 Okay, so it's 10 30 now and I think at the little past we let some other people join in and so We may be able to do this a little bit differently since and people continue to join the call And I don't know how to monitor Andy how many people are on the call But anyway, we've got about 30 right now bishop. How do you know that? Because at the very bottom it says participants 30 at the bottom of the screen I was wondering what that was for on some of that Okay, so uh, so I think uh, Andy's going to monitor the chat for us in terms of questions. Am I correct about that? Okay, so we're we're going to be doing this is going to be a little bit different They're not going to be as many people and of course that could change as we go So cammy if you want to open us that'd be great That'd be great. Okay. Um, so you guys are on this call. It's the local church's uh financial health Our our bishop has said he would spend some time with us around a conversation of financial health for your churches Um, and we also wanted to hear about what your challenges or successes have been In the past weeks and just to kind of get a pulse of what's going on and how come how we can partner and Be with you in all of this time So as I as we began I'm going to be the host I think the bishop's going to be mostly the one that's speaking but we're going to give you an opportunity to Write in the chat area some of your questions And if we want to get a little bit more from that we'll you know, ask you to unmute and then you can You know comment more if there's more Things to say let me open with these words from thomas merton And in the spirit of Gratefulness for our god To be grateful is to recognize the love of god in everything that he has given And he has given us everything every breath We draw is a gift of his love Every moment of existence is a grace for it brings with it immense grace from him Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted Is never unresponsive Is constantly awakening to new wonder and to a praise Of the goodness of god For the grateful person knows that god is good not by hearsay But by experience And that is what makes all the difference. Let us pray Gracious god You are the god that that we know Walks with us that gives us new life and breath and hope And so in these times lord, we pray your presence be in our life in our leadership We pray that we will recognize that you are a god that gives us gives us abundant life And provides everything and so lord as we walk in faith this day May you bless us as colleagues together May you walk in faith with our bishop and our leadership and may you continue to Bring new life And breathe new life into us. We pray this in the name of christ Amen Thank you cammy. So I remember there's a chat feature in that chat features at the bottom of the screen and you have to and it's I want to put it so there's one question already on the chat and basically it's the way in which you can ask a question and we'll be following that as well and that's I want you to know that if if you do speak With a question, we've come back to you if you could If you could make that an elevator question and by that you know what an elevator speech is about 10 seconds and so just We can follow up if we'll we'll know who spoke and who told us something and we can follow up We won't do that today. We'll have a way to follow up either with your superintendent or the connection resources office or Some other way, so I want you to know that so I just want to I want to share the obvious just first of all to so that we understand That we all are on the same page Today with the job numbers that came out. It just reminds us about How fragile the economy may be coming and we really don't know the extent of that And I'm not I'm not a forecaster in terms of the economy, but Six million claims over six million claims new job unemployment claims Is is alarming and that begins to that'll sweep across the country in some ways And we would be remiss if I would be remiss if I did not admit or acknowledge That that will begin to affect members of your own churches about the loss Or of jobs are laid off in some some form of passion I You know just speaking to you The last time I was on plane was several a few weeks ago right before this was beginning to emerge and I was coming back from Nashville and I already could see Both in the Nashville airport in the DfW airports that people were beginning to sort of dial back their travel and people hear that I don't know that just I mean, I think people have been traveling for business will discover this tool may be Uh, almost as productive is traveling somewhere to do to do needed work and Certainly the hospitality industry is a big driver in the Dallas, Fort Worth area as we know because of the airport And so I can imagine that some of you already had if you've had clergy Excuse me clergy if you've had A persons in your church that you know have been laid off and furloughed let go How we want to call it a job would you sort of raise your hand? because it is See it's about a third or maybe a half and so this is this is going to be challenging and kind of things so It's going to impact the church significantly. It'll impact your local church. It'll impact the conference. It'll impact the general church with any In ways that we don't know and so one of the things that i'm very clear about is we move forward that Anything that we may decide today may get changed tomorrow simply because the the ground is going to be shifting under us all the time and so One of the things that that we're going to seek to do is to be as nimble As we can and You know Also in a party to this on the general church level since the president general council finance administration is something that we are closely following as well The second thing i want to say to you is i'm very appreciative for your leadership on your leadership as being a pastor and i want to remind you and In that it I want to remind you about what we're ordained to word order sacrament And i think sometimes we get confused about what order is and i had to do some correction about this even Related to some With some beginning people in license in school and what didn't happen at license school I want to be clear about that but but it happens such a way that ordering this about you know Making sure that these things happen the printing of the bullets and those kinds of things. That's not order order is this Order is really about what it means to be I would not want to call it a ceo because you're not running businesses But i would want to see the person who's responsible not only setting the vision