Church Update: Staff Parish Relations Committee

Greetings from the Staff-Parish Relations Committee (SPRC).  The SPRC provides a connection between our staff and the congregation at Auburn First UMC. In many ways, the SPRC functions like a secular Human Resource Committee.  However, we work more like an advisory personnel committee, focusing on spiritual support, ministry alignment, and work-life balance. Each of our members acts as a liaison with our staff to ensure they have everything they need to do their work well. 

Our committee consists of six members plus the pastor. This year, we added Craig Parrish and Angelina Koenig to our continuing committee members, Erin Larsen, Kathie Price, Margot Hightower, and Shana Friend (chair). 

Our regular activities include preparing and leading the congregation in expressing appreciation for our staff and pastor, hiring new staff, collaborating with the pastor on staff evaluations, updating our personnel policies, checking in with staff, and liaising between staff and the congregation when problems arise. We also provide a yearly self-evaluation and pastor review.  

This past year, we focused on creating unity within our congregation. To do this, we created a “unity board” displaying staff and leadership photos and titles and wrote appreciation cards to leadership.  We are also working to updating our Safe Sanctuary Policy, which outlines the steps we will take to ensure that Auburn First UMC is a place of sanctuary for everyone, especially for the children, youth, and vulnerable adults.

In the last year, we have also led the congregation in saying goodbye to Addy Stackler, our Children and Youth Ministry Coordinator (and very soon Eric Anderson, our pianist).  And as of this week, we are preparing the congregation to welcome our new pianist, Carolyn Hoppe-Denend!

Finding and hiring new staff is not an easy task. Earlier this year, we had a candidate for our Children & Youth Ministry Coordinator position, but for reasons we could not predict, the candidate was unable to accept the position. Because of this, the SPRC has begun evaluating all our staff positions and their alignment with our ministry as we consider our current and anticipated staffing needs. We hope that this process will help us think beyond our current staffing plan and open ourselves up to new ways of being in ministry with one another.

In addition, the SPRC recognizes that Pastor Cara has been appointed to us as an interim pastor, meaning that she will be with us only a short time. In preparation for a pastoral transition in the near future, our committee is working to discern the gifts and skills we will need in our next pastoral leader. 

Our committee members are a blessing as they bring such grace, love, and care to this work. As we continue our ministry, we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and insight as serving on this committee is both hard and rewarding work.