EZRA -- Year End Statistics Data Base -- Not Ready for Use

As of December 10th, our Statistical Data Base, EZRA, is not ready for use. The MSC News Article of yesterday was incorrect, and I had asked that it not run. Forgive us please.

There are required updates that must be done to ready the Data Base for Mountain Sky Conference use and those have not been accomplished yet.

Those updates are accomplished by the General Council on Finance and Administration, not the Mountain Sky Conference and the issue here is effecting all EZRA users across the USA, not just us.

It is anticipated that the update will be accomplished soon.

When EZRA is ready for access, I will ask that we (1) send out a special email note to local church pastors and treasurers, (2) publish a News article and (3) let the District Superintendents and Administrative Assistants know.

A blank 2017 form for possible use is available if you send me a note.  HERE.  

Yes, within limits, the due date will be changed. I don't know yet to what as I don't know yet when it will be ready.

Suggestions as to how to do this better will be treated as volunteer statements to help me with this task. (Smile, a little, but partially serious.)

Dennis Shaw, Mountain Sky Statistician

Waiting Patiently, Listening Carefully

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:31 (English Standard Version)

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13 (English Standard Version)

We have one newsletter for both December and January.  What is a visionary pastor to say that speaks to two different seasons in the life of the church?  

Advent is a season of anticipation, waiting for the Christ Child to get to Bethlehem.  Many of us want to rush it; we resist going through the steps of hope, peace, joy and love.  We want to get there, quickly.  “Let’s quickly move through those steps.  The department stores have had their lights out since October!”  We are trampling on Advent when we bring Christmas into that season.  It is like celebrating Easter in the middle of Lent.  

The gifted writer and Wesleyan theologian Dean McIntyre writes:

Advent is a season rich in tradition, symbolism, art, music, and liturgical practice. It has its own unique themes as well as those that point the way to Christmas. And yet, we annually confront the pressures and questions of …"Why can't we sing Christmas carols in early December?" The answer, of course, is that to do so allows Christmas to intrude. It allows the themes, practices, spirituality, history, traditions, symbols, art, and music of one season to displace those of another. We lose the richness and the benefit of experiencing the promise, longing, hope, and expectation of Advent. The world, television, and shopping malls have done all they can to convince us that Advent does not matter; it has no place in our culture; and many of us have come to accept that for our church, as well. Our faith teaches us something very different.  (Italics are not in the original.) 

Our theme for Advent will be: Waiting patiently in hope, peace, joy and love.  Each week will focus on one of those four ideas.  We want to honor Advent I think part of how we honor the season is cherishing and embracing waiting.  The Isaiah above is a theme for all who want to move quickly.  ‘Renew your strength:  wait.’ 

It is our Hilltop tradition to have a Blue Christmas service in December.  We will continue that tradition on December 12^th at 7:30 PM. 

The next season is called Epiphany.  Epiphany was originally about the recognition by the Wise Men of the Christ Child.  But we can have secular epiphanies:  “a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you.”  Many churches use the Season of Epiphany to help those who came on Christmas Eve to move from a state of annual tradition to one of faithful inquiry seeking a deep, rich “moment.”  My take of that moment is one of raised consciousness rather than true understanding.  I have personally been studying this stuff for a quarter plus of a century and parts I still don’t truly understand.  When I want to truly understand, I call our own John Davison, and he clears it up for me. 

Many have heard me say:  too often we listen in order to reply rather than to truly understand.  I hope I don’t shock anyone with the idea that all of us do this to some degree.  I hope I don’t shock anyone with the idea this is not a new problem:  look at the Proverb above.  I agree that if we are formulating the reply in our head while the conversation is going on, we are taking part in folly. 

I want to spend our time of growing consciousness around the idea of listening.  During that time, I hope to touch on the trials and tribulations of the United Methodist Church as it faces the possibility of becoming Untied instead of United.  I think the solution to some extent is one of learning to better listen. 

Join us in both seasons, a season of waiting followed by a season of listening. 

I pray that you covenant to first wait patiently, to listen carefully, and to be with us in both of these two seasons unless you are not in our fair city. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Update on Stewardship: November 1, 2018

We want to give you a cautiously optimistic report on our 2019 Stewardship Campaign, at least as it relates to “treasure.” 

	For 2017	For 2018	2019 as of Now	2019 Probable
Pledged	$302,292	$310,327	$325,042	$355,000
Number Pledging in terms of Treasure.	101	95	96	108

The table above shows where we are at 8:00 AM, November 1, 2018.

