If I had the time and the real desire to do so, I would sift through all my calendars since June, 2002, and count how many meetings I have been a part of at Fountain City United Methodist Church. I’m pretty sure it would be less than a million but more than a thousand. Just a quick, somewhat educated guess would put it somewhere between 1500 and 2000 – not counting staff meetings and other meetings with staff. That would probably at least double the number.
Some meetings have been more “enjoyable” than others. Some have left us with more questions than answers. Others have allowed us to solve some issues. Almost all (if not all) have provided opportunity for laughter somewhere along the way. Some have been more productive than others. And while certainly there has been healthy and helpful disagreement, I cannot recall that there was any rancor among the participants. We have always begun by asking for God’s guidance. Sometimes we have asked for God’s blessing on what we do. More often, perhaps, we should ask that we would bless what God is doing.
At any rate, there are still some meetings to come in the next few weeks that will impact the outreach efforts of our church for some time to come. We are in the midst of some rather difficult meetings right now. Unfortunately, these usually involve discussion about – yep — $$. In a meeting Sunday night of our leadership team, we took a serious look at what might lie ahead for us in 2010 as far as ministry/staffing changes. The Finance Committee will be meeting next Monday, January 11, to put together some recommendations for the Church Council in a later meeting.
Before all final figures are reported, it appears we will be closing the year with a $25,000 liability to our line of credit. This is considerably better than we feared only a month ago. Thanks to your generosity we were able to cover the expenses of $1,356,457 with only this shortfall. However, that is also because we have kept spending to an absolute bare minimum, including no new ministries or efforts; and some existing ones have been cut back. Still, we have much for which to be thankful in an unfortunate economic environment. You will receive a more complete report after all the 2009 numbers have been recorded. Meanwhile, if you have questions, please feel free to contact John Patterson, our church administrator.
Our pledges to support our 2010 ministries are about $60,000 behind the commitments for 2009. We have about 40 families/giving units who pledged for 2009 and have continued to give faithfully but who have not yet returned a card for 2010. We feel this is probably an oversight on the part of most of these folks. If you are one of these or another one who has not yet made a pledge, let me encourage you to return a card as soon as possible as to what you think the minimum will be that you will be able to give to support our ministries in 2010. This will certainly enable us to make some better decisions as to how we will continue to reach out in the name of Christ in the year to come.
For those who have given and will give, we thank you. For those who are unable to give, we thank you for other ways in which you support our ministries. In all this, I pray for wisdom and faith on the part of us all. I pray that our meetings will, as always, be those that celebrate our blessings and that will move us forward in the name and spirit of Christ. I ask for your prayers also. It will make life easier in the upcoming meetings; but, more importantly, it will enhance our efforts for Christ’s work.
- Jim
