Congregational Care

RESOURCES FOR STRENGTHENING THE LOCAL CONGREGATION

This web page has been developed to give the local congregation some basic resources in creating healthy and vital communities of faith. Many of the resources below are links that will take you to additional pages with considerably more information. You will also find some of the resources that have been used in various regional training events, along with some of the “harvests” of insight and learning stories from people&rquo;s experiences.
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Resourses for Congregational Care
Resource materials for congregations from Disciples Home Missions
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AD-MINISTRY: TOOLS FOR THE NUTS AND BOLTS

• Ten Principles in Salary and Benefit Consideration by Dick Hamm, 2-28-12

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ESTABLISHING ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND CONVENANTS
ETHICS, POLICIES AND COVENANTS

• Ethical Guidelines for a Congregation: Our Relationship as Members to One Another (pdf). This is a covenantal document that can be studied and signed by members of congregation:
• Ministerial Code of Ethics (English) (pdf)
• Ministerial Code of Ethics (Spanish) (pdf)
• This document contains the expectations and covenants signed by those who volunteer at regionally-sponsored events.
  • Regional Volunteer Policy, Guidelines and Code of Ethics (pdf)
  • Sample of Volunteer Policy and Covenants for a local Congregation (pdf)

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Other resources pertaining to legal policies and practices around registered sex offenders and congregational safety: (these are currently on CC webpage)

• Disclosure of Presence of Convicted Sex Offender (pdf)
• Legal Q&A about registered sex offenders (pdf)
• Protocol of Sex Offenders to attend church (pdf)

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Other links for information on establishing Safe Church Policies:
GOING GREEN RESOURCES FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS MINISTRY

• Environmental study developed by Ev Penzel and Iternational Disciples Women&rquo;s Ministries: (upload DW-GP-EcoGodSawItWasGood.pdf and DW-GP-EcoLeadersGuide.pdf)
• Community Gardening
  —ENV-CommunityGardenResource.pdf
  —ENV-R2GTimeline.pdf
• Information On Blue Theology Ministry of Christian Church of Pacific Grove:
  http://www.bluetheology.org/

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RADICAL HOSPITALITY RESOURCES FOR CREATING COMMUNITIES OF INCLUSION
MINISTERING TO THE LATE DEAF AND HEARING IMPAIRED:
Rev. Mary Dyer, a former member of CCNC-N went in for knee surgery as a hearing person, and came out of recovery completely deaf! One of her saddest moments was realizing there was nothing in her church to accommodate her loss and keep her included in worship. Mary has used her experience to advocate for the millions of hearing impaired people who are unintentionally excluded from our worship and church activities, and who are more apt to just drop out than ask for what they need.

A few of the articles from her website are listed below and can be downloaded from here.

• How Accessible Is Your Church? (breaking_sound_barrier_church.pdf)
  Breaking the Sound Barrier In Your Church: Ministry and Mission with People Who Are Hard of Hearing or Late-Deafened published by the United Methodist Church. The last few pages offer a great assessment tool.
• Get Looped: Hearing Assistive Technology for Congregations A Challenge (GetLooped1.pdf)
  This 2-pg article written by Rev. Mary Dyer describes her experience of losing her hearing and her worship experience and how her current church was willing to install loop technology so that she might be able to experience and participate once again.
• That All Might Hear: A Guide to Radical Hospitality for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DOChhDEAFinfo.pdf)
  This 2-pg article written by Rev. Mary Dyer gives a brief overview of the need to churches to consider how they might be excluding the hard of hearing, and an overview of some of the solutions available.
• Hearing Loss Statistics (Hearing_FactSheet25.pdf)
• Hearing the Word by David G. Myers, PhD (LoopingChurches10.pdf)
  This article compares some of the solutions available, and explores why many hard of hearing may not use the cumberson or unsightly older options many churches provide.
• Resources: (ResourcesPP25.pdf) Books and Booklets to help your church explore this ministry and help your congregation be inclusive and responsive to the needs of this population.

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MINISTERING TO THOSE WITH MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT

• Adressing Diverse Needs for Congregational Hospitality (pdf)
  This article is written by Rev. Dr. Margie Brown who lives with the mobile challenges of Cerebal Palsey and the many ways and places that are not available to her because they are simply not accessible. She covers several ways in which we may be unconsciously excluding those who are not familiar with our usual habits and offers some very affordable and practical advice for becoming hospitable and inclusive to this population.

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CREATING HOLY CONVERSATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

• Holy Manners: Regional guidelines for working together in groups (holymanner-CCNCN.pdf)
• Litany for a Dialogue Among Disciples and Holy Mannersfrom the DHM Advocate, 2005 (pdf)
• Radical Hospitality: Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter (pdf)
  This is the workshop handout created by Rev. Dr. Paula Pociecha for the Regional R&R trip, August 2009 on being hospitable with one another in conversation and working together.
• Communication Tools
  • Listening Survey (doc)
  • Circle Practice
  • Circles of Peace Model (pdf)

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STRENGTHENING CONGREGATIONAL LIFE AND LEADERSHIP
A list of resources available through Disciples Home Missions (this includes Children’s Ministries, Women’s Ministries, Environmental, immigrantion ministries, social justice, leader development, evangelism, search and call, pastoral relations and special services, etc.) either for purchase or free download can be found here: http://www.discipleshomemissions.org

• CONGREGATIONAL VITALITY
  • Discernment Survey (pdf)
  • Church Vitality Meter (pdf)
  • Church Life Survey (Trans-QuestionairreLay.pdf)
  • Simple Assessment Questions for a Church Board (Trans-SimpleAssessmentToolChurchBarods.pdf)
• ELDERS
  • ELDERING-21ST CENTURY 3-26-11: Handouts from the workshops and a summary of the morning discussion Harvests from all sites.
    – CAREGIVING RESOURCE BOOKS 3-2011
    – DO’S AND DON’TS CALLING ON THE SICK
    – Duties, Responsibilities & Qualities of Elders
    – Growing Your Spiritual Life Workshop Led by Regional Elders
    – History of Eldership Remix- 3-20-11
    – Image of the Table
    – PROFILE OF AN ELDER Morning Table Discussions Garvests
    – PS_119 Exercise
    – SPIRITUAL NURTURING FOR ELDERS
  • Elder Caf Harvest in Lodi, 11-14-09
• LEADERSHIP
  • Harvests from The Collaborative Leader Caf 10-30-10
  • Listening Survey
  • Traits of Transformational Leadership
  • Leader Development Program for a Congregation (Trans-Leaderdevelopment.pdf)

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PASTORAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE (PRC)
One of the strongest tools available to the pastor and the congregation is a healthy, well-functioning Pastoral Relations Committee serving in the true capacity of liaison and avenue of communication, rather than as a personnel committee or complaint department. Regional Minister of Congregational Care, Yolanda Márquez-Lúcar, is available to come to your congregation and provide PRC training to the committee and the board.

• PRC Guidelines Training Handout (Pociecha)
• Guidelines for a Pastoral Relations Committee: (SC-PRCguidelines.pdf)
• Guidelines for a Pastor’s Sabbatical Leave