The Elizabeth Factor

I needed 350,000 dollars. Well, I didn't need it. That was the cost to send Paul and Darlene Heller to Malawi for three years as Presbyterian missionaries. We gulped at the cost. This was a level of funding most churches in the North Country of New York could not imagine. What it would cost, according to the denomination, for Paul and Darlene to live in one of the poorest countries in the world, this annual cost was greater than the annual budget of many churches, the churches I would visit and ask for support.

The cost was based upon a formula every missionary was asked to raise. The monies covered their salary and supported the denominational structure. Let's say there were add on fees.  It was daunting to ask small rural churches for this amount.  But they loved Paul and Darlene and believed in what they planned to do.

              Paul and Darlene would run a crisis nursery in Mzuzu.  A crisis nursery is a beautiful mission.  Orphaned babies beyond the care of a village are entrusted with a nursery for two years and then returned to their village.  Think two-to-three dozen babies at a time.  The devastation of AIDS created the need as before the 1990s orphaned babies were simply absorbed into the village.  But with so much death, so much loss, babies were dying like their parents.  The small rural churches of Northern New York could see this need. They believed it was the right thing to do.

              As I went from church to church, I was stunned.  It wasn't hard to convince them; they were sold before I arrived.  They just needed to figure out the math.  How much could they give each year for three years?  Small church after small church made a pledge until we surpassed the goal.  This was a great moment, inspiring.  Biggest thing these churches had ever done, an enormous gift to babies in small villages.  The gift was life. 

              I called Louisville, the denominational office, to say, "we made it.  We are all set with funding."  What came next stunned me.  The mission coordinator said, "just send the money." I paused and said, “the churches have pledged; they will pay.  But this is not in cash."  And then the mindblower, "until you have the cash, they can't go."

              I fumbled for words.  Could a denominational leader have no idea how churches raise funds?  Could they be so clueless?  The more we talked the more the answer came clear, "yes, he had no idea."  Before I tell you the point of the story let me assure you, it all worked out.  We had the presbytery guarantee the funds with a promissory note and Paul and Darlene went for three years, did remarkable things at the crisis nursery of Mzuzu.  Yet in the moment, on the day I spoke with the mission coordinator, I could see trouble ahead, bad signs.

              For someone in charge of denominational missions to have no idea how churches raise funds for missions, to demand cash up front, said to me, there is a huge disconnect.  Something is wrong.  Speaking with missionaries through the years I got signs of this disconnect.  But missionaries are not complaining folk, they see hardship as part of their job.  But something was changing.  And the signs of change didn't look good.

              Leap forward to this year, 15 years from the time I helped Paul and Darlene become one of a dozen missionaries in Malawi, 15 years later the number of Presbyterian missionaries in Malawi has gone from a dozen to zero.  There was something deeply wrong and it is no longer a question, it's a painful answer.  What was once a vibrant network of global missionaries doing remarking things has been reduced to nothing.

              The disconnect of how churches raise funds for missions, this was a bad sign, a foreboding.  Yet, what was truly remarkable was not the inability to see a threat, what was remarkable to me was the complete lack of insight regarding opportunity.  In thirty plus years of ministry I have witnessed the great shift in churches and their mission support.  What was once "send a check" to help has become "send yourself" to make a difference.  When the denominational leader said, "I need cash" he was oblivious not only to how churches raise funds, but he was also even more blind to the potential of churches if they are directly engaged.  Thirty small churches in the forests of the Adirondacks invested 350,000 dollars in mission together.  Why? Because they loved Paul and Darlene; many folks within the presbytery had gone to Malawi; many people from Malawi had come to them.  The potential is shocking; their generosity was truly a remarkable sign of possibility.

              Consider our Food Pantry.  We just cut the ribbon last week.  If you were there you heard some of the numbers.  Consider this one: when you add the value of in-kind donations to grants to the dollar donations in this year the Food Pantry will been given and then given away close to a million dollars.  That is equal to the entire operating budget of the church.  When you add the value of the food to the grants and add those two to the cash you are nearing a million dollars. 

              And that is just one part of our mission efforts.  You add Habitat, support we give to the nursery school and the dinners and the angel trees and . . . and . . . and the rummage sale.  When added all up, it is stunning.  What we invest in operating the church is just a beginning.  Quietly we help people facing eviction, facing loss of utilities, people whose health is precarious, we help people in our community with $50k dollars a year.  That is just a small piece of an enormous effort.

