And So It Begins

It is after 2 am, and I cannot get to sleep.  My mind is still in overdrive as I consider all that needs to be done before Sunday, including:

• Lead a Bible Study tomorrow morning . . . er, in six hours.
• Prepare 3 bulletins - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.
• Write sermons for Good Friday and Easter, and perhaps a short meditation for Maundy Thursday.
• Attend five worship services through Sunday, including the 3-hour service on Good Friday I am in charge of putting together.
• Get the oil changed in my car on Wednesday.
• Make at least two, perhaps 4 round trips (each round trip about 3 hours), between here and Tamaqua to pick up and drop up my lovely daughter Desiree. 
• Attend choir rehearsal on Wednesday Night.
• Supervise the Narcotics Anonymous group after Maundy Thursday Service.
• Set up Sanctuary for Friday and then again for Sunday.

I realize that many of my colleagues in ministry will have similar schedules over the next 6 days, and so I am looking for no sympathy.  Just putting it all down in one place here helps me to get a gasp, I mean a grasp on my “task list.”  Tomorrow I hope to work especially hard and long on the first three tasks, and maybe by tomorrow at bedtime I will have most of these three finished (wishful thinking, I am sure).

In addition to this daunting list, however, my brain is filled with thoughts and concerns about the church I pastor.  Tonight we had our monthly Church Resources Team meeting, and learned that once again our church is on a slippery financial slope.  Even with an additional $2,000 plus increase in our monthly income from a lease agreement with a private school, our giving is not meeting expenses once again.  In particular, giving from offering envelopes has decreased by about $400 a week since last year, and with our capital funds campaign about to end, this decrease in giving could become even larger.  Of course some of this could be the result our our average attendance being down about 30 people each week from two years ago, which itself can be mostly explained by our losing a few families due to moves and many more people due to deaths (see this post for more details).

I am especially worried because there is nothing left for us to cut when it comes to our budget.  We have cut over $60,000 over the last two years already.  The only long term solutions I see (besides growth, which hasn’t happened yet - except for a one year spike in 2005), are to either move to a part-time pastor, form a circuit/partnership with another area church, or sell our building and move to a smaller facility (since our building costs us between $40-50,000 annually to heat, cool, light and maintain).  Obviously, I cannot stay here if the church moves to part-time (which wouldn’t happen until next summer anyway), and this would be yet another blow to the church’s psyche.  A circuit could work, but the current Bishop and cabinet are not keen on forming circuits for financial reasons.  Finally, half the membership would probably leave if we ever voted to sell our current building, which has been our church home for over 130 years.

So, what to do?  I am at a loss personally, since I have spent all my energy and ideas over the last 6 years with little or no long-term positive effects visible in spite of the effort expended.  If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.  Anything at all would be appreciated.  Consider this my own little SOS. Can you through me and our church a life-line or two?

Well, it is now after 3 am, and I have to get at least a few hours of sleep before my Bible study.  Here’s hoping I hear from a few of you.