High Priests: Ministers of Vision Pre-ordination Temple School Course 2014 2015 Pilot Experience Summary The new high priest preordination course was developed during the Temple School Writers Summit at the Temple in February 2014. In a week, participants decided on the course outline and wrote initial drafts of each lesson. The experienced team of high priests consisted of Steven Shields, Barbara Borkowski, Gwen Hawks-Blue, Stassi Cramm, and Jane Gardner. This team collaborated to review and improve each lesson. At the end of the summit, work continued electronically. The counselors to the High Priest Quorum president were asked to be new eyes and review the material. David Waring and Matt Frizzell offered invaluable suggestions that further improved the course. Then Jane Gardner, quorum president, edited the lessons, pulling together all the feedback and creating a pilot version of the course. The lessons were developed to be holistic, involving different styles of learning, addressing multiple forms, and including activities that explore the material. Each lesson focuses on what the participants need to know to become high priests, how they are to be high priests, and what they are to do as high priests. Throughout the course, participants journal and develop a ministry plan for the next year. The new course was piloted from June 2014 through March 2015. More than 175 students participated. Pilot experiences were structured in three ways: 1) over a weekend; 2) once a week for a month; and 3) independent, directed study. The expectation of all participants was to study the material before attending the pilot course. Of the seven course locations, one weekend pilot was a virtual experience shown from the Temple to seven sites using WebEx. Students at the remote sites watched and listened to instructors present material. They then worked in local small groups for activities and reflections. The instructors polled the remote sites, giving each group a chance to share thoughts and responses with the other sites. CHRIST S MISSION, OUR MISSION
H I G H P R I E S T S N E W S L E T T E R While there were some technical difficulties, generally the online course succeeded. Several students said that gathering elsewhere would not have been possible based on their schedules and work. The online option provided interaction with instructors who wrote the pilot material and let them hear from groups in diverse locations. The participant evaluations indicated a high level of support for the course and the material. An average of 94 percent of the participants rated the lessons as good or excellent. Among positive comments from participants: I really like the new format taking time to worship. I have a much better understanding of who and what a high priest is. It is not so much what I learned in this course; rather, it is causing me to rethink and reflect on how to expand my ministry. I appreciate being reminded what I signed on for I was revived and allowed to realign my focus. I feel so motivated to embark on spiritual practices. I have a greater understanding of collaborative leadership. I have a new sense of calling. The section on sacraments gave me new ideas and insights into worship. I understand the purpose behind an annual ministry plan now. I like the format direct, easy-to-read, good reference material and loved the links to Community of Christ Sings. Great content. Really liked the flow of each session. The organization made good sense. Each lesson was a spiritual experience. Suggestions included: It doesn t work well in a weekend. Need more time. Provide more suggestions about how to function in the high priest role when the congregation is very small. Add a title to each lesson. Would like to have PowerPoint slides coordinated with the material. Needed more time to cover the material and talk about it. Add information on the official policies pertaining to the sacraments. Need more about generosity in the course. Include the Church Administrator s Handbook in the section on representing the church. Best done in a group setting. Discussion is critical to going deeper into the material. Need more on mentoring/peer mentoring. Would be better to take one lesson a week. Expand the diversity material. As hoped for, the feedback during the pilot phase led to improvement. Major updates included: Adding functional titles to each lesson. Realigning the content so that engage and respond material for each subject falls within the same section. Expanding the material on mentoring. Adding a section on generosity as a spiritual discipline. Enriching the material on diversity. 2
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Previous page: The Michigan USA Mission Center held the High Priest Pilot Course on January 9-10, 2015. This page: The High Priest Pilot Course took place in September 2014 at the Temple in Independence, Missouri. Including a link and reference to the. Revising and improving the material on collaboration. Also, all the web links in the course were updated to coincide with the church s new website. The High Priest Annual Plan for Ministry form was redesigned to be in sync with this new course. Based on feedback from participants and facilitators, the optimal offering of the course is in a group setting, covering one lesson a session (two hours). At one lesson a week, the course takes eight weeks to complete. Many pilot participants indicated that while eight weeks would be