Senior Pastor’s Report
Voters’ Assembly + September 25, 2011

Dear friends in Christ,

As you read this report on September 25 I can’t help but recall that it was on this very day, now 51 years ago, that our congregation met for the first time at Milham School. We, of course, celebrated our jubilee year at this time last year but at this our 51st anniversary let us continue to praise and thank our loving Lord for all the blessings and bountiful goodness that He has shown us over the years, guiding, providing, prospering, and blessing us richly through His Word and Sacraments.

Ever since I came to be your pastor almost 15 years ago, I have used this last Sunday of September as an occasion to remind us of our mission and to reaffirm the values and vision that we have as a congregation. God has made us His own through our baptism into the death and resurrection His Son, Jesus Christ. Now we are His followers, His disciples, and we have been charged by Him to make more and better disciples of Jesus for His glory and the good of His Kingdom. We call this at St. Michael “Making Mighty Messengers for Christ.” I think this motto has now caught on around here and there is a pretty good understanding of what we are about. But beyond knowing what we are to do, there is the matter of actually doing it.

As we leave another summer behind, I’m grateful for the memories of the sun and fun. Many of us had a chance to get away from it all for a time, even if it was just to the back yard garden. But as much as I love summer, there is always something a bit deflating about it when it comes to our ministry for invariably worship attendance goes way down, as does our receipts, both in terms of tuition and in weekend worship contributions. Now that we have changed our fiscal year to be August 1 through July 31, we end up closing the books in the middle of the leanest months of our year and the bottom line is not favorable. We have not received what was anticipated (based on what we had received the previous year), and expenses proved to be greater than anticipated, due to some unforeseen circumstances. While projected revenue shows some gradual improvement as the school year progresses, the forecast shows that come next summer we will again be in the same boat (possibly taking on even more water).

I want to assure you that your leaders are well aware of this and are working very hard to do what we can to improve the situation. As we planned already last winter, in this month of September we have launched an aggressive stewardship emphasis that began with the “Bearing Fruit for Jesus” Bible study on Sunday morning during the Learning Hour (and in some CELL groups). This will then become special services and sermons in the month of October, a Ministry Fair on October 9, personal/family devotionals, tracts in your mailbox, and “The Harvest” (or Commitment Sunday) on October 23. In addition we began last Sunday the 13- week Dave Ramsey “Financial Peace University” course with nearly 50 students. The reality is that even in this current economy, God has blessed us with great resources, and He has already put into the pockets of our members everything we need to have an effective ministry here at St. Michael. May we all listen carefully to what He is saying to us and respond with generous, sacrificial giving to the One who gave His all for us, and who continues to give His all to us every day.

At the same time that we do what we can to help our contributions increase, we also are doing what we can to help our expenses decrease. One of the things that we need to take a hard look at is the amount of paper, printing, and postage that we expend out of our office. It is ironic that I share this with you on a printed page but the reality is we rely quite a bit on the print media in order to get the word out to our membership about various things. While better communication has clearly been identified as a high demand by our members, we have to assess honestly how effective the print media really is in communicating. Do people really read what we print? Furthermore, much of what we print is not simply intended to inform but much of it is intended to persuade. How effective a means is this? There is no doubt that if we were to take drastic action to go “paperless” as much as possible, including the elimination of the printing of a monthly newsletter, we could save a great deal of money. But what might be the cost to our ministry? Lest communications suffer, we would have to make more effective use not only of electronic communication (e-mail, our website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) but also of displays (including video screens) and especially of one-on-one communication via the telephone and face-to-face communication.

The reality is that no amount of money that we could spend on marketing or advertising would come anywhere near the power of one person inviting one other person to worship, Bible class, or any other thing that we offer people here at St. Michael. I pledge to you that, with God’s enabling power, I and our staff will do the best we can to minister to you and your family, providing you with God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation through His Word and Sacraments, and delivered them to you in their truth and purity. But we need each and every one of us to receive them faithfully, and to respond to them generously by serving, giving, and personally inviting. Nothing is more effective than “each one reach one.” Now more than ever, we need our members not only to come to church but to bring someone else with them. Please pray about this, and then give me the joy not only of greeting you on your way out of worship, but of being introduced by you to that friend or family member that you brought with you.

In His name,
Pastor Naumann