JEREMIAH 3:21-4.2
PSALM 130
1 CORINTHIANS 7:17-23
MARK 1:14-20
“The State of the
Parish, 2006:
Sermon January 22,
2006”
Today’s sermon is my reflection on “the State of the Parish, 2006,”
especially in relation to today’s Gospel passage.
How do we measure “the state of the parish”? First of all we measure in relation to core biblical principles
like the Greatest Commandments (“Love God with all your heart, mind and soul
and love your neighbor a yourself”) and Jesus’ Great Commission (“Make
disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you”).
These are at the heart of who we are as a Christian community and are a
focus of unity amid our many kinds of diversities. These are central principles on which we agree, while we
do not have to agree (and don’t) on absolutely everything.
Second, we are called to be faithful,
which can be, but is not necessarily, the same as being “successful” in worldly
terms. In certain times and places
being faithful to these principles has not led Christians to growth in
numbers or prestige but to martyrdom.
Sometimes, however, and certainly over the long run, faithfulness to
these principles has led Christians to successfully spread the faith
around the world (otherwise none of us would have come to know Jesus Christ) as
faithfulness has itself been appealing to others.
Our worship, Christian education for all ages, fellowship, pastoral care,
administration and communications, outreach and, yes, property development and
maintenance are, or should be, done with these great principles in mind. How is what we do (and how we do it) shaped
by our love for God and for others? Do
we practice what we preach? And do we
seek to draw people to Christ and welcome them into the church (not being
cliquey or “exclusive” like some groups) and offer people some
opportunities to grow as disciples of Jesus, not just as casual
attendees of activities?
I think we’re doing pretty well.
We always could do more and do it better, but there are many activities
which embody these principles, and in my admittedly somewhat biased
perspective, the general spirit of this community reflect them.
Our recent history as a congregation has been shaped by a strategic
decision we made in 1997-98 to expand our facilities so as to be able to live
these principles more and with more people.
Some of those who are new here in the last three years may not realize
it, but the church building used to end where the double doors to the
Fellowship Room are. Everything on this
side of those doors was finished in July, 2002 – over half of our square
footage. The organ is less than two
years old. And we are nearly done with
the renovation of the upper floor of the old section of the building, which
will give us offices that look professional and quality Sunday school space for the first time in the 133-year history
of this congregation.
Both of these projects have taken a lot of investment of time and talent
by a lot of parishioners, because we maKe decisions and do things as a
team. No “Father knows best”, at least
most of the time! Both of these
projects have enabled us to offer better quality and more spiritual experiences
for more people than would otherwise have been possible. Both of these projects have been possible because
of generous financial giving by a lot of people.
Neither of these projects are paid off yet.
With the benefit of “20/20 hindsight,” we realize that we had
extraordinarily good timing for these projects. We did the bulk of the capital campaign for the
new sanctuary in 1998-2001 at the top of the economic and stock market booms,
then built during a softer economy and finally re-financed our loans in the
spring of 2004 at a time of historically low interest rates. We couldn’t have timed it better if we had
known what was coming.
All these successful projects have left us “stretched” in two areas,
which are two of our challenges for 2006.
First, we are stretched financially.
Pledge and envelope giving has risen in 21 of the last 22 years –
something that is not true of too many churches! However, because our operating expenses have risen so much and
because (unlike some churches) our endowment income is negligible, it is
essential for us to continue to encourage more people to adopt the spiritual
discipline of making an annual financial pledge to the church. It’s the only way we can function.
In 2006, 21% of our operating budget will go for mortgage payments,
including those for the cost of the renovation upstairs. We also have the unglamorous but essential
expenses like professionally cleaning a building of over 9,000 sq. ft., snow
plowing and de-icing 110 parking spaces and our extensive sidewalks, and
heating our building. Seven-day
thermostats in each of four heating zones helps us to keep our heating costs
under control. Nevertheless, our
monthly budget payment for heat to PSE&G – which we got after our 2006
budget was approved – is up 47% from
2005. Reality check.
As you will see from the Annual Report (the document in red covers
available in the Welcoming area and the Fellowship room), we ran a deficit in
2005. Pledge giving came in a little
under budget, and snow-plowing expenses were $2,635 over budget (remember last
winter?) What concerns me more,
however, is the structural deficit.
The cash deficit last year would have been much greater if we had not
used capital funds (from the Building Fund) to pay some of our mortgage
payments. Mortgage payments are a
legitimate building expense, but the Building Fund is finite. We need to bring operating revenues and
operating expenses into balance. Unlike
the federal government, we cannot simply print money.
