Rainy Wednesday

It has been raining and storming all night here and the power even went off for a little bit. I love waking up to blinking electric clocks that have absolutely no idea what time it is, but instead blink how long it's been since the power came back on. Between the clocks and the effect that power outages can have on the computer it's been quite a morning. Of course, why should today be any different? I came back from my busy weekend, hoping to have a day or two to kick back and relax -- HA HA! Monday I had some major chores in the building and a meeting at church. Tuesday I tried to catch up on finances, get some churdch stuff done, and make nice with the tenants, all followed by another meeting at church it's budget time. That opens a whole new topic of conversation here.

It seems that our income is lagging behind where it needs to be and that creates a dichotomy between our "business based" leaders and our "faith based" leaders. The business camp wants to reduce expenses to match current income; the rest want to make responsible decisions regarding expenses, but build in some challenges in the giving department. Some say "The church is a business!" Otheres say, "The church needs to run with some business principles, but we need to follow the leading of God and step forward in faith. There is yet another budget meeting next week and I fear it will not be fun -- probably rank right up there with a root canal without pain killers. I really need some input here, folks -- how do we address the two camps that are forming so as to reach a consensus that we can present to the members? So, as I continue to watch it rain, I will be pondering the philosophical and theological impllications of the ages old church budgeting process. All Jesus had to do was go tot the cross -- thank God he didn't have to sit in budget meetings. Can you tell how happy this process makes me?