But the people want to continue on in Montague with our fellowship, witness and outreach here. Being small does bring some benefits: Imagine a “greeting” time in the service where you get to shake hands and/or hug every other person there. When we have our “Joys and Concerns” we are usually quite knowledgeable about and intimately concerned for each person being lifted up. The offering and communion are done quickly and expeditiously. During our fellowship time after the service nearly everyone stays and “catches up” on local persons and issues. And we do feel a kinship with the early church/house fellowships where they all started small.
On the local level, we provide a “food closet” called “Help Your Neighbor” and although this too, is small, we have provided food assistance to over 150 people this year in the Montague area. Recently we have build a 12 by 24 foot storage building at a cost of over $11,000 so that we can continue and improve this ministry. Another significant contribution is to our Siskiyou Habitat For Humanity, where besides direct gifts, the pastor is ¾ time involved in building supervision, currently with a house nearing completion by this Christmas.
In our WORLD OUTREACH efforts we are regular contributors to Heifer Project International (with a minimum of $500 per year, and over $2800 last year for Katrina Relief. We are also involved in Gideon Bibles, Wycliffe Bible Translators, supporting a Covenant Relationship with missionary Barbara Jacobsen at the rate of $5.00 per member. We meet our Conference Apportionments fully every year.
MONTAGUE MEMBERSHIP totals 32, and with an average attendance of 17 or 18, you might ask how this is possible. I have been the pastor for just over nine years, and as a retiree have drawn no salary, nor have I had need for health or other benefits. The Church does provide our utilities, ongoing education costs, and covers half of our home insurances and taxes. In this case, this has proved to be a viable way of sustaining a small fellowship with such programs as Conference Lay Ministers (Clay M) and our provision for Local Pastors (what I am now) perhaps it is sustainable in the long run We’re trying.
MONTAGUE HISTORY: The church is 112 year sold and we have worshiped in our present building since 1901. Down through the years the usual tenure of pastors has been one or two years with various “yokes” for many of those years…sometimes with as many as five churches in the “circuit.” I believe that this has made us particularly aware that our little church is a manifestation of the body of Christ and not dependent upon a certain pastor. Our present building is in good repair but is pretty limited in size so that a Sunday school program is difficult. Right now we have no Sunday School or other outreach young people and this is undoubtedly our severest shortcoming/need.
PROGRAM: We have a really good Bible Study going just now. It is presently in the home of and led by one of our members and has an outreach to “enquirers.”
CURRENT SERMON: (Sept. 17) « Who Do you Say I Am ? » was derived from Mark 27 to 38…You are the Messiah” …and was presented as a dramatic monologue from the person of Peter and what it meant to him and the rest of the disciples to have reached that point in Jesus’ life and ministry where they were starting to understand his power, ministry, and definition of “Messiah.”
October 15: “There Is Hope” In all the travails of the Jewish people, as witnessed throughout the Bible, and even into our present age (as the inheritors of that legacy) God has been present and active in rescuing his people, bringing justice and plenty into their lives—often in unexpected ways (i.e. the coming of the Jesus ad a Messiah for all the world and not just the Jews.) |
