Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Helping Leaders Become Better Stewards
Citation preview
HELPING LEADERS BECOME BETTER STEWARDS JUNE/JULY 2013HELPING LEADERS BECOME BETTER STEWARDS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
CHARLESJENKINSBOLD AND INTENTIONAL | 10
COMMERCIAL CHURCH KITCHENSWHAT’S INVOLVED & WHY THEY MAKE SENSE | 26
PASTOR-FRIENDLY A/VMAKING AUDIO WORK FOR EVERYONE | 14
LIVE ROUNDTABLESRISK MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES & CHALLENGES | 30
FINANCE, FUNDRAISING & COMPENSATION/BENEFITS | 36
18
30
42
TRANSITIONING TO MILITARY CHAPLAINCYBy RaeAnn SlaybaughBefore making the leap, survey the landscape — prerequisites, daily duties, education, training, and traits that can help set you apart.
NEW NORMAL REALITIES: A LIVE ROUNDTABLERisk management priorities & challenges (part 2)Church Executive and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and its Religious Practice leader, Peter Persuitti, recently hosted an in-depth roundtable discussion on the “new normal” priorities and challenges facing church leaders in the areas of risk management and insurance. Here’s part 2 of that discussion.
FIGHTING FEAR WITH FAITH“Our Journey of Hope” — a vital new program from Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) — equips pastors to minister to members with cancer.
EDITOR’S NOTES .....................7
NEWS UPDATE .........................8
FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS ........13By Rev. Dr. William H. Foster, Jr.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS ...25By Doug Braun
HUMAN RESOURCES .............35By Eric Spacek, JD, ARM
MARKETPLACE ......................46
4 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
OCT/NOV 2013THE CE INTERVIEW
At 24, Charles Jenkins took up the pastoral reins of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church (Fellowship Chicago) following the 2000 retirement of its legendary founding pastor, Rev. Clay Evans, who served the church for 50 years.
How did Jenkins handle the comparisons and criticisms during the early years of his leadership? “With common sense,” he replies. “I was secure about who he was and who I was not.”
14
2618
By Rez Gopez-Sindac10
DEPARTMENTS
“Like” us onChurchExecutiveMagazine
“Follow” us on@ChurchExecutive
26
PASTOR-FRIENDLY A/VMAKING AUDIO WORK — FOR EVERYONEBy Douglas Hood, Eric Smith, Nick Colleran and Adam LebowskiFor pastors, few audio concerns rank higher than simply being heard (and more importantly, understood) on Sunday.
RESPONSIBLE FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIPNEW NORMAL REALITIES: A LIVE ROUNDTABLE (part 2)Church Executive hosted a live roundtable on “new normal” challenges and solutions related to financing, compensation/benefits and capital campaigns. In this issue, we present part 2 of the discussion.
CONSTRUCTIONCOMMERCIAL CHURCH KITCHENSBy RaeAnn SlaybaughChurches considering a commercial kitchen find out quickly they’re a big undertaking. A multitude of equipment and construction requirements must be navigated, plus liabilities, staffing and inspection.
14
36
FEATURES
6 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
4742 North 24th Street, Suite 340 Phoenix, AZ 85016 | 800.541.2670
Vice President OperationsValerie Valtierra AccountantFred Valdez
CLA
churchexecut ive .com
m a g a z i n e4742 North 24th Street, Suite 340
Phoenix, AZ 85016 | 800.541.2670
Publisher/Editor in ChiefSteve Kane, ext. 205
EditorRez Gopez-Sindac
Phone: [email protected]
Managing EditorRaeAnn Slaybaugh, ext. 204
Editor Emeritus Ronald E. Keener
Director of SalesSali Williams, ext. 209
Account ExecutiveAlexandra Garcia, ext. 219
Production DirectorKevin Dixon, ext. 203
Senior Art DirectorRenée Hawkins, ext. 207
EDITORIAL ADVISORY PANEL
Stephen BriggsAssociate Pastor of Administration
First Baptist Church | Hendersonville, NC
Denise CraigChief Financial Officer
Abba’s House | Hixson, TN
David KennedyCEO
HDSound.us | San Marcos, CA
Mike KlockenbrinkChief of Staff
Lakeside Church | Folsom, CA
Dan MikesExecutive Vice President
Bank of the West | San Ramon, CA
John C. Mrazek IIIExecutive Pastor
Pathways Church | Denver, CO
Sam S. Rainer IIISenior Pastor
First Baptist Church | Murray, KY
Mark SimmonsBusiness Manager
Christ Community Church | Milpitas, CA
Eric SpacekSenior Manager
GuideOne Insurance | West Des Moines, IA
Volume 12, No. 9
Church Executive ™ (Copyright 2013), Volume 12, Issue 9. Church Executive is published monthly by Power Trade Media LLC, a subsidiary of Friendship Publications Inc., 4742 N. 24th Street, Ste. 340, Phoenix, AZ 85016. Subscription Rates: United States and Mexico $39 (USD) one year, Canada $42 (USD) one year (GST) included, all other countries $75 one year, single issue United States $5 (USD), all other countries $6 (USD). Reprints: All articles in Church Executive are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the publisher. For reprints of 100 or more, contact Valerie Valtierra at (602) 265-7600 ext. 203.
Copyright 2013 by Power Trade Media, LLC. No advertisement or description or reference to a product or service will be deemed as an endorsement, and no warranty is made or implied by Power Trade Media, LLC. Information is obtained from sources the editors believe reliable, accurate and timely, but no warranty is made or implied, and Power Trade Media, LLC is not responsible for errors or omissions.
6 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 7
EDITOR’S NOTES
When hiring externally
Jordan Ashley Photography
When filling a key leadership position at your church, my guess is many of you might prefer hiring an insider first. Promoting from within is usually cheaper and quicker, helps preserve a company’s culture and values, bolsters employee morale, and often reflects an organization’s strong talent management strategy.
But hiring from within isn’t always the best choice. And as I learned from chatting with some executive pastors via the XP forum, there are many compel-ling reasons for employing outside talents. By the way, the XP forum [www.xpastor.org/google-forum-
on-xpastor] is a vir-tual round table where participants can ask questions about minis-try issues — staffing, accounting, security, facility management, crying babies — and receive answers and encouragement from their peers. The inter-actions, sharing of proven strategies, humor, and sense of community are price-less.
The question I posted was: When is it wise to hire an outsider? Here’s what I learned.
Wanted: Big change. If the leadership wants to create a culture change that aligns with where the church sees itself in the future, it’s wise to hire an exter-nal candidate who can help make it happen, suggests Paul Utnage (Springhill Church, Bozeman, MT). Internal hires are great when the ministry is moving along and key leaders don’t want many changes, but if larger changes need to happen in a fairly short period of time, then outside hires are beneficial, says Utnage.
What’s your guiding need? If your great need is new thinking, hire from outside; if it’s increased morale, hire from within, says Russell Howard (McGregor Bap-tist Church, Fort Myers, FL). There’s a continuum that has “innovation” at one end and “continuity/stability” at
the other, he explains. “In the life of most organizations, or positions, one or the other of those needs will be more prevalent, and that prevalent need should guide your search, in my (old guy) view.”
The ministry went awry. Sometimes there are ministry leaders who aren’t going in the same direc-tion as the church vision — and the longer they stay in their positions, the stronger they’ll likely influence other people. What you might need to do in this situation is hire an outsider who can realign the troubled ministry, advises Dave Patchin (Lifepointe Church, Raleigh, NC). Also, when a program is failing due to poor leadership, it might be time to look for an outside talent who can “instill new life and discover what can work,” adds Patchin.
Lesser risk and lower investment. If what’s needed is a highly experienced person who can get up to speed with minimal investment of time and money, it makes more sense to look outside the church, says Joe Ward (First Baptist Church, Georgetown, TX). Hiring external candidates also is less risky relationship-wise, he adds. “You have to know that it might cost you a friend and a church member should the [internal] hire not work out.”
Go deep and wide. When CrossRoads Church in Alberta, Canada, needed a pastor of missions, internal candidates applied. But they had narrow views of what missions looked like based on their limited experiences, says Jordan Polson, executive pastor. So the church hired an outsider — someone with a doctorate in mis-siology, who had a solid biblical view of missions, and had been on the ground in multiple places around the world. “The impact on our church body has been huge,” says Polson. “It has changed how we support our 40+ missionaries, how we send out short-term teams, and how we do global and local outreach.”
I’m sure you have a few more good reasons for favoring external hires. Let us hear from you, or you can join the XP forum and share with your peers what has worked for your church.
TALK TO ME:Email: [email protected]: ChurchExecutiveMagazineTwitter: @churchexecutive
makes more sense
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 9
NEWS UPDATE
8 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
NASHVILLE, TN — New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host, Dave Ramsey, has introduced a new program: The Legacy Journey. It’s a seven-week course taught on DVD by Ramsey that shows families and indi-viduals what to do once they have control of their finances, and helps them navigate their way through building wealth so they’re able to leave a lasting legacy. The Legacy Journey is a follow-up class to Ramsey’s extremely popular course, Financial Peace University (FPU).
More than 2 million families have changed the way they handle their finances through FPU. The Legacy Journey helps those families build on their existing foundation. By taking a deeper look at what the Bible says about wealth and personal finance, families learn how to create a lasting financial impact on themselves, their families and others.
“To leave a legacy behind, you have to live a legacy now,” says Ramsey. “The Legacy Jour-ney equips you with the tools for managing your resources wisely and living a generous life.”
Chris Hogan, counselor and speaker for the Dave Ramsey organization, says this new program is borne out of Dave’s desire to truly understand what the Bible says about money and wealth. “Money isn’t inherently evil,” he points out. “It’s all in the heart of the person.”
Each week, a different lesson is taught by Ramsey on DVD. Following the lesson is a small group discussion that helps lead class members through the program. Lesson topics include: • Debunking myths about wealth and stewardship;• Investing wisely;• Contentment;• Living with a purpose;• How to live so you can leave a legacy; and• Successful estate planning and generational wealth.
As Hogan explains, the program takes par-ticipants through a “’now’, ‘then,’ ‘us’ and ‘them’” process. “The ‘now’ focuses on the immediate household first,” he says. “’Then,’ we begin to look at the future. The ‘us’ stage asks, ‘How do we begin to leave a legacy to our own family?’ Finally, the ‘them’ stage looks beyond the family — to the churches they belong to, as well as causes they believe in and other families.”
The Legacy Journey lessons also include guest speakers Rachel Cruze, speaker and daughter of Dave Ramsey; Jon Acuff, author of Wall Street Journal best-seller Quitter and the popular blog Stuff Christians Like; and Chris Hogan.
Each participant needs a kit. Included in the cost of the kit are a member workbook, Legacy Box, DISC Profile kit and access to an online will. For more information about The Legacy Journey, or to find a class in your area, visit Ramsey’s website at www.daveramsey.com.
About Dave RamseyDave Ramsey has written four New York
Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations and The Dave Ramsey Channel on iHeart Radio. Follow Ramsey on Twitter at @DaveRamsey.
Dave Ramsey Introduces The Legacy Journey — a much-anticipated follow up to Financial Peace University
10 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
THE CE INTERVIEW
BY REZ GOPEZ-SINDACSenior Pastor | Fellowship Chicago | Chicago, IL
CHARLES JENKINS
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 11
How did Jenkins handle the comparisons and criticisms during the early years of his leadership? “With com-mon sense,” he replies. “I was secure about who he was and who I was not.”
When criticized for doing things dif-ferently, Jenkins says he understood that anybody who has eaten at the same res-taurant for 50 years might have something to say if he changed the tablecloths.
But, change some things he did. Thirteen years later, Jenkins remains a vigi-lant transformational leader using God’s message, marketing and music to bring holistic change to people’s lives and their communities.
What prepared you for the senior pastor role at 24?
I was prepared in ways I wouldn’t realize until later. For one, my mother raised me around senior citizens. We went to nursing homes to visit the sick. I learned how to pray for those in need. We gave them food, money, shoes or what-ever was needed. She took me to funeral homes to comfort families we didn’t even know. I grew up actively involved in church.
Also, attending Moody Bible Institute and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
At 24, Charles Jenkins took up the pastoral reins of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church (Fellowship Chicago) following the 2000 retirement of the legendary Rev. Clay Evans, who served the church for 50 years.
10 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 11
was a preparation. But, the most profound preparation was the three-year
apprenticeship with my predecessor, Rev. Clay Evans, who gave me an inside track to pastoral leadership every day. Then, over time, he handed over the reins while he was still present.
What was the leadership transition like?It was tough and easy; tough because so many people —
not just in the church, but around the country — were rooting against me. They knew of the church and of my predecessor; they thought I was too young. There were people who resisted change. It was tough to be strategic, thoughtful, prayerful and methodical with every move I made. I was trying to maintain the long-timers while welcoming newcomers, and to keep a seasoned generation while bringing in a younger generation. Trying to cook for the whole house was tough.
The easy part of it was Rev. Evans. He was so brilliant. He said, “When you’re where you’re supposed to be, there’s nothing that can come up that you and the Lord can’t handle.”
What fresh ideas did you introduce as lead pastor?In my first two years, we pursued generational unity. We
found creative ways to pair up leaders from different eras. We didn’t necessarily get rid of tradition; we just added some contemporary elements to various facets of our ministry. We wanted reinforcements, not replacements.
