Church Finance and Emerging Church

Am I really going to talk about church finance....
Yes

Here it goes.

As a Baptist Church we are congregationally run, which means we are congregationally financed as well. All costs incurred by the local church need to be funded by the money given by the local congregation. In the history of the Baptist Church this is done almost exclusively by the tithe on a Sunday, and then mainly in the morning service. We don't have a denominational body which finances anything much except grants for new church plants or other bits a pieces which are only $2000 tops.

All this to say it isn't working and will continue not to work if the church changes in the emerging church way.

So what do we do.

The theory of Bivocational ministers is presented as an option.
If this is done properly it has merit but normally bi-vocational minister means, "minister paid half as much but expected to do the same amount of work" which equals burntout minister. The church needs to also be bi-vocational if having a bi-vocational minister is going to work. That is, people in the church need to be more actively and deliberately involved in the daily running of the church rather than leaving it to the pastor.

Creative money making (this is not a euphorism for illegal money making)
I am not advocating that churches start a counterfeit money factory in the basement of the church. I am saying that we need to look for other ways of raising finance, maybe not lamington drives either. (If you don't know what a lamington drive is post a comment and I'll blog on it later. It's an Australian church institution.)
We need to start looking at ways we can financially support the ministries of church outside of the tithe. People have gifts and abilities they tithe as well as money. We need to be looking at the resources we have in our churches and be helping people to find ways of serving God.

As far as the emerging church goes, it's not going to look anything like Sunday morning (for the most part). So we need to find ways of making it work and having the financial resources to fund these fantastic new faith communities so they are not hindered by a lack of finances. We need to find ways of 'doing church' where God is the focus and financing it needs to be a separate issue not an issue that is interwoven in it. Or does it? I don't know

All I know is the way we currently finance church was great in the 1950's when churches were full of people because going to church on a Sunday was just part of the Culture. We no longer live in the 1950's and therefore need to be looking at culturally appropriate ways of doing church and appropriate ways of raising finance.

I probably sound like a rambling fool who doesn't know what she's talking about. That's ok I probably am. I am at the beginning of thinking about alternate forms of income for church and would love to hear from other churches about how they have worked out this issue.


Blessing

Em

PS. No I don't want spam from a Jamaican man who has suddenly found out I am a relative and have inherited millions if I only give him money. Or any other internet scam.
Although I may sound desperate, I'm not stupid and in case you haven't read this clearly I don't have any money anyway lol

I A CHAMPION!!

With the Winter Olympics being on, my sons have suddenly developed a need to skate, ski, twirl, jump, tumble, spin and sled up and down our hallway.

Will Samma had a spit about NBC only showing Americans winning. If Channel 7 only showed Australians winning it would be very quick coverage in deed. We don't see a huge amount of snow in Oz and therefore don't have many medal prospects. I think we have 1 gold (won by a Canadian who has moved to Australia) and Alicia Camplin won bronze.
So let's count them ..... that's 2 medals. Even if you repeat each of the winning jumps, in slow motion and analyze each move that's still only 1 hour of TV viewing!

Our first ever Gold medal was won at the last Olympics in the speed skating because everyone else fell over!!

So I guess what I am saying is that, as Aussies, we embrace everyone's achievements in the Winter Olympics regardless of nationality. (The Summer Olympics are a different story)

Anyway, I digress, this morning LB (Little Boof) my 3 year old found a 20c. coin (read silver coin about 1 inch wide). He picked it up, stuck it on his chest and started prancing around the lounge room in his undies declaring. "I a champion". When he didn't get the attention he believed a champion deserved, I got, " Muummm I A CHAMPION" to which I appropriately respond yay, well done and clapped. This was all he needed.

He then disappeared and came back with another coin (should really find out where he is getting this money from), gave it to me and said, "You a champion." So I then joined my son strutting around the lounge room declaring that we were champions. It took all that is within me not to break into the infamous Queen song, but I was good.

Whilst strutting with a 10 c coin on my chest with my son, I thought it's great that all he needs to feel like a champion is a silver coin and a wonderful imagination.

Wouldn't it be great if all we needed to feel like champions, was 1 silver coin and a wonderful imagination.

Blessings Em

Friday Five - Friendship

Friendship Friday Five
I've been reflecting this week on the gift of friendship, of people who will be there no matter what you need or when you need it. Sometimes a friend accompanies us through a dark place or dances with us through a joyful time or simply walks down the road of an ordinary time beside us.

Name five friends who have been there when you needed them.

Ok Here it goes:

WM (my husband) is my closest friend and has been through sooo much with me over the last 10 years with College, churches, ordination etc. I love you more than words can declare.

M. Although we only discovered each other 1 1/2 years ago it feels like we have known each other always. She is the sister I never had. I even get to borrow her clothes, it's taken 31 years to have someone I could borrow clothes with.

Caz n Co. They are now on the other side of the country but are friends that are always there for us on the other end of the phone. When we meet up in person it's like we only saw each other yesterday.

SS ( the Senior Pastor) We have a great mutual relationship which is incredibly supportive in all things. He is one of the few people I can truly vent with when things are frustrating and he understands and is able to help work through the issues.

