It is hard to believe that 7 and a half years have already passed since my wife Hyeonjin and I moved to our church. In doing ministry at our church, I have tried to accumulate trust in our relationship as pastor and congregation because I believe that without trust we cannot do ministry effectively even with a lot of talents and enthusiasm. Now I can say, we have trust as pastor and congregation, each of us feeling a good family member. I am really thankful for God’s blessings that we may support and love one another in doing ministry together.
In January, our Staff-Parish Relations Committee and Church Council had passed the motion to apply for an endowment clergy renewal program. The proposal is based on the policy of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church: “A pastor who has served at least six years in a full-time appointment may request a spiritual renewal leave of up to six months while continuing to hold an appointment in the local church.”
I was aware of this policy, but I did not even think about it, because I did not want to give the congregation a financial burden to cover the expenses during the spiritual leave. I thought that the policy was only for a pastor at a big congregation that has extra financial resources for the leave. Yet, in December last year when I heard from a colleague of mine about an endowment clergy renewal program, I felt that we could apply for it. He and his church that belong to the New York Annual Conference had received the grant, and he and his family were on the spiritual leave last year.
I am so grateful that during my potential 4-month spiritual leave (March 1, 2023–June 30, 2023), Pastor Kim Cartwright, Pastor Cynthia Dodd, and Pastor Art Yost are willing and happy to serve our church as interim pastors. The grant is to support the pastor and the pastor’s family in the renewal program. And it may also be used to help the congregation to fulfill pastoral duties during the pastor’s absence and to support activities that enable the congregation to be renewed in its ministry. All this can happen at our church only when our grant application is chosen. The application result will be given by the end of August this year.
Our grant applying team met last month three times and agreed that we would inform the whole congregation that our church will apply for the grant. I would like to invite you to attend the all-church administrative meeting on March 27th, so that you may know better about the clergy renewal program that our church applies for. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact our grant applying team, Will Arhin, Peggy Jerrell, Mary Rolfe, David Smith, Helen Smith, and myself.
Sungmu Lee