ideal, it wouldn t be logistically possible to gather every week. Alternatives included: Covering two lessons a week (in three hours), thus reducing the course to four weeks. Using two Saturdays (four lessons each day, 14 hours total) to cover the course. Participants thought there could be a month or more between these two dates, allowing time for thinking and processing material. Holding a weekly online class for eight weeks. All of these were seen as improvements over trying to cover the course in a weekend. The WebEx pilot participants specifically noted that, though they experienced some technical difficulty, the virtual class still was preferable to trying to offer the class locally (especially during the winter). Other suggestions: Make local processing and online feedback a standard part of each lesson. Develop a consistent process for polling and responding. Place discussion questions or activity directions on slides that could be viewed at each site. Set a minimal technical configuration that each remote site must meet and test. Prerecord the lecture material, using World Church leaders. Participants and facilitators of the independentstudy pilot courses unanimously agreed that taking the course as an independent with directed study was not preferred. While the facilitators tried to interact regularly with students, the lack of group interactions and faceto-face facilitation were difficult and did not provide the best experience. Based on all experiences and feedback during the pilot, Jane Gardner updated the course. Cathi Cackler-Veazey contributed additional writing on mentoring and diversity. The original writing team reviewed the edited course and made invaluable suggestions. The completed course was submitted to Communications and Translations in April 2015. The course s anticipated release date is World Conference in June 2016. 3
H I G H P R I E S T S N E W S L E T T E R Two Improved Tools By Jane M. Gardner, Quorum of High Priests president At the conclusion of the pilot offerings of the new preordination course for high priests (see page 1 3), the annual plan for ministry was updated to track with the course contents. Each lesson of the course suggests possible ministry goals. Participants in the new course will have a draft of their own ministry plans at the end of the eight lessons. The new plan, included in this newsletter (pages 5 6), also is available on the church s website at www. CofChrist.org/common/cms/resources/Documents /priesthood/high-priest-ministry-plan.pdf. High priests are encouraged to work with their mission center and congregational leadership to develop a plan for ministry each year. The second tool is a redesign of the graphic, Areas of Emphasis for Ministers of Vision. Since 1999 these areas had been represented in a wedge divided into puzzle pieces. The new graphic includes updated language and associates a color with each area of emphasis. It also uses a fluid, circular design to better communicate the interconnectedness of all areas. This new graphic element has been incorporated into the High Priest Annual Plan for Ministry, referenced above (see page 5). 4
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Bread for the World 2015 Hunger Report By Alex Kahtava, World Hunger-Tangible Love Team The Bread for the World Institute recently published its 2015 Hunger Report with a focus of When Women Flourish We Can End Hunger. As the recipient of the 2014 Community of Christ International Peace Award, Bread for the World continues to be in the forefront of helping fill bellies in the USA and throughout the world. Community of Christ, through the World Hunger-Tangible Love Team, provides an annual grant to Bread for the World. This includes financial aid to publish the annual Hunger Report. The report lists us as one of the partners. This year s report includes a Religious Leaders Statement. It stresses that women disproportionately suffer from hunger and poverty. Among the signatories is President Stephen M. Veazey. To see the full report, visit www.bread.org. Then click on Institute Notes. Any or all of it, including a Christian Study Guide, can be downloaded. Many additional resources on the website can help congregations and individuals in this important work toward abolishing poverty and ending needless suffering. 7 All above photos, courtesy of Bread for the World
H I G H P R I E S T S N E W S L E T T E R Generosity as a Spiritual Discipline High Priest Pilot Your Response Has Been Amazing! Impact on Giving One way we are tracking the impact of the High Priest Generosity as a Spiritual Discipline pilot study is measuring support of worldwide mission tithes. We are excited to share with you the results from the first six months of 2015. The generous response from high priests has been extraordinary. To date, the increase in giving from 2014 to 2015 has been 19.3 percent. That is just over 10 percent more than the positive growth in contributions we are seeing from the church as a whole. $600,000 $500,000 $400,000 $300,000 $200,000 $100,000 $0 Known Participation 16.9% increase 2014 Jan Jun 2015 Jan Jun Unknown Participation All High Priests $380,000 $370,000 9.5% increase $2,000,000 19.3% increase $360,000 $1,500,000 $350,000 $1,000,000 $340,000 $500,000 $330,000 $0 2014 Jan Jun 2015 Jan Jun $320,000 2014 Jan Jun 2015 Jan Jun We are hopeful and encouraged that this amazing response will be sustained, enabling the church to grow mission beyond the current basic level of ministry resulting from budget management steps. Pilot Study Participation In addition we have noted what appears to be a direct impact on giving resulting from participation in the 16-day Generosity as a Spiritual Discipline journey. There is more than a 6-percent difference in contributions from those who participated in some way and those who did not. Thank you for your amazing response in the first six months of 2015. We look forward to continuing to update you on the impact of this pilot study and to letting you know about other ways you can engage with church leaders in sharing the generosity message. High Priest Pilot Team Mark Euritt Jane Gardner Phyllis Gregg Wim van Klinken 8
