A third springtime: Pastoral ministry after a catastrophe
by the Rev. John Liebler
On Labor Day, 2004, the people of St. Andrew’s, Fort Pierce, were hunkered down under the eye of Hurricane Frances. As a native Floridian I had experienced many storms, but had never witnessed the eye of a storm, and its destructive eye wall. Two weeks later the eye of Hurricane Jeanne would also hit us dead on. I write these words one year later, with the hope that clergy and lay leaders affected by Katrina may take hope, and know that others have walked the same path they must now walk.
St. Andrew’s experienced approximately $3.5 million in damage. The roofing, and most of the contents of our school, was lost. Another building was so damaged it would eventually be demolished. Filthy river water flooded every room, even the organ pipes. Some have experienced much worse than we, some much less. But the process of recovery will be similar.
Leadership
There are few moments in your entire ministry career in which your leadership and devotion will be tested like it is being tested now. Your people need bold, moral leadership. You must exude a spirit of confidence and trust in Almighty God. You must preach the resurrection. You must establish certain moral boundaries of integrity. Finally, and this is a difficult message, you must place as your highest priorities — more important than your own home — your church, its people and buildings, and your community. This is what leaders do.
Spiritual leadership
A few days after our first hurricane we met for our regular Wednesday evening program — in candlelight! Another parish from elsewhere in the diocese brought our food. This illustrates two principles: the importance of returning quickly to a schedule that people recognize — I hesitate to call it “normal” — and the importance of asking other churches for help.
That evening an elderly member of a prominent citrus-farm family came to the Wednesday night supper in her wheelchair. I was surprised to see her, as she did not normally attend on Wednesday nights. She pulled me aside and told me of the last major hurricane to hit Fort Pierce, 50 years earlier. She said that within days of the storm, the trees put out buds. Survivors had called it their “second spring.” Later that night I took a flashlight and looked carefully at an oak. I thought I discerned buds. Through God’s tender mercy, that woman had given me Sunday’s sermon. We were already being restored. God was already putting forth buds within and among us. God was making us new.
When the second hurricane hit us three weeks later, what could I say? We held out hope for yet another spring, a third spring. And it came.
Moral leadership
Insurance adjusters and executives, and the disaster contractors who work with them, will tell you dozens of horror stories about churches, pastors and even bishops who have attempted to defraud the insurance company. Churches and ministers have a bad reputation in this regard. When you are beaten up by a natural disaster and you are a victim, it is natural to be tempted to cheat. You will be tempted personally, in the rebuilding of your own home. Your people will be tempted to cheat their insurers. And the lay and clergy leadership of your church will be tempted to cheat the church’s insurer. I dealt with this in my second sermon.
From the pulpit I laid down this bottom line: Your church will never lie or misrepresent any facts to the insurance company. Period. To do otherwise would be stealing. I told them that they would personally experience temptation, and must resist it. I told them that their church leadership would be aggressive in advocating our interpretation of the terms of the policy, but would never misrepresent the facts. Only if your church upholds the highest moral standards in your dealings with contractors and your insurer will you grow spiritually through this crisis.
Sacrificial leadership
After Hurricane Andrew in South Florida, several lay people in one church launched conducted a feeding and distribution center, meeting the needs of the incredibly poor people whose lives were ruined by that Category 5 hurricane. Each of these lay people had homes in ruins. But they focused on the ministry God had given them at that moment. Where was their pastor? He was at his home, guarding it with a shotgun. When I encountered that true story almost 15 years ago I vowed that if I were ever tested in that way I would do right by my people. Quite simply, you must place your ministry above your possessions.
You must give your church staff paid time off to deal with their homes. And you also must secure your home from further damage and minister to your own family. But most of your time in those early weeks and months must be invested in the ministry God has given you.
Ministry to people
Visit your members. Hunt them down and check on them. Keep records of whom you have heard from and whom you haven’t. Encourage your members to check on each other and to report back. Lead people in a ministry of caring.
Some churches will be called by God to become distribution centers. Some will not. Our focus had to be to get 200 elementary and middle school kids back to school as soon as possible. Each church will have its own unique post-storm priorities.
Take care of yourself. It is a long process. You’re running a marathon, not sprinting 60 meters. Maintain your prayer life, your family life, and your time off. At some point, perhaps six weeks after the storms, I started feeling weird. I grew jumpy and distractible. I felt nervous when the wind blew, even lightly. All of this was cured by a week in solitude in a place untouched by the storms. Take care of yourself so you can care for others.
Prepare for Christmas and Easter. You won’t want to, but it is important that you and your congregation celebrate Christmas and Easter as normally as possible. Believe it or not, six months later, there will be moments of normalcy.