the strategy of the church But see how it's going to be funded and be able to alert alert the leaders of the church in such a way That we have some challenges here and and how we've been going to How how are we going to move through this what are we going to do what are some possible things we could do Instead and the and the earlier you do that I think is very important. I'll talk about that perhaps a little bit later. It's like There any number of times in the last few years in the in the conference Then i'm thinking I wish we'd have known this about four months earlier than we did Because the earlier we know We could be more helpful and secondly the earlier you let your leaders know what's going on It can be helpful instead of thinking all this is going to get better Once we all get back to church it will get better But it may not get better fast enough or as well. So we just let's please keep an eye on that And and I think it's important in terms of what it means to order the line for the church When we get to the other side of this The other side is going to look very different than it does now Uh, let's leave the economic impact out. But um in the way I hear some things Is the other side they're pieced the other side that might look better Um when when I hear reports from some of you about the number of people who are online Now I need I need to confess I could have been one of those people who was online in one of your services But you need to know I'm sort of passing through a lot of services sometimes on Sunday morning I'm I just I just want to see You know and what's going on and see see what I can learn and pass it on But I want to say is is that um when you get to the other side Uh, I think we may all discover that everybody's going to have to have a significant online presence Secondly we get to the other side It's going to be we're going to have to realize that we need to learn new ways to help people be generous I'm going to talk about that later But the other side Is the work that we'll do together and you don't have to do alone and um, you know one the one of the things I'm discovering is this is their Significant numbers of gifted clergy in our annual conference that are doing remarkable things. They never thought they were capable of And uh, and I won't I want to do that To tell you that and then finally this we're a connexional church and we're in this together I don't want any one of you to feel like you're alone on an island and uh The one good thing about being you know, I met this clergy is is that you really have colleagues And you're in a covenantal relationship with your other colleagues, and I would simply say to you This means this if you need something this could be a good time to call a colleague You trust who you don't speak to until you see them at annual conference and just visit with them I I will admit that I have um four or five bishops that I'm in touch with regularly, uh, and um Just to see what they are thinking and what's going on now We've all chosen to pursue things differently We didn't come to the inside to keep agreement, but it was a way to share something that was that were helpful So I just won't I want to say that to you Uh, so that's part of thing So I want to I want to talk about some of the challenges that we're hearing that you've had and we were going to do This at the end, but we thought it might be helpful because it framed the conversation a little bit better Um, and that is is that there's been conversations about the reducing of clergy salaries And I I want to tell you, you know the finance committee cannot do that on their own So if you if that needs to happen Let's talk to your superintendent first before that gets out of the bag and how to how to do that I know there may be some reduction salaries and um, and we'll go through that but I think that it really does call for A charge conference, uh to do that. I mean these budgets are set your salaries are set for the calendar year We have to remind people of that But I think there may be other ways around this other than reducing your salaries I'll admit that some of the salaries if they were reduced I mean it it it would be, um Very detrimental to families in some ways. Uh, there's some of us our salaries reduced that would not Somebody did write me that I should reduce my salary and the district superintendent salaries first of all I don't set my salary the general church does and secondly We don't I don't set the district superintendent salaries the conference the conference does but we are And we'll we'll talk about that more, but I don't want you to get up against Between a rock and a hard place on that So if that is talk that's going on in your church, then we need to we need to know about it before It gets farther out there. The second thing is is the staff reductions Then jerry smith, I believe on tuesday in our rock canning Yeah, on tuesday talked about reductions and Furloughs and those things so i'm not the law is significantly different than what was because of what the congress passed And the president signed the other last week. So we need to I don't I'm really not a party to all the information related to that and i'm not going to be so I refer you back to our website on current this stuff on the coronavirus COVID-19 and I think that'd be more helpful to you and if not then call jody or send her an email and that could be helpful Less income due to online worship. I'm gonna address that a little bit. I know that's a problem There's interesting things. I was I've talked to some of our pastors who are who said that they had the best first quarter ever That march was unbelievably good while they were worshiping online And so one of the things I want to do is talk about that and think about some ways. What were they doing that might be helpful to you? I do think when this is over. I hope that those people who have not had online giving Or platforms and the way people to give on their websites will discover it is now time Just you mean You can't wait for some people in pew did not necessarily mean people are giving people are giving because they're dedicated to the mission and committed to it So we'll talk about that and lastly concerns about paying apportionment I think it's pretty clear that since I've been the bishop here almost eight years that I have not been heavy handed about apportionments at all with you I've been somewhat concerned about those of you who did not pay and it was a surprise to us or Some things we found that had been gone for three or four years and we just found out about that is the kind of stuff that makes me More than