Elen Maurer 0:05 We're going to share our experience in how the Keweenaw UU Fellowship has moved into part time ministry, and then how that is for Reverend Stacy Craig as that part time minister. Rev. Phil Lund 0:18 And I just hit the recording, because I was telling everybody else to hit the recording. And so I did that for our group. So yes, thank you, Elen. Um, yeah, that is why we were here, one of Jeff, one of the models that Jeff's talks about, is putting together those teams to make sure that different areas of ministry are being covered. And I've had the good fortune to be working over the years with both Stacy Craig and the as a halftime minister, and the at the sChequamegon Fellowship, which is in Wisconsin, and with Elen, who's in the Keneenaw Fellowship. And the Keweenaw Fellowship was looking for a mentor, Minister of some some sort. And I mentioned that Stacy was available, perhaps to help out and they connected. And I was talking with Stacy about what they are doing there. And as I said, its name. It sounded so much like some of the stuff that Jeff was talking with us about. And especially important to because it's quarter time ministry, you know, you want you want to get the most out of it. But you also want to honor your part time ministers time and not overwhelmed them with what you're asking them to do. So I think we've got a good example here of one way to approach this. So, Elen, and Stacy, I'm going to turn it over to you all now. And I think I will try to pin you. So you'll be the the the the main main people here, okay. Rev. Stacy Craig 1:59 Okay, well, I'm going to let Elen, I'm not going to let Elen Elen is going to begin by describing a little bit more about the Keweenaw UU Fellowship, Elen Maurer 2:09 I thought I would start by just telling you about our trajectory and how we got here, because we did not see this as where we thought we would want to be. And, but we are really enjoying being in this place. So just seeing how that changed in thinking in the congregation and leadership might happen, as we experienced it. So looking farther to our past, we had called a full time minister. That was our first full time minister, she was with us for seven or eight years. We loved her, it was wonderful. And when she moved on, we had an interim minister. And that was helpful. She did all the good stuff that interim ministers are supposed to do for a congregation and helping us discern where we might go next. And and then we called another full time minister. And that relationship didn't work out in the long run. So that was a fairly short tenure with us with that minister. And, and when they left us for another opportunity, then it fell on our worship committee to provide programming, it wasn't a departure that gave us time to do that, in preparation. So all of a sudden, the worship committee was responsible for filling programming, and, and they stepped into that need, with good energy. And then the serendipity came to the Keweenaw, and we found a person who had come to the area, who just was willing to speak, who resonated with members who, who presented in a way that that spoke to congregational members. He approached us in a way that felt very affirming. And so we hired that layperson, as a halftime minister, and started out with him, and did well enough with him that we were then able to not only recognize that he was working more than halftime, but also pay him for that. So we increased his time from halftime to three quarter time, which was really just a recognition of that's what he was doing anyway. And we found that his service to us was very similar to the kinds of care that we got from our interim, our official interim minister. And I have said lots of times that that lay ministers served us very well as an interim and helped us really understand for ourselves where we want might want to go next. And and we thought that that then as we as we were thinking about what we might want to do next, we established a committee and they call themselves the ministerial transition team, the MTT, I'm not sure what the F was MTTF. So that that committee, we weren't in search. But a lot of what they did was a lot of what a search committee might have done. We did a survey, we did some focus groups. And we tried to discern what the congregation was really going to need and want next. And so from that, we decided we did want to be in search, we wanted to search for a full time Minister again, and we did that. And there was no one there for us this time. No, no good fit for a full time minister, and even they perused in the part time part. And there was nobody there either. That seemed, well, nobody was interested in us from that. And I did want to mention somebody saying that nobody wanted to come to their rural area, that finding someone who wanted to come to that kind of place for living was hard. And for us, we really felt that we wanted to celebrate that aspect, we wanted to find somebody who wanted to live in a more remote and rural place and wanted to celebrate what that brings to life. And so because we love living there, we know there had to be somebody else out there who would love you know, in a remote, rural place. And and we did so that that worked out well for us. Some of the next part of what I want to share with you are some words that that Paul Mitchell, that lay minister that we hired, shared with me, because he really was the one that did the legwork in the logistics of finding the folks that built our dream team. So his connections in the community, his relationships with other clergy in the area, and his willingness to recognize that people were doing ministry in a lot of ways, despite whatever their official titles and recognitions were. So he, he had feelers throughout the community as we look to build the team. And so the intent really was to