We are in the world. And as we assess the world around us and the state of our nation and our economy and having listened to President Obama’s State of the Union message we know that right now we are struggling, economically, and one thing that Republicans and Democrats both agree on is jobs. It’s all about jobs and the creation of jobs. We have seen talented young college graduates walking our halls here at First Church who are unable to find a job not because they don’t have a lot to offer and not because they are not gifted but because there are simply not job openings available. So it’s a time when everybody, especially non-profits and churches are struggling to have to continue with less. This seems to be the challenge and of course whenever you have less you also want to have more accountability. This morning I have for you a different type of sermon it is a state of the church message in which I would like to walk you through the presentation that was made at our Charge Conference with our District Superintendent Rev. Milton Guttierrez in attendance last December. Listen carefully to this reading out of the book of Exodus.

Exodus 17: 1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’ But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’ So Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The Lord said to Moses,
   ‘Go on ahead of the people,

   and take some of the elders of Israel with you;

   take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

   I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.

   Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.’

Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

In a church, mission and ministry does not happen without funding. Funding is the water, if you will, in the wilderness. At a time of scarcity it is important to have funding. We realize that we we’re in the midst of, chose your term, a severe recession or a depression. We knew going into the ministry here that we would probably have to do more with less even though we had fully underwritten our budget with pledges. In a normal year things would have gone swimmingly well. We anticipated a shortfall and it came. It came not because a large segment of our members are unemployed but in many instances people who work on commission or bonuses found that their income was cut substantially as a result of the tough economy. The good news for us last year in ministry year 2009 was that we did receive 95% of our anticipated income. And that’s a good place to be comparatively with many other churches and non-profits. The challenge was that still meant on a budget of $3.2 million dollars it meant that we had a $165,000.00 shortfall. And bear in mind that the great majority of our expenses are fixed in nature. What I mean by that is you can’t pay 95% of your utility bill, you don’t pay 95% of your insurance premium, you don’t turn to your hard working employees and pay them 95% of their pay. And as a sister United Methodist Church we wanted to pay 100% of our apportionments. So what that leaves is programming as your discretionary expense. And 5% of a $3.2 million dollar budget spread out over the program takes a pretty big bite out of program budgets. And so the task for our leadership for my colleagues on staff was to do the same or even do more with less. Somehow navigate the wilderness and use their own creativity to find the staff and strike the rock and truly get water out of the rock or blood out of the turnip or program out of a budget that has been substantially reduced. I would remind you that the mission statement of any United Methodist Church always is to make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And that’s what we’re about. That’s why we open the doors on Sunday mornings and Monday thru Saturday. We’re about this purpose of making Disciples of Jesus Christ. We are blessed with staff leadership and lay leadership that helps to make that possible. And it was because of their creativity this past year that we were able to do as much as we did. And I am very grateful for Michael Campbell who is the lay leader who chairs the Staff Parish Relations Committee. And also, Sue Keever Watts who chaired the Church Council which is our most authoritative body that guided us thru the year. If you will go to www.firstchurchdallas.org/ you will see on your very first page there you can click and see the power point presentation that was made at our charge conference. I want you to go and see that. We have so much to celebrate. Every now and then you’ll hear somebody whisper “Well you know they don’t really want you to know.” “It’s governed by a star chamber and they meet in a secret place and they don’t want you to know what’s going on.” And I am here to tell you that is just not true. In fact we work really hard on our communication vehicles to get the word out, because, not only because we want to celebrate the good work that we are doing but because it is your ministry also. We embrace the priesthood of all believers and the church is the people. So, it’s your ministry also and the question becomes, Well how is our ministry together going?’ So let me walk you thru this power point.

The first set of slides is from Trustees that were chaired by Heather Gilker so effectively. Jim Mabile and Rev. Dr. Dale Hunt were the staff liaisons to the trustees. These are the people responsible for the administration of the property and looking out for liability and those things. We renovated 20,000 square feet of property. Under our roofs we had a lot of air conditioning repairs, the 2nd floor of the education center, the children’s area, marvelously renovated in a great fashion. In addition, our Goodrich Fund increased by 18% because of $220,000.00 that were contributed to it. Let me put that before you, if you would like to make a gift to the church the Goodrich Fund is a way by which it spins off interest that goes to help with the building maintenance and the trustees use it wisely. They’re good stewards. Now bear in mind over a year ago the trustees commissioned a master plan that has some exciting new possibilities for the three existing buildings here on this 1928 Ross Avenue campus. The trustees very prudently and I think wisely chose not to move into a capital campaign and an education campaign regarding this master plan. But we still have it, it’s not going anywhere and it’s really just a matter of timing. The trustees will decide when we should start rolling out this master plan and the corresponding capital campaign. So we had a very effective year from our trustees.