disappointed. That's why I say tell us early rather than later. Look We know this is going to affect financial outcomes in your churches and many of them do not use this as an excuse to say We're going to get a ride on this. Nobody's going to get a ride on anything And by that, I mean this it's like We're going to tend to the whole mission of church. We're well aware that some people will do the best And do it have the class that they have in the church is this is what they're going to be able to do and and that's what they'll do And that we'll work through that already. So let's not That's not your biggest concern today Your biggest concern is to make sure your staff gets paid And the operational costs go on But don't look for any new ways to spend money You know, if you get in a crunch, you don't look for another way to spend money You look for a way to save some money Or to and another way to do some income. So let's I want to Say once again, I want to about the relief and assistance. Jody and I talked about this this morning I want to refer you to that is that about that webinar she did and Andy was that webinar Videoed is it taped? Yes, and oh jody there you are I see it was jody. It's taped Yep, right Yes Okay, good. Okay. So you can go on and it's on on the side. You can do that if you're having trouble with that Email jody and she can direct it to you. So that would be helpful I do want to talk about budget cuts in some ways that I can't That that we're looking at in terms of the annual conference and I think this is helpful in terms of the apportionments You know, we cannot we cannot cut the budget for 2020. I mean somebody said go go cut the budget. Well That that authority belongs to the annual conference and by the time the annual conference meets We're going to be over six months in we're not going to cut the budget So there's nowhere to what we can do is prepare budget for the adoption of the next annual annual conference for 2021 That will look somewhat different than the budget that we have now how much we don't know But um, we're continuing to work on that We have some things in place that will reduce that sum. I want to remind you that the That uh, there's there's a reduction Um, and to be honest, this is sort of a confusing piece. I don't want to get into there There was proposed reduction For the quadrennial budget that begins on january 1 2021 of that would mean about Over 900,000 dollars. Am I correct jody? Of general church apportionments, which is a significant piece and our budget's roughly between what 12 and a half million dollars So that looks about eight percent of the budget Roughly, uh, that we can that we that that you will not see We've considered some other anyway, so I've talked about the decrease for the overall north texas budget But the other thing we're doing in terms of that decrease is we're managing our spending down Which means we're not spending money. We don't have we don't want to eat into any a lot of reserves And it means there may be some new initiatives that we had hoped to do that we will not do let me But there are things that we can do and continue to do that are not costly at all. So the other day um, the racial um, the racial anti racism team Matt is at the team or was it the team andy? Basically, it's the coordinating team for the racial justice initiative Coordinating team for the racial justice met. We are able to do that on zoom This is an issue that's not going to require a lot of money, but it is something we can still move forward on simply because of of volunteers that we have in place clergy and laity who have agreed to do that work and and they can And uh, they're able to meet on zoom Although they could have all traveled the conference office. We're not we're trying to do as little travel as possible Well, first of all, we're not supposed to and that's one thing But anyway, so we there's some things perhaps that we've done that we may scale back or may choose not to do that We can't do these are my big concerns What concerns are is that um, is that we continue to have campus ministry I mean my concerns are that we continue to do what we're doing in terms of missional outreach My concerns are that we continue to uh, to fund health care, uh, in the ways that we're supposed to have Fund health care, but we we are one is a somewhat not somewhat. We are healthy financially But it doesn't mean that we're just going to go spend money that just to spend money And we're looking at a lot of ways in which we can reduce cost and We'll continue to do that and that's a topic of conversation that happens every week So with all of that being said, we want to start addressing your questions if you've got any and there's some on the chat There is one bishop from mark core is out. He's asking are we um, aren't we likely to see some of our small membership churches That can't afford go from full time To put more part time So mark that may be possible and the reason why I would like to get ahead of this is to help them find ways in which that Doesn't happen. Now if there's a significant job Problem, that's something we can't address But I believe it's something we can't address in terms of generosity and I want to I want to go back to what I said earlier I hope when we get through this that every church will decide that they need an online giving platform And help people understand that they don't give just when they come to the pew So how's it you begin to communicate as a pastor about what it means to help people be generous? And it's very critical time in ministry You're still working. You're not taking the week off and showing up on sunday in front of a camera or an iPhone So there's still ministry that's going on There other things are being done in the community that you're helping fund and perhaps So what is it that you need to do? How can you connect for example with your own life people? And and just acknowledge I'm continuing to give The first thing to do is to be first person about your own giving. I'm continuing to give the church of the The first church Wherever i'm continuing to give it to be generous because the work of our christ continues on and on Despite the difficulties that may be happening. So i'm going to ask you to be generous Please would you send a check that you normally would have given would you send it to this address? Would you do this would you do that or I think I know that the conference has said Those of you who don't have platformed people are not accustomed to mailing their check They can there's a way they can do that on the conference website and they can Share what church it goes to and we're