A Matter of Perspective

Oh, how wonderful and uplifting are church business meetings. Of course my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. Last Sunday night, our church had our annual business meeting. Of course if Robert saw how we interpreted his rules of order he would probably roll over in his grave. It has always made me laugh to think of how formal churches are in their business meetings. I remember as a kid getting so bored while the deacons recommend and the motion is passed then someone’s got the floor (to which I would glance down and chuckle because hey, what are you going to do with the floor). Then they vote and say aye or nay; of course, the pastor waits patiently to hear all of ayes and quickly brushes over the nays (why don’t we just say yes or no?)I suppose church business meetings can be humdrum and boring, but it is a “necessary evil.” At our church business meeting last week I had a chance to pause and reflect. Our little church is growing by God’s grace and we need a new building, especially for the discipleship classes. Two years ago our church unanimously voted to purchase 3.08 acres from an LDS Bishop at the rock-bottom price of 480,000 dollars. We had one year to come up with 100,000 dollars and then the owner would carry the contract for us. Six months passed and then months and finally eleven months had gone by and we had about 57,000 dollars raised. My weak faith doubted that we could do it. However, in that one month, God brought in 33,000 dollars for our church. My weak faith still doubted because we were just days from the deadline, and we were 10,000 dollars short of the goal. One of the men in our church went to the owner and just simply asked him, “What is the minimum you would take for this property?” The owner paused and said, “90,000 dollars.” But the fleece was not wet enough for me yet. I told the congregation that I still was not comfortable with the payments so I went to the owner and asked, “Would you be willing to wait a year before we have to make payments.” To my surprise he said, “yes.” Half way through last year we had another church approach us about selling our building (we never even told anyone we were selling). They offered us 300,000 dollars four our current building. We worked and reworked deals with this church and they were able to raise 45,000 dollars for a downpayment by November. Their church is smaller than ours, but we told them that if they could raise another 45,000 in December we would sell it to them. I doubted that they could do it, and secretly thought this was our “out.” Surely this would be evidence that God was closing the door. December 30, they called me and said they had a check for 40,000 dollars and one for 5,000 in the mail. The fleece was getting wetter! So that brings us to our business meeting Sunday night. God has so strengthened His people’s faith, that we presented a building cost of 672,000 dollars and the church unanimously voted to sign the contract. Isn’t it awesome how God doesn’t just get a little water on the fleece, but soaks it with blessings from heaven. My lack of faith reminds me that “I am but dust.” If we are going to walk on water, we have to get out of the boat. Praise God that he continues to use me even though I bow my head in shame as he lovingly rebukes, “O ye of little faith.”