Supplements

Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Hot Enough to Give More Than Change

When is “hot” not “hot enough?” Apparently when it’s time to turn on the air conditioners for a meeting at the Newman Catholic Student Center in Carbondale. Why? The center doesn’t have enough money in the budget, and the budget year ends at the end of this month. The May 31 meeting would have put the budget “over the top” in the wrong way.
This situation, not uncommon or new to diocesan agencies or ministers points to painful problems with church ministry — not because ministers are unavailable (sometimes) or they don’t care (rarely) but because our beloved “bean counters” have fewer and fewer “beans” to count and disperse.

Using the Newman Center as my example (please see story on page 20), the budget has been cut about 10 percent per year since 2005. The center received $142,000, so instead of increasing the request, they asked for the same in 2006 and received $127,000. The next year, the center asked for $127,000 and received $115,000. While this represents about 40 percent of the center’s budget, the director said he would ask for the $115,000 in the coming budget with no idea what he will receive.

If “The Medium Is the Message” as Marshall McLuhan wrote so many years ago, what kind of message are we sending not only to the Newman Center but to youth in general? We tell them they are the church’s future. I reject that description. They are the young church of the present as well as the future. The Newman Center director said he is relying on creativity as he finds ways to meet the needs of the young adults who look to the center for ministry, direction and “church.” He’s putting the money into the youth, and programs to train them to minister to each other and those they meet in the wider world.

Because ministry in the church depends to a great extent on donations at many levels, not only to feed the poor but to keep the lights burning and, in this case the air conditioners running, it gives everyone a chance to see and feel what is at stake when ministry funds don’t match budget needs.

And, it certainly didn’t hurt the people meeting at the Newman Center to exert a little of their own energy to keep cool as they listened to speakers. It was more unusual than uncomfortable since the thermometer hadn’t reached the “summer highs” that will come soon enough if they aren’t already here.

The bottom line, in this case, rests on how much time, effort, love and money we are willing to expend not only to keep the center running but also to extend the mission of the church to young people in a college community in our diocese. The ripple effect of ministry in the wider world knows no bounds.

We’ve reached the “hot enough” point now, and we need to dig a little deeper, do our part to make sure the message isn’t lost because we can’t afford the medium.