This may surprise some of you, but I was raised by Eisenhower
Republicans, and deficits and debt bother me!
And whether they bother me or not, they are real.
In the short term, we can improve our financial outlook, first, with more
pledges and, second, with enthusiastic responses to the fund-raisers we have,
including the March 25 “Time, Talent and Treasures” Auction and the ongoing
grocery certificate program.
Longer term, the reality is that we will be in great shape once the
mortgages are paid off. It would be
great if we were able to pay off one or more of them early and then we have
capital funds to make needed major repairs and improvements and then build some
endowment to provide greater financial stability for our church.
Stewardship is like a stool with three legs: annual giving, capital
giving and planned giving. Annual
giving is annual pledges. We have had
two capital campaigns in the last 15 years: “Plan ‘90’s” got us off of our
status as a subsidized mission church, built what is now the middle parking
lot, bought the now-replaced organ and put a new set of shingles on the roof of
the old section.
The third “leg” of the stool is planned giving, gifts by parishioners or
former parishioners as bequests, gift annuities or life insurance.
We have a St. Barnabas Legacy Society of people who have included the
church, at whatever level, in their wills or estate plans, and we welcome new members. The simplest thing is to include either a
specific amount or a designated percentage of your estate to go to the
church. Many people find it easier to
tithe their estates than to tithe their incomes. A tithe of an estate still leaves 90% to your other heirs.
I’d like to mention briefly another kind of planned giving which provides
immediate benefits for the donor as well as eventual benefit for the
church. A charitable gift annuity is
one of those cool things which you can’t get unless you’re at least 55. (Aw, shucks.)
The donor buys an annuity through the Episcopal Church foundation in New
York (which offers professional management), and gets a partial tax deduction
that year. The donor receives a
guaranteed income for life. The
original amount then comes to the church at the donor’s death. Currently, someone who is 65 years could get
a guaranteed yield of 6%, someone who’s 75 could get 7.1%, and someone who is
85 could earn 9.5% on her or his annuity – a safe, stable income for life. See me or Debbie Epting if you’d like to
learn more.
The second challenge, after financial, is our need for more volunteers to
serve as elected lay leaders. We have
lots of lay leadership – we wouldn’t be us without it – but this year we have a
shortage of people who are willing to serve on the Vestry, the elected “board
of directors” of our parish. Many
qualified people were asked if they would like to be considered; very few said
“yes”. We will therefore have vacancies
after today’s elections.
Perhaps, from the outside, it sounds like a huge job. It’s not.
Vestry meets once a month, nearly always for two hours or less, and
usually on a Sunday night so as not to exclude people who get home from work
late on weekdays. Each Vestry member
serves as a liaison to some area of ministry (children’s programs, worship,
fellowship, etc.) to keep in touch with what’s going on. Vestry members are pledging members who are
at least 18 years old and willing to give their best to be thoughtful,
committed leaders of the congregation.
Wardens and vestry members are covered by our directors and officers
liability insurance.
It is not a 100 hour a month job.
Certainly not. And, while we
have discussions, sometimes spirited ones, this is not a body which has
“factions” or major conflicts, as sometimes happens in churches. Vestry service is an opportunity to learn
more about the church and to “give back.”
The Vestry can fill vacancies on an interim (12 month) basis until the
next Annual Meeting. If you are
interested in being considered for a 12 month appointment, or have questions,
see Jeff Flick or me.
One other thing. Some church
boards are, frankly, self-perpetuating cliques. Ours isn’t. Our By-laws
require that a person take a year off between terms on the Vestry (although
Wardens can be reelected), and our policy is not to have husbands and wives
serve at the same time. We are open to
new leaders.
St. Barnabas is poised to offer more spiritual opportunities in better
quality facilities than ever before in our history. We are also engaged in more outreach programs than ever before in
our history – just read the Annual Report under Outreach! We are enriching our music this year with
new capabilities for our organ and perhaps a new singing group, and are
reaching out to those who have trouble coming to Church Sunday mornings with a
monthly 5:30 pm service. We will
celebrate the diversity of God’s family with our annual “International Sunday”
service on February 12, address some of the brokenness of this world with our
Anti-racism worship on February 18, and celebrate new hope for healing through
12 step programs for those suffering from addictions on “Recovery Sunday”,
February 19.
Love God and love our neighbors?
Yeah, we do that. We can do more
and do it even better as we strengthen our team. Commitment makes things happen.
It’s all about being joyously serious about answering the invitation
Jesus gave to Peter, Andrew, James and John – and to us: “Follow me and I will
make you fish for people.”
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barmabas Episcopal Church