              When I read our passage for today, the ability to read the signs of the time, when I read this my first impulse was negative.  Reading the signs, the portents, the changes in terms of what is wrong, threats.  Threats are everywhere today.  Not all change is bad, but so much of what I see and hear are people pointing out threatening signs.  Bob Dylan said, “the times they are a changing.”  He didn't say if it was changing for better or for worse.

              You don't need to hear my list of bad omens, things that worry me, signs concerning me.  We could all agree: we are quite in tune to warning signs, threats, bad scenarios.  It's not hard to see the bad. It's always easier to imagine the worse.  Yet, in our teaching today, the ability to read the weather is not limited to threats or bad outcomes.  Reading the signs of the times could be just as easily signs of opportunity.

              I shared the story of Paul and Darlene with our son-in-law Drew.  Drew was recently hired to coordinate all the disaster funding for the United Church of Christ, like our Presbyterian Disaster Relief.  He is the one who coordinates the emergency missions of a denomination.  I told him about Paul and Darlene and the Crisis nursery not to complain, not to bemoan the ineffective bureaucrat.  I said, Drew, the local churches are doing so much mission, they are engaged in so many projects and efforts.  They need people like you to see the potential.  Don't send them letters asking for support; figure out how you can multiply their efforts.

              A great example of this multiplier effect, what I would call the Elizabeth effect, a great example is a fellow named Don.  I took Don to Malawi in 2005.  He had a good time.  While he was there, he became intrigued with shallow wells.  A shallow well is a cost-effective way of bringing clean water to villages in sub-Saharan Africa.  Don returned to Africa a few times to learn more and help install wells. What he did next though was remarkable.  Don started making appeals to friends, churches, Rotary Clubs.  Anybody who would listen.  At last count Don has raised enough money and paid for the installation of wells bringing clean water to over 50,000 people.  One guy. 

              On your bulletin cover is a picture of Elise Russel Bates from Camp Johnsonburg carrying her daughter Elizabeth.  Elizabeth drew this image of the two of them.  It's her stationary for thank you notes.  Elizabeth sent us a thank you note for taking her to Malawi.  Her note said this was the most important moment in her young life.  She is in college studying to become a nurse practitioner.  She also said in her note, her visit will change and shape her future career.

              What will that change be? How will those two weeks impact her career?  Not sure.  But I know what it did to Don.  I know what Paul and Darlene did for small country churches and dozens of lives saved from starvation.  What will Elizabeth do?  I don't know.  But she is the potential.  Not because she is young.  We just lost Paul Heller a few weeks ago.  He and Darlene became the future of missions at the end of their careers.  The answer is not yet clear for Elizabeth, but the signs are amazing.

              Again think of our Food Pantry.  Didn't happen overnight.  Didn't happen because any one person.  It happened because it is the right thing to do and it is the latent potential of every church, every member to do something remarkable.  The Food Pantry is a great sign of possibility.  That was my message to Drew.  Give energy and thought to the possibility of congregations.  Think of people like Paul and Darlene and Don.  Build a mission direction with Elizabeth in mind.  Wonder: how can the larger church serve the congregations, make a way for the Elizabeths?  Because what we can do is enormous, remarkable.

              It is easy to see the bad, to see signs of trouble.  Unfortunately the persistent violence in our nation is a troubling sign we have grown to accept.  Changes to churches and the growing tide of religious nationalism where congregations are becoming political rallies worshiping power, this is deeply troubling.  History has many painful examples of churches become wed to abusive power. 

              There are bad signs today.  We should not ignore them or say we are powerless to speak truth to power.  When we laud people who abuse power, who defraud and demean the poor, who exchange the truth for a lie, when we seek to invest power in such people this is a bad sign.  We cannot ignore such omens.

              Yet, those are easy to see.  What is harder to see is the potential for good, the Elizabeth factor.  How do we build a church, build community so we are sending people in mission?  How do we send ourselves to make a difference?  Maybe the answer is: we are already doing it.

              As the music program grows, it is growing to build community beyond our congregation.  As the youth and children's ministries grow they are casting the net into our community and beyond.  As our mission endeavors grow, we are building new friends, new directions.  The thank you note from Elizabeth said just that. Thank you for being the church including me.

              Right now we are starting our 2026 Stewardship Campaign.  As is always the case, this is a moment to grow in generosity, to give away from our abundance.  This year what I believe we should consider, the sign we should ponder is this: we are building a place for the future church.  We have been building such a place for a long time.  We are the new model of the church.  For every dollar we give we are giving one away.  It's crazy math.  But that is the potential of a church.  What we invest becomes something remarkable and great.  Let's build a church of remarkable possibility.  What do you say?  Amen.