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First Parish Church 180 York Street York, Maine 03909 Telephone (207) 363-3758 email office@firstparishyork.org

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“A Family Meeting Over Finances” - November 16, 2008

Rev. Dr. Richard B. Knight

Nov. 16, 2008

Genesis 28:10-22

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one tenth to you.”

We need to have a family meeting this morning. We talk often about the fact that we’re a part of the family of God, and that the church is our second family. “Who are my mother and brothers and sisters,” said Jesus, “but they that do the will of my Father in Heaven.” With God as our Heavenly Parent, family all are we. And so from time to time, a church like any other family, needs a family meeting.

I just hope this goes better than the family meetings I try to have at home. I seem to be the only one who’s into it. Lack of focus is often a problem. I’ll raise an issue and share my perspective, and then one of my sons will begin to free associate and start telling me about a SpongeBob episodes, and how SpongeBob once had a meeting at the Crusty Crab, where SpongeBob & Mr. Crab sat around a table and talked; and then Patrick walked in and interrupted. “It was so funny, Daddy. It was so funny.” “Now what was I saying, Boys?”

Family meetings often don’t work well because the one who calls the meeting has all the energy for the meeting. And those summoned to the meeting, usually do not have much energy for the meeting. The energy just evaporates once the family meeting starts. “Daddy, I’m so tired, I can hardly sit in this chair.”

So too in a church family, sometimes too much of the energy resides in the leadership and not enough among all the parishioners. In fact a big part of leadership is sharing the energy with the rest of the group. It’s sharing the ownership of the group with its shareholders. (Perhaps a stockholders analogy is not the best one to use right now?)

This morning we need to have a family meeting about finances, our church’s finances. And it’s a sign of health - that we can talk about these things. Just like in your family at home - if you can’t talk about your finances there’s a much greater chance of getting into financial difficulties.

You know the church has to be a safe place to talk about difficult subjects. It’s a place to practice talking about difficult subjects.

And sometimes we’re just too afraid.

Last week I really wanted to do sermon on Martin Luther King’s Dream and how the election was one sign that some of that dream was being fulfilled. I wanted to make that connection with our kids because in 2nd grade they learn all about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the Civil Rights Movement. But I was afraid to talk about it with them because I was afraid I’d come across as celebrating partisan politics. When I really thought about it - rightly or wrong, realistic or not - I afraid of getting yelled at. I’m 48 years old and I’m still afraid of getting yelled at. That’s just silly on my part. We in the church should not be afraid to say what we believe, to state our opinions respectfully, to talk about difficult issues honestly - in a spirit of trust and openness.

Well, if you’re visiting with us today, I invite you just to listen in. This really isn’t for you. This family talk is for our parishioners, those who’ve invested their lives, their hearts, their souls in this place - those who call this place their spiritual home.

It’s important for all of us though to think about money and finances from time to time. Our pledge drive is a time for all of us to think about and to reflect upon something very important in our lives - our money and we spend it. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about something that is so much a part of our lives. - even our church lives!

Illustration. The Pope & Frank Purdue. One day a few years back Frank Perdue of the Perdue Chicken Company went to Rome, to the Vatican and had an audience with the Pope. During the conversation, Frank told the Pope, “I want to donate a million dollars to the church.” The Pope said, “That’s wonderful! What a gift, what a blessing!” Frank Perdue then says, “I have just one favor to ask - - you know that part of the Lord’s Prayer where it says, ‘Give us this day our daily bread?’ Can you change it to ‘Give us this day our daily chicken”?

“Absolutely not,” said the Pope. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

“How about if I give you $2 mil.?”

“No way. Those words come straight from the Gospels. I can’t change them!”

“How about $5 mil.?” “NO!” What if it’s $10 mil.?”

The Pope hesitates and then quickly says no.

“Ok, here’s my final offer - $20 mil.”

The Pope says, “Put ‘er there. It’s a deal.”

Later that day the Pope had a meeting with the College of Cardinals, where he made this announcement: “My Brothers, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is, Mr. Frank Perdue of America is going to donate $20 mil to our cause. The bad news is - we just lost the Pepperidge Farm account.”

