Health Care: I experienced it personally

I was accustomed to HMO-based health coverage, as long as I called the family doctor first, I could go to the ER and get whatever I needed for a relatively small fee (maybe $50 max). This plan was available to employees for free, no employee contributions. Fortunately, I didn't have to make much use of the plan, I was healthy. But if I had, pay the few bucks, go to the doctor or hospital, follow their orders and get the care I need, or at least the care the doctor thought I needed.

Now we have a deductible based HMO plan. It's still a great plan, the health care available to me is better than the mercuricrome dispensing clinics I grew up with in the remote towns of the Philippines. They would put mercuricrome on anything: broken arm, laceration or headache. Under the new plan, we pay out of pocket to a certain threshold. Beyond that expenses are split between my pocket and the health insurance company's pocket.

So a recent hospital visit went quite differently. As soon as we passed through the doors of the hospital it was as if we'd gotten into a cab and the driver had turned the meter on. With each check by a nurse, each visit of a doctor, the meter was running.

“"We need to send you to get CAT scan”", cha-ching.

"You'll be getting an MRI and an MRA tomorrow"”, cha-ching, cha-ching.

"“We think you should be admitted, but the choice is yours"”, hmmm, that'll be xxx dollars, how much do we have in our account?

I had a difficult time separating decisions that should have been care-need based from being cash-available based. I was viewing everything through a pair of dollar-filtered glasses, viewing everything with the same skepticism I have for the snacks in fancy hotel rooms, food at the ballpark and popcorn at the movies. I guess that's the world we live in right now, though I don't like it. I don't eat the snacks in hotel rooms, rarely eat at the ballpark and my movies are without popcorn.

I've had the opportunity to view health care from multiple angles: as the finance guy, as the head of Human Resources, as a patient with health insurance, and as a relative of someone without insurance. The health care challenges of today are uber-complex, but my resolve remains the same:

To provide our employees with the best plan(s) available and to make sure each and every one of them knows the benefits with which we provide them.

Health Care: I take it personally

One area of my responsibilities doesn't lend itself well to publishing - human resources - because it often involves information not appropriate for posting in a public forum. But recent events have provided an opportunity to open those doors, if for just a few posts.

I've taken a personal interest in health care since my first weeks in church ministry. I was months out of college having started as the Administrator of a local church. In my second week on the job I was running behind deadline producing the weekly bulletin. As the hour passed by 6 and 7 p.m., the tightness and pressure on my chest increased to proportions I had never experienced before. It was as if an 18-wheeler had pulled right into my office and parked itself in such a way that the maximum force of it's gross weight was aimed directly at my upper body. Being around 22 at the time I went home to my apartment instead of going to the hospital. I went to the ER the next day and went through the normal round of tests. The doctors called all I've just described as musculoskeletal chest pain. I recovered fine and the EKG-induced hairless patches on my legs eventually grew back. But those few days probably impacted me for life, if at least for the last eight years.

See, I went to the ER not having any understanding of the health care system or the coverage offered by my employer. As the person responsible for handling the benefits of our employees, I've made it a personal mission of mine to do everything I can to educate our employees on their benefits.

From the inquiries I've made, there are a couple of assumptions made among religious non-profit organizations:

• Church and School staffs are paid less than they could make from other organizations
• Those same organizations offer 100% health coverage (often because they figure they pay their employees less in compensation).

Economic shifts in recent years, have and continue to challenge these assumptions. At Grace, we identified several years ago that the road ahead was clear - health care costs would increase at rates exceeding the cost-of-living increase and just about any other reasonable measure - ultimately resulting in every organization having to come to grips with a new ballgame. We made the difficult decision to begin the change when we would be able to do so based on core principles, laying a foundation for how we would navigate future challenges.

• We want health coverage available to our employees when they need it
• We want our employees to have the best care available when they need it
• In an effort to make sure they need it, employees have to participate through contributions and/or deductibles

We put a lot of thought and sincere concern into how these changes would affect our employees and us for that matter. They weren't easy decisions. All of this made a recent hospital visit a fascinating study of the contrasts between the old and new systems - to be explored tomorrow.

Starting a Ministry - Step 7

Staff Review

Having worked through steps 1-6, the individuals who are looking to start a ministry should submit the information they've prepared to Pastor Scott or myself. From there we'll assess the proposed ministry based on steps 1-6. We'll spend time praying about whether we see God working in the particular area and sense Him opening opportunities for us to join Him in His work. We'll identify what paid staff person would best be responsible for the ministry and talk with them about their passion and interest for the proposed ministry. We'll weigh whether we have the resources, both financial and facility to launch this new effort. All of these factors will help us to determine if it is the right decision and the right time to start the proposed ministry. If we do decide to move forward with the proposal, ministries will be started on a trial basis for a duration to be set by the paid staff. This will give new ministries an incubation period to allow for further affirmation that it is indeed the right decision and the right time.

