Next Steps Process

The planning team for the chancel renovation project has determined that the attempt should be labeled, "Next Steps" The title is particularly appropriate for several reasons. Firstly, "Next Steps" implies that this project is the continuation of something already begun. Five years ago, Shiloh began the process of shaping an overall facility plan. Since then, the congregation has accomplished some major steps in the plan. The Christian Education wing has been remodeled. The Omega Hall has been redone. There are new boilers and new windows throughout the facility. Shiloh has already done nearly $1 million worth of renovations and updates. Secondly, "Next Steps" suggests that there are additional steps to follow this one. Certainly, this is the case in pursuing Shiloh's facility plan. Particularly, there are additional renovations to be made in the worship space, a new general entrance, an elevator, and updating throughout.

"Next Steps" is an ideal moniker for a project that lies somewhere in the middle of an overall facility plan. The particular project at hand is the expansion of the chancel and the replacement of the organ console. Thanks mainly to a grant from the Fred Luther Foundation, Shiloh is able to replace its organ console, at the cost of $141,588. The expansion project, which piggybacks perfectly on the organ console replacement, will cost the congregation somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000. Work has begun, in the form of removal of the massive air handlers that had been located beneath the present choir loft. There have also been working groups formed to: 1. Plan the ending design; 2. Raise funds for the project; 3. Communicate with the congregation and community.

The money for the project is coming in. There was nearly $7,000 in an organ fund when the congregation received news of the Luther Foundation grant. The committee leadership has donated almost $3,000 worth of seed money, and I have designated $2,500 from my contracted designated spending fund toward the "Next Steps." The rest will rely upon a handful of fundraising programs and events and the contributions of Shiloh's membership.

Another means of raising funds, though modest, is recycling of materials. We are currently looking for a few volunteers to come in this week to dismantle the coil mechanisms that we have removed from the departed air handlers. The coils are copper, and may be worth around $300 if recycled separately. If you can help to do so during normal business hours, call the church and talk with Sid Manley or me. We are also looking to coordinate with someone who might own a trailer or truck for transporting the coils to a local recycling center. Again, if interested and able, call.

The demolition is at a standstill until the church designs a final product, until Shiloh presents technical drawings for permit approval, and until we can post permits. Some of the work will need to be done by electrical professionals, our security and fire alarm company, and, depending on how far we extend the design, a professional plumber. Each of these professionals will need to acquire permit for the project as well.

An interesting snag has surfaced. If we extend the chancel an additional 4', the congregation will have to provide alternative office space for its Business Manager. This space will need to be secure. It would also be good if the Business Office were placed within the everyday flow. Again, if Shiloh extends through the additional 4', Shiloh will need to have some plumbing redone, requiring an additional permit and taking on additional expense. Are there any ideas for how Shiloh might solve these two issues? If so, or if you want to part of the conversation, respond to this post.

It is exciting to see progress taking place, as Shiloh Church pursues the "Next Steps" in its overall facility plan. It is not too late to be involved. Look for fundraisers at Boston's Bistro and Pub over the St. Patrick's Day weekend and through a proposed upcoming casino night. Any other ideas for fundraising can be shared with Tia Smith.

See You Sunday!

  

Hospitality Team

I sat with Shiloh's Hospitality Team last evening, Monday, February 13. The Team discussed a variety of upcoming events, shaped strategies for providing an exceptional welcome to those and more usual church events, and formulated an entirely new program for the life of Shiloh Church.

Among the upcoming events discussed were the Senior Living Fair on Wednesday, February 15, The Day of Caring Pancake Brunch, on Sunday, February 26, Easter, The SONKA Spring Meeting at Oak Creek, Shiloh's April 29 fundraiser at Sandi's Clothes Encounters, Election Day, the Annual Garage Sale, Shiloh Live on June 2, the Annual Golf Outing on August 25, and the Fall Association meeting, to be held here at Shiloh on November 3. The Team determined that it would be available to groups and organizations in the congregation, providing guidance, input and advice about how events might be even more hospitable. If your group or organization is organizing an upcoming event, and if you want the assistance of the Hospitality Team, talk with Glenna Higgins or Joanne Orihood.