doing that and some people have already started giving to the conference That we will then send to the local church that they designate But I think that you have to start communicating About this now and you can't wait till we all get back Because if I've been if I've been accustomed to giving a thousand dollars a month I would probably still give that thousand. I would give that thousand dollars during march Uh, we get we get I want that that's I'm just pulled out of thin air by the way Uh, we do Then you know, how do I how do I give it since I'm not at church? How do I give it? I think sometimes people don't know When I was a pastor for church 60 percent of our income came online and by mail I want to say that again 60 percent of our income Today the church I That I was serving when I was elected bishop the pastor who's of one of my dear friends reported me. He said I'm in that look. This is a joke I think a little humor Philip Rhodes told me he said my cop thinking about closing the sanctuary I worshiped him. It's a skyrocketed through the roof So that's one thing. I mean it's like four or five hundred more Now who knows how people are counted in there, but that's an interesting enough and then he said we've had the best first quarter We've had in years So what I'm saying is is that why don't you develop those platforms now start communicating them? Send a letter send an email to everybody in your church and say This is a critical moment in the life of Our church I'm continuing to give would you give even though you're not present I want to share with you my concern about giving in the united methods church among christians period I shouldn't I can only talk about the united methods church Is they feel like I only give when I come? Now to me that seems like a transaction I'm going to pay you for my seat at this show And it should be good And if it's not good, I'm not going to give as much next week when I show up So I think the what we're seeing here is a lack of understanding about generosity And giving that I hope you find your own voice about how to ask now look I would not say watch online But be sure and drop by the church and give us your money. I mean we had somebody sort was almost that bad And it's not that's not a way to do it. I would not I would not tie those two together or just say I want to talk to you About a challenge we have we all have challenges, but this is the challenge that your community faith has right now and Right in a pastor voice not a demanding voice Share your own give giving. I mean, I think I always told people when they wanted to know what I you know, what my salary was I said, well, I'll tell you what I give And I told them what I give and they said well, I want to know what your salary is I said you can you can figure it out if you're smart Well, I don't what do you mean I said well multiply it by 10 And that's how you anyway, that's how I get it But anyway, I think I think you ought to be forthcoming about your own giving about the challenges there are What what you've been doing? What the church is doing in this crisis? I mean things don't come to stop You may not make an on-call visit in a hospital, but I hope you're at least phoning the family and keeping up with what's going on So let's be honest. It's not just your salary. It's just the ongoing work of the church because some of you have loans and things of that nature so If you need more help, I think horizons has been We put in all the horizons email site So emails from horizons on the corona site and y'all we're throwing stuff up there all the time. So just check on it every day and I think that's helpful but This is a good time to start, you know, negotiating or navigating a new way of asking Or encouraging people to be generous and I hope you'll do that. But remember they're not interested in your bills They're interested in the cause of Christ. So that's just Set this up not as a fundraising for a non-profit But is uh Is the way in which you share about what it means to be faithful and that is to be a generous giver So Okay, what's the next question? so um Nick McCrae has a question about commissioning and when uh commissionees start if they are appointed and I just want to I think I can address that by saying that all the commissionees are going to be getting a letter Explaining how that process is. Do you want to say more about that Bishop? So we've so the general board of higher education ministry west path and gcFA evolving pretty clear about this is that The appointments no matter when you go or when annual conferences held will take effect on july 1 And so those people who are we're going to ordain and commission people and so Nick don't worry Okay, there's a couple other questions. I think that jody Can respond to that have to do with If there's how quickly funds get to churches and things like that And I think there's also a question about how to help people get The um The cares possible loan for the the protection payroll protection act And I believe that's all that information is on the website. Is that correct jody? That is correct And i'm updating it right now Uh, I had a link on there for an eidl Plan with sbl. We're replacing that with your paycheck protection program those links or the eligibility For the loans is supposed to go live tomorrow. I encourage you to go ahead and contact your banker If you have a good relationship with your banker, uh, that'll get you in the queue much much faster And you'll be able to use this new link to To gather your documents and I am providing updates as to what you need to do to prepare This is a rapidly changing dynamic For what you're going to have to have one of the expectations is that you have Uh tax returns and you won't have those so so we're working on that And I have to get off to attend another workshop on how best to do this So i'm gonna say goodbye. Please send me any, uh questions using the link on the website And and I will be responding to those with them Thanks Thanks, so so one of the challenges about that law is the fact is they're still writing regulations to it You know congress passes it and their regulations and this Johnny's shared with me. This is changed day. This is changing daily and this is why it's so hard to End point what's going on. Uh, I want to go back and he did write, um I think andy had this idea or somebody did about reducing it If you feel called to do so as a good leader to reduce your salary Simply give back to the church or portion of sound without officially changing the salary And so we'll make it easier just on the other side of the crisis return the salary to its pre pandemic