We are nearly $15,000 increased in our pledges for 2019 over 2018.  The pledge total for 2019 is nearly $23,000 over 2017. 

We have at this time one more pledge for 2019 than for 2018. 

While that table is good news, we think we have more good news on this.  There are sixteen families or individuals who are now worshipping here who in 2018 pledged nearly $40,000 towards Hilltop.  We are contacting them this week in the first phase of our post-Commitment Sunday work to ask if they plan to step up again for 2019.  We are cautiously optimistic that most of them will say “yes.”  If twelve of them step up even at 2018 levels, the last column in yellow is where we expect to be.  We are cautiously believing that three 2019 dollars will emerge for every four 2018 set of dollars.  Given the ‘Culture of Growth’ we saw start with pledges and non-pledge families and individuals, we think that is conservative.  Said another way:  we do not think that the probable pledged or pledge count is unrealistic. 

We see this growth as part of the culture we are hoping to sustain and nurture:  A Culture of Growth. 

Our potential growth in terms of time and talent is not as positive.  We have eight families/individuals who want more information on how to grow in terms in discipleship and eight (some the same, some different) who want to explore serving.  We still have work to do here. 

Returning to treasure and Growth, we have right at 230+ families or individuals who have worshipped at Hilltop in 2018 three times or more.  We have pruned this list to remove those who are seasonal or having zip codes that are not in our region/area.  Adding those who pledged in 2018/2019 with those who supported the church financially in 2018, we get 170 or so families or individuals. 

First, there is no entrance fee or minimum expectation of support in terms of time, talent or treasure.  For years, the first word of Hilltop’s self identity was “belong.”  Again, there are no dues or entrance fee to belong to the church, only an inquiring heart.  If in doubt, please read and re-read until the meaning is understood unequivocally. 

That said, we continue to pray that as part of “belonging”, a family or an individual will want to get started with supporting that which they belong to. 

We have made some suggestions over the course of this campaign around levels of weekly sharing of our treasure.  Here is a modest proposal:  treat $20/week as a “full share” in Hilltop’s financial life; treat $10/week as a “half share” and $5/week as a “quarter share.”  Multiple families are investing in double digit shares annually.  Where are you?  Why?  The invitation here is to get started with a plan ($5/week) and then back that up with a transaction at your bank that realizes that plan.  In 2020, grow it to $10/week.  In 2021, grow it to $20/week.  Using this logic, Marilyn and I supported Hilltop in 2018 with a little short of 30 shares.  Others have done far more. 

We invite all to get started, on a culture of growth:  time, talent, and treasure. 

Selah,

Pastor Dennis and Dr. Roy Trawick

A Constant State of Gratitude

Proverbs 22:2-4 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

“The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.”

November, both secularly and religiously, presents so many opportunities for us to be thankful. I think of it as a month set aside for us to be in a constant state of gratitude. 

The first Sunday in November is a chance to remember the great ‘cloud of witnesses’ that have gone before us and paved the way for us. The personal courage it took to leave a Bristol, England in a seventeenth century sailing vessel is impressive. This courage was displayed multiple times in multiple ways throughout our history. Others had to have the courage to survive today buoyed by hope tomorrow would bring a life of freedom. I find the courage, among other characteristics, of our forebears humbling. Their courage in the face of life challenges almost always leads me to a state of gratitude, a gratitude that empowers me to be hopeful and optimistic. 

This year the second Sunday is the actual day of remembrance for those who have served: Veteran’s Day. While officially the day is one of remembering those who have served in the military, I think including those who have answered the call to serve us in the role of first responders, e.g., police, fire, medics, are a focus I have used in the past, and want to again this year. Having been a member of the Warrior Class, I plan to try and offer a thought or three as to how we can best support those who move towards the sound of danger. Again, I find the courage, humbling. Again, courage leads me through a state of gratitude, towards hopeful and optimistic. 

Thanksgiving Day is preceded by the third Sunday, and we are going to reflect a little on what it means to respond from multiple blessings in gratitude. The Hilltop musical tradition of how we mass, play and sing “Come Ye Thankful People Come” is goose bump. It consistently makes me awe-full. 

The final Sunday of the Church Year is “Christ the King Sunday.” Awe and gratitude are always in my mind when I think humbly about Jesus as the Christ.

