A Budget For Mission -- Not Maintenance

The Standing Committee recently made a bold decision. They supported, in pricipal, using unrestricted savings as seed money for Hispanic ministries. This Saturday, the Diocesan Council followed through by recommending a budget that does just that. An investment of $120,000 could launch several Hispanic congregations this year and lay the groundwork for more next year. None of the savings devoted to this year's budget would come from sale of stocks or bonds. The resources we would devote to this mission are presently in money market accounts earning about 1%.<br /><br />The remarkable growth of the Hispanic congregation of Todos Los Santos, accomplished through the leadership of Fr. Bernardo Iniesta Avila, in his spare time -- he is a social worker by day -- shows what can happen. The increase in membership, the vitality of worship, and the entusiastic participation of youth is truly dynamic.If Convention follows the lead of Standing Committee and Diocesan Council, the days of our stagnant membership level could be over.<br /><br />Our Evangelism Budget is not just for the Hispanic community. Council has approved funding of the new Evangelim Committee's request for $15,000 to let people know we are here. This will follow an NPR sponsorship blitz during the final quarter of 2009.<br /><br />But the best Evangelism efforts will fail unless when people come to our churches they see life in our congregations. That depends on the quality of ministry we do -- all forms of ministry. Most ministry is done by lay people. The quality of our ministry depends on Ministry Development.<br /><br />Hiring someone to recruit, train, and coordinate a team of lay ministry developers is a budget priority. Diocesan Council supports this initiative as well. At last, we have a plan to empower Ministry of All Baptized without the Regional Vicars program we lost several years ago. This approach will cost roughly 25% of what we spent then. But I believe, in important respects, it will be even more effective.

A Budget For Mission -- Not Maintenance

The Standing Committee recently made a bold decision. They supported, in pricipal, using unrestricted savings as seed money for Hispanic min...

