Ship of Fools: A Worship Frame to an Annual Meeting

Thread: A Worship Frame to an Annual Meeting Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by UCCLynn (# 16633) on :

Hello all,
I am curious whether you use worship services to help shape congregational annual meetings, to include part of the "business" of the church in the worship service or similar types of framings.

Our church's annual meeting is the Sunday after next Sunday. While there is a part of me that would like to include more/all of the meeting within the service proper, to indicate that doing the nitty-gritty tasks of living together and serving God and neighbor together are indeed part of our response to God, I am not including the meeting elements into the worship.

We are going to have prayers of thanksgiving for the service of officers, ministry teams, teachers, etc. during the service. Also, we will dedicate our new leaders, elected in a small cong. mtg at the end of Oct (to make the Jan meeting shorter). We will also take in a few new members. We will also receive our pledges for 2013. The worship service will be very celebratory (I hope) of life together.

I will use the 1Cor 12 lectionary text for the children's message and that and the Luke text for the abbreviated sermon.

I wonder how much is too much. I don't want the focus to turn fully from the worship of God to wondering whether anybody brought chicken to the post-worship potluck that begins our annual meeting. On the other hand, I work with varying degrees of diligence and success at having our council meeting, our service projects, etc. all be seen as part of the worship life of our church, or at least as our response to God' love that we explore and celebrate in worship.

Any thoughts or ideas welcome.

Lynn
small UCC (Congregational) church in medium small town US Midwest

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

The APCM takes place immediately after a Eucharistic service, to which all those going to the meeting are strongly urged to attend.

Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on :

My congregation's AGM is in February. The Minister often has a sermon which is topical to the agenda. This year it will be Stewardship and our deficit, which can be solved through a 6% donation increase, which would put us back to to levels we have seen in the previous five years.

The Church Council forms the Eldership and the Council must be elected at the AGM by the Members generally, under the Manual. We cannot elect them beforehand, election of Elders, Officers and Trustees is one of the primary reasons for the AGM.

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

That's an interesting topic. My experience of such meetings is that they often come at the end of a service but the only 'liturgical' elements are a prayer at the start and end...

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

I think this is an interesting point, especially as Church Meetings lie at the very heart of my own tradition - we have 9 or 10 every year and they are the ultimate decision=making body for the congregation. But it has always been difficult to (a) get more than 30% of members to attend and (b) to make people see them as a "spiritual" occasion.

I don't think there is any easy answer. You can try to fit it into the worship services but you soon run into the incongruities mentioned in the OP. You also have the problem of how you cope with children, visitors and friends who aren't much interested in the running of the Church.

Or you can have it on a weekday evening and precede the "business" with a fairly substantial worship introduction - probem is that people tend to grumble and say, "This isn't what I came for, we'll be here all night". Attendances may be low and less representative of the congregation, too.

You can try the Sunday service/coffee time/meeting approach, possibly using the service to introduce key themes that are going to be mentioned later. This I think works quite well and gets a good turnout although you may find you are quite constrained by time (and peoples' tummies rumbling at the thought of their upcoming Sunday lunch!)

In all cases I think there is a need to keep reminding the meeting that, even when it is talking about Offerings and Drains (for example), the totality of its aim lies far higher: the extension of the Church and the glorofication of God. The sacred/secular tension is utterly appropriate for our dual earthly/heavenly citizenship, anyway.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

A few thoughts.

1. We did the business portion of the meeting in the middle of mass last year, right after the sermon. It turned into a knock-down drag-out budget fight, with impromptu calls from a few members for shows of hands for who thought they could give more money and who was feeling taped out, and no one felt very good by the end. I privately decided that I would plan on skipping future annual meeting Sundays if they kept up with the mid-service meeting, and other people must have publicly planned on it, as we have moved the meeting to its traditional spot after the service. It's the work of the people, but it needs room for argument and disagreement, and the middle of mass doesn't feel like the right spot for the level of argument that is sometimes necessary.

2. Keep visitors in mind, if you are accustomed to seeing visitors, even with the limited stuff you plan to do in service. My parents are usually in town for a weekend this time of year, and have finally given up on visiting a Church after running into too many services which were preambles to the annual meeting, or an actual annual meeting. Last year, we had the assistant priest take all visitors out after the short sermon to continue with communion in the parish house. Be sure to have something ready so that someone who stumbles into your church service doesn't end up completely put off. (The same nightmare annual meeting included a ten minute list of everything the junior warden had accomplished in the last year. Great for the junior warden, but visitors don't care.)