Sometimes, focusing so much on Thanksgiving, humility and gratitude does lead me to feel called to share with all of this precious flock called Hilltop, the joy I find in ministry. First, I think of myself as a person of ideas, and I have the happy task of getting time each week to participate in a drama focused on ideas. Further, I have spent a great deal of time over these last six plus years with you during moments of great personal pain, anguish, and confusion. Being allowed to be there at those moments is inspiring and humbling.  When I walk into the room of someone close to the end of this life, and their face lights up at seeing me is nothing short of an awe-full moment. There is nothing awful about it. And at that moment, I am each of you, there to sing, read scripture, anoint with oil, pray, listen, and quietly hold a faithful hand. It is so humbling. 

I walk into lives, that without the presence of the divine would have every reason to be in a state of despair, and I find, among other things, courage. And yet again, I find the courage, humbling. And yet again, courage leads me through a state of gratitude, towards hopeful and optimistic.

November presents many opportunities for us to be thankful. 

   Might I invite each of you to think of November as a month set aside for you to be in a state of gratitude?  

      How do we grow that gratitude for a month into a constant feeling?  

         I have found such a feeling leads to riches beyond silver and gold. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Worship This Sunday

Worship this Sunday is at 10:00 AM. 

Order of worship will be altered a little.  Roberta and I operate from “form follows function” logic, and it will be a smidge different.  Nothing radical, we start with a prelude and end with a sending forth.  Just be alert, the world needs more “lerts.”  I think that is funny. 

Please, if you are in the area, try and make this important to you to be here.  Please?  Treat this as the culmination of “Pastor Appreciation Week.”  I would appreciate it if we had 300+ in attendance. 

Our guest preacher is the Reverend Amy Gearhart.  Rev Amy has the task of working out the transition and culture issues associated with going from a Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences to a Mountain Sky Conference.  I heard her briefly in June, and I found her dynamic and challenging. 

Please plan on bringing in your pledge letter.  Even if you do not wish to pledge, there are things on the form we hope you will covenant to do or be.  If you have lost yours or forget, the ushers will have one.  If you have already turned yours in, wonderful:  you will have a card that you will be asked to bring up.  We want a symbolic handoff if possible. 

Our approach overall has been a Culture of Growth:  time, talent, and treasure.  This is not a pick one; it is pick something from all three.  As you grow as a disciple, we would hope that it would be a natural growth in these three areas.  The church has said that Children and Youth is important, and we have made grace-filled and powerful changes here.  If you do not know where to bring your time and talent, and have the slightest inclination to help in the area of children and youth, check the box on the form that says  Would you like to have someone call you about how you might serve?  Yes  No  (Circle One)

But we do not wish to put round pegs in square holes.  If you have thoughts where you might serve, circle yes. Pray and circle it.  

Treasure does have some pretty specific needs.  We have baseline needs of $660,000.  That does not include New Church Start/Second Campus.  Our 2018 Budget is $505,000 and it had a programmed shortfall drawing on prior year extra earnings.  We can’t get to $660,000 from $505,000 by staying with the status quo.  If you are over $1,000 in annual giving, try and increase by at least 5%.  If you are below $1,000 try to get to either $520 ($10/week) or $1,040 ($20/week).  Set that up on automatic “send” from your bank. 

If you want to talk about stewardship in general or a specific topic within stewardship start with the Stewardship Committee post a comment to this note and we will get back with you.  

John Davison wrote to the Church Council in late September his views on the coming campaign, it is quite good:  “if you believe the cause of Christ is important in this world, and if you believe that the programs and mission of HUMC are supporting that cause, now is the time for you to support what you believe!”  Your Church Council supported that unanimously.  It is a logical extension of the Culture of Growth viewpoint.  Please be here on Sunday.  Please consider making a commitment to Christ with an increase in your contributions of time, talent, and treasure. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Growing in Love

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 New International Version

We love [God] because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 New International Version

The search for meaning in my life ultimately brought me to the Church.  That quest for meaning presented me, in love, with a life defined by the life of Christ, a Christian life, shaped by the Word of God and the ongoing presence of God in my life.  A life initiated in love but further defined by the need for constant growth. 

A Christian life in a state of growth consists of at least two further searches, if not more:  Acknowledging that God searching for us, we are searching for God.  Those two searches are defined and driven by love.  In the scripture above, we understand God loves the world and we love God because God first loved us.  That affirmation of love is meant to be meaningful and transforming.  Most of our lives have been transformed by love:  think about it, where would you be without love?