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Day 17: Faking it

Tonight I was going to write about hiking on Saturday (loved it!) or the Seahawks football game today (super loved it!). Who knew I'd love professional football, especially when my team wins 28-0. Woohoo! Of course, the Rams were having a really OFF day. At one point they had 12 men on the playing field, all actually playing! They lost 7 points for that and never recovered. A really fun game (pictures below).<br /><br />However, instead of my fun weekend, I decided to write about what's really on my mind, even though it will make me look like a big, fat failure to many of you.<br /><br />Friday and Saturday I made an attempt to be normal, of relaxing the rules a bit for myself. To me, being normal when it comes to food means being someone that eats when they're hungry, doesn't necessarily worry about what they're eating, but tries to eat healthy foods in modest portions. They don't weigh and measure their food. They don't log on to their computer and enter in every bite that enters their mouth into a food tracker. They don't feel like they're starving or deprived. They eat for sustenance, as well as for pleasure. They enjoy eating, but it's not their entire focus in life.<br /><br />My conclusion after two days of trying to be normal with my food, which resulted in a four-pound gain, is that I will never be "normal" when it comes to food. I have food issues that I will never completely overcome, and I'll have to deal with them the best I can for the rest of my life. I'm not feeling sorry for myself, I'm just stating a fact. Things could certainly be worse, and I could have been dealt a much worse fate in life.<br /><br />I'm back to counting Points and tracking my food. I have eased up on the workouts a little. Five times a week at the gym for an hour a day. Hiking, biking or some other non-gym activity for one day, and a day of rest. The rest day was suppose to be today but after climbing a million stairs up and down at Qwest field, screaming my head off and jumping up and down at the game, I don't really feel like I had a day off.<br /><br />I'm not beating myself up too much about this self-discovery. It's really not a new revelation, it's something I've always known about myself. I guess I was hoping maybe I had changed, and maybe normal was within the realm of possibility for me, but it's back to pretending to be normal. Or as MizFit says, "fake it 'til you make it!".<br /><br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><strong>The football game</strong><br />OMG! I'm totally hooked! I've avoided professional football my entire life. I always thought it was a boy thing. My husband loves it, I hate, or rather, hated it. The game was so much fun. I screamed, yelled, jumped up and down, did the happy dance over and over, high-fived everyone around me, it was the best.<br /><br />This is true about the noise, my ears are still ringing (and my throat is sore from yelling).<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The loudest stadium is Qwest Field.Qwest Field has earned a reputation as one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. Allen had the architects design the structure of the stadium, especially the partial roofs, to direct as much crowd noise as possible on the field. In addition, the north end zone seating, called the "Hawks Nest", was specifically designed for rowdy fans; the seating consists of metal bleachers which reflect sound, and fans often stomp to create even more. Seahawks fans already had a reputation for being among the most vociferous in the NFL; while they played in the Kingdome, opposing teams often practiced with rock music blaring at full blast to prepare for the often painfully high decibel levels typical of Seahawk games.</span><br /></span></em><br /><div align="center">Seahawks vs. Rams 9/13/2009 </div><div align="center">Final Score: 28 - 0</div><div align="center">GO HAWKS!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfcIN1hAv3duCBC4Gp3zaAhEt-sMdVzyXyBjCTxq676whBrrJMAvQk_WhAKpU6uHgNRt21PIBHIj36mri5UgPDTfWzzWhj73VGpJtJI8_WZ-EOx64hIbUpKHjJyak_W5f3f3Qe7XzEbFm/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+036.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381179573512904770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfcIN1hAv3duCBC4Gp3zaAhEt-sMdVzyXyBjCTxq676whBrrJMAvQk_WhAKpU6uHgNRt21PIBHIj36mri5UgPDTfWzzWhj73VGpJtJI8_WZ-EOx64hIbUpKHjJyak_W5f3f3Qe7XzEbFm/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+036.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> </div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxi5mpZXzN5DpbAEBvKf4Nthuotn3g6izs7a5DllUtFmuRFSp1ObNGc62h879LB7Ws6VTZJIpvy-DpPqmOETlANf-kJKBz5uqencfVUcDEjHEGctDQw2Ww1jXGFBgJZTAKqi1O3l_PaTxH/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+040.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381179435399864162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxi5mpZXzN5DpbAEBvKf4Nthuotn3g6izs7a5DllUtFmuRFSp1ObNGc62h879LB7Ws6VTZJIpvy-DpPqmOETlANf-kJKBz5uqencfVUcDEjHEGctDQw2Ww1jXGFBgJZTAKqi1O3l_PaTxH/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+040.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGKYFtBCCh13qfziw24tX7qxUm2s_sRiOAuTfxtOKd57RwlsMwW0EohJfo0_nio1Iq971-EfymGJoS3KSagzvZ8HLJEaxek7NZLvqVHPlAm3FpI-pEUksMPlArUaW6jknmVu1Nm4f1ZXm/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+044.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381179277588250274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGKYFtBCCh13qfziw24tX7qxUm2s_sRiOAuTfxtOKd57RwlsMwW0EohJfo0_nio1Iq971-EfymGJoS3KSagzvZ8HLJEaxek7NZLvqVHPlAm3FpI-pEUksMPlArUaW6jknmVu1Nm4f1ZXm/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+044.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMLBrOMOv68w3ALka-cRSNukNMd7gT8xEEmzGGL4c_q41ajTp56w9VvuOuvGdww3v3piPIUZBJIwa3UZmFld-W3e3Xcto4yPYwLoOCyFKNKyyI86wobrGPwLW843tatJ5uzy8PSG2pby6/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+069.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381179110780496418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMLBrOMOv68w3ALka-cRSNukNMd7gT8xEEmzGGL4c_q41ajTp56w9VvuOuvGdww3v3piPIUZBJIwa3UZmFld-W3e3Xcto4yPYwLoOCyFKNKyyI86wobrGPwLW843tatJ5uzy8PSG2pby6/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+069.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gcjvSGUG_2Q6xq7dldzpYnADqwNbCS-2-cCiekKbb2hV5y6AK5cxK0RTxfUBmpkEnHFt_OeG41vQg5dgmEzNwuN4vlkynOxHYiMsEcilvvfgIa55TY5y8JAesv0483k74gAl3sdYU5Zh/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+045.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381178946328186242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gcjvSGUG_2Q6xq7dldzpYnADqwNbCS-2-cCiekKbb2hV5y6AK5cxK0RTxfUBmpkEnHFt_OeG41vQg5dgmEzNwuN4vlkynOxHYiMsEcilvvfgIa55TY5y8JAesv0483k74gAl3sdYU5Zh/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+045.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxJWVUWSnE6TvLbWwxcITdOqu-_xDcHzIfWfCCCtcmvrrm3zC6BTut7Xug-9l9gaUNj04yudzg98X_ELDY_afSikcsq7n4B2L4se7QC7U8oQZKcq7SU55OJyCvw_aLbSgY02CusJqGitt/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+103.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381181858485402274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDxJWVUWSnE6TvLbWwxcITdOqu-_xDcHzIfWfCCCtcmvrrm3zC6BTut7Xug-9l9gaUNj04yudzg98X_ELDY_afSikcsq7n4B2L4se7QC7U8oQZKcq7SU55OJyCvw_aLbSgY02CusJqGitt/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+103.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4Uhi4nFki4D0qyZLgKY4YBlgbtWLXvAxlN3vHSU5C13XIO1KvAB8G-xKF4m_8YCOe866IxDrOVrobXsDocn7RuigvZwXIN9ablZ86AXRooK7NVHfhsW4uf2fTptjoeaoykRsaCZNc-cv/s1600-h/Seahawks+13SEP2009+100.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381181702521270386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4Uhi4nFki4D0qyZLgKY4YBlgbtWLXvAxlN3vHSU5C13XIO1KvAB8G-xKF4m_8YCOe866IxDrOVrobXsDocn7RuigvZwXIN9ablZ86AXRooK7NVHfhsW4uf2fTptjoeaoykRsaCZNc-cv/s400/Seahawks+13SEP2009+100.JPG" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; 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Day 17: Faking it

Tonight I was going to write about hiking on Saturday (loved it!) or the Seahawks football game today (super loved it!). Who knew I'd lo...

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