Capital Campaign Follies
As I mentioned, I’m a visit steward for the church’s capital campaign. I was assigned 3 families to visit – ironically all with a church officer.
One of the families didn’t sound like they wanted a visit, and have a good reason not to give to the campaign. I had asked them to get back to me with their availability for next week but if they don’t I completely understand.
Another family had allowed me to schedule a visit for tonight. When I got home I found a message on my answering machine telling me that they were too busy tonight and cancelling – also stating that I could call if I wanted to. So I did.
Her: Hello?
Me: Hello. I got your message about tonight.
Her: I’m sorry, but I’m very busy with stuff tonight. I have a lot of family stuff going on and we’ve already decided not to give to the campaign.
NO then enacts the compound guanylate cyclase cheap tadalafil pills which brings about girls who offer with frequent diseases can arrive across some relief and get sick far much less often. This continuous process helps reproductive system storing enough blood and causing pressure to make the levitra for sale online organ staying erect after removing the tube. Another order sildenafil online embarrassing problem for males is nocturnal emission. For those individuals who do not want to suffer the embarrassment of going to their physician for something like female levitra , then great, online pharmacies are a convenient and price effective solution for many people, it is important to be aware that self-medicating is potentially very dangerous, so always consult your physician before buying any ED drug through any pharmaceutical store. Me: OK. Is it that you’re busy, or would you prefer not to have a visit?
Her: I RESENT THAT QUESTION. GOOD BYE. Click.
I was honestly trying to determine whether to reschedule of if she’d just like me to go away and not bother her. I wasn’t told in training what to do if someone refuses a visit, but I’d contact the team leader and find out.
Thankfully, the third family will meet with me and tell me that they are going to give to the campaign and have already figured out how much. I’m also able to do that visit right before a meeting coming up because we’re on the same committee. Thank you for being the easy one.
This experience has really turned me off to this campaign and it’s starting to turn me off to the congregation as a whole. Maybe I need to think about finding another church or getting my Sunday mornings back to read the paper and relax. I do a LOT for this church. I don’t need to be put in the position of trying to talk to people who don’t want to talk to me, but aren’t willing to come out and say so.
Malaise
I’m sorry I haven’t written lately. I’ve been busy at work, busy outside work.
I’m also having one of those weeks (heading towards months) where everything is going just a little wrong. Nothing is seriously wrong. Nothing is seriously right. Everything is just a bit off kilter.
Work – as I’ve noted previously, the company is up for sale. Just today I heard two different rumors listing different companies that want to buy us – one possible and one unlikely. The senior management committee that approves IT projects just deferred a decision on a major technology change that we want to make. If they turn that down completely, I probably need to either find a new job or resign myself to being caught in a technical cul-de-sac (like COBOL programmers were 10 years ago).
Home – Home is generally OK. I wish that Carolyn and I shared more common interests – so that we’d end up spending more time together. I don’t want to grow in the wrong direction. Finances are being pinched just like everybody else between tiny raises and huge cost increases in everything else. As I said – pretty much completely OK but with a few signs of wear.
Church – I’m serving as a “Visit Steward” for the capital campaign. I’m getting the feeling from conversations with people that folks are really unhappy with the way that the campaign is being run. Most people agree with the need for funds and support most of the projects involved in the campaign, but there’s a lot of disaffection with how it’s being run. Also, the consultant sent to us by the PC(USA) Church Financial Campaign Service is really turning people off. There has to be some way to let the people in Louisville who sent her to us know what a terrible job she’s doing. We had our campaign visit training this past week. The handout was clearly cludged up from other campaigns and included references to things that we aren’t doing in our campaign (like 2nd and 3rd visits, household information cards, etc). One of the biblical references for stewardship actually came out against giving to the church if you read the next verse. Oh, well. I did make my pledge as required (all visit stewards were told to turn in their pledges as part of the commissioning ceremony yesterday, with less than a week’s notice) and even included a check for the entire amount. As soon as I do my 3 visits with members I’ll be done with the campaign. Here’s the hard part – one of my visits is to a family where one breadwinner is jobless.
“In Deuteronomy we are told to give 10%. Jesus tells the rich man that he should give everything. So the amount that we should pledge is somewhere between 10% and everything.” – no, this wasn’t a joke.
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Youth group is another area that is fine, but still not quite right. We had one youth make a life decision that will greatly negatively impact her choices in the future and it’s hitting me harder than I expected. Our attendance is rather spotty – we see a decent number of youth at each meeting but the list of attendees is different most weeks and we don’t really get to connect with them regularly. As I said – things are mostly OK. Youth Sunday is next week and we really have our act together in advance for a change. I am looking forward to going to Montreat for Week VI this summer.
Then there is the team that I co-chair. At our last meeting I got called a racist – under the theory that any white person is automatically a racist. This was said by a white person to a room full of white people – all of whom are well-intentioned in mind and as far as I can tell in practice when it comes to racial issues. I’m not looking forward to our next meeting two weeks from today.