provide consistency through planning. And, and Paul really felt that the environment that's formed when a worship committee is responsible for 40 Sundays in a year can really bring some inconsistent quality of presentations. And that concern was that because Sunday service is such a connecting time for the fellowship, that inconsistent Sunday presentations and, and a scrambled effort to try and get those that programming in places sometimes, you know, we needed a canned presentation from the UUA. And that's a great resource. But as somebody else was talking, sometimes that remote nature of that recorded thing, doesn't doesn't connect us together at the time. So don't use that word lost on the membership. And and we were concerned that like a low expectation for Sunday service might develop with this wild variety of stuff. So we really, that's why we really wanted the consistency of service over time. So with that priority, the first thing that congregation did was the contract halftime with a Lutheran Campus minister. And we approached her because she was under 40, a woman and an A person with great deep intellectual curiosity. Our fellowship is primarily older folks. And we are very comfortable with an intellectual search for truth. And so because we had had Paul Mitchell, who identifies himself as an older white man, as as our lay minister, he was aware that there were limitations then embedded in his perspective, so hiring a young, thoughtful woman who brought some fresh air of perspective. And so she provided us throughout a full year with two Sundays a month and was available a little bit for pastoral care, although we found we didn't call on her much for that. Also, in our congregation, we have the tradition of having one Sunday, a month as a forum Sunday. And so that we are expectation is those are brought in speakers that will talk about a topic of interest in the congregation. So that left the worship committee only having to provide one Sunday a month, which was doable for them and provided a shortened need and so better consistency of quality came with with those services as well. So in that first year, most folks really appreciated and enjoyed the Lutheran pastors talks. She's personable, she was warm, she connected with us. She obviously appreciated us. And she also kept her boundaries clear what she was comfortable doing as a Lutheran minister. For example, She was not comfortable lighting a chalice and giving a chalice lighting or extinguishing message. And so we provided that from laypeople. And she was clear about her boundaries and, and and maintain them in that. And that made it easier for us to know what our expectations of her were and what they were not. One thing that we identified is that the that we weren't going to expect her to do any administrative work. And so that did fall onto the leadership, me as president, and I'm grateful to have had the time in my personal life to be able to give the congregation, I come to the office weekly. And so I'm there when our paid administrative assistant is there. And so we're able to have good communication and coordination and, and that kind of stuff for that part of our work. Having that clear leader for admin work, and perhaps any other aspect of congregational business that you want to ensure has the continuity and somebody's paying attention to it. That's we found to be a key component to our success. After that year, with passed with a Lutheran pastor, she did not want to re up with us. And so we started looking for a new team. And this is where, again, Paul Mitchell's connections, and relationships in the community really made a difference. So he wanted to, first of all, maybe our efforts were maybe a little too broad. And because we could not find somebody who really wanted to take on two or three talks, presentations, Sundays in a month. But several of them were willing to do one, one time a month. And so because in the community, we are known for being a welcoming and engaging folks, there were people around who were like, maybe I could do that. And so because we had friends in the community, that was the first group of people that Paul really connected with, so we collected three wonderful candidates. And the plan was that each of those people would do one Sunday a month. One was a retired and progressive Lutheran minister. One person is a highly trained Buddhist practitioner. And the other person was a congregational member, another under 40 woman, a member, a forester, a mom, and a person who was willing to share her own perplexing search. So when we stepped into a new year with with those people in hand, and then, with deep gratitude to Phil, I received an email from from Stacey who said, Hmm, I hear you're kind of looking, I talked to Phil, I wonder. And so that's how it began. So Stacy appeared within that work of trying to put together a team. And because we had been through search, and because we knew the congregation just kind of really wanted a real UU, Minister. Even though we were being well served by our previous Lutheran and this dream team that we were forming, we knew we would really be missing something if our dream team didn't have that UU ingredient, as well, and we really yearned for that. So now we have four presenters. And and by finding Stacy, who was almost ordained, when we first met, we were able to put that piece in place also. And because we had prepared for the during the year before, both financially, intentionally, to call a full time minister, we were also able to offer Stacy a quarter of what we would have offered a full time minister in terms of benefits and all the rest. And so that helped us feel as though we were doing our part to in supporting UU ministry, wherever Stacy may go by being able to do our part in her ministry. So here we are. We've we've been almost through