Dear Friends of West Elkton,

There will be an important meeting coming up the first Sunday of January (January 3) directly after the meeting for worship on Epiphany Sunday, the celebration of the wise ones bringing gifts. There will be a meeting for prayer from 10-10:30 that morning. In the called meeting at the rise of meeting, we will be looking at our budget concerns.

For the past year, we have been deficit spending almost a thousand dollars a month. Yet we have remained within budget, so we are looking at what it means to change our budget to meet our income.
Please pray on these three questions:

• Are there any places you could increase giving in your budget for 2016?
• What is your vision for this meeting in five years?
• How does our budget reflect a shared vision?

I am excited about this January 3. When I counsel couples for marriage, I always ask them to assess their shared values, goals, dreams, and such before we or they do the budget. I ask them to think about where they want to be in five years. This is important to hear each other’s visions. Many times they have not shared their ideas with each other for fear of being judged by the most important person in their lives. Shared is an important word. Shared does not mean agreed with, but it does mean at least expressed and talked about with active listening rather than arguing. January 3 is a time to share. Each individual’s interests and leadings or lack of leadings are important.

Vision dictates budget. Budget is not just about your responsibilities and your income. Budget is how you spend your resources. Matthew 6: 21 reminds us that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
We can create a working budget by establishing what is important to us as a meeting. Your budget defines who you are in many ways.

Having a vision and being aware of it helps us, too, not to waste money. We have enough money for the next five years, spending like we are now. But what if we plan together and listen to each other, and made sure we were going in the same direction.

I am happy that January 3 is coming. It will give us a good chance to say what is important to us and what we feel like we need to be doing for wand with our meeting. It is important that all people involved in this, including the youth, and especially the youth and those whose children who have remained involved in the meeting, come and be of support. Even if you don’t attend often, please come. I ask that you come as early as possible.
I am asking that we have half an hour of open worship from 10-10:30 before meeting for worship to help prepare our hearts. Coffee and snack cakes will be provided. Let’s start the new year off right, with purpose and good cheer!

Some questions that come to mind for me are:

• What do we value?
• What is our vision?
• What is the best way to use our money to speak our values and our vision?