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

We are having a general meeting after church on Sunday. The running order is as follows: 9.45 Eucharist, 11.00 coffee and meeting, 12.30 Lunch. Of course, people don't have to stay on for the lunch if they don't want to, but it is good to have the lunch available, particularly for choristers who will otherwise feel rather rushed if they need to get back in time for rehearsal and Evensong.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

If a major decision was being made I am quite happy to request that the chair or other suitable person leads us in prayer before we vote. I am not good at it but I have done it occassionally. However our AGM is a formality, the decisions are made at other councils, this ratifies the reports for the year and the accounts for the charity commissioners, that is it and rubber stamps the appointments for the coming year. This means the prayers at the start including the minute silence to remember members who have departed during the year and the final prayer (plus grace at the meal which happens in the middle of the meeting) seem sufficient.

Jengie

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

Realised I should put some of the theoretical stuff in first. For some in the tradition, any council is primarily an act of worship, not just a business meeting. Its purpose is a meeting for discernment of the will of God and that can only be done in the situation of worship. However the style is usually that of a formal society business meeting.

There are thus huge questions about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate at such a meeting. For instance part of this debate has led to the increased use of Consensus decision making within the URC. This is predicated on the idea that we best discern God's will when we are prepared to listen to all perspectives and ask where is God speaking in this. The use of prayers before votes as well as at the start and finish can be part of the desire to make explicit that the meeting is more than a business meeting.

Jengie

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
However our AGM is a formality, the decisions are made at other councils, this ratifies the reports for the year and the accounts for the charity commissioners, that is it and rubber stamps the appointments for the coming year.

This is all well and good, as long as the council produces reports that are ready to be ratified and rubber stamped. In our case, it was a budget with a revenue line item designated "There Will Your Heart Be Also fund." Translation: we approved a budget with a five figure deficit because we don't want to make any more cuts, so we are just going to count on people pledging extra money throughout the year to make up the gap. That didn't fly, and we sent the vestry back to work to look into some cuts.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

A church where I used to attend would incorporate the APCM into the Sunday morning Eucharist - that way nobody would have a chance to escape!

The service would begin as usual with the choir and altar party processing in. There would be the confession & absolution followed by the collect (no Gloria in Excelsis) and then straight on to the Gospel.

Then the meeting would take place. After that, the service continued as normal from the Peace.

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
A church where I used to attend would incorporate the APCM into the Sunday morning Eucharist - that way nobody would have a chance to escape!

After which any visitors would vow never to darken the doors of a church again! [Eek!]

Posted by Emendator Liturgia (# 17245) on :

We have three General Community meetings per year - the first of which is the Annual Chapter Meetings for reports, election of office meabers, and disucssion of the year ahead. The chapter meetings are on the 3rd Sunday of the month as this is the one and only Sunday when all of the clergy are not elsewhere with another community following the first service.

Our schedule is:
9.00am - Sung Eucharist
10.30am - Morning Tea
11.00am - Meeting
12.30pm - Lunch

We find that attendance at the meeting has been constant at about 90% of community members.

During the service there are prayers for discernment and a sermon based on a suitable topic, utilizing the lectionary readings for the day. Visitors, who are a regular blessing to our service, are able to appreciate the liturgy without feeling outsiders at a meeting; while regular attenders are spiritually challenged and prepared.

I agree with others that lunch afterwards is a very good way of facilitating both fellowship, and also diffusing any tensions that arose during the meeting.

Posted by Amazing Grace (# 95) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
A church where I used to attend would incorporate the APCM into the Sunday morning Eucharist - that way nobody would have a chance to escape!

After which any visitors would vow never to darken the doors of a church again!

No kidding.

Our meeting is after the later service. There's a short period for mingling a la regular coffee hour, people who don't want to stay can make their exit, everyone else settles in.

We do have lunchy-type foods available so people can eat something before we start.

We do have prayers before and after.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

There is just a wee possibility, particularly if there are any possible contentious issues, that incorporating worship elements, (particularly extempore prayer by the chief pastor) could be seen and felt as unfair manipulation.

