Sermon of February 6, 2005
Presented by Rev. Chuck Ericson
Scripture lesson: Matthew 4:13-25

“The Three Biggest Challenges Facing Our Church”

Those are great words for us as we prepare for the annual meeting because, very simply, what we are called to do is to follow Jesus in this day and this age as the Bolton Congregational Church.  Last week I know that the report of the Nominating Committee was accepted and new officers and board members have begun to serve. We have a little bit of business still to go, some reports to receive and some numbers to look at for those who like to look at financial reports and budgets and so forth. But really what is encompassing all of that is one major question: How are we to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ like Peter and Andrew and James and John here in 2005 in the GBMR, the Greater Bolton Metropolitan Region?

How are we to be God’s faithful disciples, bearers of Christ’s good news, here and now, that’s what we are called to do, and as we look at what has happened in the year that’s gone by and the year that’s ahead, there are some challenges for us and I want to outline three very brief challenges that I think are central to the health and well-being of our church.  

One of them is the challenge of volunteer service. There may be a better word for that but that is often what we call it in our church. The way people serve on boards and committees and the choir and the youth group and in so many other ways in our congregation. We think about how Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John, he called them to one hundred percent service really, they were fishers as a profession in their family with their other relatives but Jesus called them away from that and called them to follow him; he didn’t say how long but he wanted them one hundred percent of the time, I guess as we say today, “24/7”.  From not serving God, being fisherman, to serving God one hundred percent of the time in their lives. 

In the earlier days of the church before this present generation it was common for people to give a lot of time to their churches because that was the only thing you could give your time to, basically.  Once your work was done and your family obligations were met, the church was the place people met for social occasions and to make a difference in the world and we know now that today for many people it’s a lot more complicated than that. There are other things to do. As one who remembers the days of having small children and even adolescent children there are dance lessons, music lessons, sports, school programs, all kinds of additional things now that call upon us to give our time after the family and work obligations are met.  So it’s a challenge for the church. It was a challenge for the Nominating Committee to find people willing to serve on boards and committees this year. Not that it isn’t good work but that it’s hard to fit it in sometimes. 

So that is one of the great challenges for us: how do we find ways for the work of our church to be done by volunteer people in our congregation in a time when increasing demands are made in so many other places in peoples’ lives? Julia and I have each been to workshops about that issue over the past couple of years or few years and we were trying to get together to put our ideas together to see what might make a difference. One of the things is trying to find less things like boards and committees where you are expected to be at a two-hour meeting once a month at a certain time – to people doing tasks that can be done on a more flexible schedule such as the gentlemen who go around our church fixing things and painting things and making it look better when they feel like getting together.   And then there’s the snow shovelers. The snow shovelers…they wait for the storm and they come out and shovel the snow. There’s also the Prayer Shawl group.  There’s lots of different ways people have begun to serve that doesn’t involve a board or committee or serving as an officer of the church. 

Well you know what, I said the challenge is volunteer service but I think the challenge is really helping people find where their passion can be fulfilled. It’s really about that. How can each of us, and those who aren’t with us now, realize what the real passion is about what we’d like to do? Is it about helping make a better Sunday school, is it about reaching out in missions with the Board of Missions in other ways, is it shoveling snow? Are there people who could have passion for shoveling snow?  I believe there are. I believe there are people who think that, “I like doing this and when I’m all done I like to know that what I did means that some people who have difficulty walking aren’t going slip on the ice and are going to be able to get into church”, and they feel good about that afterwards. What’s critical I think and what’s at the center of this challenge of volunteer time given to the church is can we find what each of us is passionate about and find out how we can do that in a way that makes us feel good and also makes a difference. 

A second challenge has to do with finances. The Board of Stewardship and the Church Council and others from time to time talk about how, well, it always seems like we have a little bit of a deficit or sometimes a little bit more of a deficit, the numbers don’t all add up the way we would like them to and those are real concerns. But again I ask you think about Jesus calling Peter and Andrew and James and John. He called them to leave all their possessions, all the financial security they had, and follow him, and give everything of their lives, everything in their lives, to him. Not just to follow him by following in his footsteps, but following his lifestyle. And so he was asking them to live very simply, very modestly, as Jesus lived; not to accumulate wealth and possessions but to live simply and to give generously in every way that they could. And indeed they did and the early church that followed them did that also. 

