Paying Bills and Liking It!

I walked into the church office one day recently and Jen, our treasurer, handed me a letter.  It was a letter from an organization with whom we regularly do business.  I took the letter with some hesitancy, afraid that it was going to be bad news… overdue account, collection notice, or something like that.  But as I read the letter, I saw that it was just a standard annual fee notice. "This looks o.k." I said, "What did you want me to see?" "Look at the salutation," Jen said. Then I saw it.  This outside business had sent a bill to Burke Lutheran Church that began: "Dear God". Jen and I had a good laugh about it and wondered if the person who typed in "God" was serious, joking, or sarcastic.  The whole thing was just too much for Karen, our Ministries Coordinator, and she called the business to get to the bottom of things.  She contacted the supervisor whose name and number was on the letter. Karen began by telling him that a mistake had been made and that the letter had been sent to the wrong person at the church.  Before she had a chance to finish explaining the situation to him, the supervisor told Karen that a mistake had not been made and that if it was sent to the wrong person it was our fault…  we must have given them the wrong name. Karen replied, "Well, God lives here, but he doesn't pay our bills." There was a long silence on the supervisor's end of the phone with lots of nervous keyboard typing in the background.  Finally, the supervisor said that he'd look into it and get back to us.  We're still waiting. Karen has a good point.  God is with us here at Burke Lutheran and provides us with all the resources we need for the ministry we're called to do.  But God doesn't pay our bills.  It takes human hands like yours and mine to write the checks that make that happen.  God provides by working through us. Thank you for being faithful in your giving in 2006!  Your hands are God's hands every time you write a check or give a gift to the church.  God is paying our bills through you.  And you have been faithful with those gifts.  In addition to your regular giving throughout the year, on December 24th we received over $19,000 in offerings!  That's got to be a Burke record for biggest offering in one day!  God helped us to end the year on a good financial note and God did it through you and me. We may never know why God started receiving bills at Burke, but we do know that if we keep faithfully paying them, God is going to do amazing things through us!

Peace,

Pastor Russ burkepastor@tds.net

Not for Publication