Open Proposal to CLMC - Part 1

Ok, a lot of things that I've posted have been about the negative sides and things that we need to realize. What about posting some suggestions of things that we can & should do? Sure, here goes!

It'll be too long to post in 1 posting, so I might break it into several parts. By the way, it's just main points. Too long for me to explain them in details.

In a nutshell:

1. Minister-in-charge salary package to be increased over the years to catch up with salary package from other main denominations. Regardless of the basic salary amount set by the AC, we should set the minimum for CLMC as $40,000 for 1st year, increment by 10% per annum thereafter. We'll top up any differences.
   Also, we should allow more flexibility for Minister in charge to take paid time off to do short courses.
   Provided the Minister stays in the inner CBD areas, we can subsidized the accommodation rental costs by 50% to ensure the Minister is near to their church & members for easy accessibility
   Transportation wise, we should subsidized 66% of the petrol costs, car service costs and car insurance costs. If public transports are used, whole 100% subsidy should be given. Weekly or monthly tickets are encouraged.
   Continuous Professional Development (CPD) subsidy to be increased to $1000 for 1st year, then increase of $200 pa thereafter.
   If the Minister has family, $1000 will be allocated for each children under 18. $5000 for non-working spouse.
   All that should push the salary package to be more inline with others. However, church is not a tax haven or a bank printing money. As much as we will love our Minister, we expect more accountability & responsibilities as well. Give & take.
   
   
2. Mission works - Students accommodations or high rise apartments should be our targets. We need to care for the people there. Imagine, 1 whole block, you have about 100-200 apartments, which is about 500 residents in 1 area! We should identify their needs and try to provide it to them.
   Young adults also makes up of a significant portion of the workforce in the CBD. We should provide service for them as well, especially during lunch hours.
   We also should established a "mission centre" in the CBD for easy accessibility. It can have the pastor's office, simple cafe, praying area, resting area, study areas for students, etc. During exam periods, we can provide more service for students as it would be their time of greatest needs.
   We could plan for some short courses for members of the public, for example we can get a professionals in to give lecture or workshops.
   We need to cooperate more with other organizations or churches in our mission field. It's just too large for 1 church to do it all. The Korean Methodist church is 1 good example.
   There're still much much more that we can do, we need to sit down & pray to see if there're what God wants us to do for now. Of course those above are not meant to be done in just 1 year. It's impossible but at least we should have the direction forward.
   
   
3. Training for our members - We need to continuously train our members as well, not just our pastors. We need to organize more workshops or motivational talks to keep our members abreast of all the happenings. Funds should be allocated to provide subsidy for lower income members or students.
   Funds should be allocated to support students doing Theology courses with less strings attached. However, requirements would be higher.
   We should also allow more open forum or dialogues regarding the Christian faith and also the problems that we faced.
   Less spoon feeding, less cover ups, more transparency & accountability must be promoted among members.
   
   
4. Leaders - Choosing the right man for the job is the key to ensure success. Right man doesn't mean in terms of skills only. Since we are a church, we need to look more than just the skills or personality. We need to be sure of the person's character. Having said that, being a church doesn't mean we have to be "very lenient" in choosing leaders. In fact, we have to be a lot of stricter in choosing leaders since we are doing things for God.
   Some of the requirements should be toughen up. For example, to be serving in Church, you need to be a church member for at least 1 year, good character and have a craving for the Word of God. To be a Small Group leader or worship leader, etc you need to be a member for 2 years or so . To be an LCEC member, you need to be a member for 5 years with recommendations from the Minister and existing LCEC. Once a leader or LCEC, you are forever a leader or LCEC. I'm not afraid of no people serving rather I'm more concerned of unsuitable people holding the positions.
   Now, a lot will say this is not in the Methodist Constitution, well yes it's not. It's just a proposal and if you can see how the current constitution are failing the church, then you will understand why such changes are needed. A lot of the Methodist churches elsewhere have changed their constitution now. Will ours do the same or still in state of denial?
   

More to come in Part 2.....