The love we experience is not static or stationary.  It is a constantly evolving and at its best, constantly growing, force.  It grows deeper through trust and mutual respect, tenderness and care, growing.  I confess love has transformed me, and I suspect you as well.  Love leads to growth. 

I said this past May that “at the heart of God is to be in relationship.”  That day it was the relationship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Today, let’s reflect on loving relationship within the Body. 

Our new Vision Statement makes relationship core by naming it – Hilltop and then addressing how we are in community:  Hilltop – An inclusive community of hospitality, healing, help, and hope, leading hearts to Christ.  Our vision is intended to be understood as a statement of being, who we are.  We provide hospitality and help, and God provides the healing and hope. 

In the First Century, long before we had denominations and set aside buildings for worship, the Christian search for meaning thrived on relationship.  We lose our way when we forget that.  People are the church:  we sing a hymn called “I am the Church.”  Too often we get focused on denominations or buildings to define the church, and that is the wrong focus.  At our best, we are a restless, searching, people who are, in humility, leading other hearts to Christ. 

We call the Church the very Body of Christ.  The Church, at its best, is focused on helping us be Christians that are constantly in a state of communicating, receiving, and giving.  We are, at our best:

·        Communicating the Good News of Jesus Christ to a cynical world, 

·       Receiving nurture, direction and hope regularly in order to be forces of transformation in that cynical world, and

·        Proudly, joyously, giving back to God our Time, our Talent, and our Treasure. 

Let’s spend some time this Season of Stewardship, a Season of Prayerful Growth, with great intentionality looking at where we are, or perhaps are not, growing.  Are we growing in the depth of our relationship and if not, what are we doing about it?  Growing in our minds, growing in our service, growing in the joyful sharing back to God what has been given to us in the first place.

Be alert, be attentive, be awake to the small still voice of God calling to you about how you might grow.  In order to truly understand that call, you may have to first be open to your potential for growth leading to joyful response. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Doing is on the way to Becoming

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse.  'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.'

'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become ….’”

The Velveteen Rabbit

I once was asked why I didn’t title my sermons.  

My not serious, tongue in cheek, quip was that I was a closet Episcopalian, and while I believed in Jesus, I didn’t believe in titles.  Episcopalians do not title their sermons, Methodists normally do.  But I assure you, I am not a closet Episcopalian.  Their Sunday duds are just not me.  I might become an Episcopalian, but I doubt it. 

The real answer is titles box me in. 

Here at Hilltop, we print the bulletin on Thursday, and I am often, very often, not ready to put a title on a sermon at that time.  A title forces me into a direction I am not always ready to be go. Yes, I can be stubborn at times with the Holy Spirit and the direction of a sermon. 

When I have a good title and know with great certainty where the Holy Spirit is carrying me, it’s easy.  Look at the bulletins for Sunday worship in September; titles will be present. But that title creation prompted me to think about a lot of stuff. 

The act of creating a title for this Sunday’s sermon produced a jumble in my head.  As we look at the book of James in September, that jumble is stirred by contemplating the answer to the question:  “What does it mean to live as a Christian?”  

The theme for the month, “Doing Church” is also messing with me. Several weeks ago when it was proposed, it generated no dissonance in my head at all.  Now, for some reason, it keeps clashing in my head.  (To be clear, this a good dissonance, like in Jazz or the Blues or Stravinsky). 

I was glad to read that the theme had an impact on Mary Jean Davison as she wrote her excellent Music and Arts article in our newsletter. Mary Jean suggests that by doing church, we start to experience transformation and get to a place of becoming where we are the church.  You don’t stay at doing. At some point, you become. 

Spanish has two verbs to be.  One has an element of permanence, and the other is understood to be temporary.  If you use the wrong verb to say someone is smart or beautiful, you are actually suggesting it is not part of their normal state.  I see this doing/being in the same way.  We have to do the church enough, that at some point it stops being doing, and it becomes a vital statement about who we actually are. 

I assure you that after having prepared right at 500 sermons I am not the same person I was 500 sermons ago.  Church is a different reality for me than fifteen years ago, sometimes even fifteen minutes ago. 

Being the church is, in the sense of the two Spanish verbs to be, permanent and temporary.  Gradually as we become real in terms of being little Christs, the meaning of Christian after all, he becomes permanently part of who we are, and we leave more and more of the temporary behind. 

