town hall mtg thoughts

I just came home from our second town hall meeting about the budget deficit. For the first time, Grace is facing a serious deficit. By the end of FY2007 (end of Sept. 2007) our treasurer is projecting a $67K deficit. We won't be bankrupt (we have reserves) but we won't meet our budget for FY2007.

We talked about short-term, intermediate, and long-term solutions. It was helpful for the LT to listen to the people who attended and we got the sense of the variety of people's approaches to church finances. Two things struck me. First, outreach is essential to the health of a church community. But in order to have effective outreach we need to know who we're trying to reach. And that's the second thing: we need to pray so that we'll know who God wants us to reach.

An important impetus for starting this blog was the mysterious disappearance of the file containing the email distribution list for the original Grace Notes. I lost an important way to ask people to pray for Grace Community. This blog will hopefully alert people to the need to pray for Grace. Pray for our financial situation, but more importantly pray that we will know who God wants us to reach and that our hearts would beat with His to the point that we'll put forward whatever is necessary, including our finances, to accomplish God's purposes.

on prayer

On Sunday (7/29) I spoke on the need for examples of both contemplative and intercessory prayer in our life together as a church community. I forgot to mention a recently answered prayer that's blessed our family. Last Friday (7/20) Josh was diagnosed with HSP (vasculitis caused by the body's reaction to an infection) which was causing him a lot of joint and intestinal pain. The doctor said it could last for a few days or a few months. We didn't get much sleep on Wednesday , Thursday or Saturday nights and I left Winnie home with him on Sunday, not expecting to see them at church. But they showed up and Winnie brought Josh forward for prayer. That night Josh slept pain-free and has been free of all symptoms since. It's a perfect example of how God works through intercessory prayer.