In fact I have heard of one occasion in a discussion group when the curate's extempore prayer at the end was clearly chiefly not addressed to God, but to the member of the group who had disagreed with her.

Posted by UCCLynn (# 16633) on :

Thank you for your thoughtful comments.

I think the observations about visitors and their feeling welcome are excellent reminders to make sure the focus of worship is on praising God and deepening our relationship with God and neighbor.

Venbede's caution about extemporaneous prayer sometimes seeming to really be aimed at those who disagree is also wise. I have been in meetings in which I think that was going on. It might not have been, or it might not have been conscious, but it certainly seemed present.

I think I will go with the "one body, many gifts" theme of the Corinthians reading in the RCL. It ties in nicely with coming together for our fellowship and business later. Hopefully, a time thanking those who have served and commissioning leaders won't be something that makes visitors batty. Hopefully, it will be an element that shows our gratitude as well as it shows that we take our roles as leaders seriously (my agenda - some of our leaders are abolutely the worst about attending worship - yes, I know there are other ways to be part of a community but it makes me nuts).

Thanks for the tip to make sure there is some hospitality provided for people, esp visitors or non-members who chose to leave. We have our sack lunch distribution for the hungry in the community after worship too. So we already will need to have someone from the congo up with the lunches.

So much to learn. So many different ways to consider doing the work of the church.

Lynn

Posted by Sober Preacher's Kid (# 12699) on :

What about bribery? We always provide a free hot lunch to the congregation for the AGM. It encourages all members to attend and lets us have a quorum.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

I LIKE that kind of bribery. And it works, provided that the lunch-getters can attend the meeting and don't get stuck in the kitchen. [Big Grin]

One problem I have found is getting some people to stay on after service time, so locked are they into their "Sunday lunch" routine. (Especially true of ladies whose husbands are not churchgoers).

[ 23. January 2013, 17:00: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:

One problem I have found is getting some people to stay on after service time, so locked are they into their "Sunday lunch" routine. (Especially true of ladies whose husbands are not churchgoers).

It's very admirable that those ladies consider their family commitments in this way. People who ride roughshod over family time and spend too much time in church will lead to resentment, and further antipathy towards the faith, from their partners.

However, people lead such busy lives these days, it's difficult to find a time when you can have a special event or meeting when everyone can make it. Perhaps before the church service might be an easier time than after? And there is also then a natural time limit.

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
we have 9 or 10 every year and they are the ultimate decision=making body for the congregation. But it has always been difficult to (a) get more than 30% of members to attend and (b) to make people see them as a "spiritual" occasion.

I'd say that part of the problem is too many meetings - 9 or 10 seems a lot and if people don't see them as spiritual, then there probably aren't enough real, meaty decisions to go round.

What has worked for me is to reduce the number (when it was trhat large) to around 6 including the AGM (which works best IME as a seperate meeting and not interweaved with anything else). Take time to review and to look foward at that meeting.

Other thoughts - prune the Agenda.

Make AOB illegal (they can always ring you up to 7 pm if there's an urgent issue) - in doing this you remove or reduce the possibility of depth charge agenda items just before everyone is going home. Table an item for discussion at the next meeting by all means so it's not ignored but control the meeting by guiding the agenda as chair. I've found that by doing this it stops those people who love to bring soemthing up ate evry meeting, usally a whinge ot a whine. The passage of time in tabling an item for the next meeting also buys time to think about/investigate the point raised.

Have different people present items. Nothing like a chnange of voice to keep things running.

Where you can, provide copies of minutes, documents etc up front. Summariase what the church leaders see as the key points.

A lot of time is wasted on re reading stuff: stick it on a website, e mail it, copy it for those w/o pc's.

have a time guid enext to gaenda items - you can publish it but have it on the chair's copy.

Keep to time. 2 hrs max but 1 hr 45 is ideal. Better to leavce wanting more.

Delegate decisions that can be reported at meetings "for information."

Always introduce a meeting to set the scene ... suggest that people allow others who haven't alreday spoken the opportunity to speak. Request that they don't repeat points already made .... seek discussion not opinions.

the less you have and the better it's done, the more people you'll see. Do communion from time to time.

Hope that helps but not a exhaustive list.

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