Gary Weaver, Executive Presbyter in Pueblo, Colorado, and Melanie Hancock, Associate General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Northern Kansas have recently joined the PPCN Board. The editor asked each of them to prepare a brief biographical sketch.

GARY R. WEAVER has been the Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Pueblo in Pueblo, Colorado for the last 15 years and plans to retire at the end of this year. He has been married 46 years to his best friend, soul mate and love of his life: Kathleen or Katie. His younger daughter lives with her family in Pueblo and runs a cookie business; his older daughter lives with her family in Oakland, California. He holds degrees from the University of Kansas, the University of New Mexico, and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is a certified mediator. He has led workshops on "Caring for Your Pastor" and on "Pastoral Self-Care" and has trained Committees on Ministry within the eight presbyteries of the Synod of the Rocky Mountains. He is the author of GENTLE WORDS IN A RAGING STORM, C.S.S. Publishing, 2003, a book of prayers for all occasions.  During his time as executive presbyter, he has created various opportunities for pastors to form peer groups for learning, support, and professional and spiritual development. He takes seriously his title as "pastor to pastors" and told the search committee when he was called to this position that he aspires to be the executive presbyter he never had in 24 years of parish ministry.

MELANIE HANCOCK, Associate General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Northern Kansas, and an ordained elder and a Christian Educator, has served the Presbytery since 1993. She works with the Stewardship & Mission, Commissioned Lay Pastor,  Youth Ministries, Nominating, and Budget Committees as well as Presbytery Council, Resource Center, and Committee on Ministry and provides guidance, training, resources and support to Church Educators,  Associate Pastors, and churches.  Melanie  in her second year as Co-Moderator for the National PCUSA Stewardship Kaleidoscope Planning Team, a collaborative effort of the middle governing bodies and agencies throughout the PCUSA.  Before joining the Presbytery staff, she was Christian Education Director for 8 years at Sunrise Presbyterian Church in Salina, Kansas.   

Melanie says, "Education and relationships are at the heart of my service in the PCUSA. I have always held a high priority for developing and sustaining relationships and see this as an important part of our ministry together and one of the primary ways we all support each other.  I see my service on the PPCN Board as another avenue for developing relationships and supporting pastors and pastoral leadership both in the Presbytery of Northern Kansas and throughout the PCUSA.   In my daily ministry, I strive to strengthen and develop relationships with and between pastors, elders and lay leaders throughout the Presbytery."

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SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR MAINTAINING PERSONAL BOUNDARIES  

By Gary Weaver

1. Get permission before using a story about a family member in a sermon; holds true for congregational members as well
2. Protect your spouse and family from the presumption that they "work for the church."
3. If the phone rings at the family dinner hour, let the recorder answer the phone and screen the call.
4. Schedule "dates" with your spouse and children on your church calendar; include lunch or a coffee date at least once during the week.
5. Plan a "mini-honeymoon" with your spouse overnight away from church and children 2-4 times a year.
6. Take 2-3 "mini-Sabbaths" during your work day: 5-10 minutes to go for a short walk or a brief nap or a few minutes of centering prayer.
7. Think of your work day as three segments--morning, afternoon and evening-and aim to only work two of those three on the average.
8. Schedule away overnight spiritual retreats for you at least once a quarter: a time to BE with God, not WORK for God.
9. Your "day off" is your Sabbath-keep it sacred.
10. Take 3-4 weeks of your vacation allotment together.
11. Gather a Peer Group or Covenant Group for support and accountability.
12. Develop outside interests, outside friends.

Modeling a balanced life to your parishioners is a wonderful gift!

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Here is an exercise that is not only fun but can generate some good material for sermons at the same time.

Take a small notebook or even a set of 3 x 5 cards with you for a week. Now keep alert to what is happening around you. Every time you can associate a Christian doctrine with some situation that you either observe or participate in, make note of it. The challenge is to see how many doctrines of our faith you can apply to the life around you. During this first week, don't even try to be serious. Just make the association of doctrine to situation no matter how farfetched.

You may read in the papers about a congressman who has sent nude pictures of himself to some admirer. What doctrine would you associate with that act? Is it self-worship or idolatry? How does his anthropology or understanding of human nature contradict the Christian understanding of human nature? In what way is he denying the theological understanding of what it means to love one's neighbor? Maybe it is just the theological understanding of the sin of lust. Go ahead and play with it. Now consider what theological doctrine might apply to the short fall in your church budget. Or perhaps you can consider the Christian doctrine of marriage as you engage in counseling one of your parishioners.

Now, expand the fun by inviting three or four colleagues for a breakfast or lunch but with the clear intention of playing a theological game. The game can go in one of two directions but is intended to connect theological truths with lived experiences. One approach is that someone in the group will name an event in society and the others will respond by suggesting some of the theological doctrines that may guide our response to such a situation. The other way to play the game is to go in the opposite direction. That is, someone will name a doctrine and others will suggest life experiences to which such a doctrine might apply. Either way, the group should have fun with the game and be willing to make some exaggerated or fanciful connections. The reason for that is that sometimes when we begin in too serious a mode, we miss some insightful connections that can be made.

Two things are going to begin to happen for you. First, you are going to alert your awareness to the many ways that Christian doctrine speaks to the world in which you live. Second, as you begin to sensitize yourself to this relationship, you are going to begin to collect some very practical illustrations that you can utilize in your sermon preparation.

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Note about an email 'glitch'....

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