a whole year now with our dream team. And we are recognizing, increasing benefit, as as these relationships deepen, both within the dream team. And then the benefit to the congregation, as we know those folks have been talking. And so this little piece might come from one of the presenters and then this piece comes from the Enter presenters and it just without them trying hard to coordinate. Because they do talk to each other and it it meshes so well, that that that continuity that you would get with one minister all the time is actual we're actually living that between the team members. And so the other piece that little bit by little bit I'm hoping will increase is because Stacy also serves Chequamegom. Again, that there that I'm I am hoping and seeing little pieces ways that those two congregations also can support each other and do things together as we start to build those relationships. That's an early and new stages. But I have a lot of hope for that because because we share so many similar things we are again, rural, we love it here, all of those pieces, and I'm sure Stacy will talk about some of where she comes from that really resonated when we first met. Yeah, that's the stuff we're interested in too. And so it's just a good fit. So thank you again, Phil Lund for for being the matchmaker and and to all the rest of this opening realization that there are other ways to do things that will serve the congregation and feed us and nurture us. And we can do the same back for our Minister. Rev. Stacy Craig 15:58 Thank you, Ellen. It's really wonderful to be a member of the Keweenaw UU Fellowship's Dream Team. And I'd like to share with you kind of from the minister perspective, what's working for me and why this is such a dynamic and exciting ministry to be a part of. So first, I just want to because there's so much variety in Unitarian Universalist fellowships and congregations, I just want to give you a little bit of context. So the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist fellowship, I'm 50% time they meet two Sundays a month and then have a variety of other kinds of ministries that happen. So so only two Sundays a month in my with that fellowship here in Ashland, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. As I was finishing up my seminary and entering into, you know, becoming a fully fellowshipped, there's this time line and you all should know this, where a lot of times depending upon where you are in the process, and when you see the ministerial fellowshipping committee, where you are only able to take on contract ministry. Now contract ministry can be full time, it can be part time, but a lot of the part time positions are sometimes called contact contract ministry. And just so you know, you have a whole applicant pool that's looking for like at least a one year relationship while they're because that's the only thing they can do before they are officially affirmed to go into search for settled ministry. So I want to just put that pin out there that I was looking for that I reached out to Phil Lund said, What do you think? Do you have any suggestions of who I could contact that could be a speaker in the pulpit for a Sunday? And he said, Well, you know, knowing you, Stacy, knowing your focus on a ministry, have a sense of place on Lake Superior, knowing that you have a climate justice ministry, knowing that you you're serving a part time congregation and you you care a lot about rural fellowships, you care about small congregations. He's like call Houghton he gave me he gave me a couple of others. But you know, he said call Keweenaw UU Fellowship. And that's that's how the relationship started. So again, just a little pitch for knowing a little bit about that ministerial lifecycle. What are what are your ministers doing and why and, and knowing how your how your congregational staff can play a role in in finding those matches. So um, so Keweenaw does meet every single Sunday. And so they were looking for they were very clear about their expectations in person, part of this team willing to work with this distributive power model, so much of what today's presentation talked about, somehow, they had a consciousness around a lot of the things that were presented today that are working, and I'd like to highlight a few of those. So one of the interesting parts about being a bi-vocational minister, so I'm a part time minister with the Keweenaw part time with Chequamegon. And then I take on kind of side hustles, as my calling also includes being a climate chaplain. So there's a variety of things I do, from adjunct professor to working with youth to serving on on committees and chairs and policies around climate change justice. So because of that, I have a very dynamic life. And so things like expectations ahead of time and communication and transparency are really, really key. So having the fellowship know what they wanted, and why they wanted, it really helped me be able to say, Oh, I that's what I'm looking for, or this is an area we might want to work on and find some clear clarification on. At the Chequamegon fellowship, they had no minister and then a quarter time minister, and then I was hired as a third time minister, and then I've grown to a half time Minister so that that whole experience is one. Whereas the Keweenaw had a full time minister, had these different varieties of models of ministry and now have put together this team of the equivalent of a full time ministry, of which I serve as a quarter time. So just know that if you're looking to reach out, I'm happy to connect with folks because I have both of those ministries, growing ministries, changing. The presentation today talked about part time ministry, whether or not you can afford a full time ministry, to think about the possibilities of part time ministry. And so in both in both