Hopefully, my explaining this 7-step process will be helpful in guiding those who have a desire to see us minister in ways we currently aren't ministering. Let's always be asking God to open our eyes so we can see where He is working and asking Him to show us how and where He would like us to join Him in His work!

Starting a Ministry - Step 6

Facility Resources

What facility resources (rooms, equipment) will be needed regularly for the ministry to operate?

Starting a Ministry - Step 5

Money

Each ministry needs to project how much money they need to carry out their activities in a given year.

Starting a Ministry - Step 4

Leadership/Followership

Ministries come and go with the needs of the people they serve and the passions of those serving. Thus, the church cannot commit to sustaining every ministry. Each ministry needs to identify a ministry leader. In addition, each ministry is responsible for developing and training future leaders if they desire to sustain themselves over time. With this responsibility resting on each individual ministry (as opposed to being the responsibility of the church staff), those who are passionate about the ministry will find new leaders who share the same passion.

In addition to having a passionate leader, the ministry needs to have people who are equally passionate about the ministry, but willing and committed to following the leader.

Starting a Ministry - Step 3

Using the Six Levels of Outreach, each ministry needs to clarify its target audience. Is it primarily an outreach ministry that targets the community and the crowd? Is it a ministry that will have different activities each targeting one of the six levels? We want to know the target audience.

The COMMUNITY: Those who live within driving distance of Grace Church but have no connection at all with Grace Church or with Jesus Christ. Demographic studies tell us that there are 250,000 people that live within 10 miles of Grace Church. Our goal is to have events and activities which break down all barriers and allow people to have a very enjoyable time and to gain a positive perspective of Grace Church.

The CROWD: Those who have had very limited contact with Grace Church but have no real connection with Grace Church or with Jesus Christ. Perhaps they come to the church to vote or their kids have attended Bible School. They have had some good contact with us but nothing regularly. Our goal here is to have events or activities which are fun and exciting but which also present the Gospel in a non-threatening way.

The CURIOUS: Those who have a more regular contact with Grace Church but have made no commitment to Grace Church or to Jesus Christ. Perhaps they attend our special events regularly and maybe even attend our Sunday Worship services occasionally. Our goal is to have events or activities that are not only exciting and present the Gospel, but which also gives the opportunity for individuals to respond to the Gospel invitation.

The CONVINCED: Those who have made a decision to give their life to Jesus and now need to grow in their faith. Our goal is to have events or activities which allow those who have made a decision for Christ to grow in their faith and get grounded in the Word.

The COMMITTED: Those who have learned the basics of the faith and are now ready to dig deeper into the meat of God’s Word. Our goal is to have events or activities which allow those grounded in their faith to learn and apply the deeper truths of God’s Word.

The CORE: Those who are ready to lead ministries within the church and who are spiritually reproducing themselves in others. Our goal is to allow mature believers to take on positions of leadership and invest in the lives of others in the levels below.

Starting a Ministry - Step 2

Step 2 in Starting a Ministry at Grace - Core Values

Each ministry needs to explain how it will instill the core values of GRACE in every aspect of its activities, answering the questions:

How is it going to Glorify God?

How is it going to Reach People?

How do you plan to Achieve Excellence?

What is in place so that those in the ministry will Continually Pray?

How is it going to Edify the Team?

Core values aren't something we've emphasized until recently at Grace. But we are gradually injecting them into every level and aspect of everything we do. They are guiding principles, a gut-check per se, to make sure we are on track. Everything we do at Grace should cover or be done in such a way that they hit each of the core values... everything!

Everything we do should be done to Glorify God. If it doesn't, we shouldn't be doing it.
Reaching People is what we are about. If we aren't reaching people we fail to follow Christ's command to make disciples.
If we aren't striving to achieve excellence, we're settling for mediocrity.
We have to immerse every activity, our priorities, our daily task lists, and everything else under the sun in continual prayer. This isn't our deal, it's God's and we have to submit to His leadership in everything.
And finally, we are a team. We are in this together and when we function as the God-designed body of Christ, He can do immeasurably more than we ever imagine.

