Our Shared Life
At the May 9th Board Meeting, our Moderator, Adam Hange, asked us to close the meeting by naming one way the CPC had blessed us since our last meeting. It feels like that last meeting happened in a different world. In that meeting, I let the Board know I was planning to visit Idaho the following week, possibly for the last time in a while. At that time (early March), many denominational events had just been canceled, and I was doing research on how best to speak to our churches about the risks of in-person gatherings.
As I look back and think about how the CPC has blessed me since that March meeting, I think about all of the ministers and laypeople who’ve asked me how they could best care for their neighbors (instead of asking for their own needs to be met). I think about the justice seekers who are listening for the cries of the most-vulnerable, and who’ve brainstormed ways to keep those cries front and center. I also think about the ways our people have come together in small and large Zoom gatherings to share ideas and resources. This pandemic has highlighted for me the strength, resiliency, and beauty of our CPC churches and members — and how much we need each other.
The pandemic has also highlighted some of the fragility in our churches and conference. Like most (though not all) of our churches, the CPC was fairly financially stable going into this pandemic, and we remain okay though vulnerable. Like many of our churches, we don’t have a lot of unrestricted funds we can call on in times of crisis, and we wonder what the future will look like eighteen months or two years from now when we’re through the pandemic and can look back on the financial toll.
For that reason, I’m glad we were able to access the Payroll Protection Plan through the CARES Act. Debbie Jacober did an amazing job keeping on top of the application, and the CPC Board approved accepting the money at our last meeting. As of May 13th, Camp Adams had still not been approved, but having one of our CPC entities in the program allows me to sleep a little easier at night, knowing we have a little more flexibility as a conference. However, I remain uneasy, since I have no good sense of what our 2020 OCWM will look like. Most of our churches don’t give to the conference until the last two quarters of the year, and we know a lot can change in a few months.
Now, more than ever, we realize how valuable our shared life is. We may not have thought much about church and conference before. We took those institutions for granted. However, today, we rely on our shared spiritual life as a lifeline to the future. We know how much it matters to gather as the Body of Christ.
Now, more than ever, we also need those of us who are able to give financially to the health of our churches and conference. I’ve increased my giving to my local church, because I can — and because I know some others can’t give what they used to, and our renters aren’t giving anything at all. I’ve done the same with Friends of the Conference. Now is the time for us to remember that we’re all in this together.
So, if you are able, please give extra to your local church. And if you’re a local church leader, consider whether your church can give extra to OCWM or whether you can personally give a donation to the Friends of the Conference. The fact is, we’re doing okay, but our shared life is vulnerable. We don’t have deep reserves, and we don’t know how long this pandemic will last. Let’s make sure now that our churches and our conference are as strong as we need them to be when we get to the other side of this season.
Blessings,
Tyler
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