As we get into the New Year, it is always a time of preparation, of looking at the year to come and trying our best to make the best decisions for that year. Among those decisions will be the financial ones made at the Annual Meeting, when our Session will bring a proposed budget to the congregation to consider.
Often, when such things are discussed, a great deal of fear becomes involved. Nervousness about money is an easy anxiety to find, especially when church giving can be such a difficult prospect for us to understand. The temptation is to pull back, to save, to pinch pennies in case a dark time is ahead.
Such thinking often proves to be antithetical to the intention, though. Churches that cut ministry find giving goes down, and so the next budgeting season is followed by even more cuts, in a process that continues on and on until the church is an empty building with few people, few reasons to attend… and maybe a decent-sized savings account.
I want to urge you to think beyond that. To think of the ministries our church can take on, of the way we can care for our people. I want you to remember the giving projects we can embrace, the way we can provide for those around us when they are need.
The future of the church is always in God’s hands. Our call is not to bury our gifts in fear of losing them, but instead to put them out there, so that they can feed the hungry, grow the church. I hope you’ll take those steps. Look to faith and boldness… for those are the things that inspire giving… not thriftiness.
Pastor Dan
