State of the Church Address: The Pastor's Annual Report
David C. Myers
January 24, 2010
Deuteronomy 6:1 - 9
Hebrews 11:1 - 3, 8 - 10, 13 - 16
Matthew 6:33
Texts: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." . . . Deuteronomy 6:5
"But strive first for the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you." . . . Matthew 6:33
Every year at the Jewish festival of Passover the Dayenu is recited - often in song. The word "Dayenu" means approximately, "it would have been enough for us" or "it would have sufficed." This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. It is a song with 15 stanzas, five involve freeing the Jews from slavery, five describe the miracles God did for them and the last five for the closeness to God given to them. After each of the stanzas, the congregation would sing Dayenu - or in our case - "it would have been enough." It is a way of reminding people of God's abundant goodness and generosity to us. In this condensed version, I will read a stanza and I would like you to then say - "it would have been enough."
If God had only brought us out of Egypt. It would have been enough.
If God had split the sea for us. It would have been enough.
If God had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years. It would have been enough.
If God had fed us manna. It would have been enough.
If God had given us Shabbat. It would have been enough.
If God had brought us into the Land of Israel. It would have been enough.
This Dayenu is another way of saying the most important lesson that Jesus recognized from the Scriptures that He was taught as a child - it is known as the Shema - "Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." God is good all the time - and all the time, God is good!
Well, I hope you get the idea. God has blessed us enormously. Any one of God's blessings would have been enough, but Chevy Chase UMC has been blessed with people of enormous talents and leadership, wealth and creativity, faith in God and action in their lives.
But like with many people who are richly blessed, sometimes we tend to take for granted the richness we have. Thanks to Betty Bullock, our church's archivist, I have down a little study. For that I have learned that there was a time when this church proceeded like a ship without a rudder. Let me read to you the concluding statement of the Long Range Planning Task Force given on June 22, 1977.
" . . . we have a reasonably healthy, happy complacent church and we are inclined to shut our eyes to where all trends are pointing. For long range we must admit there is not one compensating optimistic trend."
Likewise, in 1991 there was an article in Highlights by Fred Phillips, then chair of Staff-Parish Relations Committee, announcing that there would be several staff cuts - an associate pastor, and reductions in salary and/or hours to the Music Director/Organist, the Highlights editor, and the Director of Christian Education. All other staff members would have a freeze in salary - something done here last November. They were responding to an $80,000 shortfall.
While that may have solved a problem for a year or two it did not address the over-all vision and direction of the church for a similar experience happened in the late 1990's and - as you will see when you get your February issue of Highlights - we face a financial crisis now.
However, now God has also blessed this church with a statement of Vision and Mission. It took almost a year to develop, and we are in the process of living into it. But in as much as it is our Vision and Mission it should be a guide for all that we do. To refresh your memories:
Vision: Journey Outside Yourself
Mission: We are a Christian community on a journey outside ourselves. We serve and are served, heal and are healed, through God's transforming love.
There is an incredible beauty, richness and simplicity about our Mission and Vision - it recognizes that our church follows the rich tradition of Abraham and Sarah, and all the "saints' mentioned in chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews - we are all on a journey - looking for a place that has the foundation set by God. In verse 8 of that scripture we discover that Abraham and Sarah "out [on that journey] knew not where they were to go." I think that is a beautiful description of "journeying outside yourself." We trust God to lead us.
As we look to the mission there is a wonderful reciprocity. "We serve and are served, heal and are healed." We don't claim to have superiority over those with whom we meet, we could be served or healed by them. Of course, that can't happen without being in relation with them. It is the goal of our Missions and Social Concern committee not to just send money to places, but to be in relationship with the people with whom we mission. Ask anyone who has been on a mission trip, whether to Nicaragua or Cuba or any other places they might have been. They will tell you, they got more out of it than anything they gave. Our own growth in understanding God's global family is as important as any economic gain we might provide them.
But we don't have to travel a long ways geographically to journey outside ourselves. We have a jarring reminder of that with our current budgetary crisis. A little background.
