“…every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

These lyrics from Green Day’s song “Closing Time” have always fascinated me. While I don’t care for the rest of the song, these closing lyrics remain engrained in my mind. I have thought about them as I’ve pondered the various stages of my life, and the lives of those in my family. For example, when each of our sons graduated from high school, with future possibilities ahead of them, I reflected on their first days of school, the passage of friendship, and the other opportunities, transitions, and events of their school days.

I have also thought about these lyrics as I have reflected upon the movements, programs, and dynamics of the Church. Congregations, like all other living organisms, have life cycles – times of beginning and end. I once served a church that had installed in the basement a small, narrow basketball court, flanked with a bowling lane on each side! That church served as a community center for many years, but eventually, the leadership decided to remodel and transform the space into a fellowship hall for dinners and meetings.

Our church has been through many of these new beginnings from some other beginning’s end. Each church celebrated beginnings with their first religious meetings in small and crude facilities, then saw the ending of those with the new beginnings of religious life in Cherry and Market Street churches. The ending of the Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren Denominations were the beginning of the United Methodist denomination, as was the ending of Good Shepherd and Wesley into the beginning of Germantown United Methodist Church. Then on December 2010, we celebrated the new beginning of our beautiful facility.

Now, we are approaching another new beginning from some other beginning’s end. As we seek to finish the dream that brought two congregations together and complete the job that built our church, we are nearing the end of what we call Capital Campaign 2. Between Campaign 1 & 2, we have raised around $1.6 million – half of what it took to buy, excavate, and build our church.

That means, we still owe $1.56 million, on which we make mortgage payments of $9,735.80 per month. That’s a lot of money!

We are beginning to think about what we might be able to do through our church and our ministries if we can eliminate that mortgage, and what it would take to get there.

As a result, several of our leaders have met with Craig Miller, a representative from the RSI Church Consulting Firm. And we are beginning the process of talking and dreaming through several upcoming events:

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IGNITE: On Sundays, March 4 &11 from 4-6 PM in the Fellowship Hall, we will go through IGNITE, a two session event that will help us build clarity, vision, and passion for the task ahead. All leaders of the church, as well as everyone who wants to help our church and share their voice as we look to the next phase of our congregation’s future are invited. These are very important meetings, so please RSVP with the church office so that we may plan accordingly.

Leadership Training Meetings: Leaders of various areas of the church and various responsibilities will be meeting with our RSI Consultant Craig Miller on Tuesday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 28. These 45 minute to an hour gatherings are scheduled between 3:30 PM and 9:00 PM, and people will participate according to the responsibility they have volunteered to help with. Additional meetings will be held April 18-19, May 9-10, and June 3.

Home Meetings: Sometime between now and June, we will invite everyone in the congregation to gather in home settings to talk about the future and goals of our church. These will be times to gather together, hear what’s going on, ask questions, provide input, and of course, eat! Watch for announcements regarding dates, times, and location in the weeks ahead.

Prayer: In my February 19 sermon, I talked about five reasons why we really need to be devoted to prayer during this Lenten season. (To listen to that message, go to http://germantownchurch.org/learn-grow/sermons/) This “new beginning” was one of the reasons.  Prayer will be absolutely essential. Yet, we have been praying big for a long time here at Germantown United Methodist Church. And we continue to claim Ephesians 3:20, which reads, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

I can ask and think of some pretty big stuff, just like you can. I can’t wait to see God accomplish infinitely more than that.

Join me in this new beginning, won’t you?

Pastor Gary

The State of the Church

Myra and I have been part of the Germantown United Methodist Church community for seven months now, and what else can we say but “Wow!”

A Look Back

2011 was a year of firsts. Almost every Sunday was a first, as we began to live into our new church building. First wedding, first funeral, first Lent and Advent, first dinners, first Beth Moore Bible Study, the list goes on and on. There were many questions about how things would work, where will we put this, how do we do this in our new building? But we began to figure everything out. And through the process, I heard over and over again comments like, “This is a beautiful church” or “This feels like home.” And that is exactly how it should feel!

We saw significant growth in many areas of the life of the church. We experienced incredible increases in worship attendance. Our 9:00 Traditional worship increased over 15%, while our 11:15 Contemporary worship increased 23% from 2010. Overall, our Sunday morning worship increased over 16% to a weekly average of almost 198 every week.

We also saw increases in giving as well. Offerings to the budget increased 9.7% from the previous year. Our offerings to the Capital Campaign more than paid the new mortgage. Total offerings (budget, capital campaign, missions, etc.) increased just under 2% from 2010. Pledges for the 2012 Operating Budget increased 17% from the previous year.

There were two areas that were a struggle for us in 2011. Our 2011 non-Apportionment expenses increased a whopping 19% from the previous year. Learning how to heat and air condition our new building took time; our February utility bill were more than September, October, November, and December combined! Doug Cox has been absolutely diligent in managing our system, and now has it finely tuned and working very efficiently. In addition, we incurred many expenses that I would call “one-time moving costs” – things that we needed to live into our new space that we will not purchase again for years. (Think of curtains and bath mats when you move into a new house.)

With our non-Apportionment expenses being so high, we were unable to pay our 2011 Apportionments in full. We fell behind big time early, and it took most of the year to catch up. We paid our District Apportionments in full, and for the year, paid a total $21,289, or 61% of our Apportionments. Our goal for 2012 is to return to paying our Apportionments in full.

A look ahead

As I shared in my January 1 message, I would like us in 2012 to first be more intentional. More intentional about discipleship, growing and becoming more like Jesus. We also need to be intentional in our outreach, both social justice and – the dirty word – evangelism. We are called to be salt and light. We are to make a difference in our world. That means feeding the poor and helping the hurting, yes, but it also means sharing our faith to our neighbor in need, to the family member that is lost. There is a lost world out there, and they are our responsibility.

Second, I would like us to be more compassionate. We need to be more compassionate with one another. We need to love those inside these walls and outside these walls with the same love and care we have received from God.

Third, I would like us to be bolder. We need to be bolder in our faith, realizing that in the Christian life, there are no such things as obstacles, only opportunities for us to go boldly in our faith, knowing we serve a big God. We need to be bolder in our stewardship, remembering our key verse from Ephesians 3:20: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Finally, I would like us in 2012 to be more committed. We must focus our attention and devotion more and more on Christ so that we won't be sidetracked by anything else.

We have many things on the horizon of 2012 – some we know, some are yet to be revealed. But I do know that if we keep our motivation centered solely and enthusiastically on Loving God… Loving People, then “we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into some-thing good.” (Romans 8:28, The Message)