Alleluia Hangover
By Reverend Robin Roderick

For those who are newer to FUMC, the terms God’s House and God’s Work may be unfamiliar terms. These are the two areas where church offerings are designated.

God's Work goes for all our programming--vacation bible school needs, candles on the altar, curriculum, salaries of clergy and staff, music, lights and utilities, etc. Our mission outreach in our community and through the United Methodist Apportionments all comes from the tithes and offerings to God's Work.

God's House is often what is called the bricks and mortar giving; this pays building payments, replaces roofs, does ongoing heavy duty maintenance: walls are painted, doors are replaced, leaky roofs are fixed. We are currently paying $9,822.58 per month for the payment on the new building addition. Thankfully we actually had a reduction in the interest rate this last go round.

When we make our pledges in the fall we are able to say approximately what percentage of the overall budget is needed for each area. In the pledges for 2009 budget year (Jan 1 to Dec. 31st) approximately 82% of the budget asking was for God's Work and 18% for God's House.

Both are necessary for our continued faithfulness and growth. Thank you for your disciplined spiritual giving to God's House and God's Work.

As we said in services we are beginning to feel a pinch as the economy tightening affects us literally and emotionally as parishioners. Over at least the past four years, and certainly before as well, we have poured over budgets and sought to be excellent stewards.

Please do all that you can to remain faithful in your giving. Consider a week when a bit more can be added to your offering. Let us know if it is impossible for you to fulfill your pledge as the year continues so we make prudent cuts and corrections midyear.

This church is faithful and yet there is still room for improvement even in tenuous times. Our continuing stream of visitors and new members means we are serving God well. Please allow us to continue to do so through your tithes and offerings.

Parking Update

An aggressive marketing campaign will be launched for the four business areas where we have obtained permission for parking on Sunday morning. These properties are:

1. Enterprise Bank, 1001 First Capitol. This is 1 block west of the church but on the same side of First Capitol.
2. 814 First Capitol Drive. This unmarked building is owned and occupied by The Conway Group Insurance Company and is adjacent to the veterinary clinic across First Capitol from the church. The parking lot is behind the building and must be entered from Madison Street.
3. Alexander Insurance Company, 821 Madison Street. This lot is adjacent to the 814 First Capitol property’s parking area and separated by a retaining wall.
4. National City Bank, 750 First Capitol Drive. This is a half block east of the church and across First Capitol.

We currently have ~20 people committed to parking at these offsite locations. These should help to free up parking on church property for visitors and people who have mobility problems. A guard is available to stop traffic and allow safe pedestrian crossing of First Capitol from those sites on the opposite side of the street.

Trustees will continue to look for ways to add additional parking spaces to allow for First United Methodist to better fulfill our mission to Gather, Grow and Go.

Lawn and Gardening Volunteers

A well-kept lawn and planting areas shows visitors and the community that our church home is important to us, and makes the church a more inviting place for both members and visitors. We are in need of volunteers to work on both lawn and planting area care.

For lawn care, a group of people come together once a week to mow, trim, clean the parking lots, and do other grounds projects.

For planting-area care, the volunteer chooses a particular planting area, and decides when they will work on it. A planting area volunteer does the planning, planting, and regular maintenance for their adopted area.

If you would like to share your time and talents for our church home in this way, please contact Ray Deweese at 636-940-1055 or deweese_rl@yahoo.com.

Roof of God's House

In reading Robin’s article on the front page this month, you will have read about God’s House. The Trustees are responsible for being good stewards of God’s House funds. This article will illustrate one of the many projects that Trustees manage.

The replacement of the existing flat roofs for MPR, Becker, and the area over the Catherine Collier Room all the way up to where the structure attaches to the Sanctuary is the latest project to be completed. It is also one that has avoided considerable future expense for the church.

Originally, the Trustees had planned to do the flat roofs in stages, due to the expense of taking off each old roof and putting a new roof down. However, in the course of taking bids on the project, Trustees discovered a foam roof product offered by R & A Contracting that overlays the existing roof. This process has been in use for over 30 years on flat roofs at Texas A&M University and other locations around the country.

Ray Deweese researched the product, and Michael Waller contacted some local companies that have used this product through R&A. All of the feedback was positive. In addition to being light weight, the hardened foam serves as insulation and should reduce our heating and cooling costs this year.

The foam has two protective coats over it to extend its life. The foam is guaranteed for ten years, after which you reapply the protective coats to extend the life of the roof another ten years. The reapplication is about half the cost of the roof, but does extend the roof’s life for an additional ten years. Since the old roof does not require removal, the cost of applying the foam and the protective coverings was much less than a conventional flat roof.

As an illustration, Trustees were originally planning to redo only the MPR roof. A conventional roofer told the Trustees that cost could run in the neighborhood of $50,000 or more. The cost for doing all of the roofs with foam (which is close to four times the square footage of the MPR) was under $44,000.

Thus far, the new roof has eliminated our previous leak problems in those areas. Trustees will continue to monitor the potential utility savings, which, if quantifiable, will be reported next year.