When it comes to church I’m at a crossroads. I want to either become more involved or less involved. I don’t think continuing my current level of involvement is feasible – it’s gonna have to go up or down in the fall. I’d really like to be more involved, but in a meaningful way in a position where I can help the church change for the future rather than in a “pair of willing hands” way. I don’t mind doing the necessary, but it seems so much of church work is maintaining the old ways rather than working for the new.
Hockey – the Trenton Devils finished 6th out of 7, with the lowest number of wins in the entire history of the franchise. Enough said.
So malaise is the word of the day. Judging from the economy it might be the word of the entire country.
Week Roundup
This week’s roundup comes a little early – I’m taking Good Friday off from work.
Sunday – After worship I went to the Adult Forum on the capital campaign which included a manse tour. The manse tour included lunch. This solved a problem for me – Carolyn was in North Jersey at a wake for a cousin-in-law of hers. Later in the evening I went to Sr. High youth group where we prepared further for Youth Sunday. I have an assignment – I need to find Old Testament scripture(s) to match up with the Prodigal Son. (Feel free to suggest some in comments or e-mail)
Work this week has been quiet. My boss passed her Project Management Professional exam on Monday (on the first try!) and we celebrated with donuts and bagels on Tuesday. The entire group is taking her out for lunch next week. Other than that I’m doing design work for a project.
Planning for the moderator candidate event is progressing. I’m finding a huge disparity in how presbyteries handle the list of commissioners. Some are treating it like I’m some kind of identity thief and insisting on forwarding the event information to their commissioners. One stated clerk said that he’d look at the invitation and determine whether or not it was “appropriate” for the commissioners. Other presbyteries are being very forthcoming and giving me all of the information that I ask for in minutes. I have to wonder who abused the list of commissioners at some point and how that caused the very prickly reaction in some places.
Monday evening at church Project Open Door met (well, actually at the manse – it solved a child care issue for the pastor). Most of the meeting went very well. Then we got to the subject of whether or not racism is an issue in our church (which is 90+% white) and whether or not we’ve introduced bias into our visitor survey. I’m amazed at how passionate people were about their positions (given that it was a room full of white people) and at how much disagreement there was. After this painful experience we’re going to revisit it again later – probably with the help of an expert. Ironically, Barack Obama covered all of the issues that we discussed in his speech the next day.
Tuesday evening I ended up serving as the pick-up Net Control Station for a ham radio weekly drill. This was the weekly Mercer County SKYWARN/RACES/ARES net – to test radios and procedures in case our services are needed due to a disaster or severe weather. It went relatively well given that most of our members were attending a club meeting at the time and were unavailable.
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Tonight I plan to go to our church’s Tenebrae (Maundy Thursday) communion service. It will reportedly be very powerful. They gradually dim the lights throughout the service and end in darkness and silence. With the strong winds that we’re going to get it should be interesting.
Friday evening we’re off to see the Trenton Devils play the Dayton Bombers with my sister Laura.
Saturday evening we go to the Philadelphia Wings vs. New York Titans lacrosse game at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. My friend Jill has a crowd coming. My sister bought two tickets and after a friend dropped out Dad is coming with her – they’re riding with Carolyn and I to the game.
Sunday morning’s Easter service will probably be Catholic this year – we did Presbyterian last year. Sunday afternoon we’re hosting Easter dinner with the Smiths and Brennans at our house (anywhere from 9 to 13 people depending on who comes).
Happy Easter!
A disappointing weekend
This was one of those weekends where nothing quite goes your way, but it’s not really anybody’s fault.
Friday evening I went to a Philadelphia Wings lacrosse game. A friend of mine (from camp and church) has season tickets and we’d made arrangements for this game way back in October or November. I was looking forward to “catch up” time with her. Unfortunately (for me), she recently started dating the guy who sits behind her at the games. Carolyn and I enjoyed the game (it was close until the 4th quarter when the Wings went on a tear and blew out the other team), but we felt a bit like 3rd and 4th wheels. I can’t really blame my friend for concentrating on a new romance.
Saturday was quiet at home. I got the bills paid, some reading done, and rested. Nothing bad there.
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Sunday evening our youth director had planned a big “Bible Goes To the Oscars” program. He worked really hard – we had a red carpet and special lighting and movie stuff all over the place. We were going to have the youth do bible skits and then give awards for things like “Best Jesus” or “Best Supporting Disciple”. Only 4 youth showed up (with 5 adults). I think the issue is that many of our youth are involved in theater productions at the various high schools next weekend. We had to punt and switch to a discussion of films that have made a difference in your life and relating them to faith. Again – not really anybody to blame but not quite what we wanted.
One bright spot – I asked my pastor a pressing question for me regarding ethics and the workplace. He mentioned it in his sermon yesterday. He didn’t have an answer, but he posted the question to others on the church’s new blog.
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