Pastor’s Report to the Church Conference

21 November 2011

 

First, I report the gratitude I experience when I observe the people of FUMC visit the sick, care for the dying, embrace the grieving, feed the hungry, receive the stranger, give money to every good deed asked by the United Methodist Church and the Burnet community, join the volunteer community agencies, and generally provide for one another.

My gratitude turns to awe, when I see that FUMC members do their work in a setting that ignores the Tradition in favor of the immediate, that settles for religions with quick answers from authorities.  That members of FUMC do their work in such a setting awes me.  Something holy is here.

Second, the staff works long hours in the context of constant interruption with minimum irritation and maximum competence.   

Third, this continues to be a challenging congregation in which to do ministry.  It is becoming more and more diverse in its makeup, and I find this to be stimulating ... even though it can at times be frustrating.  The frustrations, however, are more than compensated for in the possibilities for growth and ministry which are created by the diversity.

Fourth, all of our program committees are very active, doing an outstanding job witnessing to the presence of Jesus Christ in this community.  We are going to undertake a new organizational structure for the coming year to help enable our ministry to function more closely in line with who we are as the people of God in Burnet.  I am encouraged, and even excited at the enthusiasm shown to this new structure.

I want to say I remain encouraged by the response we have had by the congregation regarding requests for service by the Nominating Committee.  We have put together a good slate of officers for 2012.  There are still some pending positions to be filled, but we will soon have that accomplished. The Nominating Committee will be much more that a once-a-year group that fills positions for the next year.  We will be using “Spiritual Gifts” surveys on all new members, and as many “old” members as possible to fit positions to what God has called us to be. One of the things we will consider at the beginning of 2012 is to ask all members of the Church Council to serve on either an administrative or program committee.  We feel that decisions affecting the life of the church can best be rendered if those making them have a working knowledge of what we actually do here.  The Church Council will be a much more knowledgeable board. 

2012 should prove to be a very exciting year in the life of this congregation.  Many plans have already been formulated to help First United Methodist Church continue to be a living and vital branch of the Body of Christ in this community.  We realize that if we are going to continue to exist as a church and be responsive to what will be demanded in the years ahead, then we are going to have to continue being intentional in seeking new members.

We are going to have to look outside the doors of this congregation and reach out into this community.  Our mission has to be that of offering to those hurting individuals the experience of Christ’s Love which they would never receive any other way.

We feel that we as a congregation have something definitely to offer that no one else has.  And FUMC is striving to make that knowledge known in Burnet.

These are some of the hopes and dreams and goals that lie ahead for 2012.   If we really want to be totally open to a future that is not quite known, then we must be willing to entertain new proposals and strategies far beyond anything we have ever envisioned since opening our doors as a congregation.

2012 will not be a year to say “We have never done it that way before.”  Or, as is more often the case in the church, “We have already done it that way before.”  Rather, 2012 will be a time to affirm:  “We are open to new ways of doing it if they enable it to get done.”  This is the year, when we must get ready for a changing tomorrow by getting ready to change today.

2012 is the year to integrate our vision of the future with our memory of the past ... and then allow the resulting dream to saturate every moment of the present.  And by the way, for any of you who might be skeptical ... remember that the opposite of integration is not segregation.  The opposite of integration is disintegration ... which is what happens to any church which is so bound to the present, or tied to the past, that it cannot fathom the thought of marching into the future.