We wanted to reach the young generation, so we launched into guerrilla-style marketing, such as buying time on secular radio and paying disc jockeys in clubs to invite people to our programs. Interestingly enough, people came. In one instance, 80 gang members threw down their flags and left the gang. At another event, so many people came that we ran out of room — about a thousand people spilled into a park across the street. It was all because we marketed to the peo-ple we were trying to reach, and we went to where they were.
We also studied our neighborhood’s demographics. We went door-to-door and surveyed the people about the needs in the community and what they’d like to see in a church. They gave us lots of good answers. Based on that, we created opportunities for community engagements and invited the same people to participate.
We went to the streets and handed out small gift bags with information about our church and the Gospel message. We gave away bottled water and tracts. We gave away Krispy Kreme donuts. We did small acts of kindness because we
wanted our church to be a blessing. We hosted nontraditional conferences about health,
business, education and real estate. They changed lives; people became good stewards of their resources. Some even started their own businesses.
Then, we started a monthly worship gathering in Chi-cago’s downtown business district. Hundreds of people come to Macy’s department store — about 500 businesspeople — to worship for 50 minutes and get a bag lunch at the close.
You’re also a GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter and recording artist. What role does music play in your personal life and in your ministry?
It’s always been in my veins; I have an uncle who played with a band called Earth, Wind and Fire, and my >>
QUICK FACTS
FELLOWSHIP CHICAGOYear established: 1950
Average weekly attendance: 3,500
Affiliation/denomination: Baptist
Campuses: 2
Annual budget: $4.4 million
Full-time staff: 15
12 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 13
THE CE INTERVIEW
Church members need to hear that succession is an anticipated vision. The church needs to understand that it’s a biblical model. It’s being a good steward of both the ministry and the leadership mantel. It’s about making sure the baton doesn’t fall to the ground.
Embrace applied change. Applied change is change with intended positive results in mind. When succession takes place, when new leadership comes in — change is inevitable. If you don’t change with the times, the times will change without you and mark you irrelevant or obsolete.
Magnify the blessings of transition. If you’re going to influence people to fol-low you on a meaningful journey, you’ve got to put the benefits in front of them.
Know what to tolerate and what to eliminate. We keyed in on things that weren’t really hurting aspects of our ministry. It might have been just some-thing traditional — a style or method, or a program. We realized that we might need to change it down the road. On the flip side, we needed to know what was stunting our growth.
What do you want to see accom-plished at Fellowship Chicago before you pass the leadership baton to your successor?
I’d love to see a very firm disciple-ship culture in our church. Many of those who join our church have no spiritual point of reference. They’re brand-new to church; that’s why discipleship is a big need. When it comes to discipleship and community, I would like to see Fel-lowship run on “automatic” — systemati-cally, structurally and culturally.
I’d like to see a strong biblical aca-demic arm in Chicago and in urban inner cities, particularly within the African American community.
I’d like to see the completion of our expansion effort, the Legacy Project, which is our commitment to building people and building community.
The last thing I want to see is a financial endowment that will promote generosity and philanthropy, with an emphasis on efficient stewardship to serve the poor, the sick and our youth.
grandmother and aunt played for all the churches in the city. I’ve been around music all my life. I started writing songs at 14 or 15.
I’ve come to learn that music is one of the most influential mediums in our culture. For me, it’s a legitimate tool to inspire, uplift and to empower, using God’s ideas for biblically inspired thoughts to teach people and to be a
blessing to them. We’ve seen millions of hits on a song
I wrote called “Awesome,” and tens of thousands of people purchased the album. I’ve learned that people will listen to a song more times than they’ll listen to a sermon.
Share some strategies that can help other churches succeed in their succession plans.
Embrace succession and transition.
12 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 13
FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS
As church executives, it’s our privilege and duty to recognize the value of staff members. Providing additional benefits — such as retirement savings plans and insurance (disability, life insurance and health) — can enhance your staff’s loyalty and drive.
I also understand that tight budgets often make us unable to offer all these benefits.
You know that creating an attractive benefits package shows your staff that you care about them, in the here-and-now and in the future. You also know that a benefits package can reduce costly turnover and help retain employees — and recruit new ones. So, it begs the question: What’s the best package your church can offer?
Making the case for retirement plansIn our current economy, retirement benefits are critical.
Today, the average adult is living longer, and therefore needs to save more than ever for retirement. While not offering a
retirement plan might seem like a quick fix to save money, it’s really not.
For federal tax purposes, retirement plan contributions aren’t considered income. This means that, unlike a cash sal-ary, your staff receives all the money you contribute to their retirement account as compensation. Your staff doesn’t pay taxes on the invested amount — along with any investment growth — until the money is withdrawn during retirement.
And, if your plan is operated by a qualified church-based organization, your ordained staff continues to enjoy the ben-efits of the housing allowance.
You’re onboard. Now what?Once you’ve decided to offer a retirement savings plan
— a 403(b) plan, for most churches — you’ll have decisions to make about how to structure it. Will the church make a contribution based on a percentage of each employee’s sal-ary? Will it use a matching plan to encourage employees to save? There are many ways to structure a plan; a financial administrator can help you meet your specific objectives.
When researching your options, keep an open mind. Churches that are part of a denomination might have a denominational benefits plan that can provide for most of or all the benefits you choose to offer. Sometimes, these bene-fits are offered as a package; the savings can be substantial when you purchase the package compared to shopping for each benefit, separately, from multiple providers.
When shopping for benefits, also consider the complex-ity that managing them adds to your church staff or lay com-mittees. Some key questions need to be answered: • How many vendors do you want to work with? • Will you have a single point of contact, or will a retire-ment plan require you to engage a third-party administrator to manage the plan and a separate company to provide and manage the investments? • How complex is the process of enrolling and terminat-ing employees in the plan?
At face value, a plan might offer excellent benefits at an affordable price. But, if it requires you to add the equivalent of a half-time position to manage them, you might be better off paying a little more to a provider that offers more man-agement and depth of customer service.
Retirement plans are directly linked to the quality of people the church can attract, as well as to how long the staff stays with the church. And, while church salaries are often lower than comparable secular employment, offering a generous and comprehensive benefits package is a cost-effective way to bridge the gap and hire the best staff.
Rev. Dr. William H. Foster, Jr., serves as national outreach manager for MMBB Financial Services
[mmbb.org] in Olympia Fields, IL. He has more than 20 years of pastoral experience and 30 years of financial
experience. Foster also serves as senior pastor at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.
BY REV. DR. WILLIAM H. FOSTER, JR.
Retirement planning tips
PASTOR-FRIENDLYFor pastors, few audio concerns rank higher on the priority list than simply being heard (and more importantly, understood) on Sunday. To this end, a handful of audio and acoustical experts offer their best pastor-friendly advice.
14 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
Achieving ideal church sound requires the right people and equipment.
BY DOUGLAS HOOD
A few years ago, I interviewed several pastors while preparing a conference session. A pointer one wise pastor gave me still rings in my head: “Find people who are both willing and competent.”
I’ve seen this wisdom play out in churches of all sizes. It’s entirely possible for the sound system operator to have a servant’s heart and be involved in the sound system ministry for all the right reasons. But, if he or she doesn’t pos-sess the skillset to operate the system at the level the pastor expects, there can be tension.
A pastor should clearly define the audio expectations. Is Sunday morning expected to be 100-percent perfect, with zero tolerance for technical glitches? The answer might depend on the size of the church, the style of ministry, and the complexity of the worship program.
Accommodating congregantsIf you want to spark an interesting con-
versation, take a poll to find out how loud is “loud enough.”
Equip the sound team with a simple and inexpensive piece of equipment: a sound meter. A very basic unit can be purchased for less than $100. Granted, this isn’t a highly calibrated piece of test equipment, but it can deliver a number you can reference.
Armed with your sound meter, put in a CD of worship music — or better yet, bring in your choir, band or worship team. Gather people in the room whom you trust to help make the decision about appropriate volume. As the
MAKING AUDIO WORK —
FOR EVERYONE
At Brazos Pointe Fellowship in Jackson, TX, a clean — and effective — audio setup shows no stage monitors on the platform. (Photo provided by CSD, Inc.)
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 15
music plays, have your sound system operator slowly turn up the sound. When it reaches a point where you feel it’s a good fit for your congregation, look at the number. Bingo! Now you have your magic number.
The key here is to make sure the team doesn’t look at the number during the test. Additionally, your venue will need a professionally designed and installed loudspeaker system.
Now, direct your attention toward the stageSome stages are cluttered with huge wedge monitors
and lots of instrument amplifiers. For the most part, almost every church stage would benefit from an in-ear monitor (IEM) system. By eliminating some or all of the stage monitor
speakers, the stage becomes much cleaner, visually. Second, for every stage monitor speaker removed, there’s one less speaker on the stage polluting the sound for the congrega-tion. It’s a win-win.
As a bonus, IEM systems can be very affordable, and they come in many configurations. Moreover, these systems can be controlled from the sound booth or by the people on the stage. They can be hard-wired or wireless, and they can use inexpensive ear buds or custom ear molds made specifically for individuals.
Bring up some of these ideas at your next church tech team meeting. See what you can do to make your church’s audio experience the best it can be! CE
TO HEED THE WORD, THEY’VE GOT TO HEAR IT FIRST
BY ERIC SMITH
Given the physics of sound propa-gation in enclosed spaces, no sanctuary is immune to acoustical problems. It will experience poor sound without proper treatment.
In houses of worship, job 1 for audio equipment is to deliver a clear message. The equipment you use is secondary to adequately controlling the room with proper acoustical treatments.
Having worked with some of the largest churches in the country — as well as thousands of smaller ones — our company has seen firsthand that solving a facility’s sound problems can be done, and often for less money than one might assume.
It bears mentioning that some acoustical control devices have virtually no pertinence to houses of worship. In fact, certain types of treatments can make audio problems worse.
Once the room is controlled, there are other facets of sound presentation to consider. Failing to do so can under-mine your church’s presentation and negate the benefits of proper acoustics and top-quality gear.
Here’s an example: Drums, amps and monitors vibrate the structure, and then microphone stands transfer vibra-tions from the stage to the microphones. As a result, worshippers might say they can’t hear the sung vocals or spoken word clearly, or that the bass is muddy, thereby reducing intelligibility. >>
16 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
PASTOR-FRIENDLY
This might be because sound-producing pieces of equipment aren’t properly isolated. These interact physically with the stage or surface they’re placed on and contribute negatively to the overall audio presentation.
Our company’s series of instant sound optimizers are patented isolation devices carefully engineered to allow the true sound of drums, amps, speakers, mics and more to come through. These devices negate resonance artifacts and decouple critical components from the structure, instantly purifying their tone in a quick, easy and affordable way.
The message is clear: Proper intelligibility and balance keep worshippers in the pews and allow them to absorb more of the important message you’re conveying. CE
Eric Smith is founder and president of Auralex Acoustics, Inc. [auralex.com] in Indianapolis.
HOW TO BE UNDERSTOOD — NOT JUST HEARD
BY NICK COLLERAN
Working for a company that manufactures and distrib-utes materials to control sound and eliminate noise, I’ve had many opportunities to solve acoustical problems for churches, schools and commercial venues. At a recent six-month project in a multipurpose space at Sabot Stony Point School in Rich-mond, VA, we were able to measure results against our predic-tions — and even record the sound difference!
Over six months, we recommended treatment, provided predictions, tested on-site impulse noise reverberation time, and waited for approval and installation. We revisited the site to test our assumptions after receiving an email from the client reading, “You were right; it worked!”
Prior to acoustical treatment, a listener couldn’t under-stand a speaker located across the room. Predictions indicated that the addition of a specific quantity of acoustical materials would drop reverberation in the critical mid-range by two seconds, bringing it close to ideal for intelligibility at an RT60 of 1 second. Materials used were Cloudscape hanging baffles, Sonora wall panels inset into a large garage door, and a few pieces of sealed standard building insulation thrown over the exposed roof/ceiling of the storage rooms at the ends of the large, open room.
Ceiling baffles are extremely effi-cient for significant drops in reverbera-tion times (RT60) in large, open rooms because they have exposed areas on both sides, plus their edges. The total surface area of a hanging baffle is 16 to 18 square feet, depending upon thickness, rather than the 8 square feet 2 feet by 4 feet implies. The wall panels are less efficient but necessary to reduce side-to-side flutter and annoy-ing slap-back between parallel walls. The sealed building insulation is inex-pensive. And, being unseen, it doesn’t need to look great, which adds to cost more than performance. As with the baffles, the thin covering encapsulat-ing the acoustical material is essentially nonexistent to sound below the “dog range” frequencies and doesn’t affect performance.
The room in this example is used for drum ensemble practice and performance, among other things, and makes the intense percussion not just bearable, but fun to listen to.
A word about costI’ll close with tradition and mention the middle-point of
the process: cost. Producing this acoustically pleasant room — including all materials, freight and installation by a profes-sional, licensed contractor (not an acoustical specialist) — can be done for about $5,000. In most cases, this figure is less than the savings derived from needing less sound equipment of dubious effectiveness. CE
Nick Colleran is the former president of Society of Professional Audio Recording Services (SPARS) and Virginia Productions Services Association (VPSA), a former recording artist and recording engineer. Today, he is a principal at Acoustics First Corporation [acousticsfirst.com] in Richmond, VA.
