Priorities

 

Priorities

My efforts to encourage you to prioritize missions, ministries, and other important activities of the church were ineffective. I am not accustomed to this lack of efficacy on my part. I can see that I had better learn to tap dance before I stand before the Lord.

Not! I can’t even get the motions to the kids’ songs right. I will confess my ineffectiveness, and God’s grace will be enough for me.

But for you, I urge you once again to discuss what’s important going forward.  Without some stated priorities, assumptions are made that others think just as you do, often resulting in:

·         No agreement on purpose

·         Assumptions not validated

·         Mission gives way to busywork

·         No financial compass

·         Emotion rules

·         No filter for budgeting and spending

This takes effort, and nobody signs up for this sort of stuff. It is a duty and a discipline that mainly reveals dividends somewhere in the future. In the RCA model, the root cause is the lack of immediate reward or punishment for not doing this.

Do not be stifled by my lack of efficacy here. You can do this, and I hope you do.

Priorities can be evaluated and changed. Our education, experience, and God speaking to our hearts can say, “Let’s take another look.”

Priorities aligned with purpose are good things, but they don’t just show up without deliberate effort.

Please consider this a part of your leadership calling.

Mission over Money

 

Fixation on Money

 

Something unhealthy is afoot. It is a fixation upon money.  You have reason to keep an eye on the funds entrusted to us.

Money (I hope I’m preaching to the choir here) is neither appropriate as the main session goal nor should it be the driving force. Stewardship is a good quality, but all resources must be focused on the goal, not on accumulating worldly wealth, including money.

You will likely have some savings in the course of your search for a pastor, but the mission of the church remains our God-ordained focus, the goal. The church and those trusted in its local administration must be focused on sharing the gospel and making disciples. Our denomination has placed some restrictions on baptism, but this is hardly prohibitive. Help is available.

For some of the older ones among us, we had an encounter with Albert Dugeon upset that we didn’t have a bankroll stored up from the year we didn’t pay a preacher.

In theory, we should have an extra $40-50K based upon Duawn’s remuneration that was not paid out during the year after he left.

Be careful of such expectations. They must not be the focus.

I wrestled with money as an elder during Duawn’s tenure. We had a declining balance for much of the time, and it included not only funds from offerings but also borrowed money.

I believe that borrowing more than we owed on the building was wise. It’s start-up smarts. You have to have something to prime the pump.

I watched the balance and had a tipping point in my mind where I would address a concern to the rest of the session. I don’t remember the number. We got close but never hit it, eventually turning the tables when offerings picked up enough that we had a little breathing room.

We did have to make some adjustments to things like F4 where we had a major feast for very few people most weeks.  We tracked expenses and trusted God for the increase in giving.

God provided.

I say “we” but can only speak for me. I presumed we all were in this mode and trusted God,

We have avoided the mindset of money being the mission for much of the past 25 years, but not always. What we have, we should leverage like the first two servants in my favorite parable.

We should be much more proactive in addressing our expenses with the provider of goods and services. Simple negotiation can save money as much as arbitrary cuts, but we must not make money central.

Awareness and action as needed for sure, but don’t let money drive you away from your mission.

Choose Mission over Money.

Proactive Thinking

 

A Round Downrange

I know this upsets Phil, but I won’t cheat you out of what I know about concurrent and parallel planning or creativity, or our ability to contend with negotiating the things God and this body have entrusted to you.

When I sent off a missive asking the session to think about a topic or theme, that is exactly what it is—a prompt to thinking.

If we have broached the subject before and did the body remaining at rest thing, I will take a shot at what I believe hits the target. Most first rounds are not direct hits. Neither are second or third rounds for most.

 These rounds downrange should prompt new ideas (The patterns from the periphery always differ from those in the center).

This is designed to provoke thinking that is not yet visible to the mind. A good idea will always appear logical in hindsight. Don’t be afraid to think so far out of the box that you forgot there was a box.  Your minds will find something in between where you have been stuck and the round downrange offering.

This is not designed to manipulate or overly influence thinking, other than to get it out of park and into gear. The fact that I prompt you to think influences the thinking. There is no sanitary model.

I appeased Phil for this final meeting so as not to stir him up and immobilize him for having to think prior to the meeting.

We will pay a price in time spent/invested at the meeting, but hopefully will avoid an advance meltdown. The integrity issue must be resolved now.

Going forward, I hope you don’t throw in the towel on advanced thinking (priming the pump, if you want to leave the military metaphor behind), as well as concurrent and parallel planning.

I have seen you in action, and most of you are very proactive, much more so than me.

While Phil may remain in reactive mode, I pray he does not try to convince you to forsake your proactive nature and practices or discount your efficacy.

I think that he might be more receptive to your approach than he was towards mine. If I have been the stumbling block here, ignore this brief counsel.

I know that I rub him the wrong way. I think he will be more receptive to your forward-looking efforts. There is a place for the gifts and talents of all whom God has called to this leadership, even very cautious ones, but God did not call you to be placeholders.

There must not be any room for fear-based or hate-based decisions. Start the conversation earlier than you think you need to. Give yourself and others time to accept new ideas.

Give your minds some acceptance time.

Don't Just Fill the Pulpit

 

Fill the pulpit.

Saving money or proclaiming the word of God?

 

Monetary savings might be (and likely will be) realized in the absence of a pastor but must not become the objective. Based on previous shared experience, it won’t be quite what you might anticipate. (Albert Dudgeon thought we should have had a big bankroll from the year we didn’t pay a pastor, but expenses gave no deference to the pastoral situation or his thoughts).

I hope that you put exhorting the word of God above all other considerations. This is important, so I am repeating some of what you received earlier. The target, focus, and intent matter. Savings are great, but proclaiming good news and prompting discipleship (we mostly preach to the Saints on Sunday morning) remain the homiletic target.

Don’t just fill the pulpit. Preach the word.