fellowships, there's different things around that. But it's, but it's all it's dynamic. I'm going to focus on the Keweenaw experience, my quarter time position with the Keweenaw and part of the dream team today, but I wanted you all to know that context. So the first thing I would mention, if you are thinking about putting together a team based approach, that continuity of having a group of people versus say, trying to get a different speaker, every single Sunday provides a kind of trust to be built. It provides a kind of coming alongside the congregation that empowerment of lay leadership, that conversations and fellowship, all of those opportunities are so rich. And and I think that that's only possible if you do have that great congregational polity understanding that you know that the membership has all this great authority to help you know channel where your focus is as a as a congregation, that your minister comes alongside that, that isn't responsible for that, but comes alongside you to help you and takes parts of that, that you identify as where perhaps that can complement the strengths that you already have. So knowing your strengths, and not assuming this is what a minister does, oh, the presentation was so good about that. Because the the the Buddhist practitioner and the Lutheran minister are giving wonderful UU related inspirational worship services. And it allows me to take on other parts that were needed in the congregation, including I'm doing outdoor religious education, community events. So again, that outward focus, but also safe, given all the COVID stuff we've been through safer, lower risk. And and then you know, having it be family friendly, looking at providing some additional opportunities to a fellowship that has just a small amount of religious education, youth or kids. And so that was a need. And that's an area that is part of my experience. And again, complementing their strengths. With the with both the strengths that I have was was was key to this. With that dream team of ministers, Elen mentioned that there's some coordination, it's light, it's not a lot of extra meetings or extra work, we have a spreadsheet where we share each other's titles and descriptions of the talks we're giving, we use Soul Matters of the Keweenaw UU Fellowship. And it's an invitation to all the Dream Team members where they can talk on the theme of the month, and they don't have to. So we have a couple of small groups in Soul Matters. So they're talking about the theme. Sometimes some of the ministers are also talking about that theme or the ministry team. And again, one of the feedback perspectives, or one of the one of the real positive feedbacks that I've heard, is that people really appreciate hearing about a theme or a topic or a condition in the world, from all these different perspectives. It's more grounding, it allows for that conversation at home and with the family to go deep. Um, some things that might be unique to a UU minister, and what you know, why even include a UU minister? Or when you have these other people from other denominations that can come alongside your fellowship and meet the moment? What What can that UU minister maybe bring that others that others would not? And I would say that whether whether you're a UU minister or not, you can ask that minister to sign or be in covenant with the UU Ministers Association guidelines. So Phil mentioned that earlier, what it means for like the Keweenaw UU Fellowship is that I have trainings required, I have professional expectations, and there are consequences. So even if my compass goes astray, you know, I will be held accountable by the UU Ministers Association. So it's another layer of that safe congregations and that healthy congregations support system that is infused in that in that in that relationship. Part of what I do is I keep tabs and I try to stay very connected with the UUA. The UU Ministers Association, the resources they have the events, they're having the opportunities that are available to the congregations and fellowships and make sure that there's a clear conduit in a timely way. So that that you know that thing that we're all a part of, that the bigger thing in addition to all the work that goes in at the grassroots level, knowing that we are all connected and can have such an impact on things like UU the Vote are areas that I can provide some support around. Providing those high holy days for Unitarian Universalism, child dedications, membership ceremonies, bridging ceremonies, the all waters communion or water service, flower communion or flower service. Now again, if your lay leadership is really passionate about those, and they have already developed their formula for putting those on, maybe that's not something that the UU minister is needed for or would be helpful for. But a lot of times, whether it's that empowerment, part of lay leadership, or providing that is an area that a UU minister can do. And then I would say any minister, but especially in Unitarian Universalism, there is a lot of pastoral care training for multiple religious perspectives, including atheism, including Islam, and you know, that a lot of times people have, that are very specific to those really intensive times that we might come alongside each other in. And I am thankful for that training every single day, when I talked to my colleagues who don't have that training that are doing pastoral care. You know, I often I just, I go back to gratitude for having that training. And I'm grateful to be able to offer it to those I serve. In addition to providing one worship service a month as a quarter time minister, again, I have this kind of array of of those different things that the diagram earlier talked about. I do a pastoral care presence, small group ministry, which is in the that kind of religious education category, those