October 1, 2012 Watauga Missional Network Meeting Notes

October 1, 2013 First meeting of laity of Watauga Missional Network

Location: Faithbridge UMC, 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Rev. Evelyn Lemons, Watagua Missional Network Leader, presiding.

Agenda:

1. Rev. Ben Carson, host pastor, to lead in welcome and prayer.

2. Rev. Lemons, Summary of the first year’s work in a nutshell.

3. Dr. David Fonseca, Superintendent of Watauga County schools to speak.

4. Christy Welch from Mabel School to speak on upcoming poverty training.

5. Hear from the churches on what we are already doing in the schools in our community and new ideas for the coming year.

Pat from Mabel UMC and Hinson Chapel UMC to speak.

6. Attached is one example of a brand new effort at Deerfield UMC to start a volunteer effort at Parkway school. We are starting small. You can too.

7. Close with prayer.

Item 2. On Agenda:

Summary of first year’s work in a nutshell:

Watauga Missional Network:  Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall of 2012 when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community.

After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last.

 We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools. These conversations are already under way between the churches and principals. We are coming to the schools to serve.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for startup money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible. Christy Welch from Mabel Elementary is our contact person for this. Her contact number at Mabel School is 297-2512.

Important dates to come:

1.  We are looking at the dates of November 20 and 21 as possible dates for the poverty training. We will confirm these dates and get the training information to each church. Our target audience is the teachers, but we want to ask the churches to attend where they can and to assist with either snacks or a meal, depending on the location and time of day. Training teachers and church leaders together is a place to make significant connections to people working with children in poverty daily.

2.  Next meeting of the laity for the Watauga Missional Network that has been called by our DS for Sun. Nov. 24 at Boone UMC at 3pm.

Purpose of our meeting tonight as the laity of the Watauga Missional Network:

Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people. The pastors will continue to meet regularly as well.

More information to come to be posted on blog:

www.liftupyourheartsblog.blogspot.com

By: Rev. Evelyn Lemons

Watauga Missional Network Leader, Deerfield UMC, Pastor

Contact information: evelyn.lemons@gmail.com

One example of a church partnering with Parkway as we begin:

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary.  A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in October with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway and the first grade teachers, then the next month, we will be appreciating the second grade teachers, etc.  We were not able to get started on this in September, so we are going to double up in October, then take one grade per month.

Pastor Evelyn is working on the volunteer schedules to turn in to Principal Costin regarding who can volunteer when.  We will need some volunteers from church members to drive students from ASU to Parkway to volunteer and take them back to campus. Right now, we have at least two volunteers who have a significant  block of time to give that do not have rides.

Pastor Evelyn and Angel Teague are signed up to volunteer on Tuesday mornings from 9:25am to 11:10am weekly. We started this work three weeks ago and it is going great. We are working with students individually giving specific help on reading. The school has provided training on exactly what they want us to do with the child we are helping. It has been so much fun!!

Trail Ministry and Deerfield UMC to Partner with Parkway Elementary

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary. We are asking anyone who wants to volunteer to see Pastor Evelyn to get a volunteer application filled out and bring it back to her. They will be turned into the Central Office for a background check. A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in September with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway, then the next month, we will be appreciating the first grade teachers, etc. There is a meeting coming up on Oct. 1 for anyone who wants to support our partnership with Parkway school at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock at 6:30 that evening. For Trail participants, this would require a sacrifice of your regular meal and group time for this one organizational meeting. Please contact Pastor Evelyn if you want to work in some way to support the ministry of partnering with Parkway School.

Watauga Missional Network- Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community. After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last. We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for start up money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible.
Please make a note of the date of October 1. We are going to have our first meeting for pastors and lay people who are interested in working in the school in their community. The meeting is going to be hosted at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Child care is going to be provided. Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. Dr. Fonseca may be there to do this part, or a representative from his staff.  Please come to the meeting on October 1 if you have a passion for connecting with the school in your community and want to learn what other churches are doing, hear from the schools, and try to make our work as efffective as possible. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people.
    For the poverty training piece that will be coming up soon, we have been in contact with Susan Pennock who is a trainer with communities in schools and does poverty training to mark some dates on her calendar. As soon as we get those cleared we will publish those dates and the location of the training.

