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Graeme - not wanting to derail the thread but as a lay worship leader I would like to know how to prepare a sermon and/or a worship service in an hour. It presently takes me about twelve hours (give or take) from the time I get a call until I feel ready to get in the car and drive to my first worship point - and during the drive I am listening to the news on the rsdio and have been known to change or add something to the service depending on what I hear. It woul d be great if I could cut that down to a couple of hours.
 
Seeler said:
The difference between salaried professionals and wage earners.
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Not quite the same dichotomy in health care. Nurses and other health care professionals are frequently unionized which makes for a different kettle of fish.
 
In Ontario, teachers are unionized also - we see the difference in their 'official' paid time & additional 'volunteer' time (which many provide so generously) when there is a work-to-rule action occuring - cancellation of after school & lunchtime events (clubs, sports, etc.); cancellation of meetings that occur outside of official school hours etc. Yes - they have "prep time" in their contracts - it is minimal in terms of prep needed to tackle full teaching days, especially if one is taking on new or different curriculum (damn, I can NEVER spell that word correctly!!), replying to parent e-mails & calls etc.
 
Seeler said:
Graeme - not wanting to derail the thread but as a lay worship leader I would like to know how to prepare a sermon and/or a worship service in an hour. It presently takes me about twelve hours (give or take) from the time I get a call until I feel ready to get in the car and drive to my first worship point - and during the drive I am listening to the news on the rsdio and have been known to change or add something to the service depending on what I hear. It woul d be great if I could cut that down to a couple of hours.
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This is very consistent with what others have indicated in previous discussions.

Graeme might be pulling your leg.
 
Seeler said:
The difference between salaried professionals and wage earners.
Salaried people are paid to get the job done - to a certain extent theey set their own hours; deciding when to come in or leave, or take work home. They have quite a bit of flexibility but may also have times when they have to work long hours undeer pressure.
Wage earners are paid by the hour - eight hour day at $*** per hour. Punch in at 8:00 and out at 5:00 (one hour off for lunch). Leave when the next shift comes on. Usually part of the agreement is for 'time & a half' for overtime, if required to work more than regular hours.

The grey area is somewhere in between - like I was as Administrative Assistant in the trust company. pay was $*** monthly, hours 8 to 5. No real provision for overtime. But my job was so closely tied to the lawyer's (who was dept. head) that when she was busy, I generaally was too. Our solution was informal and didn't go through payroll dept. at head office - I kept track of overtime and took a day or two off every now and then.
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I was supposed to be paid a wage as a TA, it was in our collective agreement. No punching in and out though. Finally after a few years they started asking us to track our hours. They found all of us who had a 1/3 TAship were way past what we should have been doing. An issue as not only were we being underpaid but we were also at times violating our scholarship agreements about how much we could work - those on 1/3 had scholarships. This didn't affect our pay though. No overtime was ever provided.
In the future more of us were moved to the help room as this meant no marking. Marking of exams was also I think just reduced and not eliminated, so 1 midterm or final. When I first started though this solution wouldn't have even been possible as there weren't enough of us. Later on there were actually more so taking us out of the labs wasn't a problem.
 
paradox3 said:
This is very consistent with what others have indicated in previous discussions.

Graeme might be pulling your leg.
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Is Graeme like aD hoch to you? Or is that just a boon ... like Dan one of the names for the devil in Samaritan territory separate from the Ju'de Law bunch ... representing power, strength and energy of positive situations ... yet denying the opposing obtuse?

All part of Hebrew myth as rite ... character representation on stacked pages?
 
ChemGal said:
I was supposed to be paid a wage as a TA, it was in our collective agreement. No punching in and out though. Finally after a few years they started asking us to track our hours. They found all of us who had a 1/3 TAship were way past what we should have been doing. An issue as not only were we being underpaid but we were also at times violating our scholarship agreements about how much we could work - those on 1/3 had scholarships. This didn't affect our pay though. No overtime was ever provided.
In the future more of us were moved to the help room as this meant no marking. Marking of exams was also I think just reduced and not eliminated, so 1 midterm or final. When I first started though this solution wouldn't have even been possible as there weren't enough of us. Later on there were actually more so taking us out of the labs wasn't a problem.
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And they say life is not complex ...
 
seeler, you are referring to what in my terminology is an engineered service -- one custom delivered for the congregation, it's needs and the world and it's times.

A mod shop would be a service which is predone, and you rinse off & update...you have had simialir services in other locations, or times, and it is good enough to redo.

A standard product would be a service which is pulled from an inventory and delivered at a congregation. It is based on one's message, and using music that is preset . you don't customize it. The hour is spent to send the order of service to the secretary, and then, remind yourself of your sermon.

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is it doable? Maybe. I would say 3 hours for standard, given how most churches run, but, a rinse/repeat could be done. Is it good for the congregations, I would say no, and definitely not on an ongoing basis.
 
My question was tongue in cheek, but I really hoped Graeme would reply.

Once on a Saturday evening our minister got sick. She called a retired minister and asked him to do the service the next morning and he did - bulleetins prepared, scripture and hymns chosen, children's story by someone else - just the message and a prayer. Chatting later I asked him what was the shortest lead time he had ever had to do a service. He told me that at one time he was part of a large gathering that included a closing worship service open to the public. At the last moment word arrived that the guest speaker could not make it (traffic accident, plane diverted by weather, whatever?). Could he step in? "Give me 15 minutes, start the service without me, I'll be in the pulpit by the end of the hymn and announcements." He had 50 years experience. He had a friendly manner and a pleasant sounding voice with a hint of a Scotish accent that people loved. He had a wealth of stories to tell. Yes, he could find words to fill in 15 or 20 minutes of sermon time, the usual prayer of thanksgiving and intercessions, a benediction - and lots of compliments at the door. Greeat that he was able to do it on short notice. But I think his message would soon become predictable or that it made much difference in people's lives during the next week or year.
 
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