The Hospitality Team is particularly eager to strategize for the November Fall Association Meeting, to be held here at Shiloh Church. We already know that we will be pursuing volunteer cleaning groups around the facility, but we also need to work at additional signage and means of identifying those from Shiloh who would be available for assistance and way-finding. The welcome that we provide will be particularly important, as it is very likely that parts of the sanctuary might at that time be undergoing final construction of the chancel updates and the new organ console. Again, if you want to be involved in the preparations, talk with Glenna or Joanne.

The new Hospitality Team-sponsored program will kick off on Easter Sunday, April 8. From that Sunday, Shiloh will offer and open opportunity for fellowship and light breakfast, from 9:00 a.m. through 10:15. It is possible that the hub of activity will take place in the mailbox area, with a table for food/drink and information posted on the wall. The information will include Association Newsletter, called "Snippets," information from the Conference and national UCC, and internal notifications. The idea here is to intentionally invite people into fellowship and information-sharing. The information wall will build on the tremendous success of Shiloh's "Green Table." That table has increased communication and reduced Shiloh's use of paper. The information wall should assist us to extend our ministry in both ways. Once again, if you want to be part of providing leadership for the intentional fellowship time, I encourage you to talk with Glenna or Joanne.

Shiloh's Hospitality Team continues to provide a wonderful welcome to those who use our facility. If you would like to help greet, whether in the parking lot or inside the facility, or if you want to take part in Hospitality Team activities, talk with those mentioned already, Dawn McMillen, Jay McMillen, Bud Brown, Kimbal Ragan, or me.

See you Sunday!

    

Personal Salvation

As many of those who read The Shiloh Insider are aware, I have been teaching a class at the University of Dayton Osher Lifelong Learning Center, entitled "A Bible Toolbox." The class is made up of persons who are 50+, who have a desire to expand their education and extend their knowledge. The class is made up of persons of many different faith expressions and backgrounds. Thus far, the class has been a rousing success, with participants learning to use historical and literary contexts as a means of studying and understanding Biblical literature.

Today, Monday, February 6, several of the class participants remained after the class was completed in order to engage in discussion. The discussion resulted from a series of comments that I had made during an investigation of the New Testament historical context.

During the class, I suggested that Jesus was concerned with shaping a particular ethic, one that, if lived faithfully, would repair, from the bottom upward, the broken social systems of Jesus' age, which functioned from the top downward. We pictured that ethic as the "downy/uppy" of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. In that image, Jesus embodies a way of life in which persons willingly and intentionally sacrifice themselves in order to serve others. This service is embodied in order to free those whom Jesus served from obstacles to their service to others. Virtue takes place when followers of Jesus embrace the ethic, live in service to others, empowering them, enabling them, removing the obstacles that keep them from serving others.

The conversation that took place after class today centered on that ethic as "works," and how those works lead to an understanding of salvation. The question was, "How are we saved by practicing that ethic?" The qualifying statements demonstrated that the person was asking about the difference between salvation by grace or salvation by works. "Which is it," he wanted to know.

The same gentleman had asked a similar question earlier in the day. He asked, "If Jesus were living today, would he be Republican or Democrat?" I told him that I seriously doubted that Jesus would have had any stake in the political process, and would therefore be neither. Jesus worked by weaving the fabric that ties each of us to the other, from the bottom up, as it were. Jesus would have believed that the political processes were broken, and that the means of repairing them lay exclusively in developing the space that exists between each person and each other. The ethic determines how we fill that space and what we do in the developing relationships.

The same answer holds for the question of personal salvation. I do not think that it was much of an issue for Jesus. Jesus may never have asked, or wondered, whether persons are saved through grace or works because personal salvation was never an issue for Jesus. Heaven or Hell, or how we achieve either, is not a concern for him. Salvation by either works or grace miss the point of a salvation that is established in relationship between one's self and every other. Jesus embraces communal salvation, qualitative, historical, practical. Salvation comes in the way that we live with one another, establishing, from the bottom up, a way of life that is then demanded of the systems that form social culture.

So, questions of personal salvation are likely as foreign to Jesus as those of political association might be. Would Jesus be a Republican or Democrat? Well, neither, because Jesus did not work that way. Would Jesus support personal salvation through grace or works? Well, again, neither. Jesus probably did not work that way. His concern was how we lived together, as a community, as a family, as children of the same creator.

That such a conversation takes place at all is testament to the success of the University of Dayton Lifelong Learning Institute, and the curiosity and openness of those who continue to pursue greater understanding. I am proud to take part in the process.