Sabot Stony Point School in Richmond, VA (Photos provided Jim DeGrandis/Copyright 2013 Acoustics First Corporation)
At Southport United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, ELiTE Pro acoustical panels were installed to improve speech intelligibility and music quality while reducing ambient noise level. (Photo provided by Auralex Acoustics)
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 17
HOW TO GET SIMPLE, RELIABLE AND IMMACULATE-SOUNDING AUDIOBY ADAM LEBOWSKI
Worship leaders care about delivering each word of the message with ease and in perfect clarity. Focusrite’s RedNet range of six Dante Ethernet-networked audio interfaces helps houses of worship spread the Gospel with simple, reliable and immaculate-sounding audio.
Supreme Sound QualityRedNet is our company’s flagship range of modular Ethernet-networked
audio interfaces that harnesses the power of Audinate’s tried-and-tested Dante digital audio networking system.
RedNet represents the new emerging standard for audio distribution. Using Ethernet, it transmits large channel counts very quickly, resulting in extremely high-quality audio combined with Internet-age flexibility.
Bringing superb studio-grade Focusrite analog and digital I/O, and next-generation Focusrite remote-controlled preamps to Dante’s robust and reliable digital audio network, RedNet is a scalable, near-zero-latency audio distribution system.
Minimize costs, maximize flexibilityTraditional audio wiring requires feet upon feet of expensive copper cabling.
One discreet Ethernet cable substitutes for multiple copper audio cables, which streamlines installation and substantially reduces setup and maintenance costs.
Ideal for use in house-of-worship environments, RedNet allows a church to build a site-specific system on the fly, combining interfaces as (and where) they’re required, while making the best use of limited budget and resources. RedNet can be installed anywhere an Ethernet port is available; simply tap into your facility’s existing infrastructure without undergoing a major installation just for audio equipment.
Widely compatibleRedNet is compatible with just about all major professional audio technolo-
gies which a church might already be using — MADI, Pro Tools/HD and any other Dante-enabled product, such as mixing consoles, power amps, DSP or speaker management systems. As such, RedNet can form the foundation of a new system or enhance an existing one.
RedNet’s modular “building block” design means churches can easily build a system for now that’s also poised for growth later. As your church grows in size,
so too can your RedNet system. And because Ethernet is here to stay, Red-Net is essentially a future-proof audio solution for your entire facility.
Reach more peopleUsing Ethernet makes it
simple to broadcast church events to more people. Easily distribute audio from and to performance areas, overspill and cry rooms, or any other location equipped with a stan-
dard Ethernet port. CE
Adam Lebowski is marketing assis-tant at Focusrite Novation Inc. in El Segundo, CA. Find out more about how RedNet can work for your House of Worship at focusrite.com/RedNet/HOW.
Focusrite RedNet stack & PCIe Card
18 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
For Chaplain Jonathan E. Shaw, director of ethical development for the US Army War College, military chaplaincy runs in the family: It was his father’s 40-year calling. For his part, Shaw enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps first, and then entered seminary in 1979. After graduation five years later, he served as a reserve-duty chaplain until 1988. After that, he went to active-duty chaplaincy — a role he has held for the past 25 years.
Dr. James Flynn, associate professor of practical theology and director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, School of Divinity, at Regent University, was a pastor for 30 years.
Before making the leap, survey the landscape — prerequisites, daily duties, education, training, and traits that can help set you apart.
Transitioning to military chaplaincy
BY RAEANN SLAYBAUGH
Continued on page 21
20 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
Chaplaincy posts can vary widely depend-ing on whether he or she is in an active-duty or in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Chaplain Michael Pollitt, national director of the National Chaplain Service for the Depart-ment of Veterans Affairs, is quite familiar with the differences.
Pollitt says he became familiar with VA operations from an early age. “I always thought of the VA as a magical place that gave my father back to me,” he says. His father was wounded in combat, captured, and kept in a prisoner of war camp. “After his trips to the VA hospital, he came back to us a new person. I always had a great love for the VA.”
Yet, before joining the Department of Veterans Affairs, Pollitt was an Army chaplain. At a conference, he heard a psychiatrist speak on the topic of addiction and spirituality. “I was very taken by it,” he recalls — so much that he went on to study addiction in gradu-ate school. After that, Pollitt spent five years as a chaplain/addiction specialist at John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit.
Having served as both an active-duty chaplain and a VA chaplain, Pollitt says both roles deal with the same event — military ser-vice. Beyond that, however, “they run in two different directions.”
One key difference is the people to whom he ministers as a VA chaplain. “Military chap-lains deal with, for the most part, younger, healthier patients, whereas VA chaplains’ patients range from early adulthood to the elderly,” he explains. “As a VA chaplain, I once had a 105-year-old patient, as well as a Bataan Death March survivor.”
According to Pollitt, the ongoing psychiat-ric and hospice responsibilities are greater in a VA chaplaincy role versus active-duty. There’s also probably more interaction with Intensive Care Unit, or ICU, patients, he says. “VA chap-lains are very involved in the dying process in our VA hospitals.”
Physical considerationsAnother chaplain who has held both
active-duty and VA roles is John Zinck of the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System (SAVAHCS) in Tucson, AZ. Zinck joined the National Guard as a chaplain in the 1970’s, after graduating from seminary.
Following Desert Storm cutbacks in the early 90’s, he began to look for his next opportunity. Zinck connected with a chap-lain at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix and began working there part-time, which grew into full-time. “Through that experience, I became interested in veterans, in particular,” he recalls.
Three years later, Zinck reconnected with a former troop, who told him about a VA chaplain opportunity in Tucson. More than
20 years later, he still works there, along with several other chaplains — two full-time, one part-time, and a few on contract.
Having seen both sides of the coin, the biggest difference, for Zinck, is that he’s no longer so prone to relocation. “In Tucson, I built a ministry and have stayed with it for 20-plus years,” he says. “As a battalion chap-lain, I was subject to moving, and I did — to Germany and to Texas and Southwest Asia. A battalion chaplain goes where his or her troops go.”
Aside from needing to be mobile, Zinck says active-duty chaplaincy lends itself well to younger ministers because they have to keep up, physically, with their troops.
When not deployed, battalion chaplains serve military families also, Zinck adds. On the other end of the spectrum, VA chaplains minister to veterans of all ages, as well as to VA medical patients. “So, as a VA chaplain, the ministry is geared towards patients versus families or troops.”
A day in the life of a VA chaplainAs a VA staff chaplain in Detroit, Pol-
litt says that his typical day would start with making rounds to the new admissions, and then leading 12-step classes. Mid-morning, he would visit with about 25 patients and write progress notes. Then, he would often provide care for homeless veterans, primarily by pro-viding clean clothes — socks and underwear. “About 52 percent of our addicts and alcohol-ics were homeless,” he shares.
By late morning, Pollitt was performing spiritual assessments with new patients and entering that information into the computer. After lunch, he would normally do intake work with the psychiatrist, followed by an occasional “code blue” call, which often would involve immediate issues with patients and families.
After that, he would host relapse-insight classes and one-on-one counseling. He would also chair the veteran house meeting on the chemical dependency unit.
For Zinck, no two days are the same. Every week, he and the other full-time chaplains run spiritual support groups for substance abuse. He also does routine visits in wards, as well as performs spiritual assessments.
“I’m involved in the hospice team; I do those rounds on Tuesdays,” he adds. “I work with veterans and spouses in bereavement groups. I lead religious services twice a week. I serve on the ethics advisory committee and Institutional Review Board, which is research-focused.”
Consistent or not, one thing is clear: VA chaplains stay very busy providing varied min-istry offerings — and plenty of them. CE
SPOTLIGHT ON VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA) CHAPLAINCY | BY RAEANN SLAYBAUGH
Michael J. Pollitt
John Zinck
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 21
When it comes to the ins and outs of this unique, demanding — and highly rewarding — ministry role, Shaw is a consummate authority.
A day in the lifeGiven his rank as a colonel in the U.S. Army, Shaw’s
day isn’t “typical” for a military chaplain anymore. How-ever, looking back on his career, he can paint a good picture of how that looks.
“For chaplains, the day begins at 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m., with physical training, which they do with the soldiers for about an hour,” he says. “Then, they often meet at headquarters with various commanders and staff to plan religious support.”
Next, military chaplains visit soldiers in the field and other duty areas. “They’re invited — and expected — to be alongside soldiers,” Shaw emphasizes. “It’s a ‘ministry of presence.’ It means preaching, teaching, counseling and praying.”
In a wartime situation, it might also include praying before “going outside the wire,” he points out.
Across all branches of the military, Shaw says the commonalities in the chaplaincy role are two-fold: “They bring God to those in uniform by preaching, teaching, praying and counseling, and they advise commanders on how religion and morals matter in operations.”
The non-negotiablesAside from these daily duties, there are other pre-
requisites for military chaplaincy posts, beginning with age restrictions. According to Shaw, for the active-duty Army chaplaincy, a candidate must be 41 or younger. For reserve-duty chaplains, the age limit is 44, with some exceptions for prior military service. He notes that age restrictions can change, so checking with a chaplain recruiter is important. (Visit www.goarmy.com/chaplain.)
A proven ministry background, as well as significant levels of education, is also required. As Shaw points out, the U.S. Department of Defense requires all military chap-lains to have at least two years of parish ministry. “Also, they must have a bachelor’s degree, seminary experience, and often a master of divinity degree.”
Finally, the ministry professional must gain an eccle-siastical endorsement from a Department of Defense-recognized religious organization — for example, from a specific church denomination, mosque or synagogue. Each chaplain represents a specific faith in supporting service members. Together, chaplains form a team that makes sure each service member can be strong accord-ing to his or her faith. Each chaplain is expected to bring ministry with integrity and sensitivity.
To this end, institutions such as Virginia Beach, VA-based Regent University offer master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees with a military chaplaincy
concentration. Dr. James Flynn is associate professor of practical theology and director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, School of Divinity, at Regent. He was also a pas-tor for 30 years.
Flynn says the master-level degree Regent offers, which requires 72 credit hours, is a well-tailored option for prospective military chaplains. “They get theological training, as well as training for counseling, spiritual forma-tion classes,” he says. “That’s because such a broad theo-logical base is required by the military of its chaplains.”
Another area of focus for Regent’s master- and doctor-level military chaplaincy students is ethics. “That’s a big focus in our doctoral program, especially,” Flynn says. “There are lots of battlefield-related questions related to ethics these days, including the use of drone fleets. So, the military is looking for specialized ethics competencies in its chaplains.”
Preferred traits and skillsFor his part, Flynn is most familiar with the nuances of
Navy chaplaincy, given Regent’s close proximity to a naval base. In this branch of service, he says chaplains must be mobile, as six- to nine-month deployments are common. A chaplain must also be able to handle the weariness that often comes along with this service, he adds.
“Also, some [chaplains] are right in theater,” Flynn continues. “And when they’re not, they’re ministering to families, mediating, doing any kind of ministering you can imagine.”
A military chaplain also needs to stay fit mentally and spiritually. “It’s always a dual profession: uniformed officer and clergy,” Shaw explains.
Regarding personality, Flynn says the military chap-lains Regent has educated are some of the calmest, coolest and most collected individuals he has ever met. “They’re very well-respected among their troops and col-leagues,” he says. “They carry themselves with gravitas. That’s key because they need to be able to be catalysts for peace, and they must be willing to give and give — especially if a troop’s theology doesn’t align with his or her own.”
This last sentiment is one Shaw echoes, based on his experience. “A military chaplain is expected to be com-fortable working in a pluralistic environment — one which represents numerous faiths,” he explains. “You’ve got to be energetically motivated to work together in this role. It requires cooperation without compromise.”
Even so, Shaw says one single competency reigns supreme over all others: a track record as a good pastor. “It’s the No. 1 most important qualification; I can’t stress this enough,” he says. “Military chaplaincy isn’t for pastors who are ‘running away.’ CE
Continued from page 18
22 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
VA CHAPLAINCY
For pastors who think a VA chaplaincy role seems like a good fit, the first
step in the job-seeking process is to determine their eligibility. Both Pollitt and
Zinck say that prior military chaplaincy experience isn’t a prerequisite.
“About half of all VA chaplains have prior military service,” Pollitt says.
“A good chaplain is a good chaplain. Military service is a plus, but ministry
ability is equally important.”
Zinck agrees. “Having military experience has helped me, but only half of
my staff are veterans,” he says. “They’re a good mix of hospital and military
backgrounds.”
Beyond this first level of scrutiny, a pastor will have lots of questions. Here,
Chaplain Pollitt and Chaplain Zinck answer all of them.
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 23
For a VA chaplain, does the service area vary depending on his or her assignment? Likewise, does the number of people he or she serves also vary?
Chaplain Pollitt: There are different kinds of VA hospitals, so a lot depends on where you’re assigned. In a psychiatric unit, for instance, the ratio of chaplains to patients might be 1:40; in hospice, 1:15; and in ICU, 1:12.
Chaplain Zinck: It can vary. If a chaplain has special gifts in certain areas (primary care and specialties within it — mental health, for example), that’s a leg up. Most have military backgrounds or hospital experience and develop a specialty once they take on the VA chaplaincy role. My own specialties are hospice and elderly care.
Are VA chaplains involved in emergency first-response efforts?
Chaplain Pollitt: I’m not, but many VA chaplains are. They attend training to do so and have annual training to remain current in their skills.