Finally, plan a celebration of God’s mercy and grace on the one-year anniversary of the disaster. Make it a big event. Reach out to lapsed members. Hustle the publicity. Tell your story to the media. Let the world know that you are making a comeback.
Ministry to the building
Managing the insurance claim
A large insurance claim is a major administrative ordeal. It is absolutely vital that you find experts to assist you in managing claims and reconstruction. Do you have an excellent bookkeeper? Do you have an attorney? Do you have a contractor? Put together a committee that will meet almost weekly for a year. Such a committee should include elected lay leaders and lay people with expertise. This will be difficult for some churches that lack members with these skills. Volunteers outside your congregation may be a place to look.
Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest your insurance contract. Learn the meaning of and the limits of coverage for “adjacent structures” and “code upgrade.” Learn the difference between contents and building items. (Carpets are part of the building but pews are contents.) Learn the limits of your coverage and the deductibles for each element in the contract. Add them up.
Your non-reimbursable costs include the total of all deductibles, the costs over and above the various limitations in the contract (if you exceed the limit on adjacent structures or code upgrade you will have to pay the difference), and any upgrades you choose to make. Be sure your governing board is clear on these costs. In the early days the insurance company should advance you a significant sum. But sooner or later its willingness to make advances will wane. Early on you must obtain the approval of your governing board for a line of credit of some other means of financing the reconstruction, and for an extraordinary method of making quick and rather large financial decisions. This extraordinary emergency spending authority should gradually be phased out as the reconstruction becomes normal during the ensuing year. The line of credit should be paid down every time you receive an insurance check.
You can “finance” some or all of your deductible through the creative use of your inventory and the decision to defer some repairs. For example, our church library was full of old, used books, donated by members. It was totally destroyed. We counted the volumes, looked up the replacement value of 50 volumes on Amazon.com, and multiplied by the total number of volumes. That room full of used books that few people ever read was worth $10,000 toward our deductible. An electronic carillon had some rust from the flood, but it still played. We settled with the insurance company for $9,000. So long as it plays, we can use that $9,000 to offset part of our deductible.
A helpful resource in managing the claim is to work closely with a contractor who has experience dealing with large insurance claims.
Inventory and photograph everything
We may have discarded $5,000 worth of material in the early days after our flood. Then we got smart. Write the name of each room at the top of a yellow pad. Draw a line down the center, creating two columns. Label one column “Discarded” and the other “Keep for Now.” Have a volunteer write down everything in that room in one column or the other. Make sure the volunteer describes it well so you will know later what that item was. Photograph expensive items. Photograph damaged building elements. And don’t forget that some of your photographs will one day be part of the historical record of your church.
Upgrades and master planning
Seize the moment. This is an opportunity to end up with a major improvement in your facilities. Even when you replace a damaged desk with one of like quality, the new one is, well, new. And it will match all the other new furniture. A color-coordinated new sofa will replace the damaged sofa in your reception area, donated secondhand by a church member. Things will begin to look nice. But keep track of your upgrades. It may be wise to replace pressboard cabinets with plywood cabinets, or carpet with tile, but these extra costs will gradually accumulate. Be careful.
Do you have a master plan? If so, how can you marshall the rebuilding effort so as to take a step toward that plan? Do you lack a master plan for your facilities? A few months after the disaster, as things begin to settle down, you may choose to put the rebuilding on pause, hire an architect, and develop a master plan.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction is very unlike any traditional building process you have ever known. It will require flexibility, patience in the face of frustration, and a can-do attitude on the part of all involved.
Shortly after the disaster, the first phase is called emergency services. This is the phase in which a contractor gets your building dry, mold-free, and stable. Important documents and books can be freeze-dried and vacuum-bagged to rescue them. Data on damaged computers can be recovered. Large generators and hoses can dehumidify and ventilate your buildings. Wet carpet and drywall will be removed. Roofing will be repaired. When this phase is over your buildings should be dry.
The second phase is reconstruction. Traditional construction is a linear process, moving through phases of visioning, conceptual design, fundraising, design development, documents, permitting, and finally the actual construction. In contrast, reconstruction is layered, cyclical and frenetic. You may be designing air-conditioning systems, choosing paint colors and designing a new floor plan simultaneously. The process is crazy. I found it fun.
Almighty God, in his providence, has given you one of the greatest leadership challenges of your life. You are in this place, at this moment, for a reason. Exercise your leadership gifts. Keep up your prayer life. Exercise and get your rest. Care for your people. And watch God bring new life out of the midst of destruction.
The Rev. John Liebler is rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and School in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Posted at 8:12 am 9.28.2005 | Permalink