10.30.08
text of Gene’s message last night regarding business meetings
What a church is to be about is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The N.T. talks about that a lot. It doesn’t talk much at all about the kinds of things that occupy our time: decisions about meeting times, worship styles, business meetings and the like. If we doing that first part well, a lot of those details will fall into place. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added to you as well.
I have two recommendations for the body that I believe will help us to keep the main thing the main thing and not get so bogged down in the details, the machinery of church life.
One, we need to follow the leaders that the church has put in place to lead their various ministries: pastors, committees and deacons. When it comes to business meetings we need to follow those groups in this manner: Motions for action need to come primarily from these established leadership groups. I cannot enforce what I’m saying according to the constitution. Nor am I claiming that these leadership groups have always gotten things right. However, an individual member bringing an item of new business before the body on their own, is in greater danger of not being able to see the big picture and of bringing a motion that is a distraction away from what God is calling us to do. A leadership group has a greater chance of thinking through the larger ramifications of a motion and when they bring a motion it comes with greater credibility. So I’m asking, as your pastor at this moment, that members who feel that God is leading them to bring a motion to the body to first take it to the church appointed leadership group to which that issue would fall. A financial issue would go to the stewardship committee, personnel to the personnel, or a general church health issue either to the pastors or to the deacons. If that group hears your concern and believe that it needs to be brought before the body then that will be healthy. If they do not agree, and you still feel before God that such a motion still needs to be brought to the body, then by all means bring your motion, but in doing so let it be known that you have made an attempt to go through established leaders. It is my sense that the bringing of motions from individual members is often misunderstood and requires a lot of time on the business meeting floor to clarify. It is the sense of your pastors that it is these business meetings that are continuously getting us off track from the real business of the church and some are in fact leaving because of that reality. I would also encourage the body, that when you sense a motion being brought to the floor that should be handled at the committee level, that you promptly move to have it tabled to that group for study. The power remains with the congregation as a whole. But in general, this would be a far healthier way for the church to make decisions.
Second, there is a motion to be voted on next week (11/5/08) regarding a revote on the budget. I need to say a couple of things on that to put it in perspective.
The budget process led by the stewardship committee was in place for months, to include a church family forum. The stewardship committee was available for comment, and some members took the initiative to express their concerns to them. The budget was put out two weeks in advance of the business meeting. The personnel committee provided an unprecedented amount of information, far more than had ever been given. Beyond that, it actually took us two meetings to process the budget. The spreadsheet with all the salary information was out on the first business meeting. 8/20/08. That meeting ended with the personnel chair on the floor discussing that very issue. Some correction were made to the salary spreadsheet for the second meeting. We came back in the next meeting and discussed it further. That meeting was on 8/27/08 In that same meeting, a voting irregularity was noted and the body given an opportunity to revisit the issue. The body elected not to go back and revisit that. I have been reluctant to address this because of the appearance of being self serving. But the time for being concerned about appearances and perception has passed.
The church did its best to prayerfully adopt a budget. To try to undo that budget will be a distraction from the real work of the church creating confusion that could bog us down for months. Furthermore, it will un-fund two positions that have already been filled. It will ask a new stewardship committee who has other important work to do in this season, to redo last years budget close to the time when they need to be working on the budget for the new year.
Please pray that we can keep these conversations about the logistics of church business to a minimum so that all of us can give our full energy to the pursuit of our primary business, making disciples of Jesus Christ.
