The Annual Congregational Meeting

Last night was our church’s annual congregational meeting. It went very well. I have attended too many that did not. I think there were 21 people. I’ve found there are some simple things you can do to help make these meetings more productive.

1. Set the right mood. Last night I had Johnny Cash playing as people came in. And somebody baked about 10 dozen cookies and made coffee. So there was a festive atmosphere from the start.
2. Don’t let people spread out. I made everyone sit in the small section of our sanctuary. Putting everyone in the same area creates “closeness” and doesn’t allow cliques to form.
3. Greet everyone with a smile. I stood at the door and welcomed everyone.
4. Give them something to do when they get there. Don’t allow people time to ‘cop an attitude.’ I had different people handing out the seventeen-page Annual Report, the agenda for the evening, and a copy of the devotion I was going to lead as soon as people came in. This gave them something to look at right away, and it also allowed them to know what was going to happen – we weren’t going to make things up as we went. And it forced people to talk to someone.
5. Start with a song. After the chairman opened with prayer, he turned it over to me for the devotion. First I had everyone sing, “Jesus, Name Above All Names” (and we sang it darn good too). Perspective.
   

Here is a run-down of how the meeting went:

• Scott opened with prayer.
• I gave the devotion. We discussed the difference between a maintenance church and a missional church – using Harold Percy’s “Maintenance or Mission?” handout for reference.
• We went through the Annual Report, starting with the minutes from the previous meeting, then the following reports: administrative, building & grounds, discipleship, fellowship, ministry/missions, outreach/evangelism, pastors, worship, and finance reports. It also included the Proposed Spending Guide for 2007 (formerly called a budget), and attendance records for 2006. This report was approved as a whole.
• We had one person going off the church council and none being added.
• We had a confirmation vote to approve our delegates to conference (which was recommended by the council).
• I led a discussion of New Business. This is an opportunity for the council to inform the congregation of, or get input on, different things we would like brought up. Items discussed were: The future of our Sunday Night Gatherings; Sunday School – are we really making disciples?; Why won’t people formally join the church and how can we make it more meaningful; Reminding people of the “Park” dream; and an update on our homeless ministries in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.
• The last item is titled, “Suggestions for the good of the church.” This is where people can offer suggestions or ideas they might have (even though they can do this any time, but this makes it known that it CAN happen). No one had any, probably because we had already had such a good discussion time.
  

The meeting lasted about 2 hours. Almost everyone participated at some point (members and non-members alike). There was a lot of laughter. People hung around afterward for another 30 minutes or so eating cookies and drinking coffee. We shared a lot of good stories of how God has blessed us and worked in and through us.

It seems every year someone says afterwards that we need to do this more often. Maybe it’s the fact that we don’t that helps make them so good. At any rate…. I’m glad it’s over, because you just never know what might happen. Thank ya Jesus.