Interim Grace Notes for January 26, 2024
Maureen Completes Basic Unit of Clinical Pastoral Education
Ministry, like most professions, has both generalists and specialists. Physicians can be General Practitioners, and any number of medical specialists. Lawyers have a wide range of specialty options to choose from. My son Erik is a Civil Engineer, and is a geotechnical specialist - he analyzes subsoil to determine if the earth's substrate will support whatever physical structure might install on any given area of land.
Ministry also has specialists - most pastors are generalists, but many choose a specialty: Youth ministry, Outdoor Ministry (Marcy was a Lutheran Camp director before becoming a 5th grade teacher), or institutional chaplaincy. Some who become chaplains also become CPE Supervisors. CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) is education to teach spiritual care to clergy and others, and is the primary method of training hospital and hospice chaplains and spiritual care providers to develop counseling skills, familiarity with a particular pastoral setting (usually within a hospital, parish, hospice, retirement home, etc.) and self-awareness as pastoral care-givers.
A basic (usually a three-month course) unit of CPE has long been a staple of seminary education, required of all who are enrolled in seminary with a path to ordination as Ministers of Word and Sacrament (ordained pastors) and Ministers of Word and Service (ordained deacons).
Recently, more and more denominations are expecting lay ministry staff who are serving congregations, in our case, Synodically Authorized Ministers (SAM's), to complete a basic unit of CPE. This is now the expectation of the SAM's in our Northwestern Ohio Synod. Maureen enrolled in and completed a basic unit, taking six hours every Wednesday to attend Zoom classes taught by a CPE supervisor, and participating in one-on-one meetings with the supervisor to discuss progress and evaluate written assignments.
I completed four units (one year) of CPE before I started in parish ministry 42 years ago, but I remember well how challenging this part of my education to be a pastor was. I am happy to report that Maureen has completed her basic unit of CPE. She shared her evaluation with me, which I would describe as nothing less than exemplary.
Congratulations, Maureen on this accomplishment, and thanks for your continued pursuit of excellence in ministry at Grace!
Saturday Worship Accompanists Visiting This Weekend
I reported in last week's Grace Notes that I had interviewed a candidate to be our Saturday worship accompanist. I was impressed with her skills, and after meeting informally with Executive Committee, we decided to offer her the position. A contract will be developed and voted on at the next Executive Committee meeting on February 12. The candidate's name is Hyo Jung Kim, and she is an immigrant from Korea. Her husband, Jin, is the pastor of the Korean Presbyterian Church USA congregation in Toledo, and she is the accompanist at her husbands church, which explains why she is not a candidate for the Sunday position at Grace. She will be attending worship at Grace this Saturday so that she can get a feel for the service. If you have time on Saturday, stop by and help welcome Hyo to Grace. Her first Saturday to play will be February 17.
Property Committee Researching Organ MIDI Possibilities
Greg from Property Committee has been doing some excellent research and outreach to see if the Grace organ can connect via MIDI to play SOS (Substitute Organist Service) organ tracks. We have been trying to coordinate communication between Glenn Tallar, our organ technician/tuner and Lynae from SOS to determine if this will work. Greg did some investigating on the organ and found some MIDI elements which he photographed. Then...
Breaking News!!
Just received an email from Lynae from SOS, who had reviewed the photos sent by Greg. Here is what she said:
Hi Greg,
It looks like the organ is all set up for MIDI playback already! That is a Classic Organ Works system, and we have successfully added those to our organ “library” in the past. If y’all are in favor, we can move ahead with mapping the organ’s MIDI commands to be able to use the SOS with the organ instead of the sound system. That process takes 2-3 weeks to complete and will cost you $100 for the map, and about $100 for the connection equipment between the iPad and organ.
Let me know if you’d like to proceed and we’ll get the ball rolling!
Blessings, Lynea
I replied to Lynea to say yes, proceed with this upgrade, and to copy Greg, Glenn (our organ tuner/tech) and me in future correspondence.
Pack 302 Pinewood Derby Scheduled
The Cub Scout Pinewood Derby has fostered creativity, innovation, and friendly rivalry among Cub Scouts and their parents for 70 years. First introduced in 1953 by Don Murphy, a Cubmaster in California, the original rules required each car be made from a single wood block. The Pinewood Derby has become a favorite activity for Cub Scouts across America, with millions of participants each year creating cars and racing them down a ramped track.
The Pack 302 Pinewood Derby is scheduled for Saturday, January 27, beginning at 4:15 pm. This will be our first ever Glow in the Dark Derby Race!
Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Workshop
On Thursday, I along with two other Grace members joined the first of four monthly sessions. that will help us build a strong program of volunteer recruitment and retention. We learned about how to write good job descriptions for our volunteers. These job descriptions contain five essential elements:
- Tasks - A list of the tasks that this position entails
- Impact - A description of the impact a members volunteer service will have on others
- Timeframe - You are volunteering for a specific time-from, not forever and ever
- Check-ins - Someone will check-in to see how things are going.
- Testimonials - Those who have done this task in the past tell stories of how doing this volunteer task has enriched their spiritual lives and the lives of others.
The session has been recorded, and I'd encourage you to watch it HERE. The Passcode is: @W9$jd4V It lasts about an hour. You can view a sample job description with the above mention elements HERE.
Healthy Congregations Facilitator Training
On Thursday I also attended via Zoom the second of seven training sessions for becoming a Healthy Congregations Workshop Facilitator. Last week was an introduction, and this week's session introduced the first of the six Workshops. You can read more about these six workshops that I am being trained to lead HERE. Grace could benefit from attending any or all of these workshops, facilitated by a member of the NWOS Congregational Resource Team. Each workshop has several sessions that are designed to be carried out over a six-hour period - usually a Saturday from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.
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