Year 2009 Report

Metro Women Presents:

Women of Worth Thrive!

“Fully Engaged on the Journey of Life”

April 23 – 25, 2010

The Grand Hotel

Cape May, Nj

Come join us for a weekend of fun and spiritual refreshment!

Our speaker will be:  Ingrid Davis

Ingrid is a gifted speaker, leader, teacher, mentor and trained leadership coach.  Along with her husband Chuck, she has been involved in pastoral ministry and missionary work in New England and Mali, West Africa.  Ingrid and Chuck have been  married 26 years and have three young adult children.  She has taught in public school, adult education training, and is a graduate school lecturer.  Ingrid is a certified Leadership Coach in Connecticut.

Ingrid leads leadership seminars, leadership development conferences, coaching workshops, and retreats.  Her counseling experience includes helping people recovering from emotinal distrubances and addictive behavior.  She also mentors women and cojples and provides coaching in how to attain important life goals.  She is skilled at bringing people to their next level of personal, spiritual and leadership potential.

Hurry, registration deadline is March 25, 2010!!

For more information about this retreat and for registration forms:   Spring Retreat Reg form

For Spring Retreat Poster, download:  Spring Retreat Poster

February 5th notes & news

February 23rd notes & news

Churches should have received  the Annual Report e-mail and instructions on January 4, 2010. Please check email, inbox & spam box . Kindly note, only churches that do not have an e-mail address with the National Office database will receive a hard copy this year. The deadline for churches to complete their Annual Report will be February 26, 2010. If you have any questions  contact Eileen Olivo  eolivo@metrocma.org

 Compassion and Mercy Associates (CAMA), the Alliance relief and development arm, is gearing up to assist survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, on January 12. According to a CNN report, the death toll may top 100,000. The hospitals are gone, and medical supplies are desperately needed. About 3 million people—one-third of Haiti’s population —were impacted by the quake.    

 In partnership with parachurch organizations already on the ground, CAMA will provide immediate assistance—including clean water, emergency shelter, medical aid, and other necessities—as well as long-term help in rebuilding efforts, integrating Jesus’ message of redemption with practical acts of compassion.

 “A compassionate response during a disaster tangibly expresses Christ’s love and opens doors for other ministries,” says Phil Skellie, CAMA’s president.

 To donate to the Haitian Earthquake Relief Fund, please go to this link, scroll down, and click on the red “Give Now” box—

http://www.cmalliance.org/give/relief/

Safe Sanctuaries Policy

Safe Sanctuaries Policy: Reducing the Risk of Abuse in Ministry with Children, Youth or Vulnerable Adults

The following policies shall apply to all programs dealing with children, youth (under 18), and vulnerable adults:

1. Personnel policies for all programs, both church and non-church

A. Shall require:

i. The recommended volunteer application form, available from the District Office, shall be used for screening all workers, regular and occasional.

ii. A background check is required for all regular workers, lay and clergy involved with work with minors.

B. May use the on-line service for background checks, www.protectmyministry.com, with whom the C&MA has arranged for discounted rates for its churches and districts.

C. It is recommended that the district complete a background check for all newly licensed official workers, including newly approved workers as well as transfers from other districts or countries.

D. The cost of all background checks is to be paid by the church, board or agency requesting them.

2. Screening forms and background checks:

A. Shall be reviewed by the either the Church Board or the Senior Pastor, or the supervisor of the prospective employee(s) or volunteer(s) and the pastor.

B. Screening forms and background checks shall be maintained in the confidential personnel files of the church after the termination of any employee.

C. These screening and background checks shall be required of all persons unless a more stringent check is required to satisfy the standards of a licensing agency.

3. All such programs shall be clearly differentiated between those which are church operated, and those which are non-church operated.

Basic Standards Assumed: The following are basic assumptions made as they relate to local church programs for children, youth and vulnerable adults.

1. All buildings in which such programs are housed shall have any necessary “certificates of occupancy.”

2. All groups conducting such programs shall have the necessary certificates of insurance for both liability and workers compensation. They shall be displayed as required by law.