We have to be comfortable talking about money, because money is an important part of our lives - for better or for worse - even our church lives.

- We’re sitting here in warmth this morning because we had enough money to purchase fuel oil.

- You’re sitting on comfortable pew cushions because years back the Women’s Fellowship raised enough money to buy them for the church - a gift to the family.

- We’re not getting wet inside the church because we raised enough money to put a new roof on the church this year.

- We’re worshipping this morning led by seminary trained pastors and professional musicians, let alone church musicians. - all of which have a cost.

Illustration. I knew a church, pastored by a friend of mine, that did something interesting as a congregation to illustrate a very important point.

One Sunday morning everything in the church service was done by the paid staff.

The staff of the church greeted people at the door, handed out programs, sang as a make-shift choir during the offering, but first had to pass out the offering plates, and they served coffee at coffee hour. It demonstrated how much we all need each other, and how church isn’t just something the paid staff does. Church is something we all do together.

The next Sunday at my friend’s church, the entire service done by volunteers by folks who were not part of the paid staff. Someone played the piano during the prelude, and led the hymns on piano. The service was lead by the Deacons. The sermon was preached by a member of the church. The choir sang without a director and without their accompanist. The church secretary considered not providing a bulletin that day, but gave in at the last minute. But none of the staff came early to unlock the doors and turn up the heat.

Both of these Sundays together made the point that the church needs everybody. The church needs competent staff and committed parishioners, uniquely trained professionals and uniquely gifted members . . . to be the Body of Christ. In a family we need each other. And so I begin this family meeting by reminding us of that fact.

The next thing I have to tell you at this family meeting is that we’re still $45,000 behind in our budget for 2008. This not only concerns us for this year but also for next year in our budgeting process. Any cuts we might have to make would be painful and dramatic and would impact the quality of our ministry. The other difficult thing with a deficit is - how do we make it up? You’re supposed to carry over a deficit into the next year and pay yourselves back. But how do we carry 45K over into next year and add it to a budget we’re already having trouble making?

Now we’ve made up large deficits before. But this year we’re very anxious for several reasons: The economy, the economy & the economy. When we live in fear, we often hold on to things more tightly. There’s just a natural tendency to be less generous during difficult times, even if your finances have not been directly affected.

But secondly, all of us are impacted in one way or another by this economy - some are looking for work, others are fearing a pink slip, and retired individuals as you know have seen their retirement funds dramatically reduced.

You hear the phrase “fixed income,” but if you’re retirement income is based largely on the money you’ve saved for retirement, there’s nothing fixed about it in this market (unless you happen to have all your money in CDs or bonds).

This is why this is such an opportunity for my generation, the Baby Boomers, to step up and go the extra mile. I love what Ali Roschewski said last week - “Do you best and a little bit more.” Those of us with steady jobs need to carry more of the load - that just has to be said.

You know the WW II Generation has been called The Greatest Generation - and rightly so, because of the Great Depression and the war. They overcame such struggles.

Well, my generation is not the Greatest Generation, but we are the greatest Rock & Roll Generation. And it’s time to Rock & Roll. It’s time to turn it the volume and freely dance to the song of generosity, to hear the drumbeat of giving and giving - faithfully and sacrificially, because that drumbeat is in rhythm with the heartbeat of God.

It’s time for those of us who can, to give more.

By the way, we’re not alone in our financial struggles. - many churches & non-profits are struggling. I got the idea for calling this a “family meeting” because someone gave me the newsletter from one of the finest ministers and authors in our denomination, and his church in Wellsley, MA, is going through the exact same thing, and so he called a family meeting to discuss it.

Your leaders knew this situation was probably coming and they informed us about the situation throughout the year. Last year when we approved our 2008 budget in early February, we were short some 30 pledges, which we expected to get in; and typically that would have totaled well over $30,000.

We had about 30 less pledgers this year. And this was before The Mess of last Spring. That certainly didn’t help us any, and I cannot tell you how I deeply regret that. But the budget situation was tenuous from the start - before the Spring and before the economic meltdown of this Fall. It’s been like a “Perfect Storm” where several factors come together to produce a crisis.

