United Church of Warsaw

Our actual expenses through May were over $8,000 below what we anticipated in the budget. Our regular contributions are $5,000 below what we expected by now. So we’re in good shape, but we want to continue to work toward the kind of generous giving that will allow us to meet the full budget by the end of the year.
The trustees are working now on several major maintenance projects which have been delayed by the financial shortage of recent years. We need to pave the parking lot. The Memorial Garden wall must be replaced. The southeast entrance to the building needs some kind of repair or renovation work done to make the entranceways safe throughout the winter. And we are looking at updating our phone and computer systems to make our daily office work much more effective. We budgeted $2,000 toward those projects, but they will cost much more than that, of course. We have some reserve funds to draw upon, but we will be looking to the church family to help complete these projects as we know what the costs will be.
Note: Bob Cummins has resigned as treasurer for personal reasons, and we are looking for a new treasurer. Please keep this in your prayers.

In 36 years as a pastor, I have experienced one common problem in every church. This church is no exception because it happens in every organization. It is a human problem, and just being Christians doesn’t keep it from happening here. It’s an all-too-common story:
A church dinner is underway, for instance. Everyone is busy, and some are a bit stressed. One person tells another person, “That’s not the way to set that table. Do it this way.” No big thing. But the second person felt criticized, even reprimanded. Sometimes the tone of voice or the way it was said made the second person feel like the first person was being bossy or arrogant or worse. Normally, those two people do not talk about what happened. And often the person who was offended or hurt does tell other people. But, of course, the first person never knows what happened.
Some people can be bossy, of course. But my experience is that most people don’t realize that they have offended or hurt the other person. They didn’t mean to do that and have no idea that other people experience them that way. If it happens more than once, some people even begin to talk about leaving the church.
As a pastor, I sometimes learn about such occurrences. But usually no one wants to use anyone’s name, so I don’t really have any idea of who was involved. So I can’t even try to help the people talk through what happened.
Similar interchanges between people have happened since I’ve been in Warsaw, I’ve been told. But I have not been told by the people directly involved usually. So I’m asking for your help – all of you. Here are some things we can all do:
· We can be aware of what we say to other people and how we say it. Did we say it with respect and understanding of the other person?
· If we’re aware that we spoke out of frustration, we can go to the other person and offer a brief apology.
· If we are hurt or upset by what someone said, we can speak to the person directly (and immediately, if possible) and say: “I felt hurt by what you just said because….” – The other person probably isn’t aware of how we experienced it and will apologize.
· If it’s too hard to talk to the other person, and you want some help, then speak with me. But you’ll have to tell me who it was and what happened. And I’ll ask you if we can meet together with the other person to talk about it.
· Sometimes the best wisdom is to assume the other person did not mean to be hurtful, and just let it go.
I will be offering some workshops in the fall and winter on how to talk with people and
how to develop healthy leadership skills. I hope that many of you will participate in those workshops. Thank you for listening to my concerns, and thank you for working together to increase healthy communication and relationships in this congregation.