... and 2 more things

item 1:

i've written 2 rants already about one family in my church and the way they've publicizes their concerns about my church's plan for the parsonage. again, my beef is not that they have concerns and questions, but the way they went about resolving them.

AFTER, my congregation president wrote a beautiful response to their first email, they wrote *another* email about how that didn't address their concerns and they had called the national LCMS office in missouri (who said they weren't qualified to address NJ property laws, that's why they have district attorneys etc. in NJ, who *do* know local rules), and they called the IRS.

they copied the IRS response which said that what they had explained was in fact illegal and tax evasion. thing is, even though they insist they understand, this family *STILL* had the plan wrong.

the congregation president wrote another response yesterday explaining all the ins and outs of how the current parsonage proposal would be taxed or not and how it would be done legally, and in the process, it was made clear that this family, although they thought they understood, *still* didn't have the concept down.

so instead of asking church leaders "have you contacted the IRS to make sure this is legal? have you contacted (fill in the blank) for advice? can we see their response? if not, will you contact them?", they did research on their own, without having the facts straight and publicized it as if the church leaders are stupid and didn't do their hoemwork first. again, not the fact that they have questions and concerns and want to see answers from authoritative sources on taxes, etc.... it's more the fact that instead of making sure they understood and seeing what research had been done, they did their own skewed research and proclaimed it as truth, with every other paragraph ending with "we stand for God's view, not man's". it was rather frustrating to read.

anyhow, finally a couple of the deacons last night wrote good summaries to the whole e-war... this one was my favorite, it comes from the first lady (who is also one of the deacons) who ever talked to me at my church the first week i visited, and is in general very good at helping calm people down and creating peace:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear friends,

While I wish that this had all taken place "face to face," so that we
could all have seen each other while talking, (e-mail is SO impersonal!)
I am grateful for the concern for our church that each and everyone who
has been in this "conversation" has evidenced.

Let us keep that concern for our church and for each other in mind as we
pray for our church and the outcome of the congregational meeting on
Sunday, that God's love and purpose for us may be evident as we work to
do His work.

Let's greet each other with a handshake or a hug on Sunday morning and
remember that we love each other in Christ, even when we have
differences of opinion.

I also add my thanks to all of our hard working call committee members,
admin. board members, and staff members as well! Everyone has put in far
more time than I had ever thought would be necessary.

A Recently Spotted Bumper Sticker:
Lord, walk beside me with your arm on my shoulder and your hand over my
mouth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i'm so glad that this kind of conflict is not an all the time thing, and i'm so glad that my church has many people who are good at seeing through the thick and loving people even when they create muddy situations.

for as much as this e-war has been a headache to read, i'm glad it seems to be calming down now. i just hope and pray that the voters meeting on sunday (while i'm out of town) has good discussion without ungrounded accusations going around.

this turned out longer than planned, but hopefully i'm done with it now.

people.... lots of fun, right?

item 2: (COMPLETELY UNRELATED)

thanks to the new pedometer that jenny got me, would you believe that i walk 8/10 of a mile just going back and forth in front of the chalkboard when teaching 3 classes on wednesday mornings? i thought that that was crazy!

the end (for now)