHAT? A COVENANT??
Last week it happened again. Three times. We were discussing care and support for ministers at the Committee on Ministry meeting Friday, and someone said that "The Conference should do more for non-parish clergy." On Saturday, at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, someone asked, "Does the Conference have a program for welcoming and orienting new ministers?" Later that day someone else commented that "The Conference really needs to play a more active role in working with congregations that are declining in membership and spirit and offering them a way to bequeath their history and heritage to new congregations eager to start up."
Earlier last month I met with some local church leaders about their current search for a new pastor. Toward the end of that congenial conversation someone remarked, "You know, the last time we were searching for a pastor everybody on the search committee was convinced that the Conference was holding back all the really good ministers' Profiles." We certainly should be doing more for non-parish clergy. We do have a process for welcoming new clergy, but "orienting" may be too strong a word for what happens. It would be good to have the Association-based Associate Conference Ministers-or maybe the Association Deans-contact chaplains and hospice workers and campus ministers, and call on them at their workplaces. It would be wonderful to put together an orientation packet for ministers new to the Conference. Associate Conference Ministers have met and will doubtless continue to meet with churches who have asked for assistance in assessing their fiscal and missional futures; the needs of new church starts for meeting space and other forms of support have been acted upon by already-established churches on a situation by situation basis; maybe staff could stir some conscious and intentional match-making into the stew. And it really is in the best interest of the Conference to do everything possible to see to it that your congregation gets the very best pastor possible. There is so much that we could be doing as a Conference, this "community of diverse congregations which nurtures, supports and unites local churches in faithful convenant in Christ as they seek to carry out ministry and mission in the world." We are strengthened as a Conference whenever a local church is strengthened. Now, go back and re-read those last two sentences. Underline the "we" in each. Some of you have been part of the Northern California Nevada Conference for a long time. Your expectations and attitudes about "The Conference" may have been formed by what has happened-or not happened-in the past. Some of you have come to Northern California Nevada from other Conferences or other denominations, and your attitudes and expectations about "The Conference" may well have been shaped by your experience there. Please take note that the Northern California Nevada Conference isn't structured quite like any other. Notice also that the way conference ministry is carried out in November of 2000 is substantively different from what it was in November of 1970, or even in November of 1996. And we're still changing. Adapting. Endeavoring to more closely match our ministries and common undertakings to the support of local churches' ministry and mission. Read through "Reconceptualizing the Ministries of the Northern California Nevada Conference" to get a taste of the changes. Check out the guidelines for the support of new churches and churches seeking to affiliate with the Conference. If you're a minister with standing, look over the questions sent out before a periodic review. There's an overview of the search process and a brief study of changes that have been made over the past 4 years which you're welcome to have. Contact Joy Davis at the Conference Office for any of these materials: (510) 247-8995. And be sure to see the articles in this "Pacific" on the Committee on Ministry. While you're at it, look over the piece on "Our Church's Wider Mission." Pray about your financial support for the wider church, including the Conference. If you get frustrated with "always getting a recording" when you phone the Conference Office, please recall that in 1996, before our offices moved to San Ramon, there were 4 full-time support staff in the office, including a receptionist, plus a part-time bookkeeper. Currently we have 2 and one-half full-time support staff, one of whom is in the office full-time, no receptionist, no bookkeeper. If we compensated our Associate Conference Ministers at the rate recommended for the pastors of the smallest churches in the Conference, we could "afford" only 4 one-quarter time ACMS in place of the 7 we now have. Our financial resources for supporting new and renewing churches are very low. Staff assistance to churches in the areas of Christian Education, youth ministry, and website consultation is valiant but much less that any of us would wish, due to limitations of staff time. Beyond and through all the reflection and recommended reading, please remember that WE are the Conference. We, the member congregations and ministers, make up the Conference. To paraphrase Deuteronomy: this Conference is not too far away from you..it is not in heaven, neither is it in San Ramon, neither is it the Conference of 1988 or 1972.. But, for better and for worse, we are the Conference now. And Deuteronomy's actual wisdom is still true for us, ".the Word is very near to you; it is in your heart so that you can do it." ~ Mary Susan | ||
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