TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

"...wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"  (from Luke 2:49)

Tonight is our church's Annual Business Meeting.  I grew up Roman Catholic.  To most Roman Catholics, the idea of a church Annual Business Meeting is completely foreign.  In the Catholic Church, pretty much everything was owned and decided by the Archdiocese and the people just pretty much did as they were told.  SOME Protestant denominations operate that way, but it's far more common in Protestant circles to have great congregational involvement.  That's where the Congregational Churches get their name.  It's not just "Congregational" Churches that operate in a "congregational" manner, however.  Many Baptist churches and most Pentecostal Churches (including the Assemblies of God) have much congregational involvement.  At our church, each year, "Department  Reports" are presented, the Financial Report is presented and we vote on positions such as Deacons, Board Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, and Sunday School Superintendent.

If my count is correct, this will be the twenty-first Annual Business Meeting I have conducted at First Assembly of God of Framingham.  Most of them have been pretty bland. Two or three of them featured quite a bit of "fireworks", especially the business meeting of 2001.  I'm not expecting too many "fireworks" tonight.

One thing that's usually surprised me at First Assembly of God of Framingham is that most of the people come to the meeting out of a sense of duty,  seem bored,  seem to want the meeting to go by quickly, and are happy if it does.  At the old Christian Life Center in Walpole, where I was on staff in the 1980s, the Annual Business Meetings were very different.  That church had the luxury of having a fellowship hall separate from the church sanctuary (in Framingham we don't).  At Walpole, they'd serve cheese and crackers and cut up celery and carrots along with cold water during the meeting.  The Walpole Church had their Business Meeting on a week night on the first full week of February.  At least half of the people would be dressed up like they would on a Sunday morning.  Most would come in with lots of interest and enthusiasm.  I remember lots of lively discussion about the financial report and lively discussion about the church's future plans.  The Walpole meetings could be long.  I can remember hours going by and the pastor practically saying, "It's getting late, folks,  can't we close this meeting now?"  NOT that I want our meetings to go THAT long, but I would honestly like to see more people THAT excited and interested in the goings on of the Framingham church.  As a young adult around 20, I remember attending the Annual Business Meeting of the Evangelical Baptist Church in Sharon where I was not a Member but where I WAS a regular attender for a few years.  In that church, the Annual Business Meeting was also a VERY big deal.  I recall it being held on a Friday night.  They'd serve pizza first, then have the meeting.  The Baptist meetings did not run quite as long as the Christian Life Center- Walpole meetings but they were long enough.

There's a certain type of person- like the ones who become Town Meeting Members, who like to sit and talk for hours about sewer covers and easements, and utility poles being moved... you see them on Cable TV at the Town Meeting and at the Selectmen's meetings and Planning Board meetings.  If people can get THAT excited about sewer covers, I think Christians should be able to get excited about conducting church business.

What will happen tonight? Well, I guess I'll have to wait and find out!