community outdoor, all ages, experiential, spiritual practice type of, of ministry, I provide an article for the local paper in their faith communities section. And, again, empowerment to support of lay leadership, I think, did I miss anything that feels I didn't look at the contract before I did this. That was just my that's how it's working out? Elen Maurer 27:10 Well, and I wrote at one point that that continuity, allows that relationship building not only with the presenters and the congregation, but in within the team. And so that's that's just splendid. And then just that clear communication. As we started this relationship as we as we discerned within the congregation, okay. Not a full time minister. Well, then what is that Minister going to do for us beyond Sunday morning? Sunday morning, for sure. And then what? So we really needed to be sure about that, because we were really aware that unclear expectations or maybe disconnected expectations was an element in our our failure with that previous minister that left us early. And so we we were really intentional about wanting to be clear with you what we wanted. And and then Stacy was equally clear when that I was interested, because that little piece of of how much time, the administrative and the supervision of other staff takes. And so we've had this system where the president of the board supervisors, supervises paid staff, because we didn't want time taken from our part time Minister doing that we didn't want Stacy spending time doing that, well, then how is that going to work? And we're just fortunate that as a retired person, with time in my personal life, I was able to say, Okay, I'll do that. And so I'm the conduit and the connection and, and do the work of all, we've got great staff. So it's pretty easy, but but to do the work to be sure that all of that stuff is working. But that clear communication from both of us. Oh, and so as we talked about, that sounds like ooh, Stacy, how do you see that role? And you explained to me that that was a piece of Stacy going from a third time to a halftime for Chequamegon, was to take on some of that role. And you said to me, like Yeah, but it's more than that. And so we really didn't want to gum up Stacy's time with us with that kind of stuff. And so her being able to say, I don't think I can add that in without it being way more than any of us want it to be just that it was clear the boundaries and and being really sure with each other, what we can do. And then we're just lucky because because Zoom is in our life. And so Stacy traveling three hours from Asheville, which Johnson six hours round trip for her time with us. In the winter, in this part of the world, we knew there were going to be some times when she's like, Nope, can't get there. And so we're ready for that. And we recognize that and we are ever grateful for for zoom having come for COVID but for zoom coming into our lives that let us know that we can make real connections on the internet across across something like like this, and and we'd be okay that way, we could make it work even if on some one of your monthly trips, you couldn't get there or couldn't get there when when we wanted you there, we're ready for that. Rev. Stacy Craig 30:10 And despite like a horrendously snowy winter up here, and never happened, I was able to go in person every single time. But I have attended every board meeting on Zoom, I've attended a lot of the other, like the worship committee meetings are all on Zoom. So that, again, was one of the formula pieces that probably would not have allowed us to have this relationship before the pandemic, that is that is just naturally working. In fact, it's the preferred way for a lot of these committees, or a lot of the members have to meet on Zoom. So so that is definitely a big part of all of this. So, you know, especially as like a young minister, as someone who's who was like, in the, you know, finishing school, getting ordained, all of those things. I, you know, I was at a point where I was looking to kind of put everything together. But I was also pretty broke, after all the expenses and all the sacrifices of going through seminary. And so, you know, the Keweenaw Fellowship does provide a travel stipend, they provide a lodging stipend, and that really made it doable for me to be there in person and to kind of meet the needs that they had around those areas. And I know that a lot of part time ministers or these yoked fellowships as some, so so one way, part time ministry can work is if you have two fellowships that are both part time and you yoke, you, can you combine those resources. So in this case, Kavanaugh and Schwalm, again, are both sharing parts of my benefits. And I you know, because I'm three quarter time total with both of those, and then I pay into that as well. So, so there's parts that they are collaborating on, there's parts, there's a lot that is completely separate between the two fellowships. So I wanted to mention that as part of the part time ministry, piece of all this, I do, I do just want to say that I'm a strengths based person, I think that when you find someone who can complement the strengths you already have, and who strengths are in areas that you're looking for, that's going to be your best recipe. When it comes to that staff coordination, so that the Keweenaw Fellowshiphas a paid the Dream Team of ministers, they have a pastoral care support person. So this is someone who is on site in the community. So especially if you have someone traveling, but she has a specific number of hours, she's someone who provides kind of Elder Care Services in the area. So she has this skill set. And it's really important that that presence is available, and it's very flexible in terms of finally getting there once a month. They have paid music staff. So that's huge. So