Yvonne had attended church for...
Illustration
Yvonne had attended church for years. She had heard sermons and sung hymns and repeated litanies about outreach and service to the point that she could probably have written her own. That very familiarity had, for Yvonne, become a problem. She had grown too used to the message; it no longer made any impression.
Every year she routinely filled out a pledge card during the church's financial campaign -- for the same amount. The finance committee could count on her! Every week she placed her offering in the collection plate -- without so much as a second thought; in fact, she did this with no thought at all.
Yvonne did not know she had a problem.
* * *
At the annual budget meeting the church finance committee was wrestling with an all-too-familiar problem: how to bring the proposed budget into balance with the monies pledged to the church for the coming year. As usual, there was a shortfall between the amount which had been pledged and the amount the committee members felt they would need to pay staff salaries, maintain the building and fund various educational, social and worship programs. "We could always cut the allotment for outreach," one member suggested.
"No," the committee chairperson disagreed, "for years we have sent the same amount to the national office to support outreach programs. They know they can count on our steady support. We simply have to figure out how we are going to meet expenses on all these other items, the ones for which costs keep going up.
The financial committee members were completely unaware that they had a problem far bigger than balancing the budget.
-- Fannin
Every year she routinely filled out a pledge card during the church's financial campaign -- for the same amount. The finance committee could count on her! Every week she placed her offering in the collection plate -- without so much as a second thought; in fact, she did this with no thought at all.
Yvonne did not know she had a problem.
* * *
At the annual budget meeting the church finance committee was wrestling with an all-too-familiar problem: how to bring the proposed budget into balance with the monies pledged to the church for the coming year. As usual, there was a shortfall between the amount which had been pledged and the amount the committee members felt they would need to pay staff salaries, maintain the building and fund various educational, social and worship programs. "We could always cut the allotment for outreach," one member suggested.
"No," the committee chairperson disagreed, "for years we have sent the same amount to the national office to support outreach programs. They know they can count on our steady support. We simply have to figure out how we are going to meet expenses on all these other items, the ones for which costs keep going up.
The financial committee members were completely unaware that they had a problem far bigger than balancing the budget.
-- Fannin
