As many of you know, the Gettysburg church is facing an important decision. We have received an offer to purchase the education building. The board of trustees has voted to accept that offer. The church’s administrative council will be taking up the issue on Sunday, but it votes, there will be a chance for people to ask questions and express opinions. The meeting will be Sunday at 3:00, and everyone who is part of the church is invited to come.
We hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity. This is an important issue, and will have ramifications for many years to come. If you have questions, Sunday is the time to ask them. If you have an opinion, Sunday is the time to let people know about it. If you can’t be there Sunday, let someone on the administrative council know what your question or opinion is, so it can be dealt with.
I’m sure there will be some strong opinions on all sides. That’s okay. In fact, it’s good. It means people care about the church and want to see it succeed. It would be a very bad thing for the church if no one showed up for the meeting because no one really cared.
There are a few things I hope everyone remembers as we hear opinions and have a discussion. First, each of us is trying to do what is best for the church. None of us has all the answers, but our intentions are good. Everyone involved in this, no matter what their opinion, loves God, loves the church, and is trying to do what’s best.
Second, there are no perfect solutions. We live in an imperfect world full of imperfect people, most especially including me. There is an upside and a downside to whatever we do. We’re all trying to figure out a way to maximize the upside and minimize the downside, but no matter what we do, that downside will still be there. We’re looking for the best answer, not the perfect answer.
Third, no matter what we do, the church is looking at spending a substantial amount of money. If we sell the building, we’re looking at spending a lot of money on a new addition. If we don’t sell the building, we’re looking at spending a lot of money to fix it up. Doing nothing is always the easiest solution, but it’s rarely the best one. If we do nothing, the current building will continue to deteriorate, and either we’ll have to spend even more money to fix it or we’ll have a building that is no longer usable. We are going to have to spend a lot of money one way or the other.
Finally, the goal of each of us needs to be to come out of this decision with a united church. For some of us, that will mean that we need to accept the fact that things did not go the way we think they should have. For all of us, though, it means that we need to unite behind the decision that is made and do everything we can to make that decision the right one. When problems come up, as they inevitably will, hearing “I told you so” or “they should have listened to me” will not be helpful. The only way this church can do the work of God in this community is if we stay united and work together to do that work.
That, after all, is what the church is about: doing the work of God. If we keep that in mind, then no matter how things go Sunday, and no matter what problems come up afterward, we will come out of this as a united church which is determined to serve God in every way we can.
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