Our Board of Stewardship twice has looked over this year’s budget and said there’s nothing on the expense side that looks like we can trim without doing harm to our church and its health in trying to fulfill Christ’s mission for the world and for our area in the year ahead. But still all the numbers don’t add up and they often don’t. I gave them a little example that consisted of all the numbers of the pledges in the church; no names, just the list of numbers (there’s a column in the financial secretary’s report that has just numbers) and said here’s the numbers from the lowest to the highest, and if you cut off so many at the bottom and so many at the top (because at the bottom it’s hard for people maybe to get by and at the top people are giving a lot already) and just take those middle ones and add some number to all of them would that eliminate the deficit? And we came up with $150. That if each of those in that middle range would just to increase their pledge $150, then there wouldn’t be any deficit. And then we thought, what is $150? That’s $3 a week. Three dollars a week for people in that middle range which is like not going to Dunkin’ Donuts for a latte once a week. That’s what it comes down to. And we thought, “Gee, that is amazing, that’s all it is that’s separating us from thinking, “We have a healthy balanced budget” to, “Oh no, another deficit.” It becomes that simple.

But then again it’s not really about making all the numbers work because underneath that just as there has to be passion with volunteer ministry there has to be hope with the finances. We have to not think about it negatively but think about it positively. Over the years I’ve known that when people encounter a personal financial situation that’s difficult—they’re in a crunch all of a sudden because of a job situation or health or something else or some family situation and they feel like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do”, one of the immediate reactions is to either immediately drop down or even eliminate their pledge for the year. And I want to say, I can’t say…it’s kind of hard to figure out how to say this, because I want to be empathetic to that situation, but I want to say, “Have hope, don’t think right now that it’s never going to work out”. And again it’s not about getting the money; it’s about living a faithful life. And I want to think, “Gee I wonder if the cable is going to get stopped, or the cell phone is gone or some of those other things before the pledge got stopped.” But I don’t say that either. It’s really about feeling that things are not hopeless in this situation, that things will get better and I don’t have to be extreme in cutting back on helping my church to be healthy. 

The third challenge is worship.  When we expanded worship services a little while ago and had the first service at 8:45 and the Thursday services our worship increased quite a bit because there were other options available to people. But the last couple of years it’s been dropping a little bit, not dramatically but a little bit and I think again to Jesus calling Peter and Andrew and James and John to be followers and to fish for people, to fish for others that they may bring other disciples in and when he said, “Follow me” he was asking them to follow his lifestyle and worship, too.  And we know Jesus was faithful in Sabbath worship and observing the High Holy Days as a devout Jew and surely the disciples were also.  But today it also becomes kind of “not as sure” a commitment sometimes when other things come up.   And I fear it’s because people look upon worship as either something that, “Oh gee I have to do it”-- that was the old way -- it was an obligation and that’s not always a good feeling…and the other is that it should be something where “I get something out of it, I go to get something out of it and God help me to be entertained.”   (I’m trying to entertain you sometimes for those of you who need that but the real reason we should be here that goes back to the beginning of time is to praise God). 

The Call of Worship today said let’s praise God for the blessings we have. That’s why Jesus and his disciples worshipped—not to get something out of it, although they did and I hope you do you, too, but because they feel blessed by God and come, take time, an hour a week, to come and bless and thank God. It’s about gratitude, just like volunteer time is about passion and financial needs are about having hope. Worship is about feeling grateful to God and I know you’re all here – but it’s a concern that’s shared for our whole congregation, who’s here today and who’s not here today, that one of the challenges is to help us feel more like worship is something we should make room for in our lives, to give thanks and praise to God for all God has given us, and giving God an hour a week whenever we can is very little. 

So the good news today is that those challenges can very easily be met.  But they’re not just met by the practical aspects of it but by us all together remembering that it’s not just about worship and finances and volunteer time but it’s about gratitude and hope and passion. I want to ask you to join me in helping to increase that spirit of all of those things in our congregation in the year ahead so that we can follow Jesus today like Peter and Andrew and James and John.

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