I suspect it is never completed, that in this life we are never fully 100% finished.  To paraphrase Paul from 1^st Corinthians 13, I suspect it is a state of constant becoming, a state of seeing in the mirror and just getting it dimly, always seeking more light, more clarity, moving from doing to a state of becoming. In the words of the Skin Horse, you become real. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Pronouns Matter

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.  1 Corinthians 12:12 (ESV)

In my time in the Army, I often heard leaders say while pointing to the US Army strip on our uniforms “there is no me in Army” then point to our name tags, mine of course saying SHAW and offering “there is no I in Team.” Sometimes they would close that lesson with “Go Army, Go Team.” 

There is no me in Army, there is no I in team. 

The preamble to the Constitution doesn’t say “I the person” it starts, “We the people.” 

          The New York Yankees do not allow names on the backs of their jerseys, only numbers. 

               Some coaches tell basketball, football, and baseball players to play for the name on the front of their jersey rather than the name on the back.  The back has their last name, and on the front, is the team name. 

All of those ideas point to the same concept that Paul was pointing to in his ongoing philosophical dispute with the church in Corinth: when you sign on to be a follower of Christ, you leave the stuff behind you previously held on to. For Paul, the image of a healthy human body was helpful to understanding the idea of team: the team worked together and the eye was the eye, and it didn’t try to be the ear, mouth, or ankle. 

There is no me in Church, there is no I at Hilltop. Me and I are called pronouns, which mean they can be used as a substitute for nouns. There is no me in church surely sounds better than ‘there is no Dennis in church.’ 

Here is my point: Pronouns matter, they matter a lot. 

How many times do we hear national leaders over the last twenty years get into extended dialogue where the pronouns used are I, me or my. Those are all first person, singular pronouns. Somehow when Jesus says “I am the light of the world” that is positive, but when a leader pronounces “I am the light of the world” it is jarring. 

Personally, I always try to make sure the pronouns at Hilltop are to the maximum degree possible, if first person, plural. We.  Us. 

But that is so hard. Look at the very first sentence of this thought piece: quickly it gets to first person, singular. Sometimes the I statement is unavoidable. First person singular isn’t automatically sinful.  But other times, it would be more true, more helpful, and more kind to go to plural pronouns. 

Reading European sports writers talk about the recent World Cup was interesting. England are something. Not England is something. My word processor gives me an error on are following the singular noun, England, but England in the context meant is a team, a plural. 

Maybe we need to think of the Body of Christ in a European team concept: The body of Christ are …

English teachers will freak out but in reality the plural verb makes an excellent point – a team is intrinsically plural, not singular. You want the team to get to a place of unity, oneness, functioning as one. But even in perfect oneness, perfect unity, it is still a collection of me’s and I’s. 

I used The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown last year for sermon illustrations. Boys in the Boat is the story of the University of Washington Rowing Team and how, spoiler alert, they won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1936. In part, the book is about how one man, Joe Rantz, neglected and abandoned by his family, had to learn to sacrifice his personal individuality for the unity of the team. When Rantz makes that psychological, spiritual shift in his understanding of how it all fits together, the crew is one with each other.  The nine members of the Crew becomes one. 

For Paul, this thing called church is a one.  He sees it in terms of the complexity of the human body, many diverse parts and roles, but still functioning as a single thing. All of this diversity of function and role still serves to keep the body healthy and viable. Every member of the body, that is eyes, fingers, feet, stomach, ears, all function in support of the one that is the entire body: the entire body of Christ. 

This Jesus stuff isn’t easy. It isn’t going to happen without effort and hard work and a willingness to make that psychological, spiritual shift in understanding of how it all fits together. You’ve got to sacrifice much of our individuality to make it all fit together.

One of the barometers in how we assess how we are doing on this “body of Christ” stuff is the pronouns. When first person singular dominate, we are probably focused on the wrong things. When the dominant pronouns are plural, we are probably functioning consistent with what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 12. 

There is no me in Church, there is no I at Hilltop. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Culture of Growth

My June-July Newsletter Musings invites us to focus, probably re-focus, on creating a culture of growth.  For those who might not have read those musings, I have posted them to my blog HERE. 

I propose a new conversation focused on a culture of growth as it relates to our economic well-being as a church start today.  Read on please. 

Next week, you should receive from our Stewardship Co-Chair, Dr. Roy Trawick and me a letter.  This letter will address both our specific Hilltop context and your possible place in our financial, economic, and stewardship world.  We are working on this communication with great care.  The communication is meant to express: gratitude, understanding and invitation.  Our gratitude for steadfast faithfulness; understanding when life circumstances means a family (or individual) cannot help; and an invitation to be part of a new culture focused on growth. 