Chaplain Zinck: The VA has the largest number
of medical personnel, so they’re often called to disaster areas. In Oklahoma City, for example, chaplains and indi-vidual medical personnel were deployed. Today, disaster respondents have evolved to deployment of whole teams of medical personnel and chaplains to set up a whole system or shelter. There were many nursing home/hospital evacu-ees, post-Katrina, for example. A system/shelter was set up in Rustin, LA, for hospital care during Hurricane Gustov, and in Texas for Hurricane Ike. During Hurricane Katrina, a shelter was set up here in Tucson. That’s as close to the military chaplain experience as it gets in my role. It’s very rewarding.
How much competition exists for VA chaplaincy posts, right now?
Chaplain Pollitt: Sequestration hasn’t hit the VA directly, but the climate has. So, there’s a great deal of interest in VA chaplaincy right now. Last year, there were 3,500 applications for 41 full-time VA chaplain positions.
Chaplain Zinck: With the economy the way it is, there’s a lot of competition. But, the right person gets the right job, at the right time. With persistence and patience, it’ll come.
What skills, qualifications or personal traits set a civilian candidate apart?
Chaplain Pollitt: Varied experience is critical — med-ical and chaplaincy, most of all. Also, candidates who are board-certified with an organization like the Association of Professional Chaplains, and other certifications, are given a good look during the application screening process. Specialty training is another plus; my own background in drug addiction treatment really helped me. Elder care and PTSD treatment experience are highly sought-after at the moment in VA.
Chaplain Zinck: A candidate must have a M.Div degree to be considered, as well as an ecclesiastical endorsement. At the GS11 level, they need two to three years of parish experience. At this level, they spend more time meeting immediate spiritual needs. At the GS12 level, they need three years of parish experience. At this level, they’re considered more of a clinical chaplain.
Are VA chaplains denomination-specific? Chaplain Pollitt: Most aren’t, but some are. >>
VA CHAPLAINCY
24 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/201324 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 25
If an announcement is denomination-specific, it will state that in the announcement. Usually, a position is open to all denominations.
Chaplain Zinck: Yes. But, although I still represent my faith group, my role is about providing what my vets need. If our beliefs don’t match up, it’s my responsibility to see that he or she is provided for.
Are certain denominations in high demand? Chaplain Pollitt: There’s always a great need for
Roman Catholic chaplains. Also, the VA added its first two full-time Muslim chaplains in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in 2012.
Chaplain Zinck: Catholic priests are in high demand, worldwide. It’s tough for them to get an ecclesiastical endorsement to pursue military chaplaincy because of that shortage.
Is there a training period for new VA chaplains?Chaplain Pollitt: All first-year government employees
have a one-year probation. During the first few months, they are required to attend the Chaplain Basic Orientation Course here at the National Chaplain Training Center in Hampton, VA. Chaplains may also attend leadership training for new and aspiring chief chaplains and a management course for sitting chief chaplains. We also have a long list of specialty classes — such as hospice/Palliative Care, working with women vets, military sexual trauma, addiction, and PTSD and many others.
Chaplain Zinck: If a candidate is endorsed by his or her denomination, and meets and the criteria, that’s about all the advance training required other than Clinical Pastoral Education. There’s a two-week intro-to-VA chap-laincy course, plus a probation period of one year.
What’s the long-term career outlook for a VA chaplain?
Chaplain Pollitt: As with all federal positions, as long as a chaplain is healthy and able to serve, he or she should have a long-term career.
Chaplain Zinck: Once they’re past their probation period, they could easily have a long career. Once they’re working for a facility, chances are good that they could stay indefinitely. There are many 10- to 15-year chaplains on my staff.
Where should a pastor start the “job search”? Chaplain Pollitt: Go to USAjobs.gov and type in
“chaplain.” It’s that simple. All of the uploading instructions are there on the site. It used to be that candidates would send a big envelope of documents, but it became auto-
mated two years ago. There are 152 VA hospitals across the country, with chaplain positions in all of them. Be sure to submit all documents and information in a timely and accurate manner.
Chaplain Zinck: Visit USAjobs.gov; all applications are funneled through that website. The National Chaplains Center scores them. Also, a list of qualifications is available at va.gov/chaplains. Or, you can go down to the local VA and ask the same questions being asked here.
Beyond that, how would they “enlist”?Chaplain Pollitt: Basically, that’s it. [See above] The
only thing that expires is the denominational endorsement. That can be no older than 12 months. If it’s 12 months and one day, it has expired and new endorsement is needed.
Chaplain Zinck: Once they’re qualified, they can request their name be sent out for a candidate position. After that, it’s up to the process.
Any other advice for pastors considering a career transition to VA chaplaincy?
Chaplain Pollitt: You need a minimum of two units of clinical pastoral education. But, to be competitive, you really need more than that. The wildcard is that the VA offers clini-cal pastoral education. Take a residency (4 units of CPE) at a VA medical center, if possible, because graduates of the VA CPE programs receive a one-year special consideration for a VA Chaplaincy job. It’s still very competitive, but it’s an excellent way to be considered.
Specialty certifications — hospice, for example — are also key.
Take time with the application. If possible, have current hospital or healthcare experi-
ence. The longer the time away from hospital chaplaincy, the less relevant it is.
VA chaplaincy is great work, and very rewarding. I leave more satisfied at the end of the day than when I arrived.
Chaplain Zinck: Learn to fill out a federal job applica-tion. Be patient. Be persistent. Be comfortable working in a pluralistic setting. You’ve got to be comfortable working with peers from different faiths — and also the unchurched, as many patients will be. Be prepared for resistance, some-times anger towards God and/or religion.
Also, look at what you’re doing in your own church with your own veterans. They’re the same people we’re minister-ing to. Lots of pastors call, wanting to know how they can do something for the vets we care for, but a lot of them aren’t aware of what they can do for the vets in their own congregations. CE
— Reporting by RaeAnn Slaybaugh
24 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013 10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 25
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
Among the newer technologies transforming American churches is the digital giving kiosk — a freestanding unit that enables individuals to submit tithes or make freewill offerings at any time, using several forms of payment. Kiosks should also offer accounting and reporting features.
While multifunctional kiosks can drive expanded giving and greater participation in the life of the church, they can also be met with resistance from members of the congregation. To that end, we propose a three-step introduction program.
Step 1: The pre-sell. The best starting point is to make sure all the system’s benefits and advantages are articulated to those with the ability to influence and authorize the purchase. Whether it’s a technology committee or the church board, it’s critical that these individuals aren’t just supportive, but excited! Enlist this group to help you inform and energize church staff, committees and church leaders — even before your kiosk arrives.
Anticipation is a powerful marketing tool, so think about including “coming soon” announcements in the newsletter, on posters in common areas, or by way of a mention during the news-and-notes portion of the worship service.
inLighten Sales Advisor Ryan Hardie, who consults with congregations on technology implementation, suggests using digital signage to get the message out. “Flat-screen TVs in church coffee shops or community rooms can be very effective in making people eager to know more about your digital giving kiosk,” he says. “Once your kiosk is in place, you can add current news and information to your digital signage program to ensure the system will serve as a constant reminder.”
David Tomb, administrative pastor at Community Church of Joy (Glendale, AZ), says his church uses its website to communicate its kiosk as a convenient and secure way to give. “That has really helped build awareness.”
Step 2: The buy-in. When your kiosk is first installed, it’s critical to have a very visible group of early adopters — even if some of them are technology-adverse. Arrange for presentations and tutorials to your board of elders and deacons, as well as to chairpersons and members of various committees. Emphasize the roles they can play — by their own example, in encouraging others to try the kiosk, and by offering assistance if asked.
Marketing by endorsement is a time-honored and suc-cessful strategy. It can make the difference between cau-tious curiosity and eager acceptance. Emphasize to your “introduction team” that acceptance is a long-term prospect, and you’ll want them to continue their practice of using the kiosk— and helping others discover its advantages, as well.
Step 3: The sell-through. The last step in the process is to make personal assistance available to those who need it. You’ll want friendly, helpful, tactful individuals on hand to introduce first-time and new users to all the features the kiosk offers, and to guide them through the operations they want to perform.
Recruit a group of volunteers for this service, and make sure they’re trained well on all the kiosk’s capabilities. Their goal should be to make those they assist feel com-fortable with the kiosk so that using it eventually becomes second nature.
Keep your giving kiosk top-of-mindTo maintain continual awareness of your giving kiosk,
use it for more than just giving. An expanded set of utilities — onscreen messaging enablement in idle mode, providing access to the church website, or enabling event registration for events, for example — gives members and visitors more reasons to interact with the kiosk.
Doug Braun is senior vice president for sales and marketing at Clarence, NY-based inLighten, Inc.
[inlighten.net], a leading provider of digital communication and self-service products. Braun has
served his congregation as both a deacon and an elder.
BY DOUG BRAUN
How to market digital giving
26 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
CHURCH KITCHENSCOMMERCIAL
Building one is a big decision. But, it can also be a very smart choice.
BY RAEANN SLAYBAUGH
A church considering a commercial kitchen finds out quickly it’s a big undertaking. They must navigate a mul-titude of equipment and construction requirements, plus liabilities, staffing and inspection considerations.
For starters, it helps to understand the basic dif-ferences between a commercial kitchen and a warm-ing (residential-style) setup. Ernest C. (Terry) Biglow, III, AIA — managing principal at CDH Partners, Inc., in Marietta, GA — often leads church clients through this complex territory.
“Commercial kitchens are subject to inspections for compliance with the local health department, and the num-ber of meals served might influence the frequency of those inspections,” he explains. “On the equipment side, anything more than a microwave could be considered a commercial kitchen in some areas of the U.S.”
On the intended use side of the equation, Eric MacIner-ney, principal and project architect at Heimsath Architects in Austin, TX, says three kinds of activities put a church kitchen on the health department’s radar as a commercial operation: serving a day school, serving the homeless, and selling food. “These create a situation where there’s public trust in the food.”
Since many churches will want to offer these services, a commercial kitchen becomes the logical choice. Once that decision is made, the issue of vent hoods and exhaust
systems isn’t far behind. There’s a reason: They’re expensive — and non-negotiable.
All the bells and whistlesThe primary purpose of an exhaust hood over a
commercial range is to remove the combustion gases of the more powerful burners, according to the experts at Comstock-Castle Stove Co., based in Quincy, IL.
“A properly sized commercial hood needs to be physically matched to the equipment underneath it, as well as for the BTU rating of that equipment,” advises the company’s website. “Generally, the hood must extend a certain distance left to right and front to back over the equipment under it.” Plus, the fan motor must remove a certain amount of air (measured in cubic feet per minute) in relation to the BTU rating, as determined by local commercial build code.
From a cost perspective, Ogden, UT-based Building God’s Way (BGW) founder Dan Cook says yearly fire suppres-sion, insurance and cleaning costs associated with a type-2 vent hoods (common in commercial kitchens) range from $6,000 to $8,000.
As Libby Shoop, marketing manager at Indianapolis-based C&T Design and Equipment Co., Inc., points out, aesthetics also matter. “Beautiful church design doesn’t lend itself to ugly exhaust systems, so the vapors that usually
Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Atlanta (Photo provided by CDH Partners, Inc.)
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 27
escape through the roof might need to be rerouted to go out the side of the building. That can add cost.”
Additionally, BGW’s Cook says a commercial kitchen can have three times as many sinks and/or dishwashing sys-tems as a warming kitchen. “All those sinks — coupled with a walk-in cooler or freezer — typically occupy 500 to 1,000 square feet.”
CDH Partners’ Big-low says most jurisdictions require plumbing drain lines in commercial kitchens to be routed to a grease trap outside the building. “Typi-cally, these are a minimum of 1,500-gallon, in-ground tanks designed to trap grease in the water before it gets into municipal sewer lines,” he explains. “The size of the required trap is based on the number of meals that are planned per week, but this can be an expensive item.”
All about functionality Beyond equipment, design experts focus on
flow — on one of the most important, and hardest to
achieve, elements. “Where dishes, pots and pans are washed, where
they’re stored, and how they get back to where they’re being used is just one aspect to consider,” explains Darrell Devore, senior project manager at Churches by Daniels Construction
in Broken Arrow, OK. Other fac-tors include: how much room is necessary between work sta-tions, where to position the pantry, how far away the walk-in is and who you have to pass to get there and back. “Flow — or the lack of it — can make or break a busy kitchen.”
Positioning the cooler is one flow-related challenge. According to Pamela Goldstein, vice president of operations at Nevada-based Humidity Control Systems — maker of CoolerK-
ING, an all-natural mineral filter — the cooler should be located as far away as possible from heat-generating appli-ances, such as stoves and dishwashers. “Heat and moisture enters the cooler when the door is opened, causing the equipment to work harder and use more energy to maintain proper food storage temperatures,” she explains.
At Duncan First United Methodist Church (Duncan, OK), a commercial-grade kitchen fuels large-scale ministry. Every Thanksgiving, the church hosts a turkey noodle dinner that feeds about 25 percent of the town’s population. Additionally, the kitchen serves children every day. (Photo provided by Churches by Daniels)
>>
Eric MacInerney, principal and project architect at Heimsath Architects in Austin, TX, says three kinds of activities put a church kitchen on the health department’s radar as a commercial operation: serving a day school, serving the homeless, and sell-ing food. “These create a situation where there’s public trust in the food.”
28 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
Space planning is easier to do in a brand-new commer-cial kitchen. For existing setups, her company’s filters are designed to absorb heat and water vapor, resulting in lower temperatures and less energy use. “The filters then release purified moisture back into the air as needed, creating an ideal food storage environment,” Goldstein says.