level. Good idea Okay, what else do we have here? And then I think just to add to that bishop. Uh, deba put a note about um, that helps Us not have to change pension numbers and things like that. So just to just make sure you are aware of that Kim poor is asking the question. Do we have direction about what we What would be acceptable alternatives to convening the congregation for a vote if the congregation wants to approve an application for cares? Convening does the congregation have to do that This is not this uh kim. Why don't you follow up with jody to clarify that? um I can offer one One or two information About that briefly. So there's conversation about how to post You know virtual virtual meetings that like of trustees that would be legally that would stand up legally and If you want to follow up with me, I can get the finer points but basically Like in a zoom call if people can be noted as present as individuals If they have the opportunity to Comment and ask questions and those questions be responded to and if and if there's a way to determine who's voting For what then that meets the standard for a legally, you know, illegally binding Meeting and so if you need to gather your church council For the approval of something doing so by zoom with those kinds of criteria Um Meets that standard that's at least the conversations. I've been a part of that's what we've been talking about We also said yesterday and excuse me We also said yesterday in our cabinet meeting that if you are talking about taking a loan That's less than 25 of the value of your facilities. It can be done by the church council It doesn't have to have a charge conference Thanks, debora All right, there's a question from laura eckles richter We're hearing of more and more of our members who are losing their jobs What churches have effective job net networking groups that we can learn from I don't know I'm aware of one at university park united methodist church and people come regionally To that but i'm bet they're not meeting right now so someone Email them. I'm aware of of one resource And this will hopefully bring a smile to your face. So there's an organization That's called get shift done that's sh i f t get shift done and The goal of this organization is to pair out of work people from the hospitality industry with nonprofits And um, the and the way it works the nonprofit doesn't pay for that person's salary the original employer does or perhaps Maybe through the cares act their salaries are paid but That's an organization that's looking to find ways to put out of work people To work for good so that you might check that out Um Any are you seeing any other questions that could be addressed Nick I saw something else you said, uh, hey, I promise you're gonna be okay. Just everybody relax here on the on the performance problems So I see uh, there's a question from evan jones about Will churches be required to abide by the book of discipline requirements to have a 10 day waiting period Between announcing a charge conference For a vote for one of these purposes. I assume and then holding it Deborah Or are you the deborah? I'm right here, but was there a question for me? I just hunted it. I think we have to follow the book of discipline no matter if we if we're sheltering or not I'm sorry. I didn't hear the question Question has to do with following the book of discipline. Do they need to have a 10 day notice? Before they have a charge conference You know, we ought to be careful about what what we need a charge conference for for one thing Don't you think deborah? Absolutely. Yeah, I think you should call your district superintendent and we should figure this out situation by situation That's a good thing Part of my concern about just blanket saying that and I mean I don't want to not do what the book of discipline says but what I'm hearing is If you're going to apply for these loans Get it ready tomorrow Or as close to tomorrow as possible because the funds are going to run out And so us getting real sticky about some of our, you know, particulars and missing out on these funds would I think that could be worse, you know, and I would assume there's anyway Speaking off the cuff was just dangerous in this kind of situation. So call one of us if you're thinking about Hey, Jan, I think Jan's got a deal about how do we help small local churches? Those who have staff apply for this and so I would I refer you to jody on that. So I'd be the best way to do it Okay Just to thank you back on what deborah said about being expeditious about applying for You know PPE Loans through the cares act that kind of thing I was just on a call with the board of one of our non-profits and They shared something that I thought could be helpful and wise for us And that is that there are a lot of questions out there about What the requirements will turn out to be in order to have that loan forgiven and turn into a grant But they're not delaying applying anyway They're applying as quickly as they can and then They'll just hold if they are given a loan they'll just hold it in escrow until they're sure That the ways they plan to use it will meet the standards to have it be forgiven and if if for whatever reason they learned that They couldn't use the the funds in a way that would be forgiven Then they'll just hold the money and give it back but as deborah said there's a limited amount of money that will be given and so Organizations are trying to reserve their spot early in the line and so we'd probably wise to do the same thing All right on the just bishop on our agenda. We were going to be asking the question What are the challenges that clergy are facing and also what are they learning? So we like that's an open mic time, right? Yes, open mic to everyone not this open mic, but What are you learning and what are the challenges you can unmute in the lower left corner? So I feel like one of our challenges average Some folks I don't know who else is unmuted there, but that was not my house. Sorry about that though Yeah, you can't hear me. All right. Yeah, so we've got this average age of over 70 and Innovation is great, but I'm finding most of what I'm doing is more pastoral care even with how we prepare a worship online How we talk about giving how we talk about all these things. I mean sure there's innovation conversation but so much more of it is Staying connected with people and even low tech stuff like our phone calls or Even some kind of sending notes and stuff is Making as much of a difference for people even just an email from me Is making as much of a difference as even trying to explain what a zoom call is or facebook or