Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

My memories are probably very slanted because even as a boy I was a pretty serious church nerd, but I remember how much I looked forward to one of the latter Sundays in January. Lots of people would turn out to the one worship service my church had that day. The social hall – through which we passed on our way to church and Sunday School – had lots of tables and chairs set up, and nicely decorated tables at that. By 10:00 am Mrs. Pitlock, the neighborhood caterer, and her crew were already bustling in our church kitchen getting the luncheon ready, and every year I knew I could look forward to her delicious glazed carrots.

It was the Sunday of our congregation’s Annual Meeting, and it was a big deal. The lunch was tasty and, even more remarkable, served to us at our seats …on real plates! But, mostly, the meeting was business and a series of people making committee reports. While I was in awe of the seriousness with which my parents participated in this assembly, I confess that I got bored with most of it really quickly; my friends and I would, by the second report or so, have already gotten permission to go play in the churchyard