Trying to Process

Just a bit of background: Mac graciously put me on the Church Council for some unknown reason (probably so I could keep my feet wet and increase my involvement, but I'm not sure). Basically, everyone who is on the Church Council is also on the Finance Committee, so I've been attending meetings for both groups.

BTUMC is currently experiencing a wee bit of a financial crunch (that's sort of an understatement). We have a large debt on our new (less than five years old) building, giving is down because of the economy, and we're not even close to making our budget. Therefore, we've been thinking of both long-term and short-term ways to stabilize our finances.

We decided to begin an endowment fund. About three weeks ago, the Finance Chair (who I will call Matt) asked me to be in charge of this endeavor. I prayed about it, and agreed to do it, despite having very little financial background. After all, I really just need to be a leader, organizer, and motivator, and I can do all of those well. There are other people on the committee who have financial background. The endowment fund has been sort of placed on the back burner (in the sense that we'll establish it this summer and begin advertising it this fall) for something else...

On the short-term side of things, we decided to do a capital campaign for debt reduction. The ten-week campaign begins in a few weeks, and the pledges will be over three years. We're hiring an outside consultant and hoping fervently that this campaign raises enough money for us to seriously reduce our mortgage and put us in a more financially secure position with our bank.

It's expected that as a key leader in the church, I will have some significant involvement in the capital campaign. However, I was blown away when my casual e-mail to Matt along the lines of, "hey, let me know how I can help" was answered with, "how about being my co-chair?" I told him that I needed 48 hours to think/pray about it.

I really like Matt, and I think that we work well together. I am fairly sure that Mac (who is one of the most permission-giving pastors I've ever known) will be fine with it, but I'm probably going to call him tomorrow just to check. It would be a lot of work, and I need to put some serious prayer into it.

But, it would be good experience, and I could certainly bring a spiritual/inspirational aspect to it that someone else might not. I'm good with people, organized when I want to be, and I have time during the day.

I just need to discern whether this is something that God wants me to do, or whether I just want to be needed and busy.

Prayers and insight appreciated, as always.