TrueBlue. A friend from birth who is always there. In life's ups and downs we know each other will be there in person, at the end of the phone or on MSN. Doesn't matter what life throws at us we will still be in each others lives when we are 70.

Now there are so many other BW, KR, AB, Retreat group, Mentors and others who have been wonderful to me on my journey that they all deserve a mention. I have been soo incredibly blessed with the people that have crossed my path in life I can't wait to see who else I am going to meet.

Blessings Em

Emerging Church Blog

Hi

I have decided to set up another blog specifically for providing space for people to have conversations about the Emerging Church.

The reason for this is that the concept or subgect of emerging church just keeps popping up and I thought is would be good to have a place where we can gather and swap ideas.

If you want to be a member of this blog Emerging Church Conversations know someone who would be interested please leave a comment.

This will only work if people actively participate in it.

Blessing

Em

I'm a ENFP what are you

When we go through theo college we have to do Myers-Briggs. I am the same now as I was at the begining and end of theo college. MMMM I wonder if there's something in that. LOL

Ultimately I was curious to seen how accurate an internet survey would be and it's come up trump's.
I'd be interested to hear what other pastors/minister/clergy/ etc are to see if there's a type that's drawn to church ministry.

Blessings Em

PS I'm married to an ISTJ and my lecturer at college told us we would have a very eventful or a very short marriage, ten years on I think eventful is a good description

Your #1 Match: ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends.You are also unconventional, irreverant, and unimpressed by authority and rules.Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives.You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're qutie the storyteller! You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist.

What's" Your Personality Type?

Letting go and letting God

A couple of weeks ago I preached on Joshua and was challenged by God that my call as a pastor is to lead and not to pick up all the stuff others don't. I'll explain.

At the beginning of 2005 we lost our Kids ConneXions (Sunday School) coordinator and no one in the congregation offered to step in, so I did. This was very clearly done on the understanding that it was only for 1 year. Roll on 2006. Do you think anyone had stepped up, no they hadn't.

So on being challenged that my energy was being misdirected I decided to tell church that I wasn't going to continue after 1st Term.

I did this and had 2 people offer to take it on. One before the announcement and one after.

This led me to think about how much we hold on to or carry unnecessarily. If we just let it go knowing God wouldn't let it fail if it was important how much more effective would we be in ministry.

I wonder how much we are holding back our congregations from using their gifts because we are so reluctant to give them resposibility and authority.
How threaten are we to have things happen as part of our church that we don't control?
Is that how Jesus led his ministry or did he equip and release?

Just pondering

Blessing

Emma

Tai Chi update

Went to Tai Chi tonight, fantastic again, thought I would update you on the new moves.

After Checking the pulse (see last Tuesdays blog), pull back, yuck push, wash the window, eww these socks stink, turn and throw away.

Found out that we need to be opening our Chi and allow the flow. It's at these times I wonder what the response would be if she found out I'm a minister. lol

Anyway it's still good and a better workout than I would have thought regardless, if I have a flowing or blocked Chi, I wonder if I could get something for that. Mmmmmm

Blessings

Emma

Remember the good as well

Ok enough of the pity party, I've had my spit and now need to move on.

A large part of the issue in our church meeting was finance, (I hear you all gasp in shock, "Issues over money in a church meeting nooo!") but alas yes it's true. This is compounded with the church looking at embarking on a multi million dollar building project. Yes, I know, I am insane.

Anyway after the church meeting, I received a phone call from one of my congregation members which started with the sentence. "After hearing what was said in the meeting about money, I wanted to talk with you."

It's at this point that my heart starts to beat faster than is probably best for it and ultimately me.

But then she starts to talk about how she decided that she needed to find ways of helping, then contacted our local Cinema and talked about using it as a fundraiser. Long story short in the space of the afternoon she secured a way for us to raise over $1500 by watching a movie and getting our friends to come.

Isn't she wonderful!!

I wanted to add this as a balance to yesterdays blog, to remind myself, as much as anyone else, that there is always good with the bad. We do ourselves and the church a disservice if we only focus on the bad. There is always good we just need to find it.

Blessings

Emma

Church Meetings

Today we had our quarterly church meeting, which I had the opportunity to chair.

Man, I am sooo over what I say needing to be endorsed by the male senior pastor in order for it to have any credibility. So is the senior pastor for that matter.

Don't get me wrong we have a great congregation but they just frustrated me down to the soles of my feet sometimes.

It would be really nice if some of the men in my church didn't feel the need consciously or unconsciously to support, endorse, respond, repeat me in order that I may have credibility. I already have it!

I think I might stop here before I end up saying something I shouldn't.

I'm just really frustrated

Remeber, breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through the mouth.
May be it would work better if something was going in to my mouth and I was breathing out through the nose. Lets try that drink in through the mouth , breathing out through the nose, drink in through the mouth , Breathe out through the nose.

Feeling much more relaxed. Its amazing what a ruski can do! lol

Emma

Brian McLaren

Over the last 2 days, I have had the privilege of being at a Brian McLaren Conference.

