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PARADISE CORNER

The word “saving” describes something we do in order to enjoy the benefit later. For example, we are deep into the time of year known as “Daylight Saving Time” (DST). At the beginning of DST time in the spring, most of the United States moves clocks forward by one hour. When DST ends in fall, we turn clocks back again by one hour. DST “saves” daylight in order to “give” daylight back in the fall. The name of the scheme does not have an “s” at the end, but people commonly use the terms “Daylight Savings Time” and “Daylight Savings.” This is likely because people use the word “savings” so regularly in everyday contexts, like “savings account.” Savings matter to our church family as well. This summer, our Congregation Council initiated two short-term strategies to help us save resources generously donated by members, friends, and former members.
The first saving will help our building. Our cleaning person moved on to other things. The Council decided that, since the whole west wing of our building is not used in the summer, that season would give us a chance to save by using volunteers for the reduced cleaning schedule that will be needed. The benefit we will enjoy later is being able to offer more hours to the cleaning person planned for the fall. That leads to the added benefit of a building with a cleaner, fresher feel and more generous compensation to the person doing the work.
The second savings strategy is weekday workdays ending at 1:00 PM in July and August. This came about because the Council realized that our staff simply needs to be paid better. The Council also realized this is a challenge because non-staff operating costs continually rise. The Council realized simply giving extra vacation time would be well-deserved, but would also increase expenses for substitutes, mileage for coverage pastors, etc. The Council felt that, in the end, that does not really help. The Council felt shorter workdays for July and August, when things are slower overall, would be a helpful step and at least save us the added expenses of substitutes, mileage for coverage pastors, etc.
There are two important things to know. 1) As the full-time pastor, I remain available for emergencies at any day and time. The easiest way to reach me is on my cell phone at 540.335.1693. 2) This won’t affect hospital visits since they fall under the category of emergency availability. (Afternoon visits to those not attending church regularly will resume in September.)
None of these savings are huge, but the bottom line is that we are all blessed by a Congregation Council that works hard to keep this congregation’s financial position as viable as possible while also providing ministry as faithfully as possible. Saving is one side of that coin and our Council does that regularly. Advocating generosity is the other side of that same coin and our Council plans to do that as well. Saving in the summer—when Daylight Saving Time is underway—will help us have more resources to share in the fall. It is very much like the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men besides women and children. A boy saved his lunch (five barley loaves and two fish) so that he could share it (with Jesus) with the result that many people (5,000 men besides women and children) had more than they needed (there were twelve baskets of leftovers). Thank you for your faithfulness and generosity that helps us celebrate the benefits of God’s faithfulness together no matter what the season!

Live as children of light!
Pastor Scott Paradise