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Recent Ordinations April 1, 2015, to present Name Office Country Joel Trinkle Cindy Campbell Betty Nipper Paul Norton Debbie Phillips Carol Ann Reiff Laurie Heintz Bishop Evangelist Evangelist Evangelist Evangelist Evangelist High Priest USA USA USA England USA USA USA Can you imagine an international reunion? Worship, learning, games, and fellowship all wrapped around World Conference. Mark your calendar for June 4 11, 2016, and plan to be in Independence, Missouri. 9
H I G H P R I E S T S N E W S L E T T E R Témoignage de ma pratique spirituelle Par Mathilde Chanteau, Punaauia, Tahiti Mettre en pratique notre pratique spirituelle sur la générosité de Dieu n a pas été chose facile! Effectivement, notre pratique se déroulait durant la semaine de travail et d école pour mes enfants. Je la faisais donc tard le soir entre 22h et minuit car c est un créneau où je trouvais le silence dont j avais besoin pour voyager et rencontrer Dieu. Tout autour de moi était au repos. Je tiens à cette occasion à remercier notre Apôtre Pou Marama, Mareva ARNAUD-TCHONG de nous avoir permis d évaluer notre générosité à travers l AMOUR INTARISSABLE de Dieu en traduisant le contenu de l anglais en français. 10 Punaauia, Le 18 février 15 Ce ne fut pas un voyage simple mais combien était-il remplit de l Esprit-Saint qui nous rappelle qu il est de notre responsabilité d être UN DISCIPLE GENEREUX ET RESPONSABLE! A travers les 16 jours de pratique spirituelle, j ai revu mon enfance, mon adolescence et aujourd hui j ai fait un bilan de ma vie en tant que membre de notre Eglise et surtout en tant qu enfant bien-aimé de celui que nous invoquons tous les jours de nos vies! Chaque thème journalier me faisait réagir de différentes manières. Cela pouvait être des moments de pleurs, de tristesses, de joies et de bénédictions! Dès mon plus jeune âge, j ai vu mes parents donné de leurs temps, de leurs talents et surtout de leur réponse généreuse dans notre Eglise. Ils sont et seront toujours mon exemple! J ai suivi et je suivrai toujours leur exemple mais je sais surtout que plus que jamais j ai plus d efforts à fournir afin de répondre à nos initiatives de mission! Dieu m a bénit à travers cette expérience! Je le remercie pour cela! Puissions-nous, nous rappeler que de notre dîme dépend notre bénédiction et celle de nos frères et sœurs en Christ! Amen, Votre sœur en Christ, Mathilde CHANTEAU
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Blessings By Mathilde Chanteau, Punaauia, Tahiti Punaauia February 18th, 2015 The generosity of God as a spiritual discipline was not easy to put into practice. Indeed, the only time available for this experience was late at night between 10 o clock and midnight. That is when I could find the silence needed to journey and meet with God. Everything around me was still. I wish to thank Apostle Mareva M. Arnaud Tchong for allowing us to evaluate our generosity through the boundless love of God by translating the content from English to French. It was not a simple journey, but it was full of the Holy Spirit reminding us that is our responsibility to be generous and accountable disciples! During the 16 days of spiritual practice, I returned to my life as a child and as a teen. Today, I am looking back over my life as a member of our church and above all as a loved child of the One we praise every day. Each daily theme made me react differently. There were moments for tears, sorrow, joy, and blessings! As a child, I always saw my parents giving their time, talents, and particularly their generous response to the church. They are and always will be my examples. I have followed their examples, but I know I need to make greater efforts to address the Mission Initiatives. God has blessed me through this experience. I thank God! May we recall that our tithes depend on our blessings and the blessing of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 11
QUORUM OF HIGH PRIESTS INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 1001 W. Walnut St. Independence, MO 64050 NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Independence, MO PERMIT NO. 96 contents Pre-ordination Temple School Course 2014 2015 Pilot Experience Summary... 1 Two Improved Tools... 4 Annual Plan for Ministry... 5 Bread for the World 2015 Hunger Report... 7 Generosity as a Spiritual Discipline... 8 Recent Ordinations... 9 Blessings... 10 Have the High Priests Newsletter delivered to your e-mail and end the need for postal copy. Subscribe free online to receive the newsletter s electronic copy, and you will stop receiving the paper version. It s a win-win situation get less paper mail and save a tree. Visit www.cofchrist.org to subscribe today!