In Music in Arts we are lead ably by Dana and Tim Effler and the lay leader, Nate Nichols. You may remember on Palm Sunday in 2009 we had the Brahms Requiem that was sung in German by our Chancel Choir. It seems no challenge is too great for them, they can pull off anything that we, Dana, throws their way. They pull it off under her capable leadership. Our Goodrich Gallery featured an exhibit by Thelma Goodrich who was of course our long time pastor’s wife and artist in residence. Our sanctuary was adorned by the beautiful new apostle banners and Melissa Sobotka has once again shared her artistry again with us. One of my special favorites was the formation of Vox Nova. This marvelous gathering of singers presents us with chanting and adorns many of our special services. They seem to add almost a mystical dimension to our worship experience as they consecrate the space in the historic sanctuary. Such a marvelous gift that they are giving to us. We teach music hear at FirstChurch, we know it’s important not just to embrace the tradition, but to pass it on. And when our FirstKids go to choir practice they learn how to sight read. They have a 17% increase in their participation. Our Variations Choir, which you have already seen how magnificent our youth are in our Variations Choir, represented us so ably when they went to Washington DC over the summer. We had Annie the musical here in the sanctuary and we’re going to have another musical in 2010, Oklahoma will be here. And that’s very entertaining and FirstChurch seems to pull that off so well. In 2010 we’ll have a juried exhibit of the Interpretations of the Cross in the Goodrich Gallery. And coming up on Sunday, February 28 at 5:30 I’ve got my tickets, why don’t you have yours, our Variations will be having their fundraiser, Bobbie Socks on Broadway. And it’s going to be very entertaining, please don’t miss it. They are raising money so they can go to Colorado this summer. And of course our handbell choirs are always all around the community of Dallas, ringing and entertaining and representing us well.

Our Developmental Learning Center, we don’t say daycare here at FirstChurch cause we don’t take care of days, we take care of children. We don’t warehouse kids, we nurture and love them and we teach them and they do a great job under the leadership of Quenetta Cox and the lay liaison Denise LeFevre.

Our children’s ministries, and as you heard Gretchen’s sermon and you see how she relates so well to the children and the lay leadership of Scottie Giffin and Laura McCavit last year. They’ve got the new space and they are really enjoying that. They created a Mother’s Room that’s well furnished. And they took the initiative and proactively adopted a check in process using scanning technology. So, those of you who have been brave enough to weather the self check in at the grocery store, you can now check in your child. Thankfully that was not precipitated by an incident; it’s just that we want the very best protection for our FirstKids. They deserve the best. They come here to this safe place and we want to make sure that they are looked after and they are always secure. Under UrbanLife, we’ve got UrbanBaby these urban kids are coming and they are learning what it means to be in the heart of downtown Dallas. As a result of me being on the Super Bowl host committee we are going to be participating in Slant 45. Service Learning Adventure of North Texas Super Bowl 45 and the committee and Gretchen Combs are joining with me with this. Darryl “Moose” Johnston, is the chair of the committee. We’re going to have our kids participating in a service project in this coming year, as we do the countdown for Super Bowl 45 hosted by, I want to say Dallas, but I guess technically its Arlington.

Our youth department under the leadership of Rocky Dwyer and President Sam Mallick of the youth, 2,005 community hours they did last year. You know at a time when our kids are learning more and more to be consumers and what’s in it for me, we’ve got our youth going out participating in service projects doing for others, loving their neighbor. Over 85% of the youth on our rolls are involved in our programs.

Tom Downing in our Adult Ministries with John Bryant the lay leader, Tom continues to do an online Bible Study. Do you realize what an important achievement that is and what a great resource that is? You’re on business trip, you’re staying at a hotel in Chicago, you can’t sleep, it’s 2:00 a.m., you can do Bible Study courtesy of FirstChurch Ministries, if you’ll just get online. Tom has introduced two new core curriculum classes. We think this is so important that Methodists know what it means to be Methodist. They don’t want go out and go to the cafeteria and get beaten-up by people from other denominations, because they can’t hold their own regarding their theology or their doctrine, you know. We are a people of the Bible going back to John Wesley. We interpret the Bible wisely and with intelligence and we know how to do that, so embrace your heritage, I am also introducing a downtown weekly Bible Study. I cannot think of a better use of time. In addition, our Senior Adults, Tom Downing and Dr. Dale Hunt and Betty Watson are involved in that. They had a great first mentors retreat. We’ve expanded our bus service, my goodness, when have supported the church for decades and they can no longer come here, don’t we need to provide bus service and go out and get them here when they can? And then when they’re home bound, my goodness, we go out and visit them. We do not abandon them just because they can’t show up at our door any longer.