Getting ready for new mission project

The Watauga Missional Network did meet last week and we are continuing to narrow our focus on the one great big umbrella of an idea to use to draw the United Methodist Churches in our community together in purpose. I am seeing a common thread of interest in leaning towards looking for ways to serve the schools in our community, but I am also listening with open ears to all kinds of possibilities our new Missional Network may work together to meet the unmet needs in our community in the name of Christ. It is awesome to have so many young pastors serving in this community who have great ideas for missional possibilities. When we first started going out into the community to ask about the needs in our community, on my second stop which was the Hospitality House, I found a huge unmet need right then. The director said, "We need a 12 Step Recovery program going on under our roof right now. It is our number one need." I thought I was just going to collect information to share with my church and the Missional Network. The Lord had something different in mind. After wrestling whether or not it was my assignment from the Lord to lead this group to address this need, the Lord moved me forward with a green light. We have been meeting now for about 13 weeks and what a huge blessing it has been to lead a recovery ministry at the Hospitality House. I am finding healing for broken places in my life, that I had not anticipated. I headed into this ministry to serve, and I am finding out that the Lord intends for me to receive the blessing of healing at the same time.
   So for all the other pastors who are working towards trying to nail down our focus for the Missional Network, I hope you get snagged by the Holy Spirit too in some huge, life changing way, as we press towards a common goal in missions. It may not be what you had in mind, but I know God already has something in mind for each of us to lead. It is a matter of knowing what that is, and saying yes to the right thing at the right time. I hope for you the same. Get snagged by the Holy Spirit while you are on your way to the mission field. I can't wait to hear what happens next.

Watauga Missional Network for 2-13-13

The Watauga Missional Network will meet at Deerfield UMC again this coming Wed. Feb 13th at 10am. Coffee will be ready at 9:30am for anyone that would like to come a few minutes early for a few minutes of fellowship time before the meeting.
In meeting with our DS Lory Beth Huffman this fall regarding the direction of the work of the mission networks, there is one primary question before our group of pastors to adddress:

  "What is the greatest need you see in your community that you think the church can meet?  Focus. Focus. Focus. Look for deep, high impact in one area."

These are our very specific instructions from Lory Beth.

The Watauga Missional Network met for the first time on Jan. 23, 2013.
As you would guess, there are a multitude of missional needs in our community. We discussed in depth several of the missional needs of our community. We were not able to decide in our first meeting on what would be our primary mission. We decided that we needed time to learn more, ask more questions, think, pray and process and come back to the table at our next meeting ready to address the question again.
One question that came to the table for the leaders to consider is, "What areas of service, from each flock that we represent around the table, are our people willing to serve?
Boone UMC had recently done a missions survey. They made this survey available to us. So at Deerfield, over the last two Sundays, we have passed out the surveys and taken them up during worship to get a better feel for the pulse of the people in where they want to plug in in missions. Just from scanning over the surveys, the results were very much a reflection of being all over the board just like the first time our pastors met with about 10 different areas that are worthy areas of mission being represented in the flock I serve. There was not one place that really stood out above all the others that had much concentration of interest. I have explained to the congregation the work that the Watauga Missional Network is doing and that their answers were important in helping us focus on our coming area of concentration of mission. I am prepared to turn over these surveys to Luke Edwards on Wednesday to begin to crunch numbers and enter data.  Luke has an ASU connection to help put the data into a format that will be helpful to us.

Here are some ideas for this coming Wednesday morning. Our meeting time is at 10am and we will need to break at 11:30am at the latest because our first community Lenten Luncheon will be meeting at noon at Grace Lutheran Church.

