For many years now, the first or second Sunday in December at PVCC features our yearly Congregational Meeting. This isn’t just because we think it’s a good idea; it’s actually required by our church bylaws!
A typical Congregational Meeting lasts about an hour, and begins just a few minutes after our worship service ends (so if everything goes smoothly, you can be out of here no later than 12:30 PM). Topics discussed include the Administration Team’s proposed budget for the following year, as well as brief updates from our pastors regarding their respective areas of ministry. Personally, I find this to be a good time to update the church on my own personal life and my family’s life together. I also tend to do a brief look back on the previous year, and preview any new happenings in the coming year. And of course, we make sure to allow time for those in attendance to ask questions.
Most of our Congregational Meetings are uneventful. That may sound boring to some, but I actually think it’s a good sign! If meetings at your church are always exciting, that could well mean that some scandal, controversy, or dispute is underway. If the one day each year that we have a Congregational Meeting is uneventful, that likely means that we can focus on actually ministering to our people and our community the other 364 days per year.
Now you may notice that in the title of this post, I capitalized the entire word “CONGREGATIONAL”. Why? Well, it’s because our CONGREGATION should make every effort to attend it! In fact, it’s hard to really call it a “Congregational” Meeting if 75% of our congregation isn’t present!
Thus, consider this an appeal: if you call Prairie View Christian Church home; if you’ve entrusted your spiritual wellbeing to the Elders and Pastors here; if you faithfully give and expect to have some idea of how your money is being spent; COME TO THE CONGREGATIONAL MEETING.
In fact, we have more important things to talk about this year than we have in a long time! The Administration Team will deliver some of the best news they’ve had to share in several years. We have a significant staffing change to discuss for the first time in five years. There are openings for Ministry Team Leaders that we’d love for you to consider filling. The Elders have an important plan to present that we’ve never tried before; a plan that will make summer of 2023 very different for PVCC (and for my family).
So if you care about our church, please make a point to stay. And if you’re new to our church, this is a great way to learn more about the nuts and bolts of how we function.
We’ve sometimes heard people in the past argue that they don’t feel the need to stay for the meeting because they trust our church’s leadership. And while that’s very flattering – we want our congregation to trust us – we still don’t think it’s a good enough reason to skip out.
And while we’re at it, here are a few good reasons to miss the Congregational Meeting, and a few bad ones:
Good reasons: health issues (including, but not limited to, barfing and/or bleeding); travel; unavoidable work responsibilities/family obligations; an end of world scenario, in which you (and you alone) can save humanity; any other unexpected hardship
Bad reasons: you trust PVCC’s leadership so much that you’re comfortable being blissfully unaware of what’s happening behind the scenes; you don’t want to wait an extra few minutes for a table at a restaurant; you need to get caught up on Christmas shopping; you’ve already been at church since 9:45 AM; sports
As you can tell, I’m semi-joking in the lists above. But I’m NOT joking about our desire for you to stay.
Jesus Christ loves THE Church; so much so that he gave his life for it (Ephesians 5:25-28). We’re asking you to love THIS church enough to find a way to stick around for an extra hour once per year.