Susan Davis was the President of United Methodist Women last year, 3,000 total volunteer hours to Dallas, and $6,000.00 donated to Dallas Missions and in 2010 we’re hosting the annual conference United Methodist Women’s meeting.

Kelvin Meyers has proactively spear headed the history and archives development in our church. They have a new location and they are going through these precious treasures of photographs and media from sermons in the past. And they are putting them in a way that we can access them, celebrate them, and view them and embrace our heritage.

Evangelism we all know there is only one number that really matters, we had 172 new members that chose to entrust their faith needs and the members of their families to FirstChurch last year. Rachel Cabal is the Director of Evangelism. Gable Roby is the chair.

Media, let’s talk for a moment about media and those of you who are either watching live on Channel 8.2 or taped, you’re worshiping with us through the miracle of television. This year for the first time since 1948, when we began television ministry, we are on every Sunday. For the first time we have continuity in our TV broadcast. And that’s important. Live at 11:00 in Dallas, Texas. That is church. And what an honor and an opportunity. Television is really the modern day equivalent of open air preaching. We are moving beyond our walls to get our message out. And it’s a great opportunity and we are appreciative. Christmas Eve, we went out with our signature, 11:00 service in the evening live on Channel 8. At the same time we were broadcast nationally our taped service from the year before nationally from coast to coast. What a tribute that is and what an honor that our national communications in Nashville would chose us to represent United Methodism. Our media volunteers do a marvelous job and they are moving toward high definition. And we’ve already had to break the bad news to all of us on staff, No there is not an expense item for cosmetic surgery to withstand the additional the scrutiny of high definition. We’re just going to have to soldier on and depend upon the grace and compassion of our TV viewers. We do a great job and Sara Ivey is our producer, Kurt McClinchie and Rick Button is the lay leader of that ministry.

Burton Shepherd is the staff member who directs our Congregational Care Ministries; Elizabeth Cummings is the lay director. You know we started this thing, if you miss 3 times; we are going to be calling you. Whether you need a phone call or not, you’ve been missed and that depends on you signing the registration sheets. I wish I was gifted enough that I could look out over the congregation on Sunday morning and say so and so is no there today. But we really have system and a process and it helps us to be more caring. We visit the homebound and we do not abandon them.

In Missions Rev. Jay Cole continues to do a fabulous job leading Crossroads Community Services. Last year we distributed two million pounds of food. We contributed 5.4 million dollars worth of retail value of food and service inclusive of clothing and emergency aid. We are an important part of the safety net to make sure people who are on the receiving end of this recession or depression do not fall through the cracks and go down the drain because there is no food available to them. We know that we have a mandate as a downtown church. Those to whom much has been given, much is expected and under Jay’s leadership and with the Crossroads board they did their part and we always want to grow. In addition, Rev. Linda Roby is in charge of Dallas County missions and we had a great community Christmas event. 1,200 men, women and children right here in this sanctuary. The kiddos were able to speak to the Santa of their choice and we would give out presents to the parents as well. Juntos Servimos went to went to Matamoros and did mission work. This coming year we are going to Costa Rica with volunteers. Missions is an important part of who we are. John Wesley said “The world is our Parish.”

Finally in UrbanLife, we were so relieved and we celebrate the fact that after the departure of Rev. Kathryn Ransdell, who had done such a good job of beginning UrbanLife ministry and creating pulling together a critical mass of young talented urban professionals that Rev. Linda Roby has stepped in and we didn’t miss a beat. Financial Peace teaches the young people how to use their money wisely. How to circumvent the credit that’s available unfortunately to all of us out there in our society not get into a lot of debt and to not create financial problems. We are so pleased to have our young adults. Blake Pond presented for UrbanLife and we’re excited about that ministry.

Peter Druker once said in terms of managing the non-profit that the most important task of the leader is to avoid the unacceptable catastrophe. And what that means is we’ve not run the church aground we’ve not gone out and gotten us into a lot of debt. We’re not over our head, we haven’t hired more people then we can handle. And so now we don’t have to go through the sad process of having to let people go. We’ve learned here at FirstChurch that stability is not a bad word. Even as we’re committed to continue to grow. You know, in the 16,000 square miles of the North Texas conference, over the last 18 years we had 1.5 million new people move into the area. Who’s going to meet their faith needs? Who’s going teach them the great stories of our faith? Who’s going to baptize their children? I think a great place to do it is right here, at First United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas. This morning I celebrate the ministry year that we had. I celebrate the fact that the Spirit of the Lord is in our midst. And I celebrate the fact that we are able to say bless be the ties that bind us.