One item for reflection before the meeting on Wed. am. Rev. Adam Hamilton gave the sermon for the President's prayer breakfast in January after the inauguration. I have put a link to that sermon which is about a 16 minute clip on my webpage at: www.faithliftingstories.com.  Go to the page that says Watauga Missional Network. Please plow through the politics and and preview this clip before our meeting together on Wed. The reason for that is what this United Methodist Church is doing in their community. He gives some specific examples of the ways they reach out to their community through their schools. The topic is very much in line with what we have already brought to the table for our own community.

Agenda for Wed.
1. Share prayer needs and open with prayer.
2. Review our discussion from the last meeting. I will be prepared to give about a 2 minute summary of our discussion from the last meeting.
3. Give pastors a chance to report on what happened with doing the survey in their church. Has this happened yet? What have we learned so far?
4.  It was proposed at the last meeting to set some short term goals and then look for long term goals. Our first short term goal was to try to collect more information on the heart beat of each congregation and their passion for mission. We did not get as far as being able to set a long term goal at the last meeting.
In doing my doctoral work right now in Educational Leadership, I am personally focused on thinking about how the church can meet the unmet needs of our local schools. That is my area of interest where I plan to pursue doing my dissertation. I say this to let you know I am thinking about what our church could be doing in our local schools every day.
What I found in doing the survey is that most of the people who filled out a survey are interested in missions but their interest was in a great variety of areas.  The challenge before our team of pastors who make up the Watauga Missional Network is to narrow our focus and then lead.
In listening to the conversation around the table at the last meeting I do think our network will be able to have a primary goal. I want to commend our group for having 100 percent attendance from each church represented. I also was surprised at the variety of gifts that each church brings to the table. I think about this everyday because this is where my heart is in ministry right now. Here is a possibility, you know, thinking out loud.
Primary Goal: To find a school in our community to serve to meet their unmet needs.
Theology: Our purpose is to be the hands and feet of Christ in our community and to look for ways to make a difference in his name. In making disciples for Jesus Christ in our local church, we look for ways to help them serve and meet the needs around us. Our job as leaders is to help our flock plug in to an identified need.
Approach to the school:  We will have to understand that the law does provide boundaries between the church and the state that we will have to follow. Even though in our heart we very much want each person to come to faith in Jesus Christ, if we partner with a school, we will not be able to be an evangelist while we are in the role of being a school  volunteer. If we approach the school from the perspective of we are here to serve you, and ask what are your most pressing needs that will make the biggest difference, each school principal would be able to answer that question.  They will have to be sure our agenda is to serve or we will burn the bridge before we ever get started. We also need to be straight that our agenda is to serve.

If we choose the umbrella of serving a local school, there are many areas of ministry that could fall under that umbrella.
For example: If you have people in your church who have a strong area of interest in dealing with hunger issues, our local school is the front line for being able to identify families who have the greatest need. We could plug people into a very specific need, like: what happens to families during the summer who usually get a backpack of snacks at the end of the week?
We had some folks at the table who had a surplus of fresh food that they grew during the summer last year. Could we figure out how to make a connection between the families that have great need, and the people who have community gardens or fresh produce in the summer with the help of the local school? Keeping confidentiality is required by federal law when it comes to the students information, which puts the church at a place of asking the school to identify where is the need, and  then asking the church to supply the food need. We would have to partner with the school in such a way that the school maintains confidentiality of the students who would receive the food.

That is just one example, building on our conversation at the last meeting of how we can move forward in one direction, but still use a variety of people and their gifts to meet specific needs.

If we do make a decision to partner with a local school, it puts the emphasis of the Watauga Missional Network, to then take this goal back to our church, and work to bring leaders in from the church to lead in the goal.

I have published these notes in the format of my blog so you can read ahead, follow the link that I have listed ahead, and also have the chance to invite key leaders from your church to think ahead, pray ahead, and be involved in this process from the ground up. You are invited to post comments at the end of this article. The blog puts our mission in a format that people in the church or ministry we serve can see and comment.
I look forward to meeting with you on Wednesday morning. I will have the coffee hot at 9:30am. This meeting is for the pastors of the Watauga Missional Network.  Rev. Evelyn Lemons