United Methodist Charities Earn High Efficiency Ratings
According to CharityNavigator.org, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, aka UMCOR earned four stars (out of four) as an “exceptional” charity, with 95.2% of funds taken in going toward program expenses. Administrative expenses account for 3.9% of UMCOR’s spending, and 0.8% is spent on fundraising.
With the knowledge and approval of our Staff-Parish Relations Committee and the Administrative Council, an Intern from the Claremont School of Theology will be joining us for eight months beginning next September. As a part of a person’s training to enter the Ordained Ministry of the United Methodist Church, they must take a class where they go and actually work with a local church. They are expected to preach on occassion, attend meetings from time-to-time and do other things that may be asked by the local church.
Our Intern’s name is Val Weise, who has completed her first year of a
three-year seminary program after having been a teacher for twenty years. Val is a member of the First United Methodist Church of Riverside, where she is their Youth Director and a member of their Bell Choir. However, while Val is with us, she will be focusing most of her attention upon our ‘Strategic Plan for Growth’ as well as other areas of the church. We look forward to meeting Val in September as we become a part of her training, and as she gives to us her gifts
as well.
(NOTE: The Riverside District Board of Congregational Development approved our $5,000 request for funding this Intern to our church, without which this would not have been possible. This same Board of Congregational Development also granted us $55,000 to pay the
interest for two years on one of our mortgages.)
It’s easier to complain about a problem than it is to fix it. The truth of that came home to me once again, as I sat at a picnic table this past Memorial day, and talked with some friends about the California economy. All of us could see the problems with every solution. Do we just let illegal children and adults sit on our hospital steps and bleed? Do we tax our businesses until they finally move to another state and take their jobs with them? We could see at least two solutions to every problem, and two problems to every solution.
The same is true in our homes. We can see that our children are falling behind in school, and so we complain about the schools, the teachers, the curriculum, and of course, the teachers once again. But what are we going to do, besides complain? Is there something we can do to fix the problem? Or, we can scratch our heads and wonder what we can do to help our marriage. We can complain to each other about it, but are we willing to talk with each other about how we can fix it?
I’ll grant you, that sometimes there aren’t any obvious answers to some of life’s problems. But frankly, I think that sometimes it’s just easier to complain about the problem than it is to work on a solution, and so we take the easy way.
How about your problems? Do you really want to fix them? Be honest now. If you really do want to fix them, trying talking to God about them and who knows, a solution might come to mind. But if you’d rather just complain, well then, talking to anybody will do.
I’ll see you in church.
- Roy