The Time Has Come

...to say fair's fair; To pay the rent now; to pay our share.

Why a Midnight Oil song is running through my head I cannot be certain.

I can say this. We have been paying a lot of money out recently at Ojai UMC. The time has come to clean up some of the things that are starting to deteriorate.

My predecessor did a great job of ensuring the financial solvency of the church. He took some cuts to his own ability to do ministry, as evidenced by the new computers in the office, and a new one for the pastor as the former pastor did not have a "church" computer.

Additionally, we have been enduring some repairs over at the parsonage for termites, and now for some leaky bathroom fixtures. We already replaced the tub in one bathroom, and this week we have been repairing the floor outside the shower in the master bathroom.

Makes for a lot of work and some continual questions about spending money, and whether we really need to do this. But, let me tell you, when the A/C in the fellowship hall goes out or the fire alarm at the preschool goes off unnecessarily running the kids out from the classrooms, it is time to pay up and do ministry with the best possible scenario.

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that we have a new copier in the office, from which we can print, scan, fax and yes, it even copies too. We have new office computers. Thank God for the network security of Macs and the ease of importing older files from Microsoft Office...minus the pesky Publisher...that makes it harder and more frustrating for church secretaries, let me tell you.

For now, life is improving by the day, and we are getting a little more up-to-date, and finding ways to scrimp and save where we can, without cutting corners, and making this a church to be proud of for who we are and who we want to become...which we are still working out the vision to define.

Peace,