We all know 2011 was a difficult year economically, but thanks to your continued support and involvement we stand in fine shape. Craig’s report will bring you up to date and he will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Though we have had tight financial circumstances and many surprises, we have continued serving God and God’s people in this place. You have fed the hungry not only in Cazenovia; you have reached out to each other when needed; you have provided numerous, meaningful opportunities for worship; you have reached out financially beyond yourselves and demonstrated the love of Christ.

The Annual Reports will substantiate the claims I have just made. Thank you to all the faithful people who put their hands and their hearts to work and made it possible.

May God bless, Steve

      The very message of Easter is that the tomb is empty.  So too is this sanctuary.  It is empty because Christ is off into the cosmos and Christ’s people are off into their world, living their lives filled with God’s presence.  They, like the Christ, are alive.  No, Easter is not over, it is just beginning!  Happy Easter.                

                                                                    Steve

The data received from Matt Monroe concerning our facilities, Craig Buckhout and & Candy Riley concerning our finances, Russ Grills and Kevin Curtis concerning the community, Steve Thomas & Candy Riley concerning participation and facility use, along with your input during the Appreciative Inquiry is now being digested by our Assessor, Carla, and will be presented back to us at a retreat to be held at Christ the King Retreat Center, DeWitt, February 11 – 12.

In addition to helping us interpret this data, the participants in this retreat will receive training in facilitating a four to six week small group process that will enable others in the congregation to add their input.  I hope you will all take advantage of the small group sessions to add your input to the state of your church. If you think you might like to attend the retreat and lead one or more of the small group sessions, please contact me for additional information.

These small group sessions are important to complete the data gathering process. We hope to receive input from as many of you as possible to help determine just where we are as a church right now, as well as, where you would like to see the church go in the future. So, keep an eye open for these sessions in the near future and help us determine where God might be calling us to go.

             Anne’s heart and face leap with joy at the thought of starting over with no mistakes.  The teacher, smiling at the return of Anne’s natural ebullience, interrupts Anne’s effusiveness to remind her that “there are no mistakes in it, yet!”

            This is a pleasant image to take into the New Year both as a person and a pastor.  To know that my mistakes are mostly forgiven and I have a new year, all fresh and clean, before me gives me hope and joy, right now.

           Now, I will make new mistakes in 2011 and probably renew some previous mistakes, but even so, God will be with me then just as he has been with me in the past.  He will be with you too as you make your new mistakes!

Happy New Year!  -  Steve

I am thankful for this country. I am thankful that God gave it to us. I am thankful for the ideals we stand for even if they are, like us, not always perfectly lived out. I am grateful that we at least try. I love it that we all have a vote we can cast in the midst of flying political fur. I love our passion. I give thanks to God that we intend well, even when it doesn’t all go so well. Thanks to the folks who made thanksgiving worth a holiday.

Being grateful doesn’t end here for me though. It’s part of my nature. My mother used to complain, “Give you an inch and you’ll take a mile.” She was right. I can’t just stop my gratitude with the country and all that goes with it on this national holiday. I have a wonderful place in which to live and work. A calling that just keeps growing, a wonderful lady to share my life with, children and grand children to love and fight with, and great colleagues to work with.

And, wonder of wonders, a God who loves me and calls me his own. Yes, be careful when you start reflecting that for which you are grateful. You too, might have a hard time stopping and you just might find out that someone is grateful for you, too.

Many thanks,
Steve

The other morning I picked up a copy of the Republican and after a minute realized that the guy smiling back at me in the picture was me! (I was grateful they cropped enough of the picture to hide most of the girth of my waistline!)

Seriously, what I felt was great sense of pride for the smiling group of people in the picture with me and the wonderful work they had accomplished with the Open Your Heart silent auction this year. The work they did, along with others not pictured, will feed many, many people throughout the Cazenovia community. Whether you worked with this smiling group, donated something for the auction, hung kites in the Meeting House, prepared or served food, bought something or work with CazCares, thank you. You all brought much joy to many, as well as, food to the hungry. Good for you!