More and more the normAt this point, a commercial church kitchen sounds like a
major undertaking. But, it can also be a beneficial long-term ministry — and monetary — investment. Plenty of churches have figured that out, and not just big ones.
At BGW, for instance, Cook estimates about 98 percent of church clients have opted to build commercial kitchens. “The size of the church is mostly irrelevant,” he adds.
Jack Berry, architectural manager for Perrysburg, OH-based Midwest Church Construction, agrees. In his experi-ence, the kitchen a church builds depends more on ministry than money. “In some churches, food is a big deal. In others, not so much,” he says.
Likewise, Stuart Powell, CEO and president of Oklahoma-based Cookshack — offering smoker ovens, pellet grills and more — says the type of kitchen his church clients build is driven almost exclusively by mission. “A congregation that wants to serve meals to the homeless will certainly want a commercial kitchen,” he says. “A church that wants to do pot-luck meals once a month will likely opt for a warming setup.”
A self-sustaining ministryTo offset the construction and maintenance costs of a
commercial kitchen, church leaders are honing in on their revenue potential. First Baptist Church of Orlando is a kitch-en-as-revenue-stream case study. Marcus White, director of hospitality at the church and executive director of Global Association of Christian Hospitality Professionals (GACHP), manages a full-service banquet hall that seats 1,000, as well as a 15,000-square-foot commercial kitchen. As many as 40 staff and volunteers can be working in it at once. Outside groups or people aren’t allowed to use the kitchen; everyone must use the staff in place.
“We generate $1.5 million in sales a year from our kitchen setup,” White shares. “It’s a self-sustaining ministry.”
The cost of going commercial The price tag for building a commercial kitchen varies
quite a bit based on design. It becomes even more dif-ficult to estimate when a kitchen is just one part of a large construction project. Even so, design experts offer some ballpark ranges, drawing on their own projects.
Ernie Archuleta, project administrator at BGW, says it costs $75,000 to $100,000 more to build a commercial kitchen than a warming kitchen.
Churches by Daniels’ Devore recalls a large commercial kitchen project designed to feed more than 1,000 churchgo-ers at each sitting. “The equipment alone ran more than $600,000,” he says. Yet, on the other end of the spectrum, he helped a church remodel its existing kitchen into a com-mercial setup. Food service space was doubled, and all-new equipment was purchased — except the dishwasher, dish carts and racks. That project was completed, turn-key, for about $350,000.
C&T Design and Equipment’s Shoop says her firm’s commercial church kitchen projects range from $100,000 and $200,000. “Most accommodate separate banquet facili-ties,” she points out.
While Cookshack’s Powell concedes the price of a commercial kitchen can vary greatly, he typically works with budgets between $250,000 and $500,000.
Finally, when built as one part of a large-scale con-struction project, CDH Partners’ Biglow says a commercial kitchen can add $100,000 to $250,000 to the bottom line.
Making the case for commercial
For a church construction committee, those are some big numbers. Even so, design experts agree that commercial kitchens are fantastic investments.
“In my opinion, the cost difference doesn’t warrant building a warming kitchen instead,” asserts GACHP’s Marcus White. “In fact, it’s sometimes more expensive to run a warming kitchen because everyone thinks they ‘own’ it, but no one takes responsibility for it. That kind of use takes its toll on equipment and supplies, but commercial kitchen fosters a sense of accountability.” CE
30 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
CHURCH FINANCING, FUNDRAISING & COMPENSATION/BENEFITS (PART2)
RISK MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES & CHALLENGES (PART 2)
SPONSORED BY
OUR ROUNDTABLE PANEL
• (Co-moderator) Peter Persuitti, Managing Director, Global Religious Practice, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services
• Dana Crowl, Senior Area Vice President — Program Manager, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services
• Stephen Drachler, PR and Crisis Communications Professional, Drachler and Associates
• Rod Flanders, Director — Agency Division, Church Mutual
• Pat Moreland, Vice President — Marketing, Church Mutual
• Eric Spacek, JD, ARM, Risk Management & Loss Control Senior Manager, GuideOne Insurance
• Cheryl Tamasitis, AVP, Commercial Lines Underwriting, Philadelphia Insurance Companies
• Karl Williams, Business Development Specialist, GuideOne Insurance
• Shawn Yingling, President, Glatfelter Religious Practice
On July 13 in Charlotte, NC, Church Executive and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and its Religious Practice leader, Peter Persuitti, hosted an in-depth roundtable discussion on the “new normal” priorities and challenges facing church leaders.
It took place at the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) annual conference. Several high-level executives representing the most recognizable names in church risk management and insurance were on hand to share their insights.
The highlights and takeaways are being published as a two-part series — part 2 in this issue of Church Executive, and part 1 in our previous issue: Aug/Sept 2013. In part 1, the panelists outlined the pre- and post-recession climates in their areas of expertise. In part 2, they drill down on strategies for overcoming new normal obstacles.
In part 1, security, transportation and cyber risk were cited as emerging areas of concern. Are churches ramping up on certain kinds of insurance coverage in response?
Dana Crowl: Making sure the right coverage is in place regarding pastoral counseling and molestation is critical. Churches have to be careful and make sure they’re adequately covered in that realm.
Peter Persuitti: It’s tough to know what it means to be adequately covered. Sometimes, limits are targets. There are jurisdictional differences.
Shawn Yingling: We’re seeing an increased interest in umbrella and excess liability coverages carried by our church clients. With the security, transporta-tion and other issues mentioned, many church decision-makers are ramping up limits to adequately address the exposures their operations present. This is
being done to minimize the possible financial uncertainty that might arise from a claim against the church that extends beyond primary insurance limits carried.
Pat Moreland: Employment practices liability (EPL) coverage is also becoming very common.
Peter Persuitti: You raise a good point, Pat. That’s clearly an emerging area of focus for churches, given the loss development and trend-ing. How does everyone else feel about that?
Eric Spacek: In the church world, where there are certain legal protections in the sense of civil rights laws — the ministerial exception, for example — EPL is definitely an up-and-coming challenge. Even if there’s ultimately no liability, there are defense costs to consider. So, we need to have more discussions with churches about the need for
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 31
EPL coverage. Many of them have very small staffs. Or, even if they do have a lot of employees, they think an employment-related claim will never be leveled at them.
Peter Persuitti: So, are churches paying closer attention to the value of job descriptions, then?
Eric Spacek: We’re really encour-aging them to have those practices in place, from application, to job descrip-tion, to employee handbook. It’s amaz-ing how many churches still don’t have one of those.
Peter Persuitti: And what changes are you all seeing on the prop-erty coverage side, in this regard?
Cheryl Tamasitis: Churches are placing more of an emphasis on mak-ing sure their limits are high enough. After Hurricane Sandy, they’re ask-ing, Do we have flood insurance? Do we need it? What is — and isn’t — flood insurance? That’s because Sandy struck areas that weren’t considered flood areas.
Peter Persuitti: Does anybody want to talk about worker’s compensa-tion? Volunteers — are they covered? There seems to be increased costs on your balance sheets. Are you in any way kind of pulling back, or trying to restrict coverage?
Pat Moreland: We’re certainly not restricting coverage. We can’t do that; it’s the states that set workers’ compensation coverages. And, we are actively pursuing worker’s compensa-tion insurance.
Peter Persuitti: What about mis-sions trip coverage?
Dana Crowl: Because I work a lot on the international side, what >>
Left to right: Rod Flanders (Church Mutual); Philip C. Bushnell (Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services); Pat Moreland (Church Mutual); Eric Spacek (GuideOne Insurance) — foreground; Karl Williams (GuideOne Insurance); Dana Crowl (Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services); Shawn Yingling (Glatfelter Religious Practice) — foreground; Cheryl Tamasitis (Philadelphia Insurance Companies)
32 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/201332 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
AN EMPLOYEE BENEFITS/HR PERSPECTIVE
I see is that if there’s some international exposure, a lot of the worker’s compensation standalone carriers will back away from it and not write it. That’s been a challenge because a lot of the groups I work with have heavy international exposure. Even if the international exposure is being covered in another way, there’s still a sense of, We don’t want any part of that. So, it has been a challenge to find missions trip coverage for many of the groups I work with. And if we do find it, it’s very limited.
To ensure adequate, relevant coverage, how often (or under what circumstances) do you recommend church leaders revisit their insurance policies?
Shawn Yingling: At a minimum, reviewing your church insurance program on an annual basis makes sense. If a church is under construction, taking on additional operations, or is just uncertain if their insurance program adequately addresses their exposures, more frequent reviews certainly might be in order. If it’s a mega-church, a religious organization with multi-state operations, a church involved in a merger with another congregation or some other form of major change, more frequent review of insurance coverage is justified.
Eric Spacek: I agree: At least annually, churches should review their policies with their agents. They should also do so if certain circumstances come up during the year — the purchase of a building, a renovation and so on.
Peter Persuitti: Aside from updating the information on their policies, what’s the point of revisiting those policies? Is it just to align their exposures with their coverage?
Eric Spacek: Yes, absolutely. To make sure we’re meeting all the customer’s needs.
Peter Persuitti: Do you get a lot of ad hoc requests for enhancements, then?
Eric Spacek: I wouldn’t say “a lot,” but it’s definitely part of the conversation churches have with their agents.
Stephen Drachler: From an administrative perspective, I think reviewing your coverage is something that has to be built-in. Large churches in particular should have that on their checklist. Churches need to check and see where they’re at, and if anything has changed.
Rod Flanders: Every organization should at least do an annual review. They should have a risk management plan in place, whether the church is large or small.
I also think it’s important to get advice — probably from
Sitting in on the roundtable dis-cussion was Philip C. Bushnell, area executive vice president and managing director of the religious practice at a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Gallagher Benefit Services.
For his part, Bushnell contends that many of the questions posed are equally applicable to the employee benefits and human resources aspects of his com-pany’s offerings.
Which aspects of employee benefits and human resources have seen increased interest and adop-tion by church leaders in recent years?
Phillip C. Bushnell: Because of the legislative actions I referenced in part 1 — the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, as well as the its preventive ben-efits provisions (such as the HHS con-traceptive mandates), plus the recent Supreme Court decision on DOMA — employee benefit programs for church plans with more than 50 full-time equiv-alent employees need to be able to better manage the information relative to their workforces.
Although recently delayed until 2015, the ACA requires that employers with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees (working 30 hours per week) make health insurance available or pay a penalty. As such, many employers need to revisit their eligibility.
Another element of the ACA to pay
attention to is the reporting require-ments. Churches will need to beef up their HRIS and payroll systems to provide the Federal Government with data on all employees (full- and part-time), including hours worked, salary, benefits offered, and rates for the benefits offered — including employer and employee contribution levels.
With regard to DOMA, how to accommodate same-sex spouses under employee benefit and pension plans will need to be addressed.
How often (and/or under what circumstances) do you recommend that church leaders revisit their employee benefits and human resources policies?
Phillip C. Bushnell: Because of the continual change in regulatory require-ments, we recommend that church leaders engage in ongoing health care reform planning, modeling and finan-cial analysis on a quarterly basis. With regard to plan design, use and pricing, an annual review is recommended.
What proactive steps are church leaders taking (or should they take) to address their most press-ing employee benefits and human resources concerns?
Phillip C. Bushnell: The need to audit HRIS, payroll and benefit admin-istration systems to confirm their ability to manage the new tasks required by
the Affordable Care Act. They need to use financial modeling tools to assist in identifying the financial impact of reform (cost to offer coverage to addi-tional people, cost of fines and penal-ties, cost of additional fees for HCR). They must also audit HR and benefit plan compliance with Federal and State regulations, as non-compliance will prove to be very expensive.
How has the underwriting and pricing/rating of employee benefits changed over the past five years?
Phillip C. Bushnell: Health insur-ance companies have had to adjust underwriting practices and pricing to allow for additional costs for: the elimi-nation of lifetime limits; the elimination of preexisting conditions; the coverage of dependent children up to age 26; the addition of preventive benefits at 100 percent, including contraceptives and coverage for clinical trials; and the addition of various fees required to pay for health care reform. These adjust-ments to underwriting practices have resulted in an increase in premiums over and above what they might have been otherwise.
Editor’s Note: Part 1 of Bushnell’s benefits/HR-centric responses to the roundtable questions appeared in our Aug/Sept 2013 issue. CE
CHURCH FINANCING, FUNDRAISING & COMPENSATION/BENEFITS (PART2)
RISK MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES & CHALLENGES (PART 2)
32 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
an agent or a consultant that can look at the church’s risk management plan and review its exposures. Annually, they should be looking at their exposures and seeing where they have gaps.
Pat Moreland: An annual review is fine. But, I wouldn’t recommend that a church go out and get quotes on its insurance every year; I’d suggest doing that every three years.
We often see churches acquire (or get rid of) a build-ing or an auto, and nobody thinks to call the insurance company. That should be done at the time of transaction. Failing that, at minimum, a church should be looking at its schedule of vehicles every year and saying, “Oh, we don’t own that one anymore!”
Karl Williams: Insurance is a relationship business. If, for example, a church decides to start a daycare or put on an addition, it’s important that the insurance agent knows about it. That way, the church knows it has those exposures taken care of. It’s critical that a church regards its insur-ance agent as someone it depends on.
Peter Persuitti: So, are you saying an agent needs to act as a trusted advisor and be an advocate for revisiting the church’s policy?
