"Concordia:
The Same and Different"
"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for all making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:3-6
Some things never change. Year after year when annual report time comes, I keep going back to these verses from Philippians. Why? Because each year there are some messages that are always the same:
#1. Each year I am thankful for all that you have done. I am thankful for your service. I am thankful for your giving. I am thankful for the love and concern that you have for one another. I am thankful for all the different ways you have given of yourselves in the service of Jesus Christ here at Concordia Lutheran Church this past year.
#2. Each year I am also reminded that all we do in ministry, we do in partnership. It is not something that I do alone or the staff does by themselves. Ministry is always a partnership. Each year at annual meeting time I am reminded that good ministry is always done together, and the more we do together, the more effective we are. Some things never change.
#3. But some things do change and need to change. As we move into 2012 there are three concerns that I believe we need to address in the coming year:
We need to work on stewardship. As I talked about in my January newsletter article we can no longer continue to rely on the Endowment Fund to continue to supplement the church budget at the same rate that it has done so in the past. If we do not make some changes here, the Endowment Fund will be depleted in 10 - 12 years.
Along with voting on the by-laws for the establishment of a Community Benevolence Fund at the annual meeting, we need to be looking ahead and encouraging those of us who are still alive to remember Concordia Lutheran in their estate planning. As others have given in the past and so made the Endowment Fund what it is today, we need to be ready to plan our gifts now so the Endowment Fund will be there for those who come after us.
We need to work on once again getting the committees of the church to function as working committees. We will all benefit from this as it will involve more of our members in ministry and allow us to do more in terms of ministry than what we are now doing.
In His Service,
Pastor Charlie