Where you sit in life matters.  This will not be a “one size fits all” approach to our economic message.  The “one size fits all” we do hope for is understanding, prayer and discernment as we attempt to lay out where we are and invite all of us to use this as an opportunity for embracing a culture of growth.  Again, we are I believe, mindful of those on fixed income, out of work, dealing with expenses from a wide array of external requirements, etc. 

Overall, we can and must do better. 

Table 1 looks at the eight Anglo Churches in Utah with a full-time pastor.  We are second in attendance but in per capita congregational giving we are eighth.  I will note, we are better than we have been in the past, the gap is closing. 

Table 1 looks at a sub-set of churches in our area, but if we look at all United Methodist Churches in Western Colorado and Utah, over 40, the average giving per attendee is right at $2,100.  Our average is $1,825.  There is a very high relationship between attendance and congregational giving in the aggregate, with right at 90% of the uncertainty in congregational giving being a function of attendance.  In the world of economic analysis, that is a very high level of uncertainty explained. 

If we were ‘average’ in this area, we would have +$60,000 to invest in growing the kingdom.  Just ‘average.’  I personally do not think Hilltop is an ‘average’ community but in this area, we are ‘below average.’  In some measures of grading we would get a ‘needs improvement.’  Many former Hilltop members now worship in St. George at Shepherd of the Hills.  If we were at their level of average giving, we would have nearly $150,000 more to invest in kingdom growth.  Getting to average gets us over $60,000 and getting to level of many of our former parishioners in St. George almost gets us $150,000. 

At this moment, our forecasted overall income is right at $30,000 less than our forecasted and budgeted expenses.  That is about a six percent shortfall.  To return to the theme of last year, we are not over expensed, we are under incomed. 

How have we gotten to this place?  Multiple factors I think. 

• We are younger than the average church.  We have more young families than most.  Resources are not evenly distributed across the age groupings, and as a general rule, money is highly clustered in older families and individuals. 
• We are highly transient.  People do show up here and then depart within five years.  Their financial commitment to Hilltop is gradual and then interrupted by their professional moves to another place in the country.  They blessed us in many ways during their brief time with us. 
• Finally, I think we have used resources generated by the building to pay for programs.  Examples have been and in some cases still are, Hilltop Christian School, Building Use Donations and Cell Towers.  This occurred during lean times and we have kept it up.  To the detriment of the building I believe. 

Do those three factors, and perhaps more that are unmentioned, mean we are fated to lag our colleagues in Utah?  I think no.  I do think it will require us to focus on who we are and whose we are – with a solid vision.

Our new proposed vision is:  Hilltop – An inclusive community of hospitality, healing, help, and hope, leading hearts to Christ. 

A portion of our hospitality is the building, but it also the staff which is a part of leading, managing, facilitating lay-led programmatic work to bring us to a place where we can heal, help and be part of the hope message.  It is also our healing, help and hope support for the church beyond our walls where we are only sharing 67 cents on every dollar we should be sharing.  The building is a means for helping us realize our vision, staff to help lead and manage a culture of growth lived out by the laity, and being interested in supporting the greater church in places like Africa and the Philippines. 

For this specific note let’s address the building which gets about one dollar in four from our budget.  Most of that one dollar in four is for fixed or reasonably fixed costs:  mortgage, trash, utilities.  What is left over is insufficient to adequately provide required upkeep on the property.  An excellent example is our 1983 parking lot.  We keep sealing the cracks but at some point, it needs a new layer of asphalt.  Another example is the roof where over the past six years we have spent over $80,000 and 100% of that was paid for by insurance.  A blessing we had the insurance for sure.  The age of the building ranges from thirty-five to about ten years.  We are under invested in its upkeep and maintenance. 

In my June-July Newsletter Musings, I mentioned that Paul in his letter to Timothy speaks to being diligent. I wrote: 

“To be diligent suggests we will attend to life in a way that shows care and conscientiousness in our duties.  I pray you show care and are conscientious in your weekly attendance at Hilltop and supporting her with your time, talent and treasure. It is important. It is important to sustaining a culture of growth.  Paul says to “give yourself wholly to them.” I think that is excellent advice, and I pass it on for your consideration and possible implementation.” 