Since 2006 and perhaps even before that the congregation has been attempting to grow. In 2006 a full-time worship leader was secured to develop the 9:30 service. By the time I arrived in 2007 attendance in that service had nearly doubled. It continues to grow.
When I arrived in July 2007, and conducted 18 "Neighborhood Meetings" listening to your input, we discovered that there was a gap in ages in this congregation - basically from 9 - 39. We had a solid core of young children, but in recent years people were leaving to go to other churches because we didn't have a solid youth and young adult ministry. So we searched ourselves. In 2008 we decided that there were key areas we still needed to grow - visitation of our elderly, children, youth and young adults - including our Christian Education program. So we hired a full-time Director of Congregational Ministries and Programs. Since Carol has arrived our church school has grown, we have a youth group and a young adult group. The ages 9 - 39 gap is rapidly disappearing.
We knew when we started those positions that there would be a lag between the hiring and the income to support. To paraphrase Hebrews again, "we went out not knowing, . . . looking forward to the city that has foundations, Whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11: 8 and 10). The journey led by God, "outside ourselves" had begun.
Unfortunately the money to support this group has not realized as rapidly as we anticipated - especially in the last months of 2009. Up until that time we figured that we could tap the unrestricted bequest income to balance our budget. But at the end of 2009 the figure we anticipated went from somewhere near $80,000 to $211,000 in the red.
It is not my purpose to explain that gap - should you need more information, first pick up some of the year-end budget reports on the Pastor's Table or please speak to George Monk, Chair of Finance or Grey Emmons, our Treasurer.
We could empty the unrestricted bequest accounts to solve this problem for one year. But that would only be a one year delay. Likewise we could seek generous gifts - but unless we are assured that they are permanent, we still have only a one year solution.
So a Budget Realignment Task Force has been established to meet (basically) weekly for the next 10 weeks. The charge that was voted at the January 13 Church Council meeting was that this Task Force examine every aspect of the church that pertains to staffing, programs, procedures, and finances and come up with recommendations that will first be presented to the Church Council at its March 24 meeting. I suspect a final vote on the recommendations will be made by a Special All-Church Conference shortly after that.
There is no doubt that this will be a Journey Outside Ourselves. It may even be a painful journey - as it had to have been thousands of years ago when Abraham and Sarah set out on their journey. But this Task Force is representative of all aspects of the life of this church, and has some of our most trusted leaders on it. They have been charged to keep our Vision and Mission as a primary focus as they examine where we are and where we are going. We need to allow them to do the hard work they are willing and able to do.
Which leads us to a related issue. When I was being introduced to the Staff-Parish Relations Committee as the final step before becoming your pastor in April of 2007, I was made aware of divisiveness in this church between the two worshipping communities. We have worked hard to try to reduce and even eliminate this divisiveness. It is no where as severe as it once was. However, one thing I have learned through experience and training, is that when an organism is under stress it tends to revert to former behavior. I am not predicting that our divisiveness will again grow, but I am urging you to do all in your power to work together with one another, to trust first and seek to understand second - for the good and the future of this church. After all, we are one family.
Having dwelled on the hard reality; let us again rejoice in the blessings the Lord has poured down on this church. We are not desperate, we are taking actions before we get desperate. We do have financial resources to enable us to bridge this gap. We would like, though, to be more responsible in our budgeting, programming and staffing to move this church forward in it next 100 years.
In 2012 we will celebrate 100 years as a church community. When we held the first meeting of the Centennial Committee we realized that our church has shrunk from the size it was for the 50th Anniversary and the 75th Anniversary. That was a bit depressing. Many would like to have the days of Dr. Richmond return - a time when the parsonage was needed for church school, when 700+ people would worship here on Sunday mornings. I, too, would like to see more people in worship!
Jesus had some words for us. It happened on Ascension Day - the day after the Easter resurrection and just before the day of Pentecost when Jesus ascended into heaven. As Jesus gather with His disciples on the top of Mount Olives, they asked Him, "Lord, is this the time when You will restore the Kingdom to Israel?" It was a good question - they too longed for the good old days - back when David was King. They might of well have said, "make it like it was." But Jesus said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that God has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:6 - 8)
What Jesus was telling His disciples, and us now, is that our future is not about restoration, but transformation! We are promised that we will receive all the power we need, when the Spirit has come upon us. In the words of our mission statement "we serve and are served, we heal and are healed by God's transforming love." The task that is before us is to align ourselves to God's Spirit, not memories of the past.
