Tag: BOP

Community and PCUSA Insurance Changes

This is about the PCUSA insurance changes

Book of Order E-1.0301

The Church is the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world (1 Cor. 12:27–28):

The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.

The Church is to be a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation. This new creation is a new beginning for human life and for all things. The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation.

***

Today the Board of Pensions released its plan to charge churches and pastors insurance according to the cost of plans.

Constitutionally, every installed pastor has to be covered by insurance, but not

retired pastors
uninstalled pastors
pastor’s spouses
pastor’s children
temporary pastors
pastors between calls

so the plan charges $10,000-$20,000 more, unless you are a big steeple church, then you are excused from some of the costs–there is a still a cap on the maximum you have to pay
(because it makes little difference, which is irking in so many ways).

Throughout the listening sessions, BOP exhorted pastors to trust their churches, but the reality is many churches cannot afford to pay more.

And many pastors can afford their call only because of the superior health coverage that is given them.

Many young pastors, especially women (the healthiest quotient) will walk.

I bet many more People of Color..

those who are already discriminated against will be moreso
I attended most of the Town Halls, BOP argued both that discrimination is already happening, and that everything will be ok.

They said that few people will be affected, and that they cannot afford to care for the retirees, the spouses and the children.

But our pensions are fine (I must admit if I hear my so called pension, which I will probably never reach, is fine one more time, I might scream) since I first started ministry, when I could not afford food for my children, or the housing, when I was poverty stricken, and negotiating every cent I made, I was assured over and over again, but my pension is fine. Great, wonderful, what about Maslow’s principles of human needs?

Plus at the moment the retirement medical plan Humana is not accepted at either of our local hospitals, which is pretty ridiculous.

I will admit, as a pastor I cannot understand how we are not rallying for single-payer healthcare. I held so many congregants hands who have told me the health aid didn’t show up. Fielded the phone calls from couples who could not physically take care of one another but could not get in to a nursing home, talked to children who did not know what to do with parents, driven people to doctor’s appointments because they literally had no one else to do it.

How are we not on the frontlines of this?

For our congregations, our part times staffs, and ourselves?

When I assess the BOP, it feels like they are not doing their job
often they admit that they will not do as directed by General Assembly–they do not follow the dictates of the Constitution to live in community even at the risk of themselves.

Even though it is our core belief.

When asked outright if they approached other denominations to team up more closely. (We already cooperate on some level with some denominations.)

They admitted they did not.

When asked if they pursued more creative Co-op options, one that might include congregants (which would take restructuring but would that not be amazing?) or even just to be more creative in our leveraging, one of which my best friend, who is a real estate agent found one and is participating in.

They said they did not.

The sum of their research suggested sharing pulpits–which is a good and sound suggestion; one we have been doing for hundreds of years as a denomination.

When one takes in the exorbitant salaries of the top BOP officials, who participate in our healthcare–capped of course–it calls into question, did they do their jobs?

When small scrappy churches are required to risk everything for Christ and figure out how to creatively survive every year, month and day.

When pastors sacrifice a lot to be in ministry, and yes have the privilege of good healthcare, in this admittedly white collar job.

I predict a lot of young ministers leave ministry as a result, a lot of people with families and children, particularly women (ironically this is the healthiest quotient in insurance: young, women).

Perhaps ministry is changing, perhaps healthcare will no longer be a part of the job, but if that is the case, then equity still needs to be a part of the discussion, because we are a community of Christ first. We are risking all of this because we believe in community, equity and love.

At least that is why I’m doing this church thing.

Maybe we all need to not be installed and start over; even though installation a (I believe) used first to describe pastors wayyy before it was used to describe stoves and video games

However, I think we need to keep working to make things more fair, not less.

I believe in E-1.0301
I am doing my best to live into it. To not accept that “this is the only way” to know that the Kin(g)dom calls us to imagine a better world, and then to live creatively into it.

I will not leave others behind along the way. I will continue to learn about equity, inclusion and love.

I am aware this is not all bad for everyone, however I still feel like there are better ways to do all of this. See also: Who is communicating all of these changes and bearing the brunt of this work in the church community (that feels like a whole different article).

PS the menu option is great, and progress and I like it.

By Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

Dues Package published by the BOP is here

REEEEEEEEEE-form

Alright, after reading a disturbing post about the Board of Pensions (disturbing because not 6months ago the board of pensions came to Albany, NY and personally guaranteed us our pensions were fine) I am beginning to understand the rising healthcare cost for pastors with children (from %35 to %65). Seeing as I have three Preschoolers–this is a worry (read more about this http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2012-11/changes-pcusa-dues-structurenbsp)

Then there is the whole CIF/PIF thing, I recently came from a discussion where a church bypassed the formal process and are looking to hire a Baptist minister who holds some ministerial exp and an Associates degree…

Then there’s Sandy (enough said)

And a relative of one of my Pakistani congregants just learned her missional job is going to be cut off and she is going to be sent back to Pakistan, oh and by the way she’s a Christian Minister so guess what there is a death threat against her! The following pretty much sums up her statusImage

Can I just let out a general ARGH?

Here’s what I think

1. Restart, Rethink, Reform

We as a church are failing to reform fast enough. We are failing to connect to my generation, and we are failing to help those who need it

Here’s what we should do

a. Help students with their Loans: the pastors, the congregants, the children of members, complete strangers. If Jesus preaches FORGIVENESS of DEBTS (yes, I went all caps on you) we need to do it.

b. Educate, Educate, Educate: If our way of doing theology (in the Presbyterian and most Protestant churches) then College loans are not only up our alley, but education is too. How can we do more? What classes can we offer the community? What knowledge do we have that we can share? And we should be doing it for free (Take that for ministry)

c. CIF and PIFs are TOO SLOW. They suck the life out of the Pastor Nominating Committee–they are great visioning process but they are a lot of work, annoying and the potential pastor is stuck in a passive role (the pastor gets to be the girl HOPING the boy will as her out to the dance, very empowering for the congregation, not great shakes for the pastor). Plus this is not the only church who tried to skip the process, mine did right before me, and I bet every Presbytery has a recent case of this (let me know if you have) this is a symptom of the problem.

d. Co-Pastor all the way. Jesus sent out all of his ministers in pairs, and yet we have this weird-thing-we-call-normal the solo pastorate. Here’s the deal. Give both pastor’s 20hrs (assuming its a fulltime positiong) give both pastors healthcare coverage (yes, I know its a cost, but we should be creative and find ways to do it) and relieve the burden and loneliness of pastors. Plus we cut our unemployed number in half—I think there are something like 300 jobs for the 1000 pastors in search of a position. Not cool.

e. Plant, develop, etc. Ok so 10,001 worship communities was launched but the website has ALMOST NOTHING ON IT (Sorry this seems to be another Cap-worthy remark). What are we doing about that? Do people outside GA know about this? How about people outside the Presbyterian church? Are there grants? THis seems to be a potential risk-taking and exciting venture with almost nothing behind it. (Who is the point person for this anyway?)

f. Be Kid-Friendly for reals. Where are the children in all of this? Do you relegate them to the youth group, do they leave service, are they cutely put up in the beginning of service? We need children, but we need them to propagate what we have. What do children today need? How can we serve that? How can we value children for who they are now instead of who they will become (ps most of this is from the Christian Ed dept at PTS ie Osmer, Dean, Cady and Douglass).

g. Screw pensions. Ok, not for those who have been planning for them and are over the age of 40, but if they aren’t working maybe we should (and I mean we as the United States and the PCUSA as well) own up to the fact that they aren’t going to work anymore instead of cutting healthcare to promise money that we can no longer promise. If my choice is healthcare for my 3 boys now or pensions later, I’m choosing now, because I have got to take care of my children first. Pensions are secondary.

OR screw healthcare–maybe Obamacare is the way to go, I’m not sure, but we need to respond to somethings

h. and as for Sandy and Pakistan, here are all of these very personal/internal things I have to deal with and there are the two clear missional things that I should be dealing with, and I barely have the time and energy to keep up with my life, my revolving door, my neverending debt, my generational difference with 90% of PCUSA and the mainline church in general to do the work that comes at these very important times of crises.

We need to Reform. I was hoping GA would talk about the young, homosexuality, pensions, hiring rates, CIFs and PIFs, children and the church, social media etc. in some way that felt like a forward motion–I am still unsure as to whether or not any progress was actually made

The call is out there, the new generation is working hard–help us along…( for more info on the generational divide read here.)

please