Karl Williams: Yes. It’s important from a company standpoint, and also from a client standpoint.
Dana Crowl: We communicate at the time of renewal, and thereafter, that any changes made need to be commu-nicated to us. I feel like most of the churches I work with do a really nice job of this.
Cheryl Tamasitis: We recommend an annual review of insurance policies for continuity of coverage. This is typically adequate to cover something that has developed in the church. Or, perhaps we’re not giving the church some area of coverage it really needs, but we can now.
Beyond insurance coverage, what proactive steps are church leaders taking (or should they be taking) to address pressing risk management concerns?
Eric Spacek: We talk about establishing risk manage-ment as a ministry in the church, populated by people with relevant backgrounds, and then systematically approach-ing the risks. Using a basic scoring model, we categorize
priorities in terms of six categories of risk churches face, from emergencies all the way down to transportation. We advise: “Look at the risk’s likelihood, its magnitude, how much warning you get, and its impact on ministry.” Then, risk management teams can focus their efforts accordingly.
Stephen Drachler: The court of law and the court of public opinion are linked. So, training and preparing people to deal with the media should be an integral part of any risk management policy.
I help churches develop a communications plan that sets policies for who speaks for the church, and how he or she will deal with the media. I call it “building fences.” While there are some things you just don’t talk about publicly — personnel items — I have a pin that reads, “Never say ‘No comment.’” When you do that, the public perceives you’re guilty or hiding something, even though we know that’s not always the case.
Building these communications procedures equips a church to tell the good stories, too. It builds relationships with various audiences and establishes credibility. So, when it has a wonderful story to tell about changing peo-ple’s lives, the processes are in place to communicate that.
Rod Flanders: In terms of your risk management plan, I think it’s important that every church, of every size, has a responsible party — someone in the organization who understands it’s his or her responsibility to help man-age the ministry’s exposures. It’s always a good idea to seek competent advice from an agent, broker or consultant in developing the plan — someone knowledgeable and competent, with the right credentials.
I also think it’s important to periodically enlist a second set of eyes. A church needs a trusted advisor who makes sure every liability is covered, whether it’s the rare, but hor-rible event or a more common, everyday exposure.
Pat Moreland: One risk management issue that hasn’t been raised is insurance-to-value discrepancies. It’s very common to find religious facilities that are underin-sured, and it’s very difficult for some church leaders to understand how. They often refer to market value, and this mind-set has become more problematic since the economy tanked five or so years ago. Church leaders see values plummeting, and yet insurance companies >>
Left to right: Shawn Yingling (Glatfelter Religious Practice); Eric Spacek (GuideOne Insurance); Stephen Drachler (Drachler and Associates)
Co-moderator Peter Persuitti (Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services)
Left to right: Pat Moreland (Church Mutual); Karl Williams (GuideOne Insurance); Dana Crowl (Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services); Cheryl Tamasitis (Philadelphia Insurance Companies); Peter Persuitti (Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services)
34 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
want to raise their amount of insurance. But, the two factors are unrelated. It’s important that churches establish the correct replacement value for their facilities and insure them accordingly.
How has your underwriting and pricing/rating of church risks and exposures changed over the past five years?
Cheryl Tamasitis: We try to keep pricing consis-tent. Reinsurance costs have gone up in certain pockets, but we try to keep it consistent because we want long-term customers.
It doesn’t make sense for churches to shop for insur-ance, based on price, every year. These same churches are the ones cutting their buildings’ value in half because they see it as a cost savings. It’s important to partner with the right agents and brokers, who understand the business so a church can keep that level pricing intact.
We’ve been insuring churches for about eight years; so, because we’re the “new kid,” we’ve done pricing/rating reviews. While some might think our price is impossibly low, we’ve been boringly consistent [with pricing] over the past eight years. There has definitely been some elevation, though. You learn more as the losses come in.
Peter Persuitti: Are there other elements of under-writing you all want to share? It’s a big issue. Are there pressures to increase rates?
Karl Williams: From GuideOne’s standpoint, we need to be competitive. This is our market; this is where we’re at.
We also feel that the church should be priced ade-quately for the exposures they represent. That’s what we pursue — the risks that are there. We don’t say, “OK, you’ve got this risk, and the dollar amount for that is X”; we examine risk exposures on the whole. We’ve found that to be a way for us to be competitive and to have our product priced correctly.
Pat Moreland: Readers should understand that we’re in a very volatile industry. We’re subject to the weather, and what we do is heavily property-driven. In 2011, there probably weren’t many companies sitting at this table that finished in the black. In 2012, most of them probably did. We’ll see how 2013 shakes out. So, we don’t price for one year. I don’t think any company can do that, or their rates would be all over the place.
Rod Flanders: Everybody in this room understands the volatility, but it’s not obvious to the people reading this article. Church leaders look at short-term, minor varia-tions in what we’re all charging to bring our products to the table. But, I don’t think the average church executive gets that, in this business, pricing isn’t that precise.
For example, if you’re cranking out cars in Detroit and you’re making little pieces that go in them, you might be able to figure out your costs down to a fraction of a penny, for an extended period of time. In our business, it’s not nearly that precise. That’s often why we can all come to the table, look at the same set of exposures, and we won’t
know our costs for some time into the future.Pat Moreland: That’s a great point. We’re pricing
based on what we think might happen, not on what a church has built.
Shawn Yingling: On the Underwriting side, a change we’ve seen is the use of additional years of loss experience when reviewing new church submissions to get a feel for the frequency and severity of both property and liability claims that the religious organization has experienced and, more importantly, how the disposition of those claims ended up. This gives the underwriter a wider view of how the church or religious organization performed from a loss standpoint and the ability to recommend certain practices, coverages or retention to manage that risk.
Additionally, we’ve seen that there’s less lead time in underwriting to review a new church account submission, combined with the expectation of a superfast turnaround from the submitting agent. This can be managed; however, it’s widely dependent on the depth and quality of the infor-mation provided by the agent.
On the pricing side, companies continue to use model-ing of property in coastal areas to bridge the gap between technical claims data and underwriter assumptions regarding potential property losses of a particular church and the suggested premium to be offered.
Peter Persuitti: Any thoughts on how a church can build a culture of risk management?
Eric Spacek: There has to be that driving force, point person or team behind it.
Cheryl Tamasitis: Absolutely. You need someone who’ll consistently be there.
But, people also need to view their churches more like second homes. They should be more cognizant of something like a spot of torn carpet, thinking, “It’s my obligation to make sure that’s fixed.”
Shawn Yingling: I agree. There needs to be a buy-in from the top leaders and management of the church that practicing well thought-out risk management and safety procedures within their congregation will benefit them directly — not only in the form of stable premiums being charged by the insurers taking the risk, but, in addition, reducing indirect losses associated with a claim such as loss of productivity and repositioning of resources.
Peter Persuitti: It’s interesting that no one men-tioned the word “stewardship,” but that’s really what it’s all about — making what we’ve been given even better for the next generation.
Eric Spacek: Even beyond that, when we talk about risk management as a ministry, it’s shepherding. It’s about expressing love for one another in the congregation. CE
Editor’s Note: Look for part 1 of this roundtable round-up in our Aug/Sept 2013 issue.
CHURCH FINANCING, FUNDRAISING & COMPENSATION/BENEFITS (PART2)
RISK MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES & CHALLENGES (PART 2)
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 35
HUMAN RESOURCES
If you believe a sex offender has started attending your church, take action. Not doing so could result in significant legal liability if a situation occurs on your property.
Step 1: Learn the local laws. First, be certain that the individual is a convicted sex offender. Double-check that the person is on the sex offender list by verifying with the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) at nsopw.gov.
If so, research your local laws and ordinances regarding sex offenders. While these laws typically involve restrictions on where an offender can live, some also prohibit an offender from having any contact with minors or being anywhere chil-dren congregate, such as a church.
Step 2: Formulate a plan. If possible, decide in advance on what approach you’d take toward a sex offender. Among your options, you might: • Allow unfettered access to programs and facilities. • Exclude the individual from the congregation entirely. • Limit access to certain programs or areas at specific times.
• Require other conditions, such as monitored atten-dance and/or coordination with the individual’s probation officer or treatment provider.
On one end of this spectrum of options, you give offend-ers complete access to the building and congregation, which isn’t recommended. On the other end, you bar the individual from the property; this stance should only be taken with the guidance of legal counsel. In the middle of the spectrum, a range of possibilities exist. Perhaps the safest approach — without barring sex offenders completely — is to allow restricted access to certain church programs and activities.
Once you’ve chosen an option that works best for your congregation, be consistent in its application.
Step 3: Meet with the offender. With a policy in place, your organization is better prepared to address situations if they arise. When the church becomes aware that a sex offender has become involved, the minister and at least one other person should schedule a meeting with the individual. It: • Lets the offender know the congregation is aware of his/her background; • Affords an opportunity for the congregation to provide and explain its policy; • Provides an opportunity to discuss the ministry needs of the individual; • Allows signing authorization for a background check and release of probation/parole information to your organization; • Provides a time to discuss who else will be made aware of the situation.
If the individual won’t agree to the church’s guidelines, or is prohibited by the terms of his or her probation or parole from going where children congregate, by default the individual will be excluded from participation in services and activities.
Step 4: Implement the plan. If the guidelines are agreeable to the offender, a team approach should be used to implement the plan. The team should function cohesively to minister to the individual, while at the same time working to safeguard the congregation and its children. If monitored attendance is included in the plan, the team will need to deter-mine who will be the offender’s chaperone on each Sunday, or during other church activities. Even a seemingly innocent violation of the agreed guidelines must be taken seriously.
Safeguard your childrenWhile all these precautions might seem harsh, it’s always
best to err on the side of being overcautious. If an incident was to occur, and the church had knowledge of a person’s past sexual misbehaviors, it would face tremendous legal liability if it provided the setting for the crime.
Eric Spacek, JD, ARM is senior church risk management & loss control manager at GuideOne Insurance [guideone.com] in West Des Moines, IA.
BY ERIC SPACEK, JD, ARM
Dealing with a sex offender
RESPONS IBLE F INANCIAL STEWARDSH IP
36 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
CHURCH FINANCING, FUNDRAISING & COMPENSATION/BENEFITS (PART2)
RISK MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES & CHALLENGES (PART 2)OUR ROUNDTABLE PANEL• James R. Cook, National Outreach Manager, MMBB Financial Services • Steve Hron, Senior Vice President, Ziegler • Bill McMillan, Executive Vice President, RSI • Joel Mikell, President, RSI Stewardship • Dan Mikes, Executive Vice President, Bank of the West • William Scrivens, Reserve Specialist, Miller Dodson Associates, Inc.• Paul Weers, Senior Benefit Consultant, MMBB Financial Services
In part 1 of this roundtable, historically low property values and a strong emphasis on cash reserves were cited as stressors for churches in the new normal economy. What other chal-lenges are they facing in this area?
Dan Mikes: Low property values means the borrower must generate more equity dollars for the next building phase to meet the overall loan-to-value contingency under the financing offer. The best way to do this is with a professionally orchestrated capital pledge drive. Over my 23 years in church lending, I’ve seen thousands of capital campaigns. As lenders, we know the actual collection rates against those pledges because we’re in relationship with the bor-rower through the term of the campaign and beyond. Without question, when a professional fundraiser is used, the pledge totals are higher, and the collection rates against those pledges are more predictable. Consequently when consulting with churches, we reinforce the strategy of engaging a professional capital fund raiser.
In today’s economic climate, it’s so critical that church leaders talk to experienced fundraisers, lend-ers, architects and builders. Churches are a unique market segment. One of the bigger challenges within church expansion is that leadership teams will under-take a large physical plant expansion only once or twice in their entire careers. They don’t necessarily know a lot about borrowing capacity or how to think through the entire project. From the perspective of someone who has observed the process hundreds of times, we know fundraising via a pledge cam-paign provides the needed supplemental construction funds. Post-construction, the remaining incoming pledge receipts typically provide a measure of debt pre-payment, enabling a lower post-campaign debt level and an easier transition to debt servicing solely from operating cash flows. Leadership teams have
On July 12, 2013 — at the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) annual conference — Church Executive hosted a live roundtable on a timely topic: “new normal” challenges and solutions in the areas of financing, com-pensation/benefits and capital campaigns. Several high-level executives representing each sector came together to share their observations.
The highlights and takeaways of this insightful discussion are published as a two-part series in this issue of CE, as well as in our previous issue: Aug/Sept 2013.
In part 1, the panelists outlined the pre- and post-recession climates in their areas of expertise. Here, in the final install-ment, they’ll switch gears to “solution mode,” drilling down on strategies church leaders can employ to overcome new normal obstacles.
BY RAEANN SLAYBAUGH
REALITIES OF THENEW NORMAL
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 37
Paul Weers (left) and James R. Cook (right) (MMBB Financial Services) Left to right: William Scrivens (Miller Dodson Associates, Inc.); Steve Hron (Ziegler); Dan Mikes (Bank of the West)
plenty of questions: How do those metrics work? What can we expect? Do we factor in an assumption of congregational growth once we open the doors to the new facility? Will those new attendees begin to tithe right away? The church might need to increase staff to accommodate new attendees, and that staff expense might precede revenue growth. Also, with a larger facility, there are increased insurance, utilities and maintenance costs to consider. How do all those factors come together, and will the church be able to service debt from the
operating cash flow when the campaign ends? So, those are the challenges. I think the best way to
address and overcome them is to get a lot of good counsel as early in the process as possible.
