Investing in our ministry

On Sunday morning we met for worship as usual. The heat was up and it felt good to be in a warm place on a crisp and beautiful day. A big "thank you" to George Rezendes who dropped in during the week to program the thermostats. He gave Ray Deptulski and I lessons in setting them. Ray also had Brayman Brothers in during the week to give the furnaces their annual cleaning. It's a good thing. They were a mess.

I wasn't very happy to see the bill but everything has a price. The guys were there for a day and a half and they made quite a few repairs and adjustments as well. The cost for cleaning the two furnaces and the hot water heater and doing the repairs was almost $800. Where do we get the money to pay for it? We get it from the members and friends of the church. The weekly offerings that people make pay for everything at church. The offerings pay my salary. They pay to keep the lights on and to keep the heat flowing. The offering pays for music for the choir to sing and to keep Adele on staff. It goes to buy Sunday School materials and to organize and help pay for youth group outings.

Our property committee has been very active the last couple of years and they've been doing a lot of work around the church. They did a makeover of the nursery area this year and went up on a lift and replaced some shingles on the roof. We meet in an old building and there is always something that needs to be done to keep it in shape. Your giving allows that to happen.

Every year we make up a budget that tries to account for all the activities, expenses and needs at church and ask those people who call the church home to make a pledge, an estimate of how much they'll be able to contribute, to meet the expenses. That's how we make ends meet.

At church we don't tax people or charge fees. It's all voluntary. We ask people to prayerfully consider how much they can give to the ongoing ministry of the church. In the Old Testament the Scriptures taught that God gives us everything we need and he calls for us to give back ten percent as a tithe offering. Ten percent sounds like a lot. The Bible calls us to turn it all around and to realize that in reality God is giving us 90% of all the blessings and only asking us to show our love for him by giving back 10 %.

Jesus doesn't call for us to give the tithe. He actually wants more. He wants all of us. He wants us to give our heart and soul to God. The point is that Jesus calls us to think of God first in everything we do. So when it comes to church, it is like he wants us to look at the good it does and invites us to be part of it. It is like an investment. Our giving makes the ministry possible and God invites us to share in that. That's why we give.

In a few weeks we will begin our annual stewardship drive. That's when we ask everyone to make a pledge. Our theme this year is "Fill My Cup Lord." We will reflect on the way God always seems to fill our need when they come up and then see if we can fill the needs of our ministry. Stay tuned for more...

Cal