+ The Good Life

World Communion in Manasquan

We are celebrating world communion in all of our services this Sunday.  Our 11am Café Worship in Fellowship Hall will be a special time for families.  We encourage all parents with small children to bring your kids with you for this special time of communion. Encourage your teens to come with you as well.  All God’s children need communion.  Let’s celebrate this Sunday.  In all the services we will share from an assortment of international breads. As we share from a wide assortment we will remember the diversity of faith that stretches around the world, and the unity in Christ that we share with so many.

Healthy Pastors - Healthy Churches

I am convinced that healthy pastors help make healthy churches.  One thing I love to do is offer support and encouragement to colleagues as we seek to have healthy and vital ministries.   My doctoral research and writing used Narrative Theology and Family Systems Psychology to suggest ways of developing healthy and productive pastoral ministry.  I like to help point ministry colleagues toward helpful methods and safe settings for doing the challenging work of becoming good pastors. I believe that we ministers should honestly grapple with our personal life narratives and reflect intentionally upon our roles in the church family.  Spiritually healthy pastors, fully in touch with their own histories and motivations, can best lead their congregations to spiritual growth.  I personally strive to embody the convictions of my research and greatly appreciate the support of my ministry colleagues in this calling of ministry.

Paper Reduction and Enhanced Communication

Today we made some plans to reduce paper usage at church, save money on mailings and enhance our communications through the internet. With the encouragement and support of our Chairman of the Administration Commission and our leaders on staff, we are planning several steps.

1. We will no longer do a mass mailing of the Good News monthly periodical. We plan to make the Good News available for pick-up at church each week. October is the last issue planned for mass mailing.

2. In the future, the Good News will be available on line. The congregation will be notified by email when it is available. Check here for the latest issues.

3. A reduced mailing list will be maintained for those who don't come to church and who do not use the internet. Please let us know of those you think still need a mailing to the home.

4. We will not do a large weekly bulletin insert, but rather offer short bullet point announcements in the weekly bulletin. The Good News will be the venue for feature articles. Submissions for the monthy Good News are due the third Wednesday of each month. We ask Ministry Leaders to plan accordingly.

5. We have a very informative and effective website at www.fpcom.org. Please check it out regularly.

6. We plan to utilize email to notify the congregation of items of interest in a timely fashion.

We will appreciate your response and ideas as we implement some of these plans. We feel like these steps will help us show better sensitivity to our environment, save money and improve communication.

A Theological Grid

                                                            

As we process decisions and make various program plans at church, I love to serve as a creative and energentic presence.  I am an optimist and a visionary.  Ideas are always percolating within me.  I like to identify needs and seek to meet them in a Christ honoring way.  I’m always working to create programs, evaluate organizational progress and encourage productive development.  Most of all, I am a student of the Bible and of life, I am always evaluating things through a theological grid, asking how we can honor Christ and best serve his purposes.

Church Budget

We've had a dramatic increase of $1 million of giving to the church over the past year. This has been for construction expenses for our By Faith We Build project. Unfortunately the operating fund, which supports the ongoing ministry of the church is lagging behind almost $50,000. If this trend continues, we could be facing a $90,000 deficit in this budget by the end of the year. Members of our finance team have put together this report:

...This year, 2008, our church is experiencing a financial problem in our Operating Fund that we have not encountered for a number of years. Each month, since January 2008, our Operating Fund has experienced a deficit in the amount of income coming in from pledges, open plate offerings, etc versus operating fund expenses. In other words, the cost of operating our church each month has been greater than the income received. As of the end of August 2008, our year to date deficit was $48,323. If we continue to experience this shortfall until the end of the year, we could very well incur a deficit of around $75,000 in 2008.

Our Session has been informed by the Finance Commission of our financial concerns and they have requested our Elders and their Commissions to hold the line on expenses for the balance of this year, and to approve expenditures only on projects of necessity.

Our Finance Commission has designated a member of their Commission to work with each of the Session Commissions in preparing their 2009 Operating Fund Budgets. Each Commission is requested to conservatively project their needs for programs and services and to provide details and justification for their requests.

From 2006 to 2008, we experienced a fourteen percent (14%) decrease in our eligible membership making an Operating Fund Pledge. This resulted in a decrease of potential expected income in 2008 of approximately $90,000. It is very helpful in planning the financial operations of the church for every member to make a financial pledge during our 2009 Stewardship campaign.

We are appealing to you, our members, for your financial support not only in 2009 but also for any additional financial support you may be able to give in 2008 to help reduce and/or eliminate the deficit we are facing.

Your support will be greatly appreciated.