Steve Hron: One thing we haven’t discussed is that there are a lot of lenders in the marketplace that underwrite their loans with something called an “interest rate swap.” We’re finding out that’s really handcuffing a lot of churches in terms of being able to move ahead with building projects, >>
RESPONS IBLE F INANCIAL STEWARDSH IP
38 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
refinancing or the like.Let’s just say a church locked
into a swap at 6.5 percent five years ago. That might have sounded great at the time. But, since interest rates have dropped, these swaps are “out of the money.” That can make it cost-prohibitive for a church to prepay its loan or refinance and get out of that interest rate swap. For example, we
were talking to a church in Michigan where the swap unwind cost was $700,000. Another church in Arizona needs $450,000 to exit their swap. Another church — this one in Texas — needs almost $800,000. These are, in effect, prepayment penalties over and above the loan payoff that can make refinancing or new projects cost-prohibitive.
Banks have been stressed, too. If the church’s current lender can’t qualify the church for a loan right now, it might not be a result of the church’s credit profile, but that the bank isn’t able to do the loan because of the bank’s capital position. So, when there is a need to build a family life center or a new sanctuary but the church can’t get the additional loan from their current lender, they can’t go to another lender because the interest rate swap unwind cost is so great. In effect, they’re trapped with this par-ticular lender and potentially blocked from expansion. In summary, an inter-est rate swap might make it cost- prohibitive to do any expansion or to simply refinance with another lender.
Dan Mikes: It’s all about timing. Look at where we are right now. Look at where we’ve been for an unprec-edented extended period of time — historically low interest rates. In this environment, banks don’t want to carry a 10-year fixed-interest income stream on their balance sheet. These are specialty loans that are typically not securitized and sold off. Conse-quently, three or four years from now, the bank might be paying a higher rate on deposits than it’s receiving from the loans it’s making in today’s historic low rate environment. That’s not a good situation for the banking system, or for the economy.
Swaps enable the bank to move the interest rate risk to a counter party. This enables the borrower to get a 10-year fixed rate while paying only a quarter- to a half-percent loan origination fee rather than getting a long-term fixed rate via issuing church bonds with costs and fees totaling around 6 percent.
And by the way, that early termi-nation equation — that prepayment penalty you mentioned — works much like the old-school yield maintenance provision that has historically been included in bank notes. If you prepay all or a portion of the debt at some point in the future, and interest rates are lower at that time, the borrower
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 39
Left to right: Bill McMillan and Joel Mikell (RSI); Paul Weers and James R. Cook (MMBB Financial Services)
owes a penalty. However, the nice thing about the interest rate swap is, when interest rates rise in the future, if a church is prepaying against the swapped note, the church can get money back. It’s a two-way street. At this point in the interest rate cycle, the swap can be a very attractive tool for a portion of the church’s debt.
When considering some of the adverse com-mentary you might have heard regarding swaps, you must consider the context. Swaps were intro-duced to the church market place about 10 years ago. Since then, interest rates have steadily declined. Combine this with the fact many church borrowers didn’t clearly understand how the product worked. As rates declined and churches attempted to refinance or prepay, they incurred prepayment penalties. Consequently, we’ve all read the articles where borrowers say they were surprised and disap-pointed by the termination cost.
Again, the best guidance is to deal with a repu-table institution. An institution which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a reputa-tion of trust within the church market segment is not going to risk its good name on lack of disclosure or one-sided counsel. A committed church lender is going to place a high value on disclosure, compre-
hension and suitability. Ask for references. When suitable, a church can diversify its interest rate risk management strategy
by placing a portion of the debt under a long-term fixed rate note via a swap, and plac-ing the remaining portion of the debt under a variable or shorter-term fixed rate note which has no risk of prepayment penalty. This strategy provides a measure of insulation against future rate volatility as well as the flexibility to prepay a portion of the debt with no risk of prepayment penalty. This is a low-cost approach, as banks only charge one-quarter to one-half-percent origination fee.
How should the borrower divide its debt across these various notes? I’ve been lend-ing to churches for 23 years, and I manage a large pool of existing church loans. Every month, I analyze a large pool of church loan data on a 48-month trailing basis to identify actual prepayment rates. On average, churches prepay 2 percent a year. Consequently, with a 10-year debt structure — if the church places 70 percent under a swap and 30 percent of the debt into a note with which has no prepayment penalty — it will very likely have more prepayment flexibility than it will need while maximizing its insulation against future rate volatility. In the current rate environment, a church won’t have much to worry about unless, as Steve says, the lender has a problem and can’t accommodate the church’s future borrowing needs. But, that risk is present no matter which lender or what type of debt a church chooses.
And there again, it goes back to our earlier point: A church needs to deal with somebody who’s been lending for a long time. It needs to look at that lender’s safety and soundness rating.
Joel Mikell: Although this question isn’t totally in our wheelhouse, it’s our job to help raise the resources to pay [the financial institutions] here at the table. To that end, we’re seeing a greater focus on pledge cards.
I was working with a church in South Carolina yesterday. There was a banker on the capital campaign team helping them with some interim loans. We emphasized the need to have pledge cards for their campaign. He looked at me as the consultant >>
RESPONS IBLE F INANCIAL STEWARDSH IP
40 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
and said, “It’s one thing to get a stack of pledge cards in hand, but what are you seeing in terms of your fulfill-ment ratio? Eighty percent? Ninety?” So, there’s greater focus on our side of the table in those three years of fulfillment as opposed to saying, “Let’s just get the pledge cards in hand.”
What strategies and solutions are church leaders employing — successfully — to surmount financing challenges?
Joel Mikell: What we’re seeing — and have seen over the last couple of years — is a lot of pressure from the pews for churches to have a strategy in place to be debt-free. There has been a preponderance of debt cam-paigns to free up cash from the operational budget and to position churches to expand, but also to borrow more in the future. Historically, we’d see debt, added to debt, added to debt.
Today, the focus from the platform is on financial education programs that teach members how to live within their means — to live with margin. That’s what’s coming from the platform out to the people. And the people are saying back to the church, “Well, then, you do it, too. Don’t borrow until you have to, and only borrow what you have to. And, let’s pair with that a strategy that says we’re going to pay this off in a three-year or a five-year campaign.” So, there’s some focus on — if a church is going to borrow from a lender — pairing that with a strategy that doesn’t become pressure against the operational budget.
Stagnation of wages and benefits for entry- and mid-level church staff, as well as cutbacks in both areas, were cited as new normal challenges in part 1. What strategies and solutions are church leaders employing to surmount these?
James R. Cook: It’s becoming more common for churches to go through an evaluation of their compensa-tion and benefits packages on a regular basis.
Another thing we’ve seen through the downturn of the last few years is that some church staffs haven’t grown. In some, we’ve seen pullback due to layoffs in some cases. In other churches, employee consolidation is the norm now; as people retire, they aren’t replaced. Obviously, though, if the overall church is growing, it’s a completely different situation.
It’s not uncommon to find churches with somebody in the administrator position with really strong HR experi-ence in the benefits area. We find that we can walk in and
assist them with restructuring their plan, because it’s important for churches to understand that there really are two key pieces to an effective benefits plan.
First, they need to have a benefits plan that works with their budget. You can’t be so rich that your budget is bleeding red ink.
Second, they need to understand that a benefit has to be of benefit to both the church and the employee. If you make eligibility too stringent, reduce matching or significantly reduce other benefits to accommodate it, then it won’t be perceived as a benefit by the employees. If a church has a strong benefit policy in place, that’s perceived by the staff as having high value. Then, it really does benefit by allowing them to hire and retain the best over a long period of time.
So, we really believe that if a church is struggling, we can walk in and work with them in a consultative manner to restructure their plan to be able to balance those two things really well.
Paul Weers: I’d like to add that, in some cases, our greatest competition isn’t the retirement benefits churches are offering, but escalating health insurance premiums. It’s in the news-papers and on television every day. We don’t know what Obamacare is going to look like, so certainly stay tuned.
William Scrivens: I watched a very interesting
TED talk a few weeks ago about the perception that an NGO or a nonprofit should really be managing itself at no cost, and the pitfalls doing otherwise presents. That kind of ties into what we were just talking about — that if your church’s benefits package is healthy, you’re going to attract the best. And, they’ll do a better job for you.
James R. Cook: This calls to mind an excellent administrator here at NACBA who told me, “By its very nature, everybody who gets a job gets a paycheck. The difference is that not every job provides benefits.”
He said his church is competing for administrative staff with the bank down the street. The bank will prob-ably pay a little higher salary, but if he can beat them on a benefits package, then he can get the expertise needed to run his church at the absolute highest level of efficiency.
Unfortunately, that’s something some churches don’t understand — the value of benefits to their employees. Benefits are especially critical when you’re going to the open market for employees. While we all hope that the people who work in our churches will have a real passion for the mission, as our churches get larger and larger, we need the kind of expertise that forces us to go out into the open
One of the bigger challenges within church expansion is that leadership teams will undertake a large physical plant expansion only once or twice in their entire careers. They don’t necessarily know a lot about borrowing capacity or how to think through the entire project.
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 41
market. For some people, working at a church will just be a job; but, if we need that expertise, we need that expertise.
In part 1, the need for every capital campaign to be customized in the new normal economy, plus a far greater emphasis on pre-campaign due diligence — up to a year or two in advance — were offered up as common challenges. How are church leaders tackling these?
Steve Hron: That’s an interesting question. I’m curi-
ous: Have the metrics changed? In past years, [capital campaign firms] could say, “We can raise three times the general fund.” Would they now say, “We can raise two times the general fund?” I know every situation is custom-ized, but are there any broad-based metrics that exist?
Joel Mikell: We’re still very, very connected to the project and very, very connected to the passion and vision.
I got an email yesterday from one of our consultants who just wrapped up two of our campaigns. They both exceeded the goal by three times. In both cases, the compelling vision was the driver; vision trumps all. People give to the vision, not to the project. When there’s a com-pelling vision, an applicable project, and great leadership on the platform, the metrics haven’t changed. We still see churches exceed 3X and 4X. If it’s a debt campaign, it’s more like 1X, although 1.5X results are still common. If it’s a Christian Life Center (CLC), it’s usually in the 1.5X to 2X range. So, results are less connected to the economy than to a campaign’s passion and vision.
Bill McMillan: We’re doing a lot of blending of capital need with mission and organizational needs, in the budget.
Dan Mikes: I’m curious what percent of your busi-ness deals with three-year capital campaigns?
Bill McMillan: We’re doing many two-year and 18-month campaigns.
Joel Mikell: There’s no standard model — it depends on the amount of money a church needs to raise, and how many times it’s “been to the well.” We’re working with a church in Minnesota that has a $150-million mission. That incorporates 10 years’ worth of campaigns they’ve already told their people they’re going to do, in a series of five two-year campaigns.
We’re also getting ready to work with a large church in Tennessee that’s doing an 18-month campaign which will likely wrap their over-and-above giving into some kind of annual vision.
And, I’m going to be working with a church in Louis-ville, KY, that wants to do a three-year campaign because they had a great experience with it 10 years ago. They haven’t been back to the well, and they loved the involve-ment factor of the campaign.
So, you can no longer say, “This is the standard capi-tal campaign.” I think the common denominator is always going to be that a campaign must be co-created with the church leadership.
Any final thoughts on the new normal economy and its impact on churches’ financials?
Dan Mikes: Let’s look at where we are right now in the economic cycle. We’ve had an unprecedented period of government stimulus. We’ve had an extended period of intervention in the financial markets by the Fed — $85 billion a month in cash printing for the purpose of buying back our own treasuries and buying mortgage securities to try to keep borrowing rates low, in an effort to stimu-late housing and bring back employment in everything from construction, to housing, to textiles, to appliances and so on.
We’re trying to bring the unemployment number down. It’s happening very, very slowly. We’ve had this long period of low rates. So, the planning at the church level needs to include contemplation of the impact of these factors.
It means great things for churches, now — especially if they’re refinancing debt or undertaking a building proj-ect. But, when interest rates adjust in the future, what will be the impact on the ministry?
Once the money that’s being printed starts chasing a limited supply of goods and services, it’s going to force prices up and create inflation. Hypothetically, if inflation rises to 4 percent or 5 percent, the investors bidding in financial markets and influencing interest rates are going to want a rate return above that 4 percent or 5 percent — some real appreciation in the buying power of their dollar. As a result, at a point in this cycle, we might see a spike in interest rates. We’ve seen a 100 basis-point increase at the 10-year part of the yield curve in just the last 40 days, primarily based on concerns about the Fed slowing the pace of cash-printing. And, we have yet to see the unemployment rate come down to historic targets of 4 percent to 6 percent; it’s still at nearly 8 percent. Lower unemployment means more consumers spending, which puts pressure on price inflation. So, there’s an increase in interest rates coming, and this is where fixing the interest rate for a long period of time is a real plus.
But, even if you fix the rate for 10 years or 20 years, circumstances probably will dictate that you eventually expose yourself to a different rate environment due to refinancing in conjunction with a subsequent building phase or some other set of circumstances. So, that’s out there in the future, and it’s something churches need to start thinking about and preparing for. CE
Editor’s Note: Look for part 1 of this roundtable round-up in our August/September 2013 issue.
42 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
“Our Journey of Hope” — a vital new program from Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) — equips pastors to minister to members with cancer.
