Our fledgling group met today to discuss what we needed to talk about next year. Here's what we came up with in the order that they came up (and not necessarily by order of priority):
1. Connection to other groups/movements (Order of St. Luke, Benedictines, Neo-monastics, UMW Monastery, etc.)
2. What to do with debt?
3. Roles (exploratory, novice, etc.)
4. What do with excess money?
5. How to navigate the boundary between hospitality and the parsonage?
6. What are the various forms of hospitality?
7. Should a rule or covenant be specific and detailed or broad and general?
8. What to do when a spouse doesn't "buy in"?
9. How to plan for children's colleges, emergencies, or big expenses?
10. What should an average budget look like?
11. Does the "minimum" conference salary have any room for negotiation? (i.e. more children, graduated tithe?)
12. How would we support one another within the order itself (emergencies, etc.)?
13. How will we navigate the large geographic distances between us?
14. Will there be annual meetings and what will they look like?
15. How will we handle accountability?
16. Sharing Tips for simple living
17. Beginning now to be transparent with our personal budgets
18. A theology of evangelism, making disciples, witness
19. How to witness to the church as a whole?
20. What would lay-chapters look like?
21. What would non-UMC chapters look like?
And then very practically
1. We will meet bi-weekly next school year at one another's homes for potluck dinners
2. We will share the responsibility of writing/authoring a covenant
Did I miss anything?
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5 comments:
oops. Just saw the debt question as a topic for discussion. Ignore my last comment :-)
Tom et al,
Two things:
The first may be covered by the living wage calculator. It is a general question about the "real value" of things. I am particularly interested in housing, childcare, and transportation. I am not sure what the answer is, but the question is something like this.
Even though a conference might have a baseline housing allowance, that is not necessarily the equivalent of a manse. For instance, if you were provided a five bedroom manse, built and paid for in a cheaper era in which people had larger families, how does that compare with my standard housing allowance that will only rent a three bedroom apartment or buy a one bedroom house? How do we compare these.
Likewise with childcare and automobiles. Right now, my wife and I have my mother as live-in nanny at only $300/week. That is WAY below what someone would pay for commercical services, in home or daycare. We both might pay the same, but we are not buying or owning the same. In other words, should someone else be allowed to pay $600.00 weekly for the same service commercially and have their financial budget adjusted comparably.
With cars, a quick run-in with the insurance industry reveals the consonant point. I drive a low mileage 1990 Oldsmobile inherited from my wife's grandmother. I had a minor fender-bender, cosmetic damage only, but State Farm totaled the car out for $1500. This cash value is nowhere near the use value of the car.
There seem to be two larger points to be made here. The bottom line, isn't necessarily the bottom line. Thus, there will need to be a discerning "fudge factor" involved. It seems that the real issue is point 17 - transparency. The issue is not so much how much one spends on things per se, though that is important. The issue is transparency and accountability, not strict parity or equivalency. The real discipline is having to say what you make and spend, and surrendering some control of that to others.
A final, and unrelated remark on 12 is to look at Mennonite Mutual Aid. This is ridiculously cheap insurance that functions more on the paradigm of an Amish barn raising than the actuarial table. A (large) portion of our surplus might go into an emergency fund to be administered and disbursed by the Order. This, of course, means bankers, lawyers, accountants, and at least a 501C3 charter.
Derek,
Excellent questions.
I have begun to think of the minimum salary as an "anchor" more than a "ceiling." How far does the "anchor" flex before it is uprooted and the boat is adrift? I don't know. But you bring up the excellent point that this is really ultimately about being in a community of people who are discerning these questions together. It is hard to get that kind of a spirit into words, but that was the spirit that was prevalent at our first meeting. Thus, there is certainly some flex room in this idea of an "anchor" though I am fairly certain that it does not flex up to $100,000 (but where it breaks between 30,000 and 100,000 I don't know). This proposal is not meant to be legalistic but rather as a place to begin building a kind of covenant community that will help one another resist the temptations of materialism that swirl around us.
Thanks for taking time to help us think well and clearly about this.
P.S. As a UMC ordained elder, health insurance is just part of the gig whether you want it or not.
Tom et al,
Yes, the same insurance protocol is true for PC(USA) folk as well. But, what of non-ordained or non-traditional ministry folk? That is, what if someone is paying insurance out of pocket? As someone bound for the academy, how do I fit into the matrix?
BTW - I like the anchor metaphor. I once suggested that my college adopt such a pay protocol on a departmental basis. Figure a baseline, then adjust for kids, debt, unusual expenses (healthcare, travel for resident aliens - flying a family of four or five like Doug Campbell to New Zealand once a year is like $10,000.00), but such decisions would be discerned and negotiated by the department, with subsequent approval by the school, and ultimately the dean and/or provost. Again, the process, transparency, and accountability are the real summum bonum of such arrangements.
Derek,
You're right about the non-UMC non-parish ministry folks. I'm guessing that folks from these settings would have to work in community with one another and with the rest of us to develop their own "anchor" points. If you're interested, put a specific proposal up here. Currently, everyone who met last week were all future UMC clergy. So we didn't have to deal with that issue much. But we plan to do so next school year.
Peace,
Tom
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