whatever So I just say that as an encouragement to like all the pressure We're feeling to have all the answers and to do So much that even just connection in any form has made such a difference for my folks In the midst of trying to relearn how to do ministry in the midst of this season You can you can visit house to house as we're as we're asked to do pretty quickly just get picking up the phone I mean You can make more visits on the phone than you could driving from house to house. That's a great thing. Thanks People are looking for authenticity. They don't expect wows out youtube or Zoom calls for worship Okay, are there other questions? well This is what are you facing Bishop, I see a couple And one is from from nick mccray for the past several months our church Had been looking into selling a portion of our unused real estate Is there someone at the conference level we could talk to for advice on how this pandemic may affect that sale process? Whether to proceed now or wait, etc Call your district superintendent I mean so because how that happens and rather you I mean And I'd hate to get in buying and selling just right now. I mean I might want to buy here in a few weeks, but I'm not going to give any real estate advice, but I wouldn't be heading out doing anything rash to raise money by selling land I don't think We also have tom christian who is available to us to help help with some resourcing That's true. I forget. That's that's we use tom a lot for that Other questions So michael moore asked question can a congregation reconfigure how staffs at church that is use lay ministers more in partnership with reduced professional staff Well, you know, you got to remember Every elder has a claim on an appointment So you can so congregation can't just reduce that And we're gonna hire a bunch of lay people Anyway, but I don't talk to your ds. I'm not sure exactly what the question is And in some of our churches, we gotta remember we do have a lot of we have some churches that got a lot of clergy on staff But we have a lot of churches that have just a little pastor With some lay people and how how that's managed and how you deal with the reduction staff related to them again I think some of the jody's address yesterday and I didn't encourage you go to the site or to call her About significant hr issues because I do think this has changed how all that happens Michael I see that piece We're not gonna put a anyway Once you give a call to to your superintendent. I think that He could be more helpful than I could on this call about that to get at what the particulars are Okay So the question is what challenges are you facing and uh, what are you learning any other input? Kind of things you guys want to offer Anything want to everyone anyone? The challenges that we have of sharing space with family members Each having different jobs to do in the household and trying to find the space to do it giving space and breathing As we share that Okay, thanks. Wally Any other challenges Yeah, I may offer one other challenge. I feel like right now I think particularly when we think of like our year-end reports and Marks of fruitfulness sometimes it can get in the narrative even unintentionally so about How much we do and that being some signifier of like how much we're worth as pastors And I I'm guessing I'm not alone in feeling that struggle right now of like Oh, I can't do as much or I can't be as many places or whatever And so just trying to recalibrate like in that internal work of You know, my worth as a pastor How much I'm accomplishing and getting done and what's enough and how we gauge You know, what's enough connection in a given day or a given week? What's enough work in a given day or week right now? And I think that's just unknown right now, but I think just to name that challenge is important right now. Yeah Can I Can I kind of respond to this? You know, I have to admit it's not I never imagined these these last six weeks would be like what they are and I I Don't want to use while I'll just put in sort of real understandable English. I feel your pain on this And so, uh, it's it's not how I had planned these several weeks Through lent and I think by the way, I think we're looking at even beyond Easter on on all this and what was going to happen And I told Joan last night when I came in she looked awful I said, well, that's it. Thank you very much I mean, there was so how are you feeling and I go? I'm just poop. I'm just tired And I'm not doing what you're doing. I think what you're doing is even more tiring than what I do I mean, I know that what I'm saying is is that I just remember I We've got to remember we cannot define our worth by what we get accomplished in our to-do list for the day ever unless we're just Not paying attention to time or frivoline away time, but it's it's not about the to-do list It's about being authentically you And living to God's gifts and graces that God has for you and in doing those And and using those in any way possible during the day just everything's different And so I don't want anybody to think this is about you know, a judgment or you need to internalize that at all because We are all Peddling in the same direction as fast as we can. I mean, I I think that we are and that uh, and that we just we know that we That we're in this together and but more importantly the most important part of the each and you have each of you has the most important partner is really our creator We just have to remember that And God made you and called you good Done so don't worry about not getting anything done But don't spend all your time writing songs marcus get something do you get something done? I just want to say that to you. Okay, just just want to know that I'm you once you're on facebook I'm a party to your life You've invited me into your home and everything else. Okay Um We at the woods we have some folks who are beginning to pressure us to do parking lot worship Especially with all of the conversation yesterday and even on a zoom call with the grand prairie police chief Who was asked that and sent notes clarifying? Yes We can do that if people stay in their cars and yes We can do drive-by communion If the person handing it through the window has on gloves and a mask and i'm so resistant to doing any of that Um, I want us to just maintain our our streaming worship Um and i'm getting pushed back because they're like well matthew road is doing that and this place is doing that and It doesn't feel safe and I we don't even have the technology to really broadcast for the parking lot well so um Any words of Onholding that line. Yeah, I know we were talking about