HOPE 4 REAL FOLKS W/ REAL PROBLEMS - FINANCIAL WORRIES

In worship this week, we read the story of the Prophet Elijah visiting a woman. If you’re reading along at home, I Kings 17:7-14 is where you find it. Elijah was traveling and was visiting a town with a bad drought going on. There he met up with a widow with a son. Now, things are bad for single moms today, but in the society of the time, well she was not even allowed to own anything. When she met Elijah, she was gathering firewood to cook a last meal for her and her child.

You see, she had a small amount of flour & oil left. She truly believed that was it. They had no more food, and the drought had brought a famine, and they had no hope for future food. They were going to die. Elijah still insists she cook him a small meal with the flour & oil, but promises that she will not see the end of that supply of flour & oil while the drought persists. In other words, she and her child WILL make it through the crisis, if they step out on faith.

Kinda of relevant today don’t you think? No, thankfully, we don’t have a real drought around here, even if we did, we have lots of ways to get water for drinking and farms But we’ve been in a financial drought in this country for years. Worse still, here in Toledo, we tend experience the drought first and the recovery last. But some rain clouds are starting to gather finally. Eventually, they’ll pour down and end our drought, but we’ll see that last here.

Cheri, and myself as well, had three confessions: First, we worry about money; Two, Money causes stress in our relationship; Three, we are human. That’s right, ministers and their spouses as well, are real, flawed, human beings. Say it ain’t so Kurt. That being said, in our lives, we want to be free of worry. But the only way to be free from worry is to trust God. Now, this does not mean we can just simply hand it to God and go along our merry way. But, it still has to start with putting our trust in God.

Yesterday, the Lead Team of the Village were at the Northwest Ohio Association of the United Church Christ’s Annual Meeting. For those who are Methodists, Association = District, for Catholics = Diocese, for the rest of you, a big gathering of churches from a geographic region. It’s a big business meeting, where lots of decisions have to be voted on. One of the reports that had to be presented was on new church starts and re-development and we got to be the stars of the show. Joe, Kristie & Tianda performed “There is Always Room In The Circle”, bringing down the house, as Cheri showed a Power Point Slide Show of our first year. It was amazing.

Even more so was the celebration that The Village was a church they had birthed. The Association needed to celebrate this with us, because it was not an easy decision for them to step out on faith and help found us. First, there was the fear we would not help, but instead kill Nu Vizion, our sister UCC plant. Second, there was that little economic drought I talked about earlier. Worse still, the UCC had gotten report after report about how, as the oldest demographically, denomination, they’re dying. But they took that leap, they still made budget, and Nu Vizion is still going strong, and has helped us while we help them.

While Cheri was there, and at other clergy gatherings as well, she just wanted to talk about how wonderful things are going. How we are on track according to plan, how we are gearing up to start worship service number two, how we are changing lives, etc. But instead when Cheri was asked, she found herself answering that she was worried about money. Here’s why, the church is $15,000 in the red. While our budget is $165,000, we’ve already raised $130,000 of it. We could celebrate that were only 10% behind, putting us up there with most churches. We could celebrate that we’ve raised 7/8th of our budget through grants and pledges. But Cheri is worried about the other $35,000.

Guess what? Worry is not going to raise that other $35,000. Trusting in God is a good place to start, but a plan, that’s what is needed. And a plan is underway, but for today, that’s not the kind of financial worries we are talking about. Today’s blog is about you. We are starting a multi-week sermon series on dealing with real problems. It’s called “Hope 4 Real People w/ Real Problems”. As followers of Jesus we say that we are going to follow the way of Jesus and trust that God will show us the way when we don’t see one. One of these areas of concern when Cheri surveyed our congregation was finances.

What about your money situation worries you? Lots of us worry about money. Some of us have real issues, underemployment, unemployment, disability, etc. But for most of us, much of our financial stress comes from the choices we make. Not facing these issues, head on, and from failing to ask God to help us, to trust these problems to God, and failing to work the problem with God.

