Active clergy– register for “Delivered to You,” which will take place November 8 and 9, 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., Central time. This dynamic virtual event will focus on the five dimensions of wellness (spiritual, physical, emotional, financial and social) with informative units on clergy taxes, navigating the world of healthcare, Wespath retirement plans, the results of the Clergy Well-Being Survey, and much, much more! Click here to learn more. CEUs are available!
Wellness
Educational Resources for Christians on the COVID-19 Vaccine
Churches have an important role to play in ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Pastors can share accurate health and theological information that can help their congregants make informed decisions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
It is helpful to understand the specific concerns of your congregation and not the ones you hear about on the news or social media. This article on Rural Churches and COVID Vaccinations lists some of the questions they hear in rural areas and provides a link to the National Rural Health Association’s COVID vaccine toolkit.
This article from the NC Rural Center encourages The Church’s Prophetic Call to be used to address vaccine hesitancy. It points to the story of Naaman in the Bible and to a recent study that discovered that “one-third of the Protestant Christians who are very worried about the safety of the vaccine said they would be more likely to get the vaccine if their church encouraged them.”
Or maybe you would like to share this article from United Methodist Pastor Chris Yost who volunteered to pray with staff and patients at the COVID unit in his local hospital.
The UMC Connectional Table has named COVID-19 vaccination as a “missional priority.” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper just released a letter to faith leaders directing three steps to help end the pandemic. Use the resources below as you follow these steps and help to save lives.
Mobilize Vaccine Turnout Handbook
United Methodist Pastor Dana Horrell, Ph.D. has published a very informative and useful PDF handbook that you can download for free. Mobilize Vaccine Turnout includes lots of resources to aid pastors in getting their congregations’ vaccinated. It also includes detailed instructions on having conversations about the vaccine, how to hold surveys and focus groups, as well as success stories to keep you motivated.
Rev. Dr. Horrell is also available for webinars on vaccine access or hesitancy. There is much more information in the handbook. Read more about the handbook and its author in this article from United Methodist News.
Christians and the Vaccine
A free online resource, Christians and the Vaccine, is an excellent tool to share with your congregation that addresses concerns about the vaccine held by many Christians. You can share these videos on your church website, social media, in small groups, or from the pulpit. Consider inviting a local expert to share about COVID-19 in your community and offering a vaccine clinic.
At the website for Christians and the Vaccine, you will find many more video and text resources including a pastor’s toolkit. The videos on the site address questions such as:
- Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe?
- Is the COVID vaccine a form of government control?
- Is the COVID vaccine the “mark of the beast”?
- Should pro-lifers be pro-vaccine?
- Can Black Americans trust the COVID vaccine?
- And more
The website also includes video conversations with prominent Christian figures such as:
- Bishop Scott Jones of The United Methodist Church
- Dr. Robert Jeffress, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, TX
- Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health
- Rich Stearns, President Emeritus of World Vision
- And others
You will also find a FAQ section that provides short answers to common questions such as:
- Does taking the vaccine support abortion?
- Does trusting the vaccine mean distrusting God?
- What does Christianity have to do with the vaccine?
- Should I be concerned about long term side effects?
- How were the COVID vaccines made so quickly? Were corners cut?
- How were the vaccines tested for safety?
- And more
Who is behind Christians and the Vaccine?
From the website: Christians & the Vaccine is a project of Redeeming Babel in partnership with the National Association of Evangelicals, COVID Collaborative, the Ad Council, Values Partnerships and Public Square Strategies. Our goal is to equip pastors and Christian leaders to help others apply biblical principles to this topic. Based on these principles, we encourage Christians to take the vaccine.
The founder of Redeeming Babel and featured speaker of many of these videos is Curtis Chang. As a theologian, Curtis is on the consulting faculty of the Duke Divinity School and is a Senior Fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary. His ministry experience includes serving as a senior pastor of an Evangelical Covenant Church in California. He also has been a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and has done mission work in Soweto, South Africa. Curtis graduated from Harvard University and is a former Rockefeller Fellow.
Meharry Medical College Answers Vaccine Questions
Meharry Medical College is a historically Black medical school supported by the Black College Fund of The United Methodist Church. The school’s president and CEO, Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, answers questions about the vaccine in a number of videos on their website. This article by the United Methodist News Service explains that Dr. Hildreth “has been involved with COVID-19 vaccine development from the beginning. He serves on the Food and Drug Administration committee that reviews vaccines and recommends approval, and led several vaccine trials at Meharry. In February, he was named to the White House COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.” The videos on Meharry’s website cover topics such as:
- Transmission & masks
- Vaccine risks & trials
- Race, COVID-19 & vaccines
- Vaccine alternatives
- Lingering effects of the disease
- Mixed messages in the news
- And more
In this short video for spiritual leaders, Dr. Hildreth says “People are not going to take the vaccinations unless they hear from people they trust that they should do so.” He encourages spiritual leaders to educate themselves so that they can be comfortable recommending the vaccine.
