Buried hip deep

Okay,
So I have taken on some projects of late that are going to bury me this coming week. I have some writing to do for publication...maybe I can make sense of what it is I need to do with that. That means research, planning and since this is the first go round with this kind of activity I am going to really have to check and recheck my material to make sure it is suitable for what I want to have my name attached.

The other is a much bigger project, it is trying to discern equitable compensation figures for the annual conference, and pair them with other national figures, to be able to present a coherent case for salaries in the Annual Conference.

We have been talking about the decline of the church for some time and I am committed to doing something about it. The above is a start, but there will be more.

One of the other pieces that is going to be necessary for the long haul is going to be looking at the exit rates of clergy in the recent past. Natalie posted some great numbers about clergy under 35, which are helpful.

The interesting thing to me is that they seem to argue wholeheartedly with a myth that has been circulating through the United Methodist Church and churches elsewhere that we missed the Baby Boomer generation. The 15% mentioned seems to indicate we did alright at recruiting the boomers when they were coming right out of college and into seminary, not to mention that they are the most common people in the seminaries now, not to mention the annual conferences.

Maybe I can't read data, and if that is the case I am all the more grateful that I have some folks helping me discern the numbers I am going to be looking at. In the meantime I have data to gather and notes to scribble.