Stewardship Anyone?

The first full-time appointment that I served was a three-point charge (three churches). I’m trying to remember. I think the entire budget for that charge was around $60,000. And, we had among the three churches 300 members. So, every year we had no problem raising the money to meet the maintenance, and ministry needs of the churches. Staff? I was it, of course. No stewardship campaigns or appeals. We didn’t need them.

My second appointment was to one church. (You remember that United Methodist pastors are appointed to their churches by the bishop.) We had 218 members and the budget was around $60,000. Again, I was the staff and we raised all we needed. No stewardship appeals were needed.

Then, I heard God calling me to start a “new” church down in Goose Creek (north of Charleston is all you need to know). Mary and I and Betsy moved to Goose Creek where we had 8 adults and six children waiting on us to get started. You need to know, if you don’t already, that I’m a little crazy and I was very young. After six and a-half-years we had 300 members and 250 active. We met in rented space for over four years and then built our first building to the tune of $400,000. Our small congregation then assumed this and the budget. Or, should I say we tried to assume it. The average age of the congregation was 27.

We moved into the new building in June of 1989. And, some of you will remember that hurricane Hugo hit in September bringing some damage to our new building. For one month, we missed getting much in the way of offerings. Then, in December we had a record snow fall and missed two more Sunday’s offerings. Did I say they were 27 or so? Did I also say that we didn’t have any reserves or history?

With God’s help, and some radical measures we made it. Then, we moved on to Socastee UMC where we have a huge debt on a new sanctuary. I moved in and met with the Treasurer who told me that we had about $18,000 in the bank and had paid no apportionments that year. Apportionments are United Methodist mission and denominational causes. “OK”, I said.

Then, we served Clemson UMC and next I was District Superintendent for six years in Rock Hill. And, in 2006, we were pleased to be appointed to Bethel UMC in Spartanburg. Here our budget is one million plus dollars and there are, counting Day Care and After School, some nearly 30 staff members. We have two huge mission trips- adults and youth. We have great youth and children’s ministries. We have a staff second to none in providing leadership in music and worship, pastoral care, and nurture. There is so much that God is calling us to do. And, every year we are privileged to talk about stewardship as we plan next year’s mission budget.

And, what happens, the economy drops. Every church and organization and business is feeling the pinch. We have had to make adjustments as we pray for our people to get work again and our culture to return to some movement forward.

Sunday at Bethel we will be celebrating the privilege of being Christian givers and followers of Jesus Christ. No sacrifice that we make can compare to God’s sacrifice (giving) for us. As we are faithful, we imitate the faithfulness of God to us. And, we trust in all things that God will provide.

Blessings!
Dave Nichols

All Saints’ Day

Last Sunday Nov. 1 just happened to be All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day is always the day after All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween). Some say that Halloween had it’s origins in Celtic pagan practice. The Celts believed that at this time of the year, the end of summer, that the spirits, both good and bad were allowed to roam the earth. The good spirits were welcomed; the bad spirits warded off. They believed that at this time of year the border between this life and the next grew thin. As with other secular holidays, the church baptized it and made it a Christian holiday called All Saints’ Day or All Soul’s Day. We, in the United Methodist Church do not worship the saints, but we do admire them. On All Saints’ Day, last sunday, we named the honored dead, those who had “died in the Lord…” Scripture assures us that living or dead we still belong to God. We had twenty honored dead. Looking over the list you might wonder about the sainthood. All of them were human beings living their lives in the service of God in Christ through the church. Several years ago, a country singer sang about his wife who put up with anything from him. He sang: “She’s a saint, even thought I know I ain’t”. To be a Saint in Biblical understanding is to be someone who reflects the glory of God in all of life. A little boy noticed the stained-glass windows in church and that there were people, images, in them. These are some of the Saints, he was told. The boy said: “I can see the sunlight through them…” That’s it. It’s not that any of us are perfect, far from it. On any given day, our thoughts and actions…well, you know, don’t you. But, as we seek to live out God’s gracious claim on our lives through Christ, we pray that someone might see the light of God through us. Do they? Wherever you are, say a prayer that God will reveal himself not only to you, but to all you meet.

 See you in Church!

Dave Nichols

All Saints’ Day/Reformation Sunday

Every year near Reformation Sunday we celebrate this Sunday, All Saints Sunday. Martin Luther, in the 15th century, nailed his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. This was how you got something discussed. In this university community which was always considering new ideas, and novel approaches, supposedly, you nailed new ideas, or papers to the door of the church. This got you a hearing.

Martin Luther nailed up his 95 theses and started a firestorm of conversation, gossip and discussion about the church.

Sometimes I think we ought to have a way to do that, discuss things, I mean. If there were some public square where we could as a church discuss the church and our faith openly. A suggestion box is a poor substitute for honest and frank discussion.

Once a friend of mine served as associate pastor. He and the Senior Pastor asked members of the congregation to answer a survey. The main question was: what is your greatest dream for your church? They got two responses from the church. One was about my friend. It said: “Ask the associate pastor to quit smoking.” I don’t remember the other response.

My friend was depressed for weeks. They had expected dreams and visions for the church and the only thing members of the church could say was “make the associate quit smoking.” Well, that’s good advice for anyone. But, where is the great debate about the church and our faith?

You might say that that great debate is always going on. We Methodists who have open hearts and minds and doors sort of believe that there is something here worth fighting and arguing about.

A number of times in the Gospels, Jesus catches the disciples arguing. They argue about which disciple is greatest. They argue about children in church, about who will be left and right of Jesus in the kingdom. They argue about passing the peace or communion by intinction. They argue, that’s for sure. But, where is the great debate over things that really matter, the truths of our faith? Where can we talk openly, discuss freely without fear?

The possibility of meaningful discussion in the public square is passing. The culture moves more and more toward an enlightenment view of the world. The enlightenment taught us that you can talk out in the open about anything you want except religion because religion causes wars and rumors of wars. And, if you can just get people to quit talking about religion and ultimately the Christian God or Jesus, then we will be able to live in relative peace.

And, we do bear some responsibility for our part in any religious wars and violence. Our history is mixed. We Christians do take up arms against others. We have hurt and wounded in the name of God.

Much of the war and violence in the world was done by Christians who started thinking that it was alright to use weapons of violence against others. 

So, we reason that if we can just keep people from getting too heated over religion then we won’t have war. So we have this uneasy truce with our culture. We can say all we want to say about God or faith or religion as long as we do it in here. But, you can’t say it in school, or on the street, or at work, or at play; religion is a private matter. Just keep it private and everything will be well.

You just can’t have people who believe things deeply running around all over the place.

It is a judgement on us that we are seen as people who are more mean and cruel than anybody else.

But, what if there were a place where we could discuss the faith openly without fear.

Sunday School was like that for me. I will never forget Ms. Gladys. Gladys taught the high school class in our church for years. One Sunday, it was in the on the tailend of the turbulent sixties. She said: “Jesus was a radical.” I got upset. How dare anyone call Jesus a radical. So, I reacted, got angry. She smiled. Another guy said that saying Jesus was a radical meant that Jesus was radically different form the people around him. Of course, she was right. Jesus was a radical. But she didn’t know then that I was growing up to be a preacher.

We have to make room for honest, frank discussion about our faith. Where did we get the notion that we all have to be alike. Surely, there are some basics of faith. That’s why we say the Apostles’ Creed every Sunday to call us back to the truths of our faith, but…isn’t it possible to find a way to talk openly about our faith?
Blessings!
Dave Nichols