            Last weekend, the village of Cazenovia added a new tree to its plethora of stunningly beautiful trees.  We have trees of all sorts: deciduous, evergreens, flowering, scented, old and young, trees that excite and delight our senses and turn spring days into a virtual kaleidoscope of color and scents. This new tree, however, in addition to adding its evergreen beauty to all the others, will have a very special function.  In years to come, this tree will grow tall and in time come to symbolize the Christmas Season for many generations of Cazenovians to come.

           Looking at our current Christmas tree, standing in front of the manse, still holding its now unlit lights, I wonder about the past it has seen.  I imagine the children that have played around its base, the parades that have marched past, the nights it has stood as a sentential in this park in the midst of the village.  Maybe it chuckled and waved its branches at the guy who climbed the rope to paint the steeple.  Maybe it was amused by the comments of   others who stood watching.  How many Christmas celebrations do you suppose it has witnessed?  How many lovers do you suppose sat in its shadow and chatted with each other?

          This Arbor Day, the past and the future come together here on the corner of Albany and Sullivan Streets.  We will rightly celebrate and honor the past upon which the village has been built and we will look to the future with hope and anticipation of continuing growth.  This sounds like Arbor Day and also Christmas, don’t you think?      

                                                   Steve

     “Reality” may seem an inappropriate word in referring to events of faith such as Lent and Easter. “Reality” TV in our day and time would have us believe in factual, intense, winning at all cost, self-centeredness. This is their “reality”. This is their norm. By their standards, it should be ours as well and people strive to be winners like all those other winners they see from business to sports to entertainment. Easter presents a different “reality”.

     This God of ours is not in the business of beating us. Winning is the last thing on his mind, if there at all. This God of the cross is willing to loose everything, even life, to demonstrate his love for us and his desire to be in relationship with us. This God is willing to serve us, not force us into serving.

     Scripture tells us that our strength lies in our weakness. The Christ demonstrates this reality as he arises from the failure of the tomb to the glory of life; bringing you and me along with him. No competition here. No self’-centeredness here. But Oh the intensity of God’s love and power.

Happy Easter, Steve

We are so busy in this world in which we live that we often “meet ourselves coming.” We are bombarded from all directions with messages from without competing for our attention and our time. Voices every where call us to such busyness, that we often loose ourselves in attempting to respond to their needs. Such a fast and furious pace in which we live!

Lent provides us an opportunity to “give up” some of this busyness so that we can better reflect on the phenomenal gift of faith that God has granted us. “Giving up” for Lent is much more than giving up candy or beets or something we love in sacrifice. “Giving up” for Lent is laying down those things that come between us and the God who loves us. Seeing more clearly and thereby reclaiming our gift of Christ is the true objective of “giving it up” for Lent.

This is not just a simple annual ritual. It is removing barriers, any barriers, which prevent you from seeing and experiencing anew the beauty of this gift of faith which nurtures and sustains us through out our lives. As you “give it up”, may this season of Lent be a wonderful season of rediscovery for each of you.

Blessings, Steve

We have not done badly as a faith community this past year. In fact, you have bucked the trends of most churches. Your membership rose above 300 this year. Through your faithful giving of time, talent and money, along with sound management by your various boards and staff, you have kept us within our budgets. We enter into 2010 with some strength.

This is not to say that we are out of the financial woods. We still face a couple years of reduced income from the Wendell-Hubbard Fund due to value reduction and a new three-year averaging formula implemented last year by the fund to compute income. You, however, are the bright and shining stars in this scenario! Through the giving of your time, talents, skills and money, we have seen pledge income remain stable in difficult times and we are projecting a modest increase for 2010. Thank you for your faithfulness!

They, you are still our greatest assets. I give thanks to God for you.

Steve