How Far We Have Come And Yet…

I begin with wonderful news! We have made wonderful strides this year in overcoming a budget deficit which at year’s beginning seemed insurmountable. Through management of spending and your generous support, we have made great progress. In fact, we can even begin to dream that we will finish the year in the black. Thank you for all that you have done.

And thank you for all that you will do. Yes, we have made great progress, but there is still some distance to go between now and year’s end. November and December are typically the strongest giving months of the church year, and that needs to be true for us in the weeks to come. We will need to raise in excess of $300,000 over the next two months. While the number seems large, know that in years past, we have done that and more. We need this amount to cover the ongoing expenses of salaries, utilities, etc. But we also need to complete our commitments beyond ourselves. Over the past months I have been sharing with you what those commitments look like and their amounts. Others are counting on us to come through. Your gifts will also support the special events and worship services for Christmas, our mission outreach, and other causes.

We have come so far, and yet there is still an important distance to travel to complete our commitments. We are giving that need prayerful consideration at our house. I hope you will be doing the same.

Thank you again for what you have done, and what you will do.

It has been fun…

After the summer that we have had, it has been fun to watch it rain. It has even been fun to watch it rain day after day. I am sure that at some point we will become impatient but after seeing things get as dry as they did, it is an absolute joy to watch the rain and the resultant re-greening of things. True the lakes are still low and will probably remain so for a while, but the world looks differently than it did just a few weeks ago. Several of you told me that it was going to rain…sometime, and it did.

This almost serves as a parable for our lives. We do all go through spiritual dry spells where life’s joys seem to fade and we may feel out of touch with those around us and even out of touch with God. I could offer similar advice to that which was given to me. Joy will return, a sense of the presence of God will return…sometime. It will. There is something about staying after the faith through worship, and study, and meditation, and prayer. It will come, maybe not as soon as we would like, but like the rain, come it will. And with it comes the rejuvenation of the spirit and of life. Just as we experience the re-greening of the countryside, we experience the re-greening of our souls.

It has been fun watching the rain and all it has brought back to us, but with the re-greenig of our soul comes joy.

After All These Years

I started listening to Kris Kristofferson some forty years ago. He was one of several I liked whose voice was not classic but communicated real feeling. My personal favorites were “Why Me, Lord?” and “Sunday Morning Comin' Down.” There was something special about how the words and the situation being conveyed and the voice came together to create a special experience each time you heard either of those songs.
I was reminded of them when I saw Kristofferson’s picture on the front page of one of the sections of the Austin American Statesman on Tuesday. Kris was talking about an old friend of his who had died back in May. And as he talked about is friend, you got that same sense of humanity that permeated the songs I had come to love.
In a hard and sometimes heartless world it is a gift to be able to hear someone touch emotion from time to time. It is a greater gift to be able to be the one who creates that experience. I still remember and I still treasure the experience after all these years.

One Quote Leads To Another

In working on last week’s sermon, I found this quote from Robert Quinn: “Acting on a vision that exceeds our resources is a test of our vision, faith, and integrity. “

What came to mind was one of the quotes that Miss Black, my high school English teacher, used to repeat to us. I have forgotten the author but not the words. “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s a heaven for?”

Somehow these two are linked in my mind and heart. There is a tendency to want to settle- to settle down and to settle for. Another quote from 8^th grade science comes to mind. It is the definition of inertia which is “the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest until acted upon by an outside force.” That may be a scientific definition, but it is an emotional definition and a spiritual definition as well.

It is too easy to want to be comfortable, but we are called to more. We are called to reach beyond our comfort zones. WE are called by God to reach beyond our comfort zones. To do what? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. We act because we have been acted upon by an outside force to use the definition. That force is God made known through Christ Jesus.

May we act on a vision that exceeds our resources. May our reach exceed our grasp.

Eating Dessert First

I was in an ice cream parlor the first time I saw it. It was one of those places with upteen different flavors, and the young man behind the counter had the slogan written across the front of his T shirt. It read “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.”
We are fortunate to spend a lot of time with our grandchildren, and because of that we have been introduced to the dessert argument. “I am not really hungry for the meat and mashed potatoes, but I do want the ice cream I saw in the freezer.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting dessert, but there is a meal that necessarily precedes its consumption; which brings me to some thoughts about our congregation’s financial situation. We do a lot of wonderful special things. In one recent week alone we sent off a team to Russia, welcomed back a team from Appalachia, and held a successful Vacation Bible School. We provide a place and some of the volunteers for two significant food ministries for the hungry of Austin. We do all of these and so much more. There is however one aspect of our life together that is suffering and that is our Ministry Plan, our support of every day expenses from salaries to utilities. We are also behind is our support of missions and administration of the United Methodist Church.
We love to do all these special things, but what we may lose sight of is the fact that it is the everyday ministries of this congregation that make possible these special things. The youth program meeting each week is the base of the Appalachian ministry. The outreach, worship and study of the congregation inspire an increasing number of us to understake the important missions that are the heart of First United Methodist Church of Austin.
Please understand, I am not saying that we need to quit supporting these important missions. They allow us to put flesh to our faith in specific ways. I am saying that we need to make at least a similar effort to maintain the ongoing ministries of this congregation that motivate so many here to do so much.
Dessert is great, but there is also the matter of meat and potatoes.

Fulfilling Our 2009 Ministries

As summer moves along and fall draws ever nearer, we are reminded that we are more than halfway through the year. This then is a good time to see where we are in underwriting our programming for this year. We are currently operating on a Ministry Plan/Budget which requires $1.8 million to be completely funded. Given our current information, we are projecting a $200,000 shortfall for 2009.

We have been actively working to address this projected shortfall. Current initiatives in place include 10% program cuts, no staff raises, and keeping current expenditures below projections; but only a strong, positive and sustained response from all will allow us to continue our ministries as fully intended.

The task now before us is possible. To put it as simply, what is required is an additional $20 contribution per week from each giving unit, through the remainder of 2009. That will meet our ministry/budget needs.

This will allow us to:
• Fulfill our mission and ministry plan
• Meet our apportionment commitment
• Maintain our cash reserve
• Allow us to begin 2010 in a sound financial condition

Obviously not everyone can give at the same level but there are ways to help:
• Increase monthly giving
• Extra plate contribution each week
• Involve the family in giving
• Increase expected giving for the year by 10%
• Involve Sunday School class

We are in the process of meeting with Sunday School classes nad other small groups to answer questions and discuss the impact of church-wide participation. Please contact the church office if you have questions, need aditional information, or would like a meeting with your small group.

Remember the question of the Psalmist as he contemplates the grace of God:
“What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?” (Psalms 116:12)

Birthday Week

It was birthday week for our family last week. On Wednesday we celebrated Mckenzie’s birth seven years ago. Saturday we celebrated Fara’s dad and step mother’s birthdays. She is ninety; he is ninety-two. Then Sunday we celebrated Sam’s sixth birthday. It was an interested several days on which to reflect: two lives just beginning, two long lives rich with experience and memories. Each of those celebrations was a gift. Each of the people celebrated is a gift. Each day that we are given to live is a gift.

As I look back over my life, there are gifts that I have been given that I treasured and of which I made great use. There are others stowed away in my garage, which raises the question as to what I will do with this day, this gift of twenty-four hours, this gift of life. Will I treasure it? Will I make great use of it? Or will I let it slip by not used to its potential and unappreciated.

I think it was the movie length cartoon “Alice in Wonderland” where I heard the song “A Very Merry UnBirthday”. Most of our lives are “unbirthdays,” but they are still special. They are still to be celebrated. They are still gifts, gifts to be used well, gifts to be treasured.