Two Weeks To Go

We have two weeks until the end of the year. We have two weeks to finish out the financial commitments we made as a congregation twelve months ago. Beside the usual expenses that keep us functioning, we also need to finish our missional and larger church commitments. What does that mean? It means that we need to raise a little over $200,000 in the next two weeks. To put that in perspective we have raised that amount several times during months of Decembers past, and we need to do it again. Many programs count on our support and the support of all the other United Methodist Churches in our conference and indeed in our denomination.

Christmas is a season of giving, and we are counting on you as a member of this church family to be a part of helping us to finish the year in strong fashion. That support will help our congregation to continue its vital ministry not only to you and other members of the congregation, but also to many in the Austin area and beyond who count on our ministries. Will you help us today?

November Brings Good News

Financially our congregation had a strong November, continuing a trend that began in late summer. What this means is that we are in a good position to finish out the year in the “black,” and it is important that we do so. The items still to be funded include most of our missional commitments to the larger church as well as our share of administrative costs. Over the past several months I have tried to share with you what those funds are used for and why they are important. If you have any questions, please ask and I will do what I can to give you helpful answers.

Before us is the month of December. Traditionally this is our strongest giving month. We need for that to be true yet again in 2009. We need to raise just over $300,000, which sounds like a daunting task until you realize that we have raised that much or more three out of the last five years. As you are planning your giving, I hope you will remember this congregation and its ministries. There are many who count on our successful completion of this year.

We Have To Be Careful

Sunday begins the season of Advent. Things will look a little different in the sanctuary. Rather than the Christ Candle, you will see the Advent Wreath with its five candles marking progress toward the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Purple will replace green on the altar, pulpit, and baptismal font. Sunday night we will add greenery throughout the church. All these indicate a different season, and it is not just any season. It is Advent.

We need these visual clues. We need them because if we are not careful, we will allow the sense of the season to slip away from us. It is not that we are unmindful. The Christ Child just gets buried in the midst of it all. And the sad thing is that much of which we use to do that burying is stuff from which the Child would try to draw us away.

What is needed is some intentionality on our part. We need to start this high holy season with a vision that matches the importance of the season and its witness. There is a group that has put together what they call the Advent Conspiracy. Jen Stuart shared their website with me. They make four suggestions for the coming between now and Christmas. I would urge your consideration of them. They are: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All. Think of these in the days to come, really prayerfully think of them. Consider their implications for your behavior; consider the implications for your life.

Christmas draws ever nearer with its wonderful, life-saving possibilities. We have to be careful or else we will miss this God-given opportunity.

Finishing Our Task

One of the things that you hear frequently when watching sports on television is a commentator or coach talking about a team’s ability or inability to “finish” the game. By that they mean making the effort necessary to complete the game successfully. Last Sunday night one team seemed to have the game well in hand, but they could not “finish” it.

We have had a wonderful year with many things accomplished. Our mission outreach has been significant, touching hundreds of lives. Our worship has brought people into the presence of God with life-changing results. Our care ministries have touched lives throughout our congregation. But there is still unfinished business. As a congregation we need to “finish” 2009.

There are all the usual things that come with the Advent-Christmas season. There are reports to be compiled. There are plans to be put in place as we prepare to move into next year. But the part that weighs heavily on us is the completion of our financial commitments. A large portion of those un-raised funds are designated toward our Conference apportionments, those funds that we contribute along with other churches, that allow our Conference and denomination to carry out significant ministries that would not be possible for any one congregation alone. They also fund the structures that make this denomination the force for good that it is.

When the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation looked for a partner to help eradicate malaria in Africa, they came to The United Methodist Church because we already had in place the distribution system so necessary for such a large endeavor. Our giving together made and continues to make that possible.

Over the last few months I’ve written about these funds, what they support, and what we have committed to each of them. I hope you have been aware of the impact our gives make on our mission in the world. If you have any questions, please ask, and we will do our best to answer.

We now have about six weeks left in 2009. Traditionally these weeks are our strongest giving times. I hope you will help make that happen again. All of us, working together, will help First United Methodist Church of Austin “finish” this year in good shape with our ministries making a difference and our commitments paid.

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.