that there's consistency in the worship service around that, and a very committed hospitality and a very committed membership committee that really helps to allow for the this dream team to just plug in. In addition, the board and technology committee have worked very hard to make the zoom and multi platform experience work. And so when when an if there are snow days for us, when an if there are sicknesses, when when and if there are Dream Team members that that can't come in person, there's a variety of possibilities from pre recorded messages to dream team member switching. So we've had a lot of switching Oh, wedding came up, I need this Sunday free. So that's taken a lot off the worship committee in terms of having to find speakers. So I would say one of the big things about the Dream Team is that the worship committee, you know, their their overall workload, especially going from having, you know, gone into full time, like trying to find someone for every single Sunday, to just having like this team, that kind of self manages and whatnot. Their work is like, whereas like the board, you know, they've had to do all the different contracts with all the different ministers kind of interview and and do all those things related to contract ministry. So I just saw a question How big is the Keweenaw Fellowship? Elen Maurer 34:11 My membership persons would want me to notice no, we're gonna say 90. Rev. Phil Lund 34:16 Okay, I just looked it up is 79 on the UUA. database. So, but that's just that's, that's probably just the books instead. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's adult members. And you know, you've got the friends, of course, and families with children and and good news. People signing the membership book, right. So fantastic. Rev. Stacy Craig 34:37 We'll have a celebration for at least three or four new members coming up here. I just, you know, this is something I just want to say. And this will probably be reiterated by UUA staff and I know it's, luckily in the UUA there's already this built in expectation that ministers don't volunteer their time. And I think that the way that some of my colleagues And I have have come to take it as you can choose. I mean, even though it's discouraged that we don't put in more hours than we're contracted, because there's all kinds of systematic struggles, you know, if I am operating as a halftime minister and being paid and contracted as a quarter time minister, and I leave, and they get someone, and their capacity is truly a quarter time minister, there's now a quarter time position that they have to scramble to fill. And those things are disruptive, those things are not necessarily helpful. So, you know, over overworking, we know is a is a white culture thing. And I, you know, you have to check in what is are you doing this to be the hero? Are you doing this because it's truly what the fellowship needs, and can you empower and, and share that responsibility around these other items. But I just, you know, I, I've come to think of it as the expectation for a minister to work more than what they're contracted, is, is a kind of stealing, it's a kind of theft. And I guess I use that language really intentionally, just to try to lodge it. I know so many of you are volunteers. I know so many of you put in countless hours with your fellowship. And your ministers do too. And they do it with a lot of love. But to assume that they're just going to keep putting in more time is like assuming that you're going to get your lunch paid for when you go out to eat. It's just it's, you know, it's not, it's something that should be celebrated. It's, there's times when ministers just have to work deep hours because of losses and our community events. Know that sometimes we bank up a little bit of time, so that we have something to give in those times. And, and that's one of the one of the hardest things sometimes about part time ministry is feeling like you're enough, and feeling like all the other expectations and needs of the fellowship are being, are being, are being cared for the work as you all know, the work of being in covenant and community, you could just keep working, there's always more to do. And you also have to know that it's enough. So I just want to, to share that part of of my experience, and just how grateful I am to be with a fellowship that truly respects those boundaries that encourages them, that encourages you to take time off, support professional development. And even I mean, at a quarter time, they're supporting my benefits, which makes it possible for me to work with them and, and have health insurance. I hate that this is our system in the world, that that your employer has to provide it. But that's the system we're in and I don't have another option. So those are the those are the things. One final, one final little tidbit, if you all are thinking about a dream team, I would say that when it comes to empowering lay leaders, coordinating volunteers, organizing team based projects, unless it there's a lot of autonomy, already built into those, that can eat up a ton of time. And it's great. And it's also something that committees can do. So if there's a committee or there's a process that streamlines some of those things, I can spend a whole day just, you know, emailing the 10 people that are part of a worship service to make sure do we have this, we have this we have this or we can have clear job descriptions for the Committee's. You do it once everybody knows what they're doing. We show up we check in on Sunday mornings and work on the fine details, but it's all there to be had. If we have an order of service that's already developed, and you're just plugging things in and there's a clear, you know, how does that get printed? Or how does that get shared with the fellowship, you know, those kinds of streamlined