Each summer, for many years, I have written a “Special Summer Letter” with one of two purposes. The first type has been common in recent years, a letter would be sent early in the summer to encourage us all to give more during a season when our lives take us in many directions, attendance is reduced, yet expenses remain high. Whether it was through the “pre-giving” of our regular Sunday offerings to God before we went traveling, or through the gift of One Summer Day’s Expenses (it costs us $239.79 per day, in 2011, to simply meet our administrative costs as a congregation), you have provided the means to avoid the writing of the “other” letter. That second letter was the one that said we don’t have enough money to meet our minimum essential obligations, and we would ask for special gifts, which – with a few notable and painful exceptions – were quickly forthcoming.

In the interest of avoiding the expense of a special mailing of an early summer encouragement letter – and with a confident expectation that there will be no need for a late summer panic letter – the Elders and Deacons asked me to address the issue in this space in the Belltower. There is so much happening within the congregation that is wonderful. Our youth programs remain remarkable expressions of faithful service: the recent Spaghetti Dinner raised over $800 for our area food banks and the teens will, once again this year, provide a lunch for the homeless of Somerville, in cooperation with Tom O’Leary and SHIP. The VBS (July 11-15) enrollment is up and the energy is high as we go “Cruising With God”. The Warwick Work Days – which have involved well over 100 of us directly in the last few years – have almost completely rebuilt the Camp Warwick tent area! Speaking of Warwick, Autumn Koene is serving on the Summer Camp Staff this year, along with Camp Director Scott Cherry, continuing a long line of Clover Hill/Camp Warwick connections and I understand that there are still some spaces available for a week at Camp, the brochures and applications are available in the Church Narthex. The dedicated leadership of the Consistory has allowed us to accomplish a remarkable list of building enhancement projects over the last few years, and their close attention to cost savings, without injuring our service to God, has been inspirational, including – as you are aware from our Congregational Meeting last fall – we mutually reached a decision to “furlough” me for three weeks this year in order to reduce our spending.

With all of that before you, let me urge you to give generously this summer, to pre-pay your offerings as part of your vacation preparations, to make a special Summer Day gift of $239.79, and to support the Golf Outing on August 14, knowing that your gifts are extending God’s love in so many different ways.

But let me also step beyond that, so that you can see the full scope of our income and expenses: we have, for longer than I have been here, used our special funds for internal loans to meet our current expenses, repaying them as circumstances allowed. That practice has been necessary but unhealthy and the Consistory is committed to eliminating it. With that in mind, every penny that has been given to the window repair/replace fund has been escrowed to our savings account. We have also, in an unhealthy yet necessary way, fallen behind in our responsibility to our denomination ($82 per member this year) because of cash flow realities. We have a vision list of projects and missions that we would love to pursue so that we can continue to flourish as God’s people in the coming years and decades. For instance, we explored, but couldn’t afford, air-conditioning the Sanctuary when we put in the new heating system, but I have come to believe that this – and a number of other building and mission projects - will be essential if we are to continue to attract 21st Century American Christians who have never known hot days without cool buildings.

So let me also put before you, in addition to the daily costs and demands of being Christ’s Church in Clover Hill, the great need for major gifts – especially now, if possible, or in wills that leave a percentage of our estate to the Church – so that we can continually retool, refit and reform ourselves for the journey that God is taking us upon. The great slogan of the Reformed Church is “Reformed and Always Reforming”, let that be our goal and our reality!

I hope you didn’t stop reading and I hope that you will now pray that God will open all of our hearts, that the blessings he has provided for us will be turned loose!

Peace,
Jack