One other thing that almost surprisingly factors into this is the Capital Campaign. We had a fantastic Capital Campaign! We exceeded our goal of $500,000, which is an amazing accomplishment. This demonstrates that we are a strong and generous church. Please don’t misunderstand and don’t let anything I say take away from celebrating the generosity of the campaign. What we’re concerned about is this - in other years we’ve been able to make up some pretty large deficits in November & December, but we’re not sure we can do that this year, not only because of the economy but also because it may very well be that people’s extra gifts -above and beyond their usual giving - might be the money they’ve sent in or are going to send in toward their pledge to the Capital Campaign. So we might have already received the extra gifts that we need! If that’s true, that’s a huge problem. We have to get that deficit down. It just can’t be 45K.

Another issue we face is that we look well off, and in many ways we are. We have beautiful buildings and thanks to the campaign we can keep them looking great for years to come. We have many fine activities and solid participation. We have a strong mission outreach, and people are very generous in paying their own way for mission trips to New Orleans, Honduras and the youth on their trips. We have a fairly large staff - two full-time pastors - everyone else is part-time - 3 church musicians, two church secretaries, a Christian Ed. director, a two hour a day custodian and a cleaner who comes once during the weekend to get everything ready for Sunday morning.

Do you understand what I’m saying? - with our buildings, our outreach and our sizable staff - we look like we wouldn’t have financial problems. We also have an endowment. It’s not small. it’s not huge. 9% of our operating budget comes from endowment income. We also make about 5% of our budget through rental income, mostly weddings. Tell your friends!

This means that 86% of our $438,000 budget must come from offerings. That’s about $377,000. That’s over $7,000 every Sun.

Here’s some numbers that may surprise you:

Employee costs: $283,500 includes salary/wages, payroll taxes, and health/disability insurance, pension

Utilities: $54,000 includes fuel oil, gas, electric, water, sewer, telephone & trash removal

Insurance Costs: $28,000 includes property, liability and workers compensation

I mention these figures because we don’t tend to think about the fact that church is a costly endeavor.

At my previous church the old Hammond broke. We had to see if it was worth fixing or would we have to buy a new organ? I remember talking with some parishioners who said, “Well, if we all kick in $20 each, we should be able to get it fixed or buy a new one.” It ended up that we needed a new organ, and $20 from every member would have bought us the organ bench and nothing more.

Let me close by spending a few minutes reminding us of Good “Ole Jacob,” the Father of Israel. Jacob was on a journey and he needed to camp out for the night. The text says he used a big rock for a pillow. (there are many things in the Bible that I do not understand. Jacob getting a good night’s sleep using a rock for a pillow is one of them!) But somehow he got a good night’s sleep on this rock, so much so that he had a famous dream. In his dream he saw a ladder ascending to heaven. He saw angels going up and down the ladder. And the Lord stood beside him in his dream and said, “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you this land, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Know that I am with you and I will not leave you.” Jacob awoke from his sleep, remembering in vivid detail his dream, and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

His campsite had become Holy Ground. “This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.” So he needed to do something. Human beings since the beginning of time have had special places, holy places. The Celts called them “Thin Places,” where the veil between heaven & earth seems very thin. Jacob needed to mark the spot. So he took that rock he had used for a pillow and set it upright and poured oil on it. Jacob sets up the rock as a reminder of a holy place, a place where God made a covenant with him, where God made his presence known, and claimed Jacob as God’s own. Jacob is so moved by this that he decides to give a portion, a tithe, of everything he earns to God.

What I’d like you to remember is that Jacob wasn’t giving to a rock on a campsite. He was giving to God, the God of his life.

My dear Sisters and Brothers, this is our Rock. This is our Bethel - the House of God. Here we meet with our God. Here we meet with our Christian family. Here we learn and pray, laugh and cry, grow and struggle, sustain and build up, comfort and challenge each other. This is none other than the House of God.

And in difficult times people need this house even more. They need what the church offers even more - hope, community, inspiration, support, faith, and most of all, they need God.

Our giving in these difficult times has an extra special quality to it. There’s a purity to it because it’s not easy. It’s sacrificial and that makes it Christlike.

Please think about these things as you fill out your pledge card this week, and then bring it to this House of God next Sunday to give and to give thanks to our God.