How to start a ministry at Grace

I’ve shared some of the past, present and future shifts I’ve identified at Grace in some of my posts and here’s another to add to the list. For most of my time here, the ministries of the church have been staff-dictated. Most ministries may have included volunteer ministry leaders, but they were handed little authority and ownership over the ministry. Gradually, there a shift taking place in that regard. There are key ministry leaders bubbling to the top of several ministries whom we are preparing to utilize extensively as volunteer leaders. Individuals whom we want to give authority to lead the ministry. I’m excited about this shift. I see paid staff as trainers, equippers, and overseers with volunteers performing most of the doing. Being a body of believers, the ministries of a local church need to be aligned with the passions of the local body. That can only happen when those who are a part of the local body are involved in the planning, leading and execution of the ministries. As people have ideas for new ministries or passions for existing ones we want to, as God enables, pursue them. In the coming days I want to lay out a multi-step process as to how we’ll do that to keep things organized.

Step 1 – The Purpose

Any ministry at Grace has to have a specific purpose that answers this question, why does the ministry exist? The purpose of each ministry needs to fit into the purpose of Grace Church,

Depending on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will build a church that honors Him through preaching the Word, sharing the faith and walking together in love.

It’s important that everything fits within the purpose of Grace Church, because otherwise, our ministries won’t be helping us accomplish our main reason for existence. Each ministry should be either helping to build the church, preach the Word, share the faith or walk together in love.

If you have a passion for a ministry area that we aren’t targeting/reaching currently, pray about and think about what the purpose of that ministry would be and boil it down to a sentence or two.

If you are in an existing ministry, pray about and think about why the ministry exists and quantify it in a sentence or two.

On the other hand, maybe, your ministry already has a purpose statement, take some time to review it. Is there still a need for it to exist or has it changed? Ministries come and go as part of a natural ministry life cycle. Likewise, as changes occur in our culture, ministries need to adapt. If your ministry has a purpose statement, take time to evaluate it.

The purpose statement identifies the reason for existence. Next, are the core values.

The Sword-Wielding Pastor

I had planned to start a series of entries about starting a ministry at Grace today, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I couldn't resist commenting on the sword-wielding Pastor.

If you weren't at Grace Church yesterday, you should listen to yesterday's message which should be posted on our website later this morning. In the midst of the sermon, Pastor Scott pulled out a U.S. Marine sword as an illustration. For the next 15-20 minutes, instead of his usual hand motions and other emphatic-designed movements, he walked around the pulpit swinging the sword. A sight unlike anything I've ever seen in church. Here are some of the thoughts that crossed my mind...

Forget about bringing out the big guns, our Pastor pulls out a sword!

Our congregation is so hard-headed, our Pastor has to preach with a sword in order to get us to change.

Our insurance agent called this morning to inform me that our premiums were just increased. They're nervous that the sword might slip out of his hand and fly into the audience.

I was reminded of another individual who I've seen in video clips waving a sword around. If Pastor shows up with a pump-action shot gun, discharging it one-handed next week, it will be more than just coincidence.

Based on his blog from last Friday, I'm actually glad he wasn't looking at the middle sections yesterday.

Maybe you didn't, but I saw humor in the sword. As with most of our messages, it impacted me and challenged me in my walk with Christ. I consider it a privelege to sit under Pastor Scott's teaching both in the congregation on Sunday's and as I shared on Friday, in the office during the week. Barring any other unforeseen events that I feel I have to share, I should start the ministry at Grace stuff tomorrow.

In the March 3 edition of WSJ

I read the Wall Street Journal for fun. I find a handful of articles in each edition that strike me as amusing or informative. Here's what hit me from Friday's edition:

• There are at least two Rock-Paper-Scissors leagues in North America. Would that be considered a sport for the Olympic Winter Games or the Summer Games? My competitive-freakiness was documented in this blog previously, so you know I'm up for any kind of competition. While the NFL injury report is laden with turf toe, hamstring and other leg injuries, I image the injury report for the RPS league would include carpal tunnel, jammed/dislocated finger and arthritis. I wonder if they have a collective barganing agreement.
  

• Contrary to previous conclusions, older brains don't work as bad as previously thought.

• IKEA stores have been in China for four or more year and are apparently faring well. I'd love to be able to read the Chinese characters to see how they translate those Scandanavian names they give each of their products.

• IBM, Sun and Oracle are lining up behind the OpenOffice document format for office documents as a counter to the existing Microsoft Office jugernaut. I'm actually using it on my home computer and giving serious thought to switching the church over to it. I hope to give my personal review in the future.