finances, but if it gets into other stuff, we'll do that for a little while So i'm fine with this One is as I said last night and it's something I think Uh, we're the midst of preparing something today that goes out. No drive-by communion. Just no, right? And if you for that Just blame it all on me. Okay. Thank you for that. You know, I mean I well don't blame me. Just say our bishop been very clear in terms of how he understands the order and he's doing that He wants to make sure that we don't infect anybody and we don't we don't know that that's a given but I gotta tell you No to drive-by Thank you for that So, uh, I mean when I go get groceries that I've ordered to pick up. I'm not allowed to get out of the car I'm not I can roll down the window. They stand six feet away. There's no way they can reach with gloves in there They tell me to open the trunk. They put them there and I drive off. So no drive-by communion Thank you Stop mardi gras when we're throwing beads all floats and this is what you sound like to me So in terms of the sacredness of this meal of this holy communion, we're not gonna I Loosen the restrictions about online for eight days palm sunday through east or sunday But then we're gonna go back no online communion. And that's why we did them. I got 50. So no to that I gotta tell you if you get in the parking lot And trying to do that with less than good equipment I don't know that that's gonna work that much and I gotta tell you I I know who methodists are For people to get to a parking lot And think they're gonna stay in their car When their best friend is one row up and not get out to sort of do some talking and hugging is just That's what's gonna happen Let's stay to what we are and I know other people are doing some things I said no to a football stadium yesterday And so it's just easier. We're all gonna do it a lot in fact one group of 10 wanted to get together And and gather in a sanctuary and to be honest, they could have they could have had Social distancing whatever call it, but the problem is is that the capacity for people to violate space I do not want to get permission to so no It's just the easiest way That way we don't have to I don't have a member of who we did who who we say could do why Which is a problem that may seem harsh, but I think we ought to all use the same stuff Okay, chris yost We have a significant family and friends up in washington state and the governor jay insley last week Put out a word the people who are getting antsy. He said all of us know a healthcare professional a nurse a doctor Take their picture print it and put it on your steering wheel and ask yourself the question Is what i'm about to do worth killing this person? And if drive through a communion or i'll drive in whatever is worth killing that person then fine go do it Obviously it's not But that's how desperate they've had to get to convey how critical it is That people stay home you get an offender bender on your way to parking lot church Guess what now the whole healthcare system has had to respond That's how that stuff gets passed. Anyway, that was very stark in our friends when they told us that this a couple days ago They said, you know, have y'all heard this yet and we're like, no, so i'm just passing it on to you all that's how critical it is right now The two things in response first of all I think that uh the article that chris had written about his time on the submarine appeared on the news in the newsletter yesterday Am I correct? Hey, that is a perfect, you know chris. Thank you for sharing that The second thing is is the state of washington is one of the first hit and they're now Getting close to bending the curve and so everybody doing what we're asked to do now I know the governor has sort of given this deal about religious services You know, I've said from the get go that are the way in which we're going to decide about what we do is through The dallas county judge who I think is on top of this and was the first one of the first in the state To sort of start shutting things down and the and the second is is the cdc I my motive is my motive and I think the church's motive is to be as People healthy So they don't suffer And that that's that's my overarching goal It's interesting to me. I just I want to this may sound political to you But people who say they're pro-life. I'm ready for them to prove it That was a prophetic word and pro-life means The health of children The health of seniors the health of healthcare workers We're gonna do all we can to protect them. Okay. Is there another question or anything else? Bishop, I'm wondering if if they can respond to the question. What are they doing to help people be generous? Yeah, I'd like to hear that. What are you doing to help people be generous? I believe that they're not Raise your hand and tell us Okay, Nick I just something that we've done that seemed to be pretty effective is we've Because we've had like a phone app you could use all along But anyway, when we send out our order of worship for a week We just include an email just include a link under the offeratory section to the place to to Where people can give online It seems like a pretty simple little thing, but it has seemed to be very effective and something we had never done before So if I'm watching your worship service, I want to get this straight. I can click on that link and give Yes, but it's Well, yeah We always at the beginning we invite people to check their email and pull up the order of worship Which is uh, which has been emailed to them previously and as they're following along with the liturgy and stuff When we get down to the offeratory section and frank or whoever it is says You know, if you look in your order of on your order of worship You'll see and you'll see the link there you click on it and you can give From that. So that's what we've been doing You know, uh, I've I've known my mother tells about Baptist churches in her childhood Who would lock the doors until they received enough offerings and you could say will continue the worship if all After everybody's given that I don't recommend that but I'm just saying that if there's a link there It makes it so much easier for me to respond though. And that's a good thing. Okay What are some other things that people are doing? It's not directly with worship, but we Had a really good year re-establishing our preschool this year And then having to cut it short. Um, we were very fearful about what that might do to our enrollment and being able to pay For what we needed to for the teachers and our preschool They put together And an online version so all of the teachers are