The Upload
Posted on Jan 31, 2014 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray that you have had a blessed week.
This past Sunday, we held our annual meeting, and it was a very good meeting. We had some great discussions about how we are handling our finances. A motion was made and approved by a voice vote to state that we will always tithe a minimum of 10% of our income to benevolence. We are actually budgeted to offer about 15% of our income this year for benevolence, but there have been years where we have not practiced what we preach, so those present felt it was important that we make it a requirement. The motion passed with only one “no” vote and one abstention out of 79 voting members.
We also talked about our facility and the amount of maintenance and upgrades that are needed. We weren’t discussing extravagant changes and expansion; we were just discussing the approximately $1,000,000 in maintenance and improvements that are needed just to keep our facility in good working order so that we can continue our ministry. We spoke about the need for a new roof on Koinonia Hall, upgrades to our sanctuary building, new windows in Luther Hall (many are broken and they leak), and an air conditioner in Luther Hall so we can use it all year. To accomplish these things will require some faithful decision-making in the near future.
We also talked about our need to focus on our ultimate mission. Oh, tithing is important, and facility maintenance and improvement are important, but our ultimate mission is the mission Christ gave to his disciples and, thus, to the whole church before he ascended to his Father, and that is to go make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:20). At the core of our mission is the command to grow God’s Kingdom. In the midst of everything we need to do, we must ultimately be about growing the church. In the midst of this broken world, where so many deny that the church is relevant, our mission is to make the church relevant. Our mission is to help the world see that Christ is present, and he desires to be an active part of their lives.
Yes, our core mission is to grow, not our buildings, but our membership. It would be much easier to figure out how to grow our facility, but Jesus specifically said, go and make disciples. This does not mean we can continue to ignore our facility needs; we need a good facility if we are going to grow. No, what it means is that we have to begin to take a good long look at ourselves to see what we must do to help new people feel comfortable here at Salem. We need to figure out what those outside our community need, and then we need to be willing to make changes so they feel welcome and can come and experience Christ as we do. We have to become those beacons of light that draw people into God’s church.
In our Gospel text this Sunday (Luke 2:22-40), we will read the story of how, 40 days after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to dedicate him to the Lord, and while they were there, an old priest, Simeon, took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel" (Luke 2:28-32).
In his briefest of encounters with Jesus, the infant, Simeon became a beacon of light for Christ and announced to all present that Christ was the salvation of the world. We are called to be a beacon, just like Simeon, and share with the world how God has blessed us and our faith community through Christ.
This is a scary thing to do in this world, but my prayer this week is that, as this faith community continues to prayerfully consider how we will raise and spend money, how we will maintain and grow our facilities, we will also prayerfully consider how we, as both individuals and as a faith community, might be better beacons of light for Jesus.
Shalom,
Pastor Dave