RECONNECT CHRISTMAS

Some Thoughts About December 13th

Wow!

Our goal was $100,000 in one special “Reconnect Christmas Offering” on December 13th. The economy has been in the tank. A number of our church families have either lost their employment, fear they might lose their employment, and/or have already seen their compensation reduced as their company seeks ways to avoid layoffs. And besides, with all of the hurt here at home, why raise a boatload of cash to send to the other side of the world?

It seems more than the usual number of comments have been spoken, e-mailed, and voicemailed that “this will never work” because of the economy, or people are “worn out”, or “we need to focus on ourselves.”

Well, it’s true. The economy is still shaky and people are worn out (I’m pretty singed myself right now), and we have a bundle of big challenges before us as a congregation. No doubt about all of that.

So, did I want to “pull the plug” on the Reconnect Christmas project…in September, October, November, last week? Nope. I was hanging the whole thing on what we had all told one another over the past two years of congregational self-assessment. We said that a core value of our congregation, something that is true at all times and in all situations, is that we are a missional church. Taking away the “missional” component of our Christmas celebration would be like taking down the Christmas tree on December 20th or cancelling Christmas Eve services because it would be dark out, or deleting the Christmas carols from our worship these weeks because, well, there are other songs to sing and, besides, some of the carols are hard to sing. Foregoing a “special offering” on December 13th would be like denying ourselves. It is something we simply cannot do.

I had no “inside information” on the outcome. Just a confidence that we actually are a missional congregation. It isn’t marketing or wishful thinking. It is who, by God’s grace, we have become.

So the preacher preached (and cried a bit, too — at least at 9:45 service), the songs were sung, and the offering was taken: $106,000+ (with a bit more dribbling in this week). And, remembering that there indeed are children nearby in need, we also brought to worship over 1,200 toys for them.

I don’t know about you, but I am very proud of Wheatland Salem Church for being true to ourselves. The other challenges remain and the needs are still enormous here and around the world. But I feel much more prepared for Christmas now that we have given our attention to things that Jesus himself said were most important.

–Pastor Scott Field, Wheatland Salem Church

Tags: India School Project 2009, Mahbubnagar India

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Mahbubnagar School Project 2009, updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.