We have heard and talked about the emergent church and this excites me but also leaves me with questions like: Is an established church able to make that transition? Is it fair to expect it to make that transition? Can we do both or is it an either/or situation? What would an emergent church in South West Sydney look like?

The statement was made: "It's easier to give birth than raise the dead", but as Brian pointed out, he has only ever heard men make that statement. He has never heard a woman put easier and birth in the same sentence. Either way it's hard work which requires revisiting and redefining.

Grace McLaren also discussed with women and some men at the conference about the role of women in the emergent church and the contribution that we can make to this process. If you are a female 'church planter' I would love to hear from you about the difference you see in a woman's approach to the emergent church.

My head at the moment is incredibly full of the possibilities for the congregation and the unending number of ways we could be connecting with the local community and aren't. It is also full of the tension of how do we do this in a way that doesn't leave me pastoring a church of 2 passionate people with everyone else being scared off.

This will probably be the subject of a number of blogs to come as I grapple with the large amount of information I have received over the last 48 hours.

Now I must stop procrastinating and finish the sermon I am meant to be writing for tomorrow

Blessings

Emma

3 year olds and Rubbish Trucks

I am sitting here watching my son's excited reaction to the arrival of the rubbish truck.

It is truly the highlight of his week.
We have the privilege of 3 bins, Red = general rubbish, blue/yellow = recycling and brown = garden waste. Which means Thursday is spent running from one end of the house to the other announcing the arrival of the [insert colour here] truck, with all the gusto and commitment of an 1800's town crier.

This relationship has reach fever pitch and he now has all three drivers expecting to see a little blonde boy excitedly ready and waiting on the front porch waiving madly at the wonder that is the garbologist.

I'll never understand but it always brings a smile

Blessings

Emma

What is church?

Now there's a question to be answered in a 100 word blog!!

I am on a taskforce which among other things is looking at the decline of people going to church. In this discussion we talked about a number of things but they all required work done on the question "What is church?"

• If we are reviving congregations, what are we expecting them to look like or do?
• If we are planting new 'churches' or faith communities what do they need to satisfy the definition of church? What does that look like?
• What are the marks we are looking for in established churches in order that they are churches and not just Christian clubs?

In order for us to be effective as Christians we need to understand what we are doing! Fairly basic really.

How many of us are so busy "doing church" that we don't check if that's what we really are doing.

Please feel free to post a comment on what your definition or requirements are for church.

Blessings

Emma

What does a dove, ball, sweeping and pulling have to do with each other?

Tai Chi!

Last night I tried Tai Chi for the first time (see previous post) and it was great!

As for the ball etc they are different positions in Tai Chi.

You start by breathing and then, move to your left like your holding a ball, sweep your foot in a circle, move to the front, pat the dove, release the dove, catch the ball, sweep the foot, push your arm away and pull back to yourself.

Unless your Megan, then the description goes something like this, breathe, catch the ball, foot thing, pat the dog, where's the butterfly, there it goes, get the ball, foot thing again, do I have a pulse, mmmmmmm, yes.

Not quite as serene as the actual position descriptions but what ever works for you.

Either way the concentration required to make sure that all the moves happened in order, correctly smoothly meant it was a great work out. I came away sweating and hot and wanting more.

Fantastic, can't wait for next week, and yes by the end of the class we were almost "all moving together"

Blessings

Emma

What am I doing!!

Tonight in an attempt to become fit I am starting Tai Chi with Megan.

The instructor is sounding altered, in a Nimbin sort of way, and is talking about "moving well together". Its going to be interesting.

I hope he is okay with laughing as part of the class because I know me doing Tai Chi (at least initially) going to be comical to say the least.

Well, I'll update you tomorrow on how the "moving well together" went

Blessings Emma

Betsy Blessing

Rev. Betsy Blessing has almost knocked the Vicar of Dibley off her perch as my ultimate role model for ministry.
They are currently in a rumble, hair, shoes, and chocolate are flying. I'll keep you updated on who the victor is.

I accidentally stumbled across this character, Rev. Betsy Blessing, as I was looking at different websites for female clergy. She is "a single woman minister trying to balance high heels and lipstick with a clerical robe and a congregation." And is wonderful !!

I have just finished her book and am a regular visitor to her blog (see link). She provides a light hearted, although incredibly insightful, and hilarious look at a woman's experience of ministry.

I cannot recommend the book highly enough. I have lent it to a friend who also devoured it and is now looking for more.

As a female minister in NSW I don't have a huge number of women who I can use as role models for my ministry, as the Baptist church in NSW has only been ordaining women for about 5 years.
There are some such as my mentor Robyn (wonderful woman), but the Vicar and now Betsy are great companions on this journey, even if they are completely fictitious.

Blessings

Emma

Lets try again

Hi

I stopped blogging for a while, as it seemed to be something that wasn't a high priority in my life with the process of ordination, Christmas, holidays, school starting again etc taking a higher place.

Then over the space of less than a week I have had a number of people ask about my blog and why I stopped. So I have decided to give it another go.

My aim is to enter something each day, not necessarily something huge, but at least some reflection or thought of the day.

If you want a notification sent when I update my blog please leave a comment on this entry and I'll add you to the list.

So lets go!!

Blessings

Emma