If you worry about money, if you can’t make ends meet, if you and your family members argue about money, you need to take some simple steps, some baby steps, to begin to take control of that problem, and start to move from worry to freedom. These are the same steps we are taking at the Village, and that Cheri & I are taking at home.

The first step is to assess the situation, get the data and talk about it. To figure out how to get out of hole, you need to look at how deep the hole is. That’s what Cheri and I had to do to deal with our situation. Our hole, well we had to debate whether to share that, but we could not be leaders without admitting our flaws. So, here it is. We were in a BIG hole. Frighteningly, not that far out of line with the norm in our country today, but a hole.

When we got married we had a thousand or two apiece in credit card debt, and I had tens of thousands in student loans. Then Cheri took a 40% pay cut to turn another church around, and we added two kids. So, at it’s peak, we were at $13,000 dollars in credit card debt. That’s what happens when you spend without thinking. You get in a hole. How you get out, well first you assess the hole and then plan on how you get out.

We sat down, with help from friends, and made a list of our debts. We made a budget and started to work on sticking to it. And we communicated. Cheri does our bill paying. Neither of us are good at that, but Cheri is better. But for a time she tried to keep things from me, saying she didn’t want to worry me too much. Now, we share, because that’s the only way out of the hole. You need to trust God, but you’ve got to work the problem, together.

The Second step, is making your budget, to consider your values. Does the situation you’re living in financially reflect the values you want to live by? Budgets, personal and governmental both are moral documents, according to our friend Jim Wallis. Our budget, sadly said we valued eating out and vacations more than our future and our church. We, like most of the population found ourselves spending 10% more than we made. We used credit cards, which are a way to but something we want but can’t afford.

But we decided to make a budget that reflect our beliefs. Sure, we would still take vacations, but ones more within our means and not splurge on new clothes or furniture until we absolutely needed such things. Others have gone further, our friend Mike Slaughter didn’t want to mortgage his kids future, so he sold his beloved, classic car to help fund his kids’ college educations. We made a conscious decision to strive to what the Bible tells us God wanted.

As Christians, we believe all we have is ultimately God’s. The Bible says we should give back 10% to our church and other good causes. The concept is called the Tithe. Further, financial experts tell you, it would be best to be saving about 10% of your income. Which means the formula should ideally be 10% to God, 10% to savings and 80% to your needs and wants. Cheri and I are working on this. I did not go to church on a regular basis as an adult before meeting Cheri, and Cheri tithed. Together we have been working towards that 10%, and we do give $500 per month to the Village, and have been since before most of you have heard of the Village. We believe in the Village, it’s values are ours, and we’ve made it so our budget reflects that.

The third step is the least popular, because it’s the hardest, WORK THE PLAN. It takes time to get into financial difficulty. We managed to add our combined debt together, then run it up another 200% more, but it wasn’t over night. We just didn’t get up one day and say “hey, let’s go on an around the world cruise; or we need a playroom with a big screen TV, a bar, pinball machine, etc”. We did it over time. That’s the way we’ve gotten out. Over the last several years, $13,000 has become less than $1,000. But only slowly, with work, with sacrifice, with following a plan. It is something you train to do, like a marathon or long bike ride.

The final step, this one’s actually the hard one for me, is to trust God and be ready to God to work with you in your plan and surprise you. Ask God to hep you. Ask God’s wisdom in guiding your money decisions. Ask for the feeling and belief that “the Earth and everything on it belongs to God”.

At the Village, we are a place where we want to connect with real people, and help them deal with their real problems. So, this is not just a sermon, but the start, we hope, of a ministry. We have wonderfully talented people who can help people learn how to get their financial houses in order. We are going to try to learn together and teach others how to deal with these kind of challenges. Are you ready to get help? Are you ready to help? Come join us at the Village if you are.