3. All such programs shall conform to Federal and State wage and tax laws for employees.

The Metropolitan District of the C&MA shall resource local churches with materials, persons, training opportunities, and guidelines for establishing effective measures that will reduced the risk of emotional, physical or sexual abuse of children and youth in the local church; and

The District Executive Committee shall designate a person or committee who will develop and implement measures that will reduce the risk of child /youth abuses in the local church; and

The resource Safe Sanctuaries by Joy T. Melton and/or Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse in Your Church by Richard R. Hammar, et al. shall be the model by which churches shall develop their policy and that each policy while unique to each local church setting, shall contain at least the following six measures:

1. Screening, selection, and annual training of all paid and volunteer workers with children, youth and vulnerable adults
2. Supervision and procedures
3. Reporting to Allegations of abuse
4. Responding to abuse
5. Education of the entire congregation about the policy
6. Annual review of the policy by a designated group within the local church

To implement a full policy, here are some other resource ideas:

1.  The C&MA promotes Creating a Safe Ministry www.safeplaceresources.com  $25  It is a book.

2.  Reducing the Risk www.reducingtherisk.com on sale for $99.95 It has a leaders guide, training dvd, 10 work books, etc.  This is put out by Christianity Today, who is also publishing Church Law and Tax Report. 

3. Another one on the Christianity Today site is www.churchsafety.com. It has 10 training dvds, leaders guide and workbooks. Richard Hammer who wrote Church Law and Tax Report (I use CLTR lots) is a resource in this material and covers everything from financial security to food safety.  It costs $99.95.

Definition of Terms:

VULNERABLE ADULTS: Those adults with diminished physical, mental, or emotional capacities.

CHURCH PROGRAMS/NON-CHURCH PROGRAMS AS RELATED TO INSURANCE: Programs relating to children, youth and vulnerable adults are covered under the conference-wide Property and Casualty Insurance Program so long as they are church operated. That is, the church must have control over starting and stopping the operation, hiring or firing the employees, and the management of the day-to-day operations. The decision to operate a program, as described above, should be a matter of record in the meeting minutes of the Administrative Board or Board of Trustees of the local church. This will lay to rest the question of whether it is a church operated or a non-church program that is using the church premises. The non-church program is not covered by the conference insurance and the church should be sure that these non-church programs carry a minimum of $1,000,000 General Liability Insurance and are covered by Workers? Compensation insurance. Certificates of these insurance coverages should be requested and received by the church annually. The Annual Conference and the local church should be named as additional insureds on these policies. The employees of the church-operated childcare centers are covered under the Workers’ Compensation Program and as such should be reported on the annual Workers’ Compensation salary audit of the local church.

SCREENING FORMS: Screening forms for use with volunteers are designed to assist the local church in gaining information on persons who are applicants for working in church programs with children, youth and vulnerable adults. Their use is designed to enhance the protection of those who participate in the programs. The use of the screening process should be required in both “church” and “non-church” programs.

BACKGROUND CHECKS: As with the screening forms, background checks are designed to protect those individuals involved in the programs offered by the church to children, youth and vulnerable adults.

NOTE: Please contact Yeathus Johnson yjohnson@metrocma.org or 973-412-7025 x203 if you have any questions regarding the implementation of this policy.  

Volunteer Application –  http://metrocma.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Volunteer-Application.pdf

Max McLean (nationally known Alliance Seminary alum) and Warren Bird have written a book-with-DVD titled Unleashing the Word. It’s designed to help your readers (and maybe you too) release the passion of the living Word. It’s story based, many taken from our district churches and from the Scripture reading team at Max’s current church, Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan.

Although the book is about reading Scripture aloud, I want to show you Max McLean quoting the Bible, because you’ll quickly see the power when the word is unleashed. See these two highly engaging examples from Mark:

Warren blogged about the book here, with links on how you can order it.

I highly recommend it.

When pastors meet with their staff, how much time is given over to discipleship verses management?  You might respond, “They shouldn’t need discipleship at this stage in their life.”  I can only answer that question in the context of my own life right now.  I serve as District Superintendent and have been a pastor for 28 years.  I should have my life in order by now.  Indeed, at times I feel like things are humming along and my life’s priorities “appear” to line up with Christ.  This summer helped me to remember that the sanctified life is not a straight line growth pattern.  Life hit us this summer in a way that challenged my disciplines.  What was once a steady pattern suddenly became a challenge.  Responsibilities were thrust upon me that I did not ask for.  We said good bye to my father in law when he died suddenly in July.  Now we have a struggling mom who needs more than we can give.  Life is like that.  Now I have to find Jesus in it all.  To that end, I need to be discipled.  Our staff need supervision – yes.  But what they also need is to be discipled.  They need to wrestle with their hopes and dreams with someone who cares for them.  They need someone to listen and speak into their lives.  When a staff person is given priority time by their senior pastor to be developed as a disciple, not only does that person grow in maturity, but that person moves from being an employee that was hired to get a job done, to a team member this is highly valued.  Coaching is a tool that can assist us in this process, especially when the coaching of staff is not directed at the tasks of ministry, but at their relationship with Christ and the implications for daily living.  Let’s build each other up in the faith!  This same principle applies to our elders and other leaders.

Click here for more information and registration: Invite Flier 02-20th & 03-13th