July Finance Article


You may notice something missing in this article.  The numbers!  Well, I have left out the chart that you usually see with how much was given and how much was spent on what (if you want this please email me at brandon@sumc.org and I would be happy to share it with you) and replaced it with a line. 




This line represents the decrease we have had in budget giving since 2012.  We have seen an average annual decrease of 3.75% since 2012.  Oh, and by the way we are on pace to match that percentage so far this year.  Okay, those are the only numbers you are getting this month.

What got me thinking about this?  Well, this was the first time my youngest daughter, Lennox, has been old enough to attend Vacation Bible School here at Southport UMC.  WOW, it was great!  It was amazing to see all of those kids having fun while they learned about Jesus, and even more amazing to see all of the adults that showed up to help them learn.  You know, I even saw a couple of teenagers teaching VBS that I can remember when they were kids in VBS.  Why did that make me think about what our giving reports look like?  Well, because I’m the finance guy and that is what I am wired to do.  And I realized if this trend keeps going in the way it’s going Vacation Bible School will look really different in a few years, and a few more years after that it may not even be able to happen at all.

I want to share with you something that happened when Lennox was just a few weeks old.  It was on a Sunday when my wife and I had just gotten Lennox out of the nursery and were heading down the hallway to the Gathering Place and Lennox popped her head up and started looking around.  This caught us off guard because she wasn’t really holding her head up much yet and this moment of focus was something we’d only seen from her a few other times at this point in her young life.  We looked around to figure out what was drawing her attention and found Gary Dunn talking to someone only a few feet away from us (you know Gary, the guy singing and jumping around on stage with the bass guitar during the contemporary services).  We realized Lennox recognized his voice!  How could she recognize this person she had never seen before?  Well, it occurred to us that she knew Gary because she’d heard him singing once a week for about nine months.  The speakers in the sanctuary are apparently loud enough that fetus Lennox had been rocking out in the womb this whole time!  Wouldn’t it be great if she had the opportunity to go from praising Jesus in Ashley’s belly to worshiping in that same Worship Center, in that same building, as an adult?!  Well, the hard truth is that with our current financial situation the odds of that are looking pretty unlikely.
I know the church is not the building.  I know that the church will go on even if we can’t maintain the space, staff, or ministries the way they exist now.  But I can’t help to think that I see a whole lot of love, joy, and disciple building going on in this building, with this staff, and through these ministries.
Also, I am not trying to scare anyone, in the short term we are just fine.  But when we look ahead, when we think about the changes that will have to be made if this 3.75% decline continues, the results are not pretty.
What do we have to do to change this?  Pray.  Pray before you give for a cheerful heart and a lack of compulsion or reluctance.  Pray while you are giving in thanks for the money that God lent to you that you are now giving back to God.  And pray after you give confident that your gifts will be used for His purpose, to make disciples.

Meanwhile, I’ll be praying too.  I will say a prayer of thanks every time I post a contribution or pull a giving report.  I will pray the funds we spend will help bear the fruit of the spirit every time I sign a check.  I will pray with every payroll I process that we are creating and building disciples for the transformation of our community and the world.  But, most of all, I will say a pray of thanks for you, for you being a part of Southport UMC and for your generosity in your gifts in celebration of God’s love.


Brandon

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