I wonder whether you have been watching the part in the Bulletin that reports on our income, and compares it to our budget? If so, you will share my deep concern over the trend that seems to be emerging! What are we to make of this, and what should we be doing about it? As I think, talk with others, and pray about these figures, I experience two directly opposing feelings – deep comfort and, simultaneously, profound concern:
The comfort comes from realising that our income figures seem to closely parallel income in the business sectors, which suggests to me that our income has dropped, not because of any profound dissatisfaction with St Johns, but simply because there is less money available to our community, at this time. Does that ring true for you?
But this insight doesn’t let us off the hook - if there simply is no more money out there, we have very little hope of meeting our budget into the future, and that means we will have to make some hard decisions about the levels of ministry and staffing that are appropriate at St Johns!
And that observation leads me to remember a conversation I had recently with a colleague, who reminded me that our God is not a God of scarcity, but of abundance; and that God will supply all that we need, in order to undertake the ministry we are called to engage in … well then, if we are not receiving an “abundance” sufficient to do what we had planned, what might the new commission entail?
Pondering.
Your Brother in Christ
ROD
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