doing Facebook live on a schedule from their homes And the preschool families are loving it. They're very engaged and they're all excited about coming back Um, and I actually I did leave my house yesterday to deliver Curriculum packets to all 50 households From Fort Worth to, uh, Midlothian And that's why I missed the love fees last night, but uh in delivering those with safe distancing I had several families express their gratitude and families ask about our online Easter worship. And so, um, Hopefully we'll We'll get generosity from them and coming back and then being more involved in the congregation. So I'm excited about that Good work, Kim. Thank you. That's great Anyone else? Okay, so, um We're close to 11 30. So what I want to say is is we're also, um Uh Looking at developing a team of people who can be helpful to you. Um It's not a large team But we're we're gonna start making calls about those. I've identified some of them. Say, hey, can you be helpful in terms of just some Coaching and by coaching I mean some content about what to do and those kinds of things who are Well-versed about about issues really the stewardship and giving uh faithful giving. So we're gonna be we'll be we'll be doing that I want you to Put it in that group together. Okay Does anyone else Andy you got Andy? Do you have anything? I would just note several folks are responding to the question about what they're doing in the chat So if you're not monitoring that folks who are apart you might See what people are sharing there as well Saw some of that. Is there a way we can gather that and send them out to who is on this call? Yes, I guess Kimmy if you're the host just be sure to save the chat before You leave the meeting and we can email that to everybody I don't know who the host is Uh We're the host and Tracy Everson can do that for us. I believe so Thank you. Can you do that for us? Yes, sir You Are great. Thank you a lot lots of good ideas on that So we'll get that and we can you save the participants to Tracy is that a possibility? I'll see what I can do to screenshot everybody I don't know Hey, I just changed the screen and there's so many more of you out there than I saw on my screen Each of us could go into the chat and simply cut and paste, you know Highlight all copy and paste it into a word document if you've got a second to do that Okay, okay, we're getting the technical stuff, which is beyond my Capability that's as technical as I get You know what that's a lot more technical than I'm going to get today I want to thank y'all, uh, again, if you have any questions call your district superintendent They know how to reach uh email jody Um And we want to we want to be as helpful as we can and we can't give all the On the ideas and if if there's anything that you think I need some help with this we'll be glad to do that so, um Anything else anybody wants to say anything Also, please use that question button that's on the covet page on ntc umc.org because that's what jody's hoping She can use to find out what questions people have and then post answers for everybody. Thanks debora I'll just add Just from listening to several people giving their own witness That several folks have found that their lay people are a wealth of knowledge Around what to do in some of these times of crisis and that um, remember we're not we're a united methods church So we are uh, we empower the lady. We walk with the lady. They give us um support As well, and they also are very knowledgeable. So to honor them by Being in conversation with them and um letting them know How much you value them? I think is a gift to all of us And so I would just add that to the mix Right And I want to remind you if your church is in financial difficulty. I'm not talking about But financial difficulty would you call your district superintendent or send him or hurl an email Detailing what that difficulty is And as we gather those responses they can be helpful about how we help move through this period of time So I want you to know that I want to thank each one of you for being on the call and it turns out that we had About 50 participants and uh, I'm grateful for each one of you and what you're doing. I don't I have to admit That I I have so much admiration respect for you and I did even before this but It keeps It it has grown significantly and it was it was in pretty good shape beforehand, but thank you for for what you're doing I know this is difficult work, but uh We want to resource you in all the ways that we can Please know that every day that uh when I rise the morning I pray for the clergy in the north texas conference. I do it as a group And uh, I think it's important for you to know that my prayers have changed significantly about what I pray for And one is is I pray that you stay well And you stay well by you know, observing Good boundaries six feet social distance and those kinds of things Uh, and that you wash your hands and that you do everything possible to To take care of yourself or to care for yourself And as well as those around you. So so god bless you on everything you do and uh Um But that I think I'm going to close with a prayer I don't see anything else that we need to do. There's nothing on the chat that I think to respond to at this point Uh, but anyway those we have elicit everything. We'll send that out to you that sometimes say Let's pray Holy god during this time it just seems as if every day's a new day But the new day does not mean there's always Excellent news that we hear but oh god, we know that somehow in the midst of all that you're ever present Let us never forget. Oh god that you continually Inhabit the places where we are that you are already present there Even when we do not sense that or know that Just being with these 50 plus clergy today On a call reminds me about the strength of the church and the gifts and graces you have given to To you know, I'm at this church in the north texas area for that I'm deeply grateful because we got our separate ways and as we do things this day to Further the work that you have called us to do we know again that we go with your guiding spirit Bless each and every one And oh god, we pray for those who are caring for those who are suffering Whether it's the coronavirus or some other Malady at this time because we know that the frontline The people in the most danger right now are those people who are tending the people we know Caring for those who are ill And frankly risking their own lives God, how do we repay that? We pray for them In your name, amen Have a good night. I mean have a good afternoon. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you