pieces go so far and allowing me to then focus my hours and time on on keeping the big picture, on trying to keep all the oars rowing in the same direction by going to various meetings and and, you know, touching base with people as as challenges arise. So I just want to also give that distributed leadership a shout out, which is also something that the Keweenaw UU Fellowship does really, really well their board has, every year they go through the job descriptions of the committees, make sure that those are still current, make sure and certify that all the committees are full, that they are functioning that there's people there. I might say Oh, this person's you know, showing some interest in this I you know, do you need someone for the for the pastoral care or do you need someone for the hospitality committee? This person might be a good fit, but it's really the board that is making sure that those things are functioning and working. So again, as a quarter time ministry, Minister for a full time very engaged, very vibrant ministry. That's how it's working. And I'd like to just wrap up my comments to allow for some time for questions before we wrap up the session. Rev. Phil Lund 39:59 Hey, yeah, Thank you, Stacy. And Elen, it's such a great story. Thank you for your reminders and you know, just such a clear view of what it is you're doing. So we have time for Yeah, carrying Keweenaw? Yes, I have to say, it's, I can I can pronounce both Chequamegon. And Keweenaw. But it took me a long time. So. But let's have some questions for Stacy. And, Helen. You can jump right in, unmute yourself, put it in the chat, raise, your virtual hand, whatever. Rev. Stacy Craig 40:42 You see, everybody Oh, yeah, let me let me go to gallery view. So I can, there we go. Um, I see that Marian had asked a question about benefits, and I can just be a little bit more explicit about that. Um, so because I'm a halftime minister with one fellowship, they've committed to providing halftime benefits, because I'm a quarter time minister with another fellowship, they provide quarter time, and so and then, and then any remainder, I, you know, I pay out of pocket. So. So I have disability, I have, I know that each fellowship carries like workman's comp insurance. I have health, dental, vision, and I get and then so those are coordinated. This is interesting. So the UUA has one, you know, one office, so if you get those benefits, the two fellowships have to coordinate, because only one fellowship actually pays that bill. So we're wondering, yep, so they've, they've kind of said, we all agreed, you know, this is the amount we're paying, this is what it'll cover. And then the two fellowships created an MOU to in order for the Keweenaw to pay Chequamegon. Again, Chequamegon, again, pays the UUA for those benefits. Retirement is different. Each fellowship does their own deal with retirement and can pay directly into the retirement accounts without having to coordinate at all Rev. Phil Lund 42:06 Memorandum of understanding, sometimes I need to have that spelled out for me, MOU, so Rev. Stacy Craig 42:13 What is outdoor religious education with community events. I know this, so this, maybe this is like super unique, but this is something that we developed over the pandemic, where we, where we took kind of an all ages, curriculum that could be adapted for a variety of ages. And that was specific to having a place based or kind of outdoor education or environmental education theme. And, and that's what these are. So sometimes, you know, from one and a half to three hours, concrete example would be we did Eve Buntings The Night Tree. So this is a children's book, we read the book, and the children's book is about a family that goes out and decorates a Christmas tree for the animals. And so we made edible birdfeeders, pine cones and all these edible ornaments. And then we decorated a tree for the animals and talked about the generosity of the season. And the the history of the Christmas tree and the pagan tradition, and the and the care of animals and wildlife at a time when food is scarce. And just like we might set up an extra plate at our table at the holidays and invite a neighbor over that we care for one another in times of scarcity. And that that is literally a cultural teaching for many Eastern European groups. So so we tied all those pieces together, went outside decorated our tree and you know, just from 80 years old to eight years old, it was a very engaged and wonderful event. So that's an example. Is that link curriculum? Rev. Phil Lund 43:51 Oh, you have? Well, Rev. Stacy Craig 43:53 I, I've just been making it up. Yeah. Rev. Phil Lund 43:58 I was gonna say one of Stacy's gifts is she is a religious educator, too. I mean, that she works very well with children and adults, all ages. And she does put wonderful things like this together. Stacy, would you mind just maybe giving me a little, send me a little rundown of that I can share it with folks, which you just you know, so if you remember to do that, I'll put that in the resources. But again, that's another great example of, you know, gifts matching needs, you know, in your congregation. So thank you for sharing that. You see here, how are we doing other comments in the chat? Okay. Might you share the job descriptions for your committees? That could be helpful. And also talk more about how you select continuity. I continuity amongst the Dream Team members, is that what we're talking about? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Rev. Stacy Craig 45:00 Somebody's nominee? Yes. When we talked about continuity, I think the main thing there was like, Do you have just like kind of a potpourri of speakers that come each month and kind of have that freedom of the pulpit? And, and sort of go in whatever direction they want? Or do you have this, what they're calling the Dream Team, which is really sweet, the dream team of ministry. So this, so those same people come, you know, I'm every first Sunday of the month, there's another person that comes every second or the forum is every second Sunday of the month, and that is online. And I just want to put a kick out there for that. Because if your people are exhausted, and you know, having an all online forum means that your worship committee or music committee or tech committee all have one Sunday off a month. So just just as one, I think formula that's making it work for all of the engagement that happens at the lay leadership level when you have a team like this. So that's really what that continuity looks like is you have speakers that come back every single month, or every other month, as part of this team. Rev. Phil Lund 46:07 Yeah. And Elen Maurer 46:08 the other benefit that we found in the congregation about that is that those presenters with their continuity, then build a relationship with us. And so then they are, you know, they're safe to bring their authentic selves. And they are, they're sharing with us so much more deeply than I would think any presenter would be willing to do if they just came once to us. We build a relationship with these people, and we know them, and we and we know what's going on for some of them in their lives. And so when we see them monthly, we're eager, and we have questions that we relate to them just as a person, not as a presenter. Rev. Phil Lund 46:44 Yeah, I'll just say quickly, I think it was 2018, the Gallup poll, folks, we're looking at what brings people to congregations on Sunday mornings. And still the number one thing is hearing a sermon from somebody. And so just in terms of continuity, if at least, I think this is a good reason to have at least a quarter time ministry, if you're thinking about doing this, is having the same person at least once a month in the pulpit is like this minimal amount of continuity that can can make people want to come back, you know, and so that's still a draw. Oh, and here's the committee descriptions. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Rev. Stacy Craig 47:23 So this was asked for so just as an example, you know, all the different committees are listed here. And then this is the, you know, the events that happen, and the committee chairs actually supplied these different job descriptions so that we were coming from the, and then the, you know, again, the board, verified them or ask questions if needed. And so these are all of the different, all the different committees. And again, it's not, you know, it's not pages for each committee. It's, it's the nuts and bolts. We do not have that example, that the keynote presenter Pastor McDonald, talked about, that that contract that goes like, here's what the lay leadership does, here's what the minister does, here's what the staff person does. I love that model. But because of this piece that they had in place, I would say we have that implicitly, even though it's not explicitly put into that kind of covenantal document that really outlines the minister will do this, you know, the lay leadership will do this. I feel like that's an area that the Chequamegon UU Fellowship, because there's been so much growth and change, and it was all lay lead. That that's an area that I think we can work on there. Because there's a lot of assumptions, both from myself, it's like no, aren't aren't don't isn't that a board function? And they're like, why aren't you doing that? That's a minister function. And it's like, Oh, my goodness, I had no idea that that was being expected. So that's, that's really key. And I'm so glad that example came up. And I, I just said we should get the book. Specific, we have that example. Rev. Phil Lund 49:10 Yeah. So if you could send me a copy of that, too, will make sure it gets in the resources. And I liked what you said, Stacy, various, very compact sort of descriptions, because I know one thing that's really important for getting volunteers is clear expectations of what you're going to be doing. Yeah. Elen's Elen's seconding that, and so having a good write up a realistic write up of what you're asking people just helps you get people to fill those positions. And it sounds like you. That was one of these. I think Elen you mentioned that's one of the things the board does is making sure that the descriptions are accurate and that you're getting people to be in those committees and hold those positions, right. Elen Maurer 49:52 Well, this is the first time we've done that and we did it for Stacy so she'd have a clearer understanding of how things are going. But but at the same time as we were thinking about doing that for Stacy's benefit, we thought, hey, you know, this could really encourage people to see what we're doing and see what committee they might fit in. So yeah, exactly. That's Rev. Phil Lund 50:09 wonderful. Well, I'll tell you why this has been great. I'm was it's so helpful for me just to know that we have this going on. And you know, that it's such a good model for congregation that it's possible to do that. And, and Stacy, thank you for your kind of testimony. Like as a, as a part time minister, this was helpful for me to have a position like this out there to kind of help round things out in your life. And that's part of Jeff's message to, is these opportunities can be wonderful for for ministers to have them available. So So I want us all to just, you know, think about how we can do this. And I say we're going to end in 37 minutes. So thank you all for being in this workshop with us. Thank you, Stacy and Elen, and you all get me your resources there and I'll make sure that the whole group has access to those too. All right. Thank you so much. Good to see it. We'll see we'll see elsewhere. Transcribed by https://otter.ai