A sermon by the Rev. John B. McCall,
January 30. 2011
Micah 6:6-8
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Some of you know the quaint term “churchmanship.” It’s from the era when Deacons were men elected for life, based on sterling characteristics and commitment to God. It was a time when teams of callers went out on a Sunday afternoon in October for “Every Member Canvas” and sat in each member’s home and asked them to raise their pledge to the church.
True “churchmen” worshiped every Sunday, gave a 10% tithe of their income to the church, attended numerous meetings, belonged to fellowship groups, and set a fine example for their children and neighbors.
Those were the heady days when our old sanctuary was filled to overflowing every Sunday morning and the members committed additional dollars to the capital campaign to build this “new sanctuary,” this familiar, beautiful, and holy space that was dedicated just 50 years ago.
These faithful members built and sustained our congregation, then entrusted it to the next generations. A few of those dear “churchmen” are still with us every Sunday and to all of them, we say “thank you.”
Those were also the days when Protestant Christians ruled, and expressed wide-spread caution about the first Roman Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, suggesting he might be taking orders from the Vatican.
And in those days no one could imagine days like these – when worshiping regularly would be considered counter-cultural; days when the fastest-growing religious tradition would be “spiritual but not religious.”
It’s so easy to glamorize the good old days that were certainly good for some and certainly not for others. Whether these are the best of times or the worst of times, these are the only times we have.
The good old days owe us nothing; yesterday’s successes can’t guarantee today. Every generation, every year, indeed every day, we should ask the question whether we’re being faithful to the God we’ve experienced through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe we can answer “yes.”
Then, as we consider the state of our church we ask the institutional question: who’s in the pews, today, and who is likely to be hear tomorrow?
- Is God drawing new life into the pews and the classrooms and the fellowship hour in such a way that we can continue to live, serve, and minister when the greatest generation is gone?
- Does numerical decline mean inevitable death, or are we living in an exciting time of transformation? Who’s in the pews?
One way to answer this is statistically. Our membership numbers and worship attendance have been shrinking slowly for 25 years or so… having begun a couple of years before I came. So I didn’t start the decline – I’ve only continued it!
Over that span of years our budget has grown significantly. Our giving to support the budget has grown significantly, too. Twenty years ago our annual budget had been in deficit for many years, drawing from investment principal year after year. The Cabinet agreed that we’d stop deficit budgets and in four years we had. And from that time we haven’t drawn from our principal – only from the earned interest and cash we’ve banked during the best years.
There were a few years of surplus when we were able to put money in the bank, and there were years when we drew some out. As you’ll hear at our budget meeting, we have been presenting deficit budgets for the past six years – but for all these years we’ve had cash reserves available, and in every year since 2006, the deficit at year’s end has been significantly smaller than we thought it would be.
Teams have tightened their belts, staff has gone without even cost-of-living increases, mission budgets have remained flat, and we, the members, have actually given more than we said we would. Some have made significant additional gifts in the final few days of the year that come like manna from heaven.
With the economy down, everything else goes down. But we’ve been alert to the question of whether plateaued giving is a because of the down economy, or because of the giving trends of our members. We agree it’s some of each. We have fewer givers, while the average gift continues to grow.
Still, we depend a lot on fifteen to twenty households that give significantly more than the average. If any one of those gifts doesn’t come in we feel the effect.
Seeing that pledges for this year were slow to come in, the Stewardship Committee prepared a sent a second appeal in early January, asking for new pledges or increases. There was exactly one response from 450 households! We get the message.
Ten days ago the Church Council meeting as we finalized the budget proposal for today, and talked about the projected deficit (smaller than in previous years), one member said “Sure, this is a challenge, but I bet there are thousands of churches that would love to have such a challenge…” Amen.
The Church Council intends to begin a process of careful conversation in the next month or two, looking at our priorities for mission and ministry and the resources it will take to support them. Realistically we know that costs are rising faster than income and we can’t sustain that trend for much longer. I applaud the Council in planning to engage the whole congregation in that work of discerning and setting priorities.
Let’s be clear: numbers of any kind can’t tell our whole story. We’re a non-profit, and we can’t measure our value by the spreadsheet.
Friends, we’re alive, vital, faithful, welcoming, safe, and engaged. We share each others’ joys and sorrows and we come together because we desire that sense of community where we’re valued and loved.
We’re here because we’re empowered by God’s love through Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, what we do and who we are may appear foolish to the world. Fewer and fewer people want anything to do with churches or Christian faith.
A recent Pew Charitable poll shows 70% said that is losing its influence in the US. I certainly agree. It’s harder and harder to make the case that regular worship and spiritual practices, generous giving and daily service to others, give back much more than they take.
But we still gather because God continues to do amazing things in us, among us, and through us. We must be prudent and businesslike about matters financial, but it’s so much more important to be faithful about matters spiritual.
We’ve found our voice, as a healthy, active, faithful, progressive and refreshingly different congregation…
- As a mission-minded congregation we reach into the community and live what we claim through our United Church of Christ mission, and direct assistance to our neighbors through Community Crisis Ministries, the food pantry, soup kitchen and Children’s Closet.
- As an Open and Affirming, family-based congregation, we’re able to engage in a unique set of ministries that continues to attract those in the pews today and tomorrow.
- And we minister faithfully to our oldest generation – those of you who helped build this sanctuary, further this vision, and serve this community in Jesus’ name. I pledge again, we won’t forget or forsake you, even as we are called to reshape many aspects of our life together to be faithful in the years ahead.
Make no mistake, buildings are shaped by human hands; churches are shaped by the Holy Spirit, by the way we embody God’s love.
As one of our favorite hymns says:
Give thanks for the Past, for those who had vision, who planted and watered so dreams could come true;
Give thanks for the Now, for study, for worship, for mission that bids us turn prayer into deed.
Give thanks for Tomorrow, full of surprises, for knowing whatever Tomorrow may bring,
the Word is our promise, always, forever, we rest in God’s keeping and live in God’s love.
Yes, God calls us to be prudent in managing what we have, but also to be foolish in giving it away and using it up. We’re not here to make a profit or to swell our accounts, but rather to use whatever has been entrusted to us to equip one another for faithful ministry in a challenging age.
When we work together and give it our best God’s blessing will make us able. Ultimately, we can only guess who’ll be in the pews in future generations. We certainly hope and pray they will love the church as we do.
Today you can do your part in keeping our congregation strong, by worshiping regularly, by teaching our children faithfully, and by giving generously. With that you join as one of the saints who make us “A Christian family – loving, welcoming, serving.”