BY RAEANN SLAYBAUGH
Rev. Percy McCray, Jr., Director of Pastoral Care at CTCA’s Mid-western Regional Medical Center in Zion, IL, leads group prayer.Fighting fear with
faith
To understand the effectiveness of “Our Journey of Hope” — a new cancer care ministry program and cur-riculum offered by Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) — you first need to understand the one-of-a-kind culture inside a CTCA facility.
It’s an “immersion experience” in positive, peace-ful vibes. Starting in the lobby, you encounter smiling faces, heartfelt hellos and, most notably, an air of undeni-able tranquility.
That’s not at all what you’d expect, considering the majority of CTCA patients have late-stage or difficult-to-treat forms of cancer. Most have been given no hope of survival by the doctors who diagnosed them.
However, the peaceful paradigm of a CTCA facility is fueled by a priceless commodity: hope. That hope is driven by CTCA’s distinct, triage-style model of patient care.
As soon as a patient arrives at a CTCA facility, a three- to five day process of meetings begins — not just with oncologists, but with nutritionists, acupuncturists, naturo-pathic physicians, patient advocates and chaplains. Tests are redone, and a comprehensive care plan is formulated by day 3 or 4. At that point, the patient has the option of being treated at CTCA, or opting out.
This “all hands on deck” approach — which cares for the body and the spirit — lays the foundation for the trade-mark peacefulness that permeates CTCA facilities. Visiting one, it’s clear: Patients know they’re receiving the utmost level of care.
In turn, patients are hopeful — and they have reason to be. Survival rates for CTCA-treated patients are markedly higher, across the board, than other treatment options.
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 43
Equipping pastors with informationNow, CTCA is taking key elements of its cancer care model and build-
ing a training program and curriculum for equip church leaders across the nation: Our Journey of Hope, or OJOH. The goal is to equip these pastors to minister effectively to their members with cancer.
By participating in all-day seminars at one of five CTCA facilities across the U.S. (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and Tulsa), pas-tors gain proven and practical ministry takeaways that reflect the best elements of several programs — not only from CTCA’s care model, but also from Stephen’s Ministries, “Celebrate Recovery,” and even Financial Peace University. The program is underwritten by CTCA, so the cost to participants is minimal.
Every CTCA facility has a dedicated pastoral care team leading OJOH’s implementation. At the CTCA facility in Phoenix, this honor belongs to Manager of Pastoral Care Suzanne Leahy. Beginning this month, she’ll have the support of two full-time CTCA chaplains in getting OJOH off the ground.
By design, OJOH training is practical, but intense. “Often, pastors don’t know what to say to members battling cancer,” Leahy asserts. “So, they say nothing.”
Rev. Michael Barry has been instrumental in crafting the OJOH cur-riculum and cancer ministry model. He joined the CTCA staff eight years ago, having spent 18 years in parish ministry. Although he says OJOH is still in the “mapping out” phase, Barry has spent several years developing cancer-care ministries in churches around the nation. To date, he’s imple-mented such programs in about 70 different churches, on CTCA’s behalf.
When the Church Executive team visited the Phoenix location recently, it received four hours of the eight-hour OJOH curriculum. >>
44 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
A key component of the ministry model’s success is fostering hope where hope is due. To this end, pastors are made privy to several critical premises.
1) Statistics aren’t Gospel. Conveying the reality of cancer statistics is critical, according to Barry. To illustrate this point, he uses the “science of evil” paradigm — developed by Simon Baron Cohen, a noted UK-based professor of psychiatry and psychology — as a jumping-off point.
“The premise is that evil is the opposite of empathy,” Barry explains, citing Nazi Germany as an example. “The German people were reduced, over a period of time, to having no empathy at all. Essentially, they were ‘demonized.’”
“CTCA’s success rate is based on decency and love for their patients,” he says. “In this place, we push back from the negatives of the world all the time. Empathy is both listening and responding; that second part is critical, because patients are already getting the ‘Poor you!’ — the listening part — from the rest of the world.”
Barry contends that late-stage cancer patients are often reduced to a number. “From a Christian standpoint, that’s essen-tially the same as being demonized.”
Although most CTCA patients have been told there’s no hope, Barry says that’s often not the case at all. For instance, one patient — a school teacher in Minneapolis — had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer when he came to CTCA. This form of cancer is notoriously difficult to treat. His diagnosing doctor gave him a three-month prognosis.
“That was seven years ago, and he was still coming to CTCA for treatment as of two and a half years ago,” Barry says. “The last time I talked to him, he’d just returned from traveling. The dif-ference in care models — if it’s your life — is huge. It’s important that that life is lived well.”
Circling back to statistics, Barry emphasizes that information isn’t condemnation. “Statistics are numbers with no context, and they’re designed to identify the median average,” he points out. Noting that very situation is unique, Barry adds that modern medi-cine has also advanced in the fight against the disease. “Every form of cancer, even at the latest stage, has been survived to the point of 100-percent cure,” he says.
Clarity — not confusion — is the goal, Barry continues. “Sta-tistics are based on huge groups of people and should never be applied to an individual.”
Additionally, Barry points out that cancer statistics change
based on new treatment options. SEER cancer statistics, for example (which are updated annually by the National Cancer Institute), don’t factor this in. That’s a big hurdle for a cancer patient to overcome, because SEER is an extremely well-regarded data pool among health professionals.
Equally problematic, SEER data is often encoun-tered by cancer patients conducting their own Internet research following a diagnosis. Naturally, its conclusions have the potential to be hugely (and, often, unnecessarily) discouraging.
“The problem with [SEER statistics] is that they don’t factor in whether or not a patient even opted to get treat-ment,” Barry explains. “They also don’t factor in age, and so on. All that SEER gauges is date of diagnosis and date of death.”
To offer a more balanced — and hopeful — perspective, Cancercenter.com offers CTA-specific cancer data. In simple charts and diagrams, these statistics paralleled with SEER statistics.
Above all, nurture the will to live. According to Barry, fostering the will to live involves three critical components.
The first is healing old wounds. “For example, a statement like, ‘I should’ve gotten that colonoscopy’ doesn’t help nurture the will to live,” he explains. “Fixing a broken leg isn’t the same as asking, ‘Why did you jump off that roof?’”
The second component is peace and calm. CTCA uses Heart Math, a process that takes patients from a state of anxiety to a state of peace through meditation and prayer. “It helps to develop a sanguine personality,” Barry says. “It takes effort to be happy and joyful. It takes no effort to be unhappy.”
Third, Barry endorses the ministry power of a for-giveness program. “It increases patients’ levels of hope-fulness, but without instilling false hope,” he points out. “God is the source of hope — not doctors or technology.”
“CTCA is at the spear tip of integrating science and faith,” he adds. “The challenge is to identify and remove the barriers to having hope in God — namely, fear and what the doctors have told cancer patients.”
Barry also emphasizes the importance of distin-guishing between irrational fears and those that warrant OJOH ministry. “We can’t help a patient if they’re afraid of losing their hair, because they likely will,” he explains. “But, if irrational fears are present, then those need to be tackled. Hope is introduced, and they begin fighting fear with faith.”
The value of kindred spiritsEven if church members with cancer receive the best
ministry available, CTCA’s Leahy and Barry agree that hope can only grow when they know they aren’t alone in their struggles. At CTCA facilities, breakfasts which introduce current patients to new ones are instrumental in building fellowship. “Definite ministry moments happen
(Left to right) Rev. Michael Barry, with Manager of Pastoral Care Suzanne Leahy and Executive Chef Frank Caputo, Director of Culinary Services at the Phoenix CTCA facility. Caputo and his team work closely with the Nutrition and Metabolic Support Department to understand patients’ needs and to ensure that the food they eat complements their treatment.
10-11/2013 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 45
So, what’s the “Our Journey of Hope” cancer care ministry experience like for a church leader? To find out, CE interviewed two graduates of the pro-gram: Sheila Coverson of First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Woodbridge, VA, and Cate Brewster of Bethel Lutheran Church LCMC in Colorado Springs, CO.
Coverson is chairperson of her church’s community-based spiritual can-cer support ministry. “It started within the church, as we had quite a few mem-bers with cancer, and expanded locally — even regionally — as some of our ministry members shared their experiences with outside people,” she recalls.
Brewster joined her church 13 years ago and has been a Stephen Ministry leader ever since. Today, the church’s cancer care ministry encompasses seven churches from differing denominations. She attended OJOH training in 2009, along with about 100 other people within her community and lay ministry.
Brewster has a long history of work-ing with cancer patients in a Catholic hospital, so she was very aware of the importance of spirituality in the efficacy of treatment even before receiving OJOH training. At her church, members with cancer receive a Stephen Ministry lay ministry program. They meet one-on-one in church and in the community once a week.
“Our job is to listen, not to counsel,” she says.
How did the opportunity to attend CTCA’s lay ministry training present itself?
Coverson: I had an interest in cancer care already; I wrote a research paper on it when pursuing my bachelor’s degree. I came across the CTCA model of whole-person care, liked it, and talked about it when we started the [cancer care] minis-try. Obviously, we needed training, so it seemed like a great fit.
Brewster: Our church got a letter asking us to host the [OJOH] training. Most of the Stephen Ministry members got involved. We believed we should
learn this. We also opened up the training to other churches, and about 100 people showed up.
Before attending the lay minis-try training program at CTCA, was pastoral counsel available at First Mount Zion Baptist Church to mem-bers with cancer?
Coverson: It didn’t exist before. Our pastor, Luke E. Torian, wanted to do cancer care ministry the right way, which began with getting the appropriate train-ing. From there, we developed the mis-sion and vision statement for the ministry, incorporating a lot of what we learned through OJOH training.
Brewster: [Our cancer care minis-try] began through a Stephen Ministry program. But, we realized we needed to look more into caring for the fami-lies. We appreciated the resources the seminar provided to that effect — plus, the constantly changing information on treatment.
What were the key takeaways you gained?
Coverson: We wanted to launch a good, organized ministry. Using CTCA’s tools, we’re able to minimize some of the pastor’s stress, in addition to helping members and their families.
Our members hate to miss a meet-ing. We’re a very close-knit group, but with respect for confidentiality.
We have doctors and nurses involved to lend a medical expertise to the minis-try, as well — a medical oncologist and an oncology nurse.
Another important element of the ministry is the “buddy program.” New members are paired up with existing ministry members based on their person-alities and the type of cancer they have. This is a great model because it enables ministry members to keep me in the loop.
But, we do emphasize the “buddy” aspect among our ministry members. We don’t want them giving advice about treatments that worked for them, since cancer treatment is such a
personalized process.More than anything, though, the
“buddy program” is critical because it’s confidential. So often, our members with cancer don’t tell their families everything.
A few of our ministry members have been treated at CTCA. They really liked the element of being involved in the decision-making surrounding their care. They say they felt like the only patient being treated. Now, the majority of our members end up going to CTCA for treatment.
It’s important to convey the sense that cancer is curable, and it can be treat-ed. It’s critical to catch it in time.
How does the implementation process work, post-training?
Coverson: Rev. Michael Barry and Pastor Torian worked very closely on the ministry’s development. Part of it — a key part — is forgiving and letting go of past challenges. In fact, in September, our church and CTCA will be hosting the Forgiveness Tour and Concert.
We drafted what we learned through CTCA training into the ministry’s mission and vision statement. We aren’t interested in throwing a pity party, so we line up speakers through CTCA; we’ve had a nutritionist come in to talk about the importance of food, for example. So, an informational approach is critical. And, Rev. Barry has spoken about four times — on everything from the role of the care-giver, to the importance of hope, to the power of forgiveness. We try to empower our members with cancer.
Additionally, as a group, we focus on outreach. For their own benefit, it’s critical that our members with cancer think about others, not always about their illness. “Kid Flicks” is one example; our members collect and donate used and new DVDs for pediatric wards in hospitals. Oddly, DVDs are the one thing lots of hos-pitals don’t have. It’s a good fit, since so many of our members aren’t really ready to go out and, say, build a house. CE
— RaeAnn Slaybaugh
IN THE TRENCHES
there,” Leahy shares.Of course, pastors and caregivers are another major
source of support for cancer patients. Barry likens CTCA’s treatment of — and OJOH’s ministry to — cancer patients to a Sherpa Buddhism.
“In the Buddhist religion, God is in the mountaintop. So, a Sherpa is willing to carry up to 100 pounds of his follower’s stuff to get there,” he explains. “Cancer patients are chal-
lenged, but the air they breathe in is hope. They have to get above the tree line to find it. Ultimately, success depends on their willingness to put one foot in front of the other, because avalanches do happen. Caregiving is very important in this respect.
“The giving-up chapter isn’t part of this program,” he adds. “Our goal continues to be making it up the mountain.” CE
BOOKMARKSACOUSTICSM
ark
etPl
ace
46 | CHURCH EXECUTIVE | 10-11/2013
DEFIBRILLATORS
![FOCUS I]UNSW · before Spm) 2 Oct 13 Oct 19 to Nov 1 Oct 19 3 Oct 27 Nov 2 to Nov 15 Nov 2 4 Nov 10 Nov 16 to Nov 29 Nov 16 , 5 Nov 24 Nov 30 to Dec 13 Nov 30 Do< 8 Dec 14 to eilrly](https://img.pdfslide.net/doc/110x75/5eb45df9c718205565021b22/focus-iunsw-before-spm-2-oct-13-oct-19-to-nov-1-oct-19-3-oct-27-nov-2-to-nov-15.jpg)
