Friday, February 03, 2006

I found 9000 dollars today

This week has been budget preparation week at the church. Among other things we’ve taken on an extra staff person to work (among other things) among youth in the community and all week I’ve worked with others trying to balance budgets.

All week this voice has gone; “You’re a pastor. You have more important things to do. You’re busy. You should be writing a sermon.” All week I’ve kept saying, no.

“No. I refuse to accept the sacred/secular divide. I refuse to believe that there are “spiritual” things that are more important than “earthly” things.” Besides, this is about growing and developing people and resourcing for mission. Besides, I’m good at this. I can be sharp.”

Today the wrestle bore fruit. I spotted the fact that the spreadsheet was using a hidden formula that based this year’s offerings on last year’s projected budget, rather last year’s real budget. Last year we projected a 10% rise in offerings. We actually got a 14% rise. The difference is $9000, a budget that could balance, a mission that could happen. A nice end to a week of deeply embodied spirituality.

Posted by steve at 06:39 PM

5 Comments

  1. Well done Steve. Excellent find 🙂

    Comment by Amy — February 3, 2006 @ 10:46 pm

  2. Spirituality in budgets… thank God. I have to do our budgets next week. Thanks for the encouragement and reminder.

    Comment by Pernell — February 4, 2006 @ 4:17 am

  3. Hi Steve,

    I always struggle with what ‘spiritual’ means in this sort of context. Does it mean ‘of the Spirit’? If so, I suppose doing a budget can be spiritual! Personally I think that there is a divide between the sacred and the secular – the Bible talks a lot about separation from the world and discerning the common from the holy. But I guess the determiner is whether we are ‘in the Spirit’ or not. Thanks for helping me think that one through a bit more!

    And cograts – $9,000 is a nice find.

    Comment by Alex — February 5, 2006 @ 12:26 am

  4. Steve
    Loved this post and will refer to it when I next here that practical people should not be part of our fledgling “Ministry Development Team” or that I should only concern myself with spiritual things.

    Reference the amount of comments – I think that the real explanation is that people are covering a much wider group of blogs and spending less time on comments – so for example I have read your posts most days and have suggested that Nigel Wright contact you for a placement – but this may be the first time I have made a comment.

    I am learning from meeting people who read my blog that they rarely comment – someone even suggested that they were somewhat intimidated by the level of the posts of longstanding bloggers.

    I would say keep going – blogging has and still does create an extra-ordinary God given international network and I think we have yet to see the full fruits.

    Tom

    Comment by Tom Allen — February 5, 2006 @ 4:06 am

  5. Great news! God is good – when he wants something to happen he always provides the resources maybe not as soon as we would like but eventually. “Seek and you shall find”.
    Long time no see – hope to see you around again real soon.

    Comment by Karen — February 6, 2006 @ 10:48 am

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