January 10, 2024

The Defense Secretary was recently hospitalized and did not make that known as some thought that he should have. Perhaps he is required to, given his position, but I do not know the particulars of that. What I do know, is that figuring out how much to reveal to who can be a tricky and delicate matter, especially when you do not enjoy being the subject of conversations and when the nature of your hospitalization is, well, uh, kind of personal.

I remember sitting in the waiting room of a urology office when a member of the church came in and sat down across the way. I did not get up and say, “Hey, what are you coming in for?” In fact, I have no idea if that person ever saw me, or knew that I saw them. What I do know is that if some people miss work, they can slip out and slip back in without as much as a ripple. In my case, if I am not in the pulpit on Sunday and not around during the week, then I need to let people know. It is not always a fun thing, particularly if I am spending time in the hospital having conversations with urologists, which was the case a couple of years ago. However, communicating, even uncomfortable things, helps to ensure a relationship of trust.

As it turns out, the Defense Secretary has been dealing with some health issues and wasn’t keen on being the lead story on the news. Poor guy. His effort to keep it on the low down has now resulted in him being the lead story on the news and of course, me writing about it, even though I empathize, is not helping his cause. But it does illustrate a point I like to make.

One of the many things that I enjoy about our church is the ongoing commitment that we have to communicate with one another. The leadership is committed to sharing information that will serve the congregation well. We do not do it perfectly. There are times when we share more than is needed and times when in hindsight, we should have shared more. In every case, we seek to keep in mind what is not only right to share, but in the gray areas, what is going to be most helpful for the congregation.

Someone mentioned to me the other day, that they can’t think of the last time that I talked about money. I said that I really don’t need to. The leadership communicates a lot of details about our finances in the quarterly and annual reports and the congregation is faithful to generously support this church. What a gift that is. And here is an example of the point of this blog. Your faithfulness in giving this past year has resulted in our offerings being slightly over what our expenses were. What happens to those excess funds? Well, that is ultimately up to the congregation. You see, our budget is a promise on the part of the leadership to use the funds the congregation gives according to our agreement. The congregation not only supported the budget but gave a bit more. The leadership does not have permission to spend those excess funds, without agreement from the congregation. Isn’t that good?

It is good because of the obvious issue of trust and accountability, but it is good for another reason. There are always needs and opportunities that the leadership is aware of. The fact that the congregation needs to give their approval to spend excess funds, means that the leadership gets to share with the congregation about these additional ideas, which brings engagement, encouragement and buy-in on the part of the congregation.

There are certain things (like urology stuff) that are awkward, but unavoidable to discuss. There are other things, like how do we use excess funds strategically and faithfully, that are way more fun to discuss. Hopefully, we can have way more of the latter kind of talks and very few of the former.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: Luke 3:1-6