e-Note from Martin - Feb. 7

Dear Church Family, This week’s e-note covers the following two subjects: Senior Staff Covenant A Funny Story Senior Staff Covenant: One of the great joys of serving at BUMC is working with a committed and competent staff. In a church our size, it’s impossible for the senior pastor to work closely with all our staff members. Therefore, most of my time is spent working with our Coordinating Team (senior staff). With the encouragement of our SLI consultant/coach, our Coordinating Staff recently developed a staff covenant. It’s already made a big difference in how we work together. I thought you might be interested in seeing it. Our hope is that in time, every team in our church, both staff and lay, will develop a covenant that is appropriate for their particular task and mission.

So the following covenant is not a model to be duplicated by other teams, but simply an example of what one team has done.

Here is the senior staff covenant that directs our weekly meetings and our overall relationships with one another:

BUMC COORDINATING TEAM COVENANT • Start on time.

• Begin with prayer.

• Delegate agenda items to other people or groups when appropriate.

• Conflict is ok—as long as it is respectful; watch the tone of our opinions, be open-minded, slow to respond negatively, be respectful of other’s opinions even if we strongly disagree.

• Pray for each other regularly.

• Let people complete their thoughts and statements before responding.

• Be fully present, including limited use of silenced electronic equipment.

• Schedule a fun event together a few times a year.

• Worship together once per month, rotating leadership.

• Keep confidences on issues of confidentiality.

• After we make a group decision, support that decision even if we disagree with it.

• Openly, honestly, and transparently share with one another.

• Prioritize what’s best for the entire church rather than what’s best for ourselves or our particular work area.

• Clarify and agree on role expectations for each team member and hold each other accountable for fulfilling them.

• Hold each other accountable for growing in our spiritual disciplines.

Through God’s prompting and grace, and seeking to live into the heart and mind of Christ, we will keep this covenant together, encouraged by the Holy Spirit, grounded in the Word of God, encouraged by our witness to each other, and encouraged by “speaking the truth in love.” May God bless our covenant, our time, and our work together in Jesus’ name.

A Funny Story: Many of you know Rev. Wynn Batson who serves part-time on our pastoral team as a non-paid volunteer (and he does a GREAT job). Because of health challenges, Wynn recently decided to retire from his job at AT&T. In his retirement announcement note to his colleagues and friends, Wynn told the following story, which he gave permission for me to share in this e-note. This story comes from our January 29th worship services, which featured a video clip of Dr. Howard Olds speaking about Tim McGraw’s famous country song, “Live Like You Were Dying.” Wynn’s story follows.

“On Sunday morning in all three services we played a video clip from my close personal friend and mentor, our late senior pastor with terminal cancer, as he encouraged us all to follow Tim McGraw’s lyrics and to “live like we were dying.” I was overly emotional, and cried in all three services. I figured the message hit a little too close to home in light of my own future outlook.

After church, my wife asked if I would mind going by the furniture store to look at a table and chairs she had wanted for some time. Uncharacteristically, I happily agreed. We looked at furniture, TVs, and even trash cans, and I gladly bought whatever she wanted. On the way home, I even agreed to paint some rooms in our house. I was surprised how agreeable I was, and chalked it up to a “new me” with nothing to do but decorate and paint. “… I was finally the husband that most of the time I wasn’t.” At home while changing clothes, I found one of my socks was stuck to my foot with some very strong adhesive. After some tugging and a little finger-nail polish remover, close inspection revealed it to be an estrogen patch. My wife reluctantly admitted to having lost such a patch in my shower the day before. So, I had been wearing an estrogen patch on the bottom of my foot since my shower the night before! After 8 hours of wearing an estrogen patch I was crying in church, furniture shopping, and agreeing a little mauve and eggshell would look great in the bedroom! We had a great

laugh, but she also said she might try that more in the future! She has been a great sport and put up with a lot in the last 36 years with the police department, fire department, the phone company, disaster response, etc. and I surely owe her a few more estrogenpatch days.� (Wynn Batson) Finally, it was good to receive Jay, Heather, Brooke and Whitney Gorman as new members. Welcome to our church family.

In Christ’s Love and Service, Martin