Oh, I am well aware that to ignore our history is not the way to go; but to worship our history is also not the answer.
There are tasks for us to do as we, as we are fed by God's spirit. How do we "witness to our Jerusalems, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth?" Instead of seeing our building as walls that confine, we need to see how we can open our doors even wider so that we see all people as God's children - our sisters and brothers; doors that will open us to the Washington that is our Jerusalem, the Chevy Chase, Bethesda and immediate area that is our Judea and Samaria, and to the places all across the Globe that are our ends of the earth. How do we welcome strangers - wherever we find them - knowing that they may be angels unawares?
Every time you worship in this church you walk under an entrance that proclaims "Servants' Entrance." As disciples of Christ, that is what we are called to be - servants to one another, serving and being served. When we gather to worship it is not for entertainment, but to be spiritually fed, to be healed, so that we are better equipped to serve.
Every time you leave the worship of this church you go through doors that say above them, "Now let your service begin." There is a wonderful hymn that reminds of that in The Faith We Sing, called "Sent Out in Jesus' Name."
"Sent out in Jesus' name, our hands are ready now to make the earth the place in which the Kingdom comes. The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain into a world of love, of justice and of peace. The task is ours to do, to set it really free. O help us to obey and carry out your will."
Remember as we go through these trying days our Vision and Mission. Remember to keep focused on God.
Remember also the words of Jesus after his wonderful lesson about worrying. You are probably familiar with the passage that begins "do not worry about your life, what you eat, what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear." Then Jesus reminds us of how beautiful God's creation is - the birds of the air, the flowers of the field - and that "not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of those." Jesus concludes by saying "Strive first for the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) Keep your focus - we do not seek our own ways, but God's way.
In our Disciple Bible Study Group we have just finished studying the period of exile in Babylonia that took place in the 5th century b.c.e. The remarkable thing that we have learned is that the sacred books of the Hebrew Bible understood that God used the enemies that defeated the Israelites to work out God's purpose for them. Maybe history does repeat itself.
In the midst of the times when Israel was conquered and all its leaders exiled to Babylon there were words of hope. The prophets saw opportunity - if they stayed focused on God's Covenant. I am not at all pessimistic about the current budgetary situation. God blessed us last year with a Vision and Mission to guide us. We will follow that and emerge stronger and more responsible fiscally, and better positioned to grow in God's spirit as we move into our second century.
Well, there is another deeply moving way that we can rededicate our lives to God's Spirit. It can help us align ourselves with God working in our midst. It is the prayer that John and Charles Wesley used on New Year's Eve in their watch Night Service to refocus their commitment to be a disciple of Christ, a servant of God. It may be the most difficult prayer you will ever pray. Should you wish to join, I invite you to join in the Covenant Prayer printed in the bulletin.
The Covenant Prayer of John Wesley
[Taken from the "Watch Night Service" (New Year's Eve) in the Wesley tradition as developed by John and Charles Wesley in 1755. This service was a time to greet the New Year with a renewal of one's covenant with God. These words come (mostly) from The Book of Worship: for Church and Home, The Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, TN, 1964, p. 387.]
Minister: And now, beloved, let us bind ourselves with willing bonds to our covenant God, and take the yoke of Christ upon us. This taking of God's yoke upon us means that we are heartily content that God appoint us our place and work, and that God alone be our reward.
Christ has many services to be done; some are easy, others are difficult: some bring honor, others bring reproach; some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both. In some ways we please Christ and please ourselves; in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves. Yet the power to do all these things is assuredly given us in Christ, Who strengthens us.
Therefore, let us make the covenant of God our own. Let us engage our heart to the Lord, and resolve in God's strength to never go back. Being thus prepared, let us now in sincere dependence on God's grace and trusting God's promises, yield ourselves anew to God.
People: O Lord, Eternal and ever-loving God, I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all to Thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Thou art mine, and I am Thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.