First Congregational Church
United Church of Christ

You are quite familiar, I am sure, with the old “good news/bad news” formula for jokes. We could probably write our own version of one here at FCC these days.

“The good news is that we have discerned God is leading us to renovate our educational building.”

“The bad news is that we have discerned God is leading us to renovate our educational building.”

I am under no illusions. For a congregation our size this will be a huge undertaking. So how are we going to do it?

Well, first (at the risk of sounding like a preacher), we are going to have to trust God. God would not call us to this work without providing the resources to do it. Read through the New Testament and, again and again, you will find a church tackling tasks that looked too big for them to handle. Yet, by the grace of God, they pulled them off.

So I want us to use several different approaches to this project. Call it a three-legged stool, or, to use the construction metaphor, call it three building blocks.

Building Block #1 – A capital campaign. I do not know what form or shape this will take, but all of us know we will have to make decisions regarding how much money we will each commit to this project. Some can contribute large sums, others can offer much less, but, like the widow’s mite, each gift is significant to God.

Building Block #2 – Grants. In our congregation we have several people who have decades of experience with writing grants and approaching various organizations for funds. There are resources beyond our church that need to be explored, and we will do that. We cannot afford to leave any stone unturned.

Building Block #3 – Creative Fund-raising. As soon as the vote was taken last January (and even before), people began approaching me with various ideas they had for raising funds. All of them were imaginative projects that would get people inside the church and outside the church involved in raising funds for the renovation. Because we are in no position to brush off any suggestion, I want to have a group of people who help others in the church “flesh out” the ideas they have and help get their efforts launched.

Committees to steer each of these three building blocks are being formed now, and an organizational meeting is scheduled for April 10. If you would be willing to help with any of them, please see me, or Lois, or Jodi Stackowiak, or Jeanne Rothlisberger.

Everyone can be involved in some way. And it will take all of us together, trusting God and listening to the Spirit, to get the job done.

Whenever you start to think you cannot make much of a contribution, remember Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed. In the economy of God, the most insignificant gift could become the mightiest of all.