Money and Seasonality

Money, money, money.

At church this morning a guy from the elder board came into adult SS class with architectural drawings for the next in what seems to be an unending string of building projects. I mean, they are still reporting in the bulletin the progress against the notes they sold on the last one!

I have sat through more presentations on building projects than I care to remember, and am so glad that I can go to Mass on Saturdays where this subject doesn't seem to come up - ever. Not to mention that they seem to toss around so blithely numbers like $500,000 to $2,000,000 for this or that addition to a facility.. ugh. How far could that money go in Ethiopia? Sudan? South Central LA? The Bronx? Or a little closer to home - Frogtown?

And to top it off, the sermon this morning was on 1 John 3, talking about how, if we claim to follow Christ, we must walk as Jesus walked. I seem to recall Him saying "foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." And in the bulletin, apparently the shelves in the community food pantry are still running low and need our contributions..

Building projects. Yuk.

I know, I know, there is seasonality to life - cycles of acquisition, consolidation, elimination. I've been through all of those personally several times. I just so rarely see the church in a cycle of elimination. We just add and add and add, never subtract. And it seems to be a problem particularly in the Evangelical church, which (implicitly or explicitly) follows the model of business which says "grow or die."

In business, growth is equated with success. The Evangelical community is obsessed with growth as a measure of success, and to accomodate and effectuate that growth, we must have larger and more ministry-effective campuses. Bigger barns to store all the souls we save (as if they were ours to house.)

Just once I'd like to see a church adopt a model of the boutique winery. Small batches, but exquisite results. Why not?

Speaking of seasonality.. the priest at St. Rose's prays something remarkably beautiful after consecrating the host. It's a lengthy prayer that focuses on the season of the year we're in. I heard him pray this Summer-y thing every week and thought it was part of the liturgy, until the Autumnal Equinox when he switched it to a Fall version.

So finally I asked him about it yesterday. Turns out they are something called Prefaces, whatever that means. Some guy, a Father Dolan or something (Hmm... Timothy?) wrote them. The priest said "email me, I have them in a Word file, I'll send them to you." So I did. When I get them, I'll post them here.

That's the kind of seasonality I can celebrate. You'll see. :)