Closing Remarks by Brent Eelman at the Annual Congregational Meeting
Abington Presbyterian Church
February 24, 2008

In the past month, I have shared some sobering statistics and realities with you. I believe that if people understand the situation, they will respond to it in the right way. During this meeting a great deal of our concern has been given to approximately 7-8% of the annual budget. That is the amount of the deficit that we face. I want to make sure that we see this shortfall within its complete context and then I will outline how we will approach it.

In 2007, the membership of Abington Presbyterian church donated almost 2 million dollars. Because of your faithfulness, we have a walkway that did not exist last year. We have an accessible bathroom off of this sanctuary. Construction is underway in our Parish House. But there is more than that. In Guatemala your contributions have helped to build a nutrition clinic. In the Kinshasa, a maternity wing was added to a hospital with our donations. Your donations made these things happen.

As 2007 ended, we reported that 45 members of this congregation signed up and will be going to Guatemala to work in that clinic and in some other areas. These individuals are paying their own way, and giving of their own time. Many are using personal vacation time. Five years ago, could anyone imagine this happening? These are women and men, young and old, of our congregation whose hearts have been touched by the love of Christ and they have responded to his call to reach out to those in need. Their presence for just that week, will change some lives in Guatemala, but most importantly, their lives will be changed. This is what Jesus meant when challenged his disciples to minister to the “least of these….” This is the road to discovering Christ.

In 2007, we continued to offer one of the best church music programs for a congregation our size of any place in the country. The church that I served before I came here was a good deal larger in number and had a great number of children and youth, but it did not have the numbers of youth and children singing on Sunday that we have. I know of no congregation in this country that regularly has twenty to thirty teenagers show up at 8:30 every Sunday to practice so that they can be worship leaders at 9:00 a.m. and then return at 6 in the evening to practice for the next week. Today, in worship, we heard their voices, the children, the youth and the adults. This evening, people will gather here again to hear a concert of great music.

In 2007, we had a youth group that gave one of its meetings every month to go downtown and do a service project. Youth ministry is more than retreats, programs, and recreation… At APC it is an opportunity for Christian discipleship; an opportunity for young people to reach out and make a difference in the world.

In 2007, retired volunteers showed up here every Tuesday morning to do some work around the church, giving their time, but also making a difference and enjoying the fellowship of working together.

In 2007 people gathered together formally and informally to share, to work together. When I attend social functions in the community, I am moved by the lasting friendships that people have made with one another that extend beyond these walls. Young mothers of infants gathering in homes to share concerns and find mutual support, parties and events that recognize life-markers, celebrated with mostly church people.

In 2007 our deacons reached out to countless families with the baskets of food twice a year. They have labored to keep in touch with people within their parishes.

In 2007, over thirty members of this congregation passed away. We are an older congregation, not only in terms of being here for almost three hundred years, but also in the age of many of our members. Many of these people who have died were strong supporters of APC with both their presence and their stewardship. We feel their loss already.

In 2008 we have some challenges…

First, we need to recommit ourselves to reaching out and inviting members of the community to worship with us. We need to reach out to them when they are in worship. We need to do this, not because we want more members or more people, but because we want them to know a loving and caring God who we worship and whose son, Jesus Christ, we follow as disciples. It is immoral to add new members so that we can meet our budget. We need to reach inward and challenge ourselves to be better disciples; to shore one another up when we are down; to practice the art of forgiveness and forbearance that Christ’s ministry challenges us to do. We are the people of God, and we are called to model the Christ in our community in this time and this place. We are challenged to be who we say we are.

Second, we need to be willing to make changes. Here is the rule: Change will occur. We can guide that change, and work with it, or we can allow it to happen to us and curse it. More often than not, churches do the latter. Change should not be pursued for change’s sake, but rather as a response to a changing world and environment. Some things should remain the same. Stability and surety are important values. But there are changes that are occurring in the world around us that we need to understand and respond to.

First, with all the time saving devices, there is less time and people are less willing to give up time with their families. The New York Times recently had an article about golf and how fewer and fewer people are playing golf. Why? Because it takes a great deal of time and they do not want to give up time with families. We are seeing the same thing in a host of other areas, bowling leagues are disappearing, service clubs like the Kiwanians and Rotarians are seeing fewer members. This trend touches all that we do. Consider the phenomenon of the three day weekend. It began about 15 years ago. Somehow we have moved a host of different holidays to Mondays, giving families a wonderful opportunity for travel.. but that means traveling away from church. This affects things like regular Sunday school attendance for our children and youth. Can we have the courage to ask if the Sunday School model is still a viable way of teaching discipleship? We have used this model for almost 200 years. Is it still the best way to impart the values and lessons of a Christian education to our children?

With the changing financial realities that we are experiencing, one of the long term challenges that we have is to build a strong endowment. We have less than a million dollars in our endowment. My congregation in Watertown New York, with about half the membership, and 100 years younger than APC, in a community with a poorer economic base, has an endowment of over 4 million dollars. Why? Because the members have included their church in their will. Every one of us is challenged to look at our estate planning and ask if we want to leave a legacy to the church that will last for generations. You can do this tomorrow. Don’t wait until a formal programs starts here at the church. Careful and generous estate planning now will assure that the ministry and mission of this church is fulfilled in the future.

We also have the immediate challenge of our annual giving. I sent two letters out and I trust that you have read them. We are not falling apart; we have a shortfall of about 7%. What bothers me is the amount of energy and time that 7% is sucking up. Half of our last two session meetings struggled over that. There have been countless meetings in the last three months to address this in different ways. Phone calls have been made. The session has directed to the Personnel Council to draw up a contingency plan that can be implemented after June of this year, if the financial support does not look promising. Contingency planning is a euphemism for lay-offs. If we do not rise to the challenge that we have, we will make the decisions that need to be made. I pray that we can rip that plan up, come June.

A year ago, we came together and raised more money than anyone ever thought that we could do, because we came together. It is time to come together again and meet this challenge. We have the resources to do it, and we will.