A Move from God

God sent a move into my life. One I had not planned on. One that has humbled me, uprooted me, and changed me. I was appointed this year to serve in the Cheaha District as Pastor of Eulaton United Methodist Church in Anniston, AL.  I reacted like most people in the bible; I balked, I laughed, I cried, I pleaded, I whined and I complained. And God responded like the God of the bible with loving discipline, patience yet mercy.  I moved. And I decided to follow where God led me, after all I had committed myself to God long time ago and to the Itinerant System of the United Methodist Church. I prayed, prayed some more and I keep on praying.  God is not through with this old gal yet.

I have met some wonderful people here even as I said goodbye to the good people of Trinity in Huntsville.
God has opened some opportunities for ministry just as there were even in Huntsville.
God has provided wonderful fellowship even as there was in Huntsville.
God has provided a good home in a parsonage, although we are selling our house in Huntsville.
What is God up to?
So much more than I can even begin to imagine.

I haven't preached every Sunday in five years.
 I will now be preaching regularly every Sunday.
How do I do that?
I don't do it alone, God is there, the word is there, friends are there and the people are there.

I haven't been the sole Pastor in five years.
I am now.
What was God thinking?
I shared with one of the teams that I had to relearn how to do that and to please be patient with me.
They understood.

I am on and lead every committee.
Haven't done that in five years.
I forgot how to do some of the committees.
Its time to pull out the Discipline again and ask the teams to help me and to lead..

I am trusting God a whole lot to lead me, lead his people, speak to me, speak to his people, inspire me, inspire his people.

Stay tuned to where God is leading.

Paying Those Apportionments

We Methodist, call them our Apportionments, the portion we pay the church pay to the Conference and to the World Service Fund. Most churches, especially the smaller ones, are struggling to be able to pay their apportionments. But even the bigger churches are nowdays feeling the pinch or bite, whichever you want to call it.

The three churches I served before I came here, could not pay their apportionments. I did not take a pay raise for the last three years I was there, challenging them to pay their apportionments; and use what would have been what they would give me in a raise to put toward it. The smallest church closed my last year there.

The church I am serving now, last year paid 80% of their apportionments, after not paying them for years. This year they will pay 100%. We are celebrating. And now that they have done this, they want to continue to do so.

But there is a but. Just like many of the churches they are facing more people on fixed income with rising medical costs, and more deaths of the older generation who are the givers. We are looking at cutting salaries, slicing jobs, etc.

I am wondering are there some ways, some creative ways you may have found or tried to raise funds in order to pay the apportionments? I think the truth is even if in churches everybody tithed, we would struggle. I think the reality is though that not everybody tithes in churches, and it presents a problem to keep the regular bills paid, the salaries paid, and the apportionments paid. So there seems to be another factor at work here too, what about the tithing? What about using our gifts, graces, and talents in other ways to raise the funds for the church? And what about the larger church, the conference, the boards and agencies? What are their responsibility in this matter? Where are they held accountable for their spending? Their tithing?

I would like to hear your thoughts, ideas, opinions, problem solving on this matter, whether you are Methodist or another denomination.