• The rules of the World Baseball Classic (which kicks off today) differ from other international competitions. Such that Mike Piazza was able to play for the Italian Team and a host of guys we know as Americans playing for the Dutch and other sundry countries to which they have family connections. The players had the choice of what team they wanted to play for and if you don't know by now, most of them opted out of the competition anyway. They are trying to emulate something akin to Soccer's World Cup, but there's one big problem. Major League Baseball is the preeminent league. The WBC is second, at best, to MLB. In Soccer, the World Cup is the highest achievable stage and the players need that noteriety to garner larger salaries from their club teams. The players who've already made it to the MLB don't
  

Okay, lunch break's over. Back to work.

Behind Closed Doors: Staff Meeting

Staff meetings were one of the first changes Pastor Scott put in place. We meet, as a staff the first and third Tuesday's of each month. Depending on the hot topics of the month, Pastor Scott uses the meeting for various purposes. We've had meetings that were primarily teaching times, where Pastor Scott leads us in an in-depth Bible study. We've had meetings that were primarily business oriented and we reviewed procedures or discussed upcoming events. And we've even had a pop-quiz or two.

If you were a fly on the wall at staff meetings, you'd observe:

that while the meetings are quite productive, we have a lot of fun during those 75 minutes. It's a time usually dominated by laughter.

that over the past year-and-a-half we've grown closer as a staff. We have more transparency with each other and some of the sharing times have been deep and moving.

that if you happen to be a guest speaker, be prepared for a practical joke to be played on you. Just ask Ed Lewis of CE National.

that through the sharing time that leads each meeting, God is doing some amazing things in the lives of the people to whom we are ministering.

what 1 Corinthians 13 is really saying about love and it's application to the body of Christ.

how each staff member reacts to change and which Who Moved My Cheese character (Hem, Haw, Sniff and Scurry) they relate to the most. (Or if you happen to be in the conference room, the flip chart is still on the wall).

how we all squirmed the day Pastor Scott asked us to write five positive comments about each of our co-workers.

that you should always bring a Bible to a staff meeting.

that first comers always sit the furthest away from where Pastor Scott usually sits. Latecomers who sit next to Pastor Scott are advised to bring a poncho.

that each staff person has a passion to reach the lost.

that a hot seat is when you're on the spot and the rest of the staff can ask you any five questions they want and you have to answer. Each staff member has been on the hot seat in the past year.

that at our first staff meeting, most staff arrived a few minutes early and waited patiently and ultra-quietly for the meeting to begin. Now, 18 months later, some staff still arrive early, some arrive late, but the pre-meeting conversation noise is deafening to the point that it takes Pastor Scott about 5 minutes to reign us in and get the meeting started.
The time we invest in these meetings is valuable not only to coordinating our efforts, but in us learning as a team and becoming more unified as we work together.

Our next staff meeting is this coming Tuesday. I'll be reviewing with the staff the key elements needed for every ministry at Grace. It's actually going to be a series of blog entries next week as well. These elements won't only apply to existing ministries. They'll also apply for anyone who has a passion/burden for something we aren't currently doing that they want to elevate to ministry status. That'll start on Monday. Until then, enjoy your weekend!

Grace Church Video Phone System

If there's one thing I'm proud of, it's how I've been able to keep Grace Church relatively current with our information technology. It's not cost effective to be on the cutting edge and we're not, but we are on the curve and relatively up-to-date. It's an important value of mine to keep our staff and volunteers equipped with the tools to make them more effective. And it's important that the education we offer our students is up-to-date. Those are the two things that drive us in the technology realm.

With all of that, I'm thrilled to announce that we've just installed a new video phone system. This system is so advanced, outsiders with internet access can access my extension directly.
You can call me by clicking on this link.

Norton Defs: Loose Grip

loose (lŌs) n.: Freedom from restraint. A letting go; discharge.
grip n.: An energetic or tenacious grasp; a holding fast; strength in grasping.

I regularly have to remind myself to keep a loose grip as I administer Grace; not to loose a grip that I drop things, but not so tight a grip that I choke them either. It’s s a concept that has really helped me keep an even keel through my years of church work.

Loose grip is closely related to stewardship, both emphasize that I’m not the owner, I’m simply the manager. It also applies to when things don’t go the way I would’ve liked. Keeping a loose grip implies not giving up and not stressing out – just keep handle on things. I’ve found it to be a very appropriate tool for the church context with numerous personalities who are highly vested in our ministries. There’s the potential for so much conflict that a loose grip is required.

A loose grip was also the reason I never did well on the monkey bars.