I closed that article saying “Thank you for attending to this issue of great importance.”  We need to attend to this opportunity to create a culture of growth.  When you get your letter next week, find a quiet moment to read it and attempt to develop an understanding of what we are saying. 

People often ask me, what might I do to help more at Hilltop?  You would bless me if you would patiently and with great wisdom and understanding, carefully read what we have to say to you. 

Thank you for your anticipated understanding and “Thank you for attending to this issue of great importance.”   

Selah, Pastor Dennis

Diligence, Vision, and Remembrance

Be Diligent

1 Timothy 4:13-16, New International Version -- Until I come [that is Saint Paul], devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.  Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Despite summer not officially being until June 21st, many have started attending to summertime events. Marilyn and I took advantage of the beautiful weather on Memorial Day to visit the Golden Spike Historical Site, the Bear River Bird Refuge and the Spiral Jetty. It was a full day we thoroughly enjoyed. We have not traveled in Utah as much as we should have, and hope to take some time this summer seeing the incredible beauty that exists here.  But this past Memorial Day was a time of growth: spiritual and intellectual. We plan to have other times this summer where growth will continue to be a primary focus. 

The First Timothy speaks to public reading of scripture followed by preaching and teaching. In fact, we are encouraged to be diligent in these matters. Paul is rejecting in this pastoral letter an attitude of complacency; rather it is an advocacy towards a culture of growth. 

Your Sunday attendance is important for growth. When I thank people for a first time attendance at Hilltop, I use nourishment as an image: “I pray you were spiritually nourished.” Just as our bodies need a regular dose of rest, fluids and food, our soul requires regular spiritual nourishment. My car needs to be topped off with fuel periodically, and our soul needs to be topped off with spiritual fuel in the same way. I will go so far as saying that if you are at home, the place you are called to be on Sunday morning is Hilltop. Here is where you are supposed to be. If you are on the road, I pray you avail yourself of a chance to experience worship in a different setting or location, and see how others might be fed or refueled. But your Sunday attendance is important for your spiritual growth and health. How are you going to grow spiritually if you are not spiritually fed or fueled? Pleases continue to make it important to you and your family and be fed and fueled at Hilltop. 

Your continued financial participation is important for sustainment, and potential growth, at Hilltop. Many summers see an economic downturn in giving leading to anxious moments by those in financial leadership (see Galen Ewer’s article from the Newsletter below). With a drop in attendance, the members’ checkbooks are not brought to church, and anxiety is born out of that downturn. What happens is that instead of a culture of plenty, we enter into a culture, induced by a history of low attendance and giving in the summer that sees only scarcity. An enormous portion of our monthly spending is for staff and non-discretionary expenses, e.g. mortgage.  We might take a vacation, but servicing the mortgage, for example, does not. I would pray that if you plan on being gone for much of the summer, take some steps to get your pledge or programmed contribution over onto automatic. The sustainment of key activities of your church depends on it. 

Paul in his letter to Timothy above speaks to being diligent. To be diligent suggests we will attend to life in a way that shows care and conscientiousness in our duties.  I pray you show care and are conscientious in your weekly attendance at Hilltop and supporting her with your time, talent and treasure. It is important. It is important to sustaining a culture of growth.  Paul says to “give yourself wholly to them.” I think that is excellent advice, and I pass it on for your consideration and possible implementation.

Thank you for attending to this issue of great importance.  

Vision Casting

Our Proposed Vision:  Hilltop – An inclusive community of hospitality, healing, help, and hope, leading hearts to Christ.

Our Proposed New Vision Statement!

We are getting close to looking for congregational buy-in on our proposed Vision.  Belong, believe, and become has served us well, but your leadership believes it is time to cast a new vision from which to navigate the next ten to fifteen years. The amount of time we might use the proposed vision above is “God knows.”   

On May 27th, I spoke to the idea of allowing the Holy Spirit to be the wind in our sails and we use the testimony of God to pick our destination. There were two other options mentioned that morning, one of which was to row like it all depends on us and the other was to get on board a raft and allow ourselves to be blown by the winds. One says it all depends on God, and the other says it all depends on us.  What about opening our hearts to a biblically ordained destination, and allowing God’s holy breath to blow us along towards that destination. 

We pray that is the plan we follow. 

Selah, Pastor Dennis 

Don’t Forget Hilltop Over the Summer

By Galen Ewer, finance committee chair

I am nervous.  Each year as the summer months come Kathy Wheeler, our treasurer, and I get nervous about Hilltop’s cash flow. Last year the congregation was good about keeping up pledge commitments during the summer but that has not been the case in prior years.  Some of the past years we have had to skip our obligation to the conference or stretch out other bills.  Not good business practices!