Lumbee Pastors Recommend the Vaccine
The Lumbee Tribe has put out a video that features Lumbee pastors saying that they received the COVID vaccine and encouraging others to do so as well. They all say together, “This shot is your shield.” The video features several pastors in the NC Conference of The United Methodist Church.
On the Lumbee Tribe YouTube channel, you can find several more videos featuring Lumbee doctors and others encouraging their community to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
NC Conference Coronavirus Page
Remember that the NC Conference keeps a Coronavirus information page up-to-date with guidance for churches. It also includes links to information from health authorities on the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine.
Featured image by Maksim Goncharenok from Pexels
An Encouragement for September
The Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with COSROW, is pleased to lift up the voices of women in ministry encouraging fellow women in ministry. Please enjoy this month’s Encouragement from Dr. Christine Harman, Director of Christian Formation for the North Carolina Conference of the UMC, and feel free to forward it to a friend. Anyone can sign up to receive these monthly emails here.
For several of my childhood years, we had the habit of spending Labor Day underground. School would start the next day and this was the last opportunity for a summer activity. One year, as we were in the middle of a four-hour tour through Mammoth Cave, the guide told us to stop for a break and sit on some large boulders along the trail. Everyone in the group was most grateful and told him so. “Oh no, this isn’t a reward for what you just came through. This rest is to prepare you for what’s ahead.”
So many times in ministry the challenges seem endless. They range from small and ongoing to tsunamis. And even when they seem to ease up a bit, we know they will resume. Breaks feel like a chance to rest, yet all too often that break is not a reward but a time of preparation. The question may be how we avoid giving up.
Perhaps it is in those moments that we need to call on our ‘balcony people,’ those persons who cheer us on, offer encouragement and support. Their gift of exhortation can offer a boost far greater than any energy drink. It can help us find, and keep, the perspective we need to deal with the ups and downs of ministry.
Read Galatians 6:9:
Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up.
Reflect: Who are your ‘balcony people’? Who are those individuals whose words offer support and the encouragement that helps you minister in these up and down times?
Take Action: Identify some of your ‘balcony people’ and reach out to them. Also, think about other persons for whom you are one of their ‘balcony people’ and check in to see how that person is doing.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
“Delivered to You” For Active Clergy Coming in November
Due to ongoing COVID-19 developments and in the spirit of Wespath’s commitment to caring for those who serve, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2021 in-person revItup! and Clergy Benefits Academy events. Instead, in November we will once again host “Delivered to You,” an online event open to all active UMC clergy members. This news was communicated in the Wespath Update sent out August 11 and 12. More information about dates, times, cost and registration is available at https://www.wespath.org/events. We look forward to the day when we can meet safely in person; for now, we anticipate a lively, informative online event in November with “Delivered to You!”
An Encouragement for February
“How are you?” I recently asked a church member.
“I’m stuck in a house with 2 teen boys and a husband!” she said. “You know what I realize? I miss missing them.”
I hope Hallmark is tracking with her! “I miss missing you” is a great pandemic word this Valentine’s Day. There is just no easy way to be this close for this long to other humans.
The same might even be true for beloved pets. Our dog now spends part of her day in the back of my closet! I’m convinced it’s her attempt to miss us.
For others of us, these words reflect a longing, in this season of isolation, for another human in the home—someone sitting at the table, a hand to hold, arms to hug. For you, it’s the missing that hurts.
Whether we are missing others or miss missing others, a pandemic Valentine’s is an opportunity to name what love looks like this year.
Read Mark 1:29-39:
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Reflect: In last Sunday’s gospel lesson, Simon’s mother-in-law is healed by Jesus to serve. The verb “to serve” is the same one Jesus uses to describe the essence of his ministry. In other words, the woman is not healed so Jesus has someone to cook him dinner! She’s healed and becomes the first person in Mark’s gospel to follow Jesus. Jesus describes this call, in Mark 12, as one that begins in love of God then love of self so to love others.
Take Action: What does it look like this Valentine’s to love God and yourself, so to love others?
I don’t have your answer. There are days I don’t even have my answer. But, as I reflect on 2020, I give thanks for some of the ways I’ve found to love God, myself, and others:
- Marriage Counseling. We began this year. A friend asked how we’ve made it this long without it! Our conference provides financial assistance.
- “Pastor, who is your pastor?” My spiritual director is an important part of my self-love.
- Do you miss missing them? Run away for a day. $35/night to stay in one of our pastor’s cabins.
- Do you miss others? Prayer texting, pet fostering, and walks with friends are ways I’ve watched others love themselves.
“Jesus lifted her up…and she began to serve.” May you likewise find ways to be lifted up in love this Valentine’s as you serve (love) God and self so to serve others.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Heather Rodrigues, Lead Pastor at Duke Memorial UMC, for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.
Amazing Pace 4th Quarter 2020 Rewards
Thank you to everyone who finished strong in 2020–ACH rewards are on the way. Amazing Pace 4th quarter rewards should be in participants’ accounts by Wednesday, February 3rd. Check rewards are also in processing and will begin to be delivered the week of February 8th. Keep walking with us through the first quarter of 2021!