Important This Week

• Guidance on Sharing a Pastor workshop churches this Saturday
• Registration open for lay leadership courses this fall
• Church security resources
• Trauma Training Offered
• Disaster Ministries Invite/Challenge

From the Associate Conference Minister for Search and Call

"One Shepherd, Two Flocks":

This Saturday August 12 from 9AM-12 PM, I’ll be leading be a workshop via ZOOM entitled “One Shepherd, Two Flocks: Practical Advice & Guidance on Sharing A Pastor.” I shared with the Upper Bucks gathering of churches some weeks ago of how another pastor and I had, in my last setting, worked hard on sharing ministry with each other. Our churches were less than two miles from each other on the North Side of Chicago, both with different strengths, and with different resources, and it was a good and obvious partnership. With the full support of our congregations, we shared a youth group and confirmation classes together for over a decade, and often many of our folks showed up at each other’s yearly events, such as Oktoberfest. But both my colleague and I received new calls roughly within a year of each other, me to Pennsylvania to this work and him to another church. When we both left, much of the partnerships we have worked together on forging fell by the wayside, and I can’t help but think we made a critical mistake during that decade of partnership: we hadn’t engaged the laity in our settings nearly enough around findings ways to formalize the obvious ways we needed each other. If we had, perhaps both churches would have searched for a new pastor together, but now they are looking for new leadership separately, and I suspect both didn’t seriously consider finding a pastor or pastors that might work for both congregations.

Of course, both laity and clergy play an important part in thinking about how to extend our ministries through sharing with one another, but the laity are the heart of the matter, since we ministers come and go but the laity remain in their settings for the long haul. Even if you’re not ready to think about sharing a pastor with another church, this workshop still might be helpful, since you’ll know your options if a choice needs to be made in the future. On Saturday, you’ll hear from three pastors who are already serving two congregations, each in a different way and they’ll share the challenges and blessings of sharing a pastor, both from the clergy and lay point of view. I keep saying it, and I’m going to print up the t-shirts one day, but “the future is shared,” and maybe that was always the way it was meant to be.

Rev. Kevin McLemore

Associate Conference Minister for Search & Call

For more information and registration for the "One Shepherd, Two Flocks" workshop, see the Shared pastor event for churches this weekend, below.

Shared pastor event for churches this weekend

On Saturday, Aug.12 a free workshop will be held on Zoom on "One Shepherd, Two Flocks: Advice and Guidance on Sharing a Pastor." Rev. Kevin McLemore and others will discuss why sharing a pastor with another congregation is a good option for many churches in this time of pastoral scarcity. They will share practical strategies on how to talk to your congregation about this possibility, how to find a pastor and congregation willing to do so, and how other churches are doing it successfully. Pastors who currently pastor two churches will join us to share both the blessings and challenges of this arrangement, and how to avoid some mistakes they’ve witnessed in their settings. Click here for more info.

Local Church Security: Resources and Best Practices

The UCC General Counsel, Heather Kimmel, posted a blog post last week on Local Church Security: Resources and Best Practices. This post compiles a number of resources available for Local Churches to assess their physical security. In the past year the UCC has had a number of churches experience property damage and vandalism as attacks on their theology. We’ve also had several pastors experience having their conversations recorded, heavily edited, and posted to extremist websites, resulting in threats to the church and the pastor. We hope this post helps.

Lay Leadership courses scheduled for the fall

Growing Our Spiritual Lives

The first step in making our churches more vibrant, faithful and effective, is for each of us to cultivate our spiritual lives. Our congregations are like trees: in order to reach out with our branches and bear fruit, we must first deepen our roots in our faith. This course on Spiritual Life will meet for three sessions at Saint James United Church of Christ, 321 S Limerick Rd, Limerick, on Saturday mornings from 9:00-11:00 as follows:

• October 7: Spiritual growth through congregational worship
• October 28: Spiritual growth through personal disciplines
• November 4: Spiritual growth through small groups.

The course will be led by Laura Walters and Charlotte Fiedler. They have received training from Wanda Craner, and Charlotte received a certificate in Spiritual Life from Immaculata University. Click here for more information and to register.

Discerning Our Mission

How do we go about reaching out to the world in the name of Christ? This course on Mission will meet for three sessions at Saint James United Church of Christ, 321 S Limerick Rd, Limerick, on Saturday afternoons from 12:30-2:30 as follows:

• October 7 - What is mission?
• October 28 - Local mission
• November 4 - Global mission

This course will be led by Dr. Charles A. Maxfield, a minister of the United Church of Christ, with a Ph.D. in Church History with an emphasis on mission history. Click here for more information and to register.

Webinar: UCC Trailblazer, the EPA, and New Grant Programs

Charles Lee, the lead author of the UCC’s landmark report on toxic waste and race as well as lead organizer of the historic First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, will be one of two featured speakers on environmental justice at the EPA. Lee is Senior Policy Advisor for Environmental Justice at the EPA. He will be joined by Jacob Burney who directs the Environmental Justice Grants Division at the EPA. Even if you cannot make the webinar at its scheduled time on Aug. 9 at 2:00p, still sign-up, and we will send you a link to a recording of it. Register now!

CPE opening at Phoebe Wyncote beginning in Sept.

Phoebe has ONE opening (clinical site – Wyncote campus) for the semi-intensive CPE running Tuesday, Sept. 5 through Jan. 30. This unit will require 16 hours per week (4 for class; 12 for clinical site). Class will be on Zoom most weeks, with once class per month held in-person on the Phoebe Allentown campus. Clinical hours can be negotiated with staff chaplain. If interested, visit this site. Complete the application and submit to Rev. Dr. Scott Brooks-Cope (scope@phoebe.org) and Rev. Leah Knox (lknox@phoebe.org) before Aug. 11. For more info, reach out to Leah directly. 

Trauma Training Program

Sept. 23rd and Sept. 30th

A partnership between The Welcome Project PA, Lakeside Global Institute, & PSEC

The Welcome Project PA [WPPA], in partnership with Lakeside Global Institute and the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ , is pleased to offer professional trauma training modules for ministry leaders and volunteers in their respective contexts, to prepare them to better assist their constituents who have suffered trauma. The purpose of this program is to assist professionals in their caring for people who have suffered various forms of trauma, to create an awareness of the causes and consequences of trauma, and how it affects our human relationships and social interactions. Finally, this program strives to enable those who have suffered/continue to suffer from trauma, a path forward to progress and a way out of destructive cycles. Trauma 101 and 102 will cover the basics of trauma. The subsequent sessions with The Welcome Project PA and the PSEC will apply the trauma training to more specifically define, explore, and discuss religious trauma and its effects on both individuals and faith communities.

For more information and to register, click here.

From the Addiction & Recovery Taskforce: An Opportunity

The Addiction and Recovery team hopes that every congregation in Penn Southeast will take part in National Recovery Month in September. The CDC is providing a National Recovery Month Toolkit online that features social media messages as well as other great resources. 

Please consider planning ahead and take advantage of these prepackaged messages that may make a real difference in someone’s life.

From Disaster Ministries...

An Invite and a Challenge

The invite:

Our Lutheran partners in the Lehigh Valley are hosting an event on September 10, 2023 to replenish hygiene kits and flood buckets that we used to respond to the flooding events of July 2023 in Berks, Northampton and Bucks counties. The event will take place at the Lutheran Center, 2354 Grove Road, Allentown, from noon to 3 PM. There are several ways you can help:

• Sign up to donate supplies for Flood Buckets and Hygiene Kits
• Make buckets ahead of time and deliver them on Sept 10
• Come to learn how you can get more involved

See the attached flyer for more information. Questions? Please contact Heidi Shilanskas.

The challenge:

Consider having your church or Association have an event in the near future to replenish our supply. We have depleted most of our supply of kits and buckets. I know that a few churches are planning events to put them together. Will you join them? Remember:

• The national setting of the UCC is still providing a $250 mini-grant to churches who put together kits and buckets. Click here to learn more.
• Take lots of pictures and write a story about how you did it. Send them to Rev. Karl Jones. Take your buckets and kits to the most convenient drop off location. Learn more by clicking here.

Rev. Dr. James Mills Sr. installation at Wentz's UCC

Click the invitation below to download a PDF to share.

Churches can save money with Vanco online giving

Exciting news for online giving! Whether your church already uses Vanco OR if you are using another vendor OR if you haven’t yet set up an online giving platform, we invite you to attend the webinar on August 22 and learn what Vanco offers. Through the Conference’s partnership with Vanco, all will benefit from reduced transaction fees when you come under the umbrella of the Conference! Register now and mark your calendar! 

Approximately 750 UCC congregations trust Vanco for online giving and driving engagement. And with good reason. Vanco provides UCC Churches with…

• Increased giving: Vanco clients see an average increase of 26% in giving.
• Easy donation reconciliation: We integrate with more than 60 of the most popular church management software systems.
• Complete virtual church: Vanco Live is the single tool congregations use to combine online worship, giving and discussion to a single website window.
• Service: Our U.S.-based client services team is always here to help. And we answer the phone with nearly zero wait time.
• Pricing: Discounted group rates available because of Pennsylvania Southeast Conference’s partnership with Vanco.

Learn all the benefits congregations get from Vanco here.

Join us for a presentation about how you can grow your giving through Vanco on Tuesday, August 22 at 12:00p. Register here.

60th anniversary of the March on Washington event

Join together in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington! Friends from across the region will join together Sunday, Aug. 27, to celebrate and remember through a modest neighborhood march (as you are able), eyewitness testimony, and worship in the historic House of Faith (the former Harold O Davis). Click here for more information.

Upcoming Training events

Registration is open for:

Basic Boundary Training on Sept. 14 in Schuylkill Haven. More info

Advanced Boundary Training (Managing Pastoral Transitions) on Sept. 27 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event and complete a one-page synopsis). More info

Advanced Boundary Training (From Gutenberg to ChatGPT: Tools, ethics, technology and best practices in the life of Church) on Oct. 18 on Zoom. More info

Diversity Training on Nov. 8 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event and complete a one-page synopsis). Click here

Christian Creyer installation as chaplain of Phoebe, Richland

Phoebe Ministries, Richland Invites you to the Installation of Rev. Christian B. Creyer, M.Div. as Chaplain on Monday, Aug. 28 at 2:00p. Because the event will be held outdoors, under the pavilion (in Meadow Glen multi-purpose room should the weather not cooperate), clergy are invited to wear what they are most comfortable in wearing (robes and stoles not required). Phoebe Richland is located at 108 S. Main St., Richlandtown. Click here for a flyer to share.