Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

On Saturday, my church, St. Lydia’s, had our community meeting, which happens twice a year. We go over financial reports and talk about the future, and occasionally vote on something (though we did not have anything to vote on at this meeting).

Because our membership is still pretty informal, congregants planning to come to the meeting identify their interest by filling out a piece of paper on a Sunday beforehand that says either, “I am a committed member of the community and ready to come to the meeting and vote” or “I am ready to attend the meeting but not ready to vote yet. “

This process provides each congregant a moment of conscious discernment about his/her place in the community. Each of us must ask ourselves, am I committed to this church, and do I feel ready to help make decisions for the community.

I like the flexibility this system offers us, while also requiring a conscious decision to participate from each member. This works for us in part because we are small, new, and growing community and perhaps, although we need the flexibility at the moment, as we grow we might need a more defined sense of membership.

But I wonder if this process might be useful as demographics change and we continue to become more mobile, and as the church seeks new ways to welcome people into the community.

Any community is changing. People come and go, for many reasons. Apart from baptism or confirmation, are we giving congregants time to discern their place of the community? Tithing is a part of commitment to a community, also.

There’s a balance between making the bar high enough that it feels like a commitment, but open enough that new people can easily be engaged. Allowing congregants a moment of discernment, a chance to show up and say I am here and ready to help this community move forward, is another way of meeting this challenge.