As we enter the vacation months please do not forget the needs of your church.  If you noted the monthly report in the 3rd Sunday bulletin we are about $10,000 in the red for the year.  If giving slows over the next three months our financial situation could begin to look bleak.

Please keep up on your pledge and giving.  Remember the bills do not take a vacation in the summer!

Familiar in the Unfamiliar

[The Angels ask Mary]:  “Woman, why are you weeping?”

[Mary] said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (Which means Teacher).  John 20: 13b-16 (NRSV)

I was in my fifties before much of the significance of this scene started to really lay claim to my soul.  Every time I explore the scene again, it grows in power, its meaning sharpens a little more. 

Easter, 2018, finds me preaching from the Gospel of John and the extract above is part of the common reading for the day.  I will touch on other elements of the scene, but the center piece of the message is how Mary recognizes Jesus through the calling of her name.   

John in his beautiful writing style is looping back earlier in his Gospel where the Good Shepherd says about his sheep: "The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out" (John 10:3). The Good Shepherd then adds, "I know my own and my own know me" (John 10:14).  Mary is part of his flock, so it should not be surprising that she recognizes the risen Christ when his voice is heard calling her name.

Mary is experiencing the familiar, Jesus, in an unfamiliar place, the garden outside the tomb. 

Because she is a member of Jesus flock, she recognizes Jesus through her called name. 

For Mary, here in this scene, it was the voice of Jesus calling her by name, making the unfamiliar, familiar.  Life is like that, we are able to live and survive in the unfamiliar because of the familiar. 

Sometimes, for some of us, the familiar is television, the older the better.  Remember the television series that started in 1983 and ran till 1992, about a bar in Boston, ‘where everybody knows your name:’ Cheer’s?  Our name is a powerful force to take us to familiarity even in a place of unfamiliarity.   

The familiar is often best understood, experienced, in community.  James Baldwin published in 1961 a collection of essays about the black experience in the United States, under the dark title Nobody Knows My Name.  Baldwin’s title suggests he is haunted by the absence of community, i.e. Nobody.  In comparing Baldwin’s essays with the Gospel of John with community one writer suggests:

When one's name is known and called, one is enfolded in community. When Mary's name was called by the risen Jesus, she was enfolded into the company of heaven, and she recognized the One who now lives directly within and from the life of God.

That is goosebump:  Jesus is calling Mary into the community of heaven.  In her case, it is a community of the faithful who encounter the risen Jesus.  At this moment in the John biblical narrative, it is a pretty exclusive community:  her.  Be not anxious:  It doesn’t stay that way. 

Do we understand, when Jesus calls us by name, it is a call to community? 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:  “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”  Are you ready to be interrupted by God? 

Here’s the question: if Jesus calls you by name, would you recognize his voice?’  Here my Bonhoeffer twist is, ‘would you want to recognize his voice?’ 

An industrial size dose of candor would compel many, if not most, to admit we do not truly believe that Jesus will come to us in the garden and call us by name. 

If Jesus does, we will do everything in our power to pretend we don’t recognize the calling voice. 

For many, if not most, recognizing Jesus voice in the garden would scream out for immediate rejection.

Jesus is calling us to disconnect from the preferred familiar, and emerge in a reality so profoundly different, so totally unfamiliar, we cannot imagine it.

At least, we cannot imagine it, until Jesus calls us by name. 

It is important to place ourselves in spaces where we experience and affirm Jesus in our midst.  We do this in hearing “the body of Christ, broken for you”, in the scent of the oil from the candles, in the familiar sound of a favored hymn or anthem that stirs us in places too deep to be named, in the feel of the Bible given to us in love in a confirmation class fifty years ago.  Those are the familiars that help us to live in the unfamiliar and are part of how we hear the voice of Jesus calling our very names.  The unfamiliar includes the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake, staying overnight for Family Promise, or creating emergency buckets at the United Methodist Committee on Relief here in Salt Lake.

Easter comes, and then it comes, and then it comes again.  Easter in a familiar rhythm, sound, sights and smells.  However, from those familiars, we are called to serve, and that can make the familiar pretty unfamiliar. 

Are you familiar enough with the voice of Jesus to recognize him calling you by name, and if yes, is he calling you into the unfamiliar?  If so, listen.

Selah, Pastor Dennis