Newsletter
Sept. 2, 2010
We may have set a new speed record at Bill's Place today. The heavy rains of yesterday flooded out many of the places where street dwellers live and so our crowd today was uncommonly large for summer. We served more than 60 people within something less than 7 minutes and could have served a few more had we not just run out of food! Ann Murrell (one of our most faithful volunteers) is pictured above resting next to one of our regulars (who agreed to be photographed). Thanks to Paige Payne for cooking the main dish and to Deb Pierson for making chocolate chip cookies in advance...... see below:
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
She didn't want anyone to know in advance but Deb Pierson's battery powered heart was about out of battery. She had a new pace maker surgically installed yesterday and when it immediately didn't work she got to have the surgery all over again. She is home now and in pretty good spirits for someone who has had two surgeries under local anesthesia in the past 24 hours.
THIS SUNDAY
On Sunday morning we will enjoy the last in our 24 part series of "Living the Questions." Following that we had planned to start a series of presentations on spiritual classics presented by our me and our members. We have the opportunity, however, to hire a recently retired seminary professor, David Trobish, to come do a series of lectures on the apostle Paul.
The only hold back is the fact that David now supports himself with publishing and speaking opportunities and we really need to offer him an honorarium if we are going to have him here. We're a small, new and fairly broke church so, to do this, I have to have some sponsors step up to the plate and agree to sponsor David's visits with us. Let me hear from you ASAP if you want to help bring David here.
David Trobisch taught New Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, Missouri State University, Yale Divinity School, and Bangor Theological Seminary. As a scholar he is recognized for his work on the Letters of Paul, the Formation of the Christian Bible, and Biblical Manuscripts.
LABOR DAY WORK DAY
We’ll start working on the property at 9 a.m. and we’ll have a cookout at noon with Andrea Zamora in charge of the grill. We need to trim the hedge, pull weeds, spread mulch, take down the bean garden, change light bulbs, plant some flowers and seal some parking lot cracks and you can help!
THE CHURCH DOOR
The subject of "honoraria" hasn't come up for us before so I would like to say a few words about it. Like all non-profit organizations, we depend upon a blend of paid staff and volunteers to do the things that we do. Sometimes, being paid in one place allows you to volunteer in another place.
For example, my 20 years of writing guest columns for the Springfield News-Leader has netted me exactly $0. I wouldn't be able to spend time writing an article every week if someone else wasn't paying me a living salary. We often invite college professors or retired professors to come teach a class or make a presentation and we usually compensate them with a pat on the back or a bottle of wine. They are willing to help us out because they believe in what we are doing and because they are keeping body and soul together elsewhere.
I'm paid to be the pastor here (thank you very much) we give small honoraria to Barry and Sean for being our musicians and to Abby for organizing our nursery and pre-school. However, we use volunteers for everything else, from cooking for Bill's Place to mopping the floors and cutting the grass here at the church.
We sometimes pay a small honoraria to a guest musician but most of the time Sean is trading his time in another musical setting for a favor from a friend to sing or play here.
It is important to me to continually create learning opportunities for our congregation which come from someone other than me. I don't want for our church to be dominated by my voice or perspective anymore than it logically must be with only one pastor.
I know that the concept of paying for guest lecturers will seem unnecessary to many of folks and maybe, for now, it is but I want to push the quality of our program up the ladder and this would be a good step for us if we can pay for it and if we are interested enough to attend.
Roger L. Ray, D.Min.
Pastor
www.spfccc.org
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. (Martin Luther King, Jr. - Nobel Speech)
We may have set a new speed record at Bill's Place today. The heavy rains of yesterday flooded out many of the places where street dwellers live and so our crowd today was uncommonly large for summer. We served more than 60 people within something less than 7 minutes and could have served a few more had we not just run out of food! Ann Murrell (one of our most faithful volunteers) is pictured above resting next to one of our regulars (who agreed to be photographed). Thanks to Paige Payne for cooking the main dish and to Deb Pierson for making chocolate chip cookies in advance...... see below:
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
She didn't want anyone to know in advance but Deb Pierson's battery powered heart was about out of battery. She had a new pace maker surgically installed yesterday and when it immediately didn't work she got to have the surgery all over again. She is home now and in pretty good spirits for someone who has had two surgeries under local anesthesia in the past 24 hours.
THIS SUNDAY
On Sunday morning we will enjoy the last in our 24 part series of "Living the Questions." Following that we had planned to start a series of presentations on spiritual classics presented by our me and our members. We have the opportunity, however, to hire a recently retired seminary professor, David Trobish, to come do a series of lectures on the apostle Paul.
The only hold back is the fact that David now supports himself with publishing and speaking opportunities and we really need to offer him an honorarium if we are going to have him here. We're a small, new and fairly broke church so, to do this, I have to have some sponsors step up to the plate and agree to sponsor David's visits with us. Let me hear from you ASAP if you want to help bring David here.
David Trobisch taught New Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, Missouri State University, Yale Divinity School, and Bangor Theological Seminary. As a scholar he is recognized for his work on the Letters of Paul, the Formation of the Christian Bible, and Biblical Manuscripts.
LABOR DAY WORK DAY
We’ll start working on the property at 9 a.m. and we’ll have a cookout at noon with Andrea Zamora in charge of the grill. We need to trim the hedge, pull weeds, spread mulch, take down the bean garden, change light bulbs, plant some flowers and seal some parking lot cracks and you can help!
THE CHURCH DOOR
The subject of "honoraria" hasn't come up for us before so I would like to say a few words about it. Like all non-profit organizations, we depend upon a blend of paid staff and volunteers to do the things that we do. Sometimes, being paid in one place allows you to volunteer in another place.
For example, my 20 years of writing guest columns for the Springfield News-Leader has netted me exactly $0. I wouldn't be able to spend time writing an article every week if someone else wasn't paying me a living salary. We often invite college professors or retired professors to come teach a class or make a presentation and we usually compensate them with a pat on the back or a bottle of wine. They are willing to help us out because they believe in what we are doing and because they are keeping body and soul together elsewhere.
I'm paid to be the pastor here (thank you very much) we give small honoraria to Barry and Sean for being our musicians and to Abby for organizing our nursery and pre-school. However, we use volunteers for everything else, from cooking for Bill's Place to mopping the floors and cutting the grass here at the church.
We sometimes pay a small honoraria to a guest musician but most of the time Sean is trading his time in another musical setting for a favor from a friend to sing or play here.
It is important to me to continually create learning opportunities for our congregation which come from someone other than me. I don't want for our church to be dominated by my voice or perspective anymore than it logically must be with only one pastor.
I know that the concept of paying for guest lecturers will seem unnecessary to many of folks and maybe, for now, it is but I want to push the quality of our program up the ladder and this would be a good step for us if we can pay for it and if we are interested enough to attend.
Roger L. Ray, D.Min.
Pastor
www.spfccc.org
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. (Martin Luther King, Jr. - Nobel Speech)
