Dear People of St. James’: An opportunity set before the congregation

Dear People of St. James’,

Over the last decade, you, the people and leaders of St. James’, have been dealing with the financial impacts of significant building debt and heavy mortgages, the great recession, staff turnover, and community change.  It has not been easy, but even when budgets had to be slashed, you remained focused on the mission of St. James’ where it is planted in East Austin.  You even started some new things: Neighbor 2 Neighbor, Freedom School, One Human Race, a partnership with Child, Inc. (a Head Start program), Proyecto Santiago, an abiding relationship with what is now Norman-Sims Elementary school, and a partnership with the Center for Health Empowerment.

When financial currency was short in supply, you used the currencies of location and space, relationship, and time to build beloved community that embraces the economically vulnerable with the message, “You belong.  You are cared for” when the waves of gentrification were saying otherwise.  You have offered your time to each other, learning and growing together, visiting each other in times of need, laughing around dinner tables, and going out to share the good news through dialogues like One Human Race.  And, you have continued to be generous from your financial resources to make the community life of St. James’ possible.

Lots of energy has been going into powerful gospel ministries over these last ten years, and lots of energy has gone into taking measures to keep the lights on and making sure that we could pay staff on time.  In 2016, the sale of part of our land allowed St. James’ to dramatically reduce its mortgage payments as a percentage of its budget.  That difficult decision had a momentous impact on the congregation’s ability to survive and contribute to the thriving of the ministries I mentioned above.  It also put us on a steady path toward building up family ministries, so that those initially attracted by the beauty of multicultural community rooted in its African American heritage will stay because they and their family members will find companions for the spiritual journey.  Dr. Michael Emerson’s research on multi-racial, multi-ethnic churches, indicates that they grow in their multicultural identity when they can invest in such ministries.

We continue to diligently pay our mortgage down, but about $914,000 in debt remains.  The Vestry has been presented with an exciting opportunity to pay off a large percentage of that debt burden soon, and we are inviting you into a process of conversation and listening sessions prior to the Vestry’s decision.

You should be getting the materials below in the mail, because we know that not everyone reads email.  If you don’t get them in the next few days, check to make sure that the church office has up-to-date information for you.  It is that time of year when we update our church records anyway.

Below is the packet of information about this opportunity for you to download and read, and a heartfelt invitation to participate in listening sessions.  In the short run, the Vestry needs to hear from you about your thoughts in response to this specific proposal.

We know that you may also want to offer thoughts about how we can best respond to our new neighbors and to the ways our neighborhood and Austin is changing.  How will we continue to live out our mission of setting tables of welcome for all people so that they might find spiritual nourishment to share?  This is not a new conversation for St. James’.  East Austin has been changing shape rapidly for a long time.  However, this is a new time with new opportunities set before us.  The Vestry would like you to imagine what opportunities the prospect of being debt-free in the near future may present to us for pursuing our mission, and we will keep listening long after these upcoming listening sessions.

Rev. Eileen