DOING OUR LITTLE BIT

I belong to a community organization where most meetings turn into gripe sessions. People complain constantly about things over which the organization has no power. On those occasions in which people might band together to get something done, the meeting falls silent. No one wants to do anything more strenuous than perhaps sign a petition. I was utterly ignored at one meeting where I suggested a few letters written by individuals would get more of a rise out of a politician than 50 names on a petition. Nobody wanted to hear that because it involved some effort. No, people wanted somebody else to do something to satisfy their demands.

It brought back memories of a church I once served. It had been a struggling congregation for 25 years. Most of that time it had been on mission support. In fact, that support had only ended a couple of years before I arrived. I had only been there a few months when a council member took me aside to suggest that I start the process of going back on mission support. I declined to do so arguing the reason the congregation was in such bad financial condition was that they had become dependent on someone else paying the bills–like a 47 year old “kid” who expects mommy and daddy to support him. It was time to sink or swim. We didn’t sink, but we didn’t exactly swim. It was more like treading water, but we did it for the next 20 years.

I believe that organizations–especially churches–have to become self reliant. I don’t know if my attitude is a virtue or a vice, but I find it objectionable when churches expect others to take care of their needs. Now I see nothing wrong with supporting new missions. They almost all need help getting started. And I am 100% in favor of churches banding together to tackle projects that are too big for one church alone. But I reject the idea that a church should depend on “something” outside their church to support the church's work.

My current church is in a building program. Our work, particu- larly in Christian education, has been hampered for years by lack of space. After several false starts, we got a plan put together which was within our grasp. Because of the generous contribution of the members and friends, we were able to put better than 40% down and borrow the rest to construct the new building. Oh, there were a few people who suggested that we write to certain famous people asking for money or that we have a Las Vegas night to raise cash, but we knew if we wanted to do something, we had to do it ourselves.

And lest it appear that we are only concerned about ourselves, I have another story or three. My church’s community has one of the highest concentrations of children receiving reduced or free lunch programs. With the leadership of the local Presbyterian church we provide school supplies and Thanksgiving baskets for as many people as we can. On our own we ran a free meal and employment workshop. We support Food4Kids, a program that sends backpacks of food home with kids so they have something to eat on weekends. OK, so I’m bragging, but these are examples of the church doing things to aid other people, one done on our own, one done with another church, one done with an inter-church agency, Interfaith Emergency Services (which never takes government money.)

And I should mention that our local Pinelands Conference of Lutheran churches is having its own appeal in October. We looked around and noticed the cut backs in funding for several ministries in our area. Rather than bemoan the injustice of the Powers-That-Be we decided to do something on our own to help a mission congregation, campus ministry, and our Lutheran camp. Back when I started in ministry a move like that would have been squashed mercilessly by the Higher-Ups. Local groups of churches were absolutely NOT to raise funds.  Instead we were commended by our Bishop for trying to do something. I hope that is a sign of change. I can recall too many lectures from the Authorities that seemed to belittle local efforts for draining off funds for official projects.  

Don’t get me wrong. I think programs like Lutheran Disaster Response and Lutheran World Relief are worthy of support. They are well managed and do a tremendous amount of good on behalf of the church. We always have special offerings for them. It’s just that big programs like that can miss the needs local congregations see. We can’t wait for Somebody Up There to do something. We need to do it ourselves. I know our efforts are rather puny, but 250 kids in Marion County will have something to eat this weekend because of one little church’s efforts. I keep wondering what would happen if the 31 churches in our immediate community did the same. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to interest any of them in this project.

I once heard German theologian Helmut Thielicke say, “We cannot make a Paradise on earth. We can only do a little bit to make things better, but we must do that little bit. With God’s blessings, we do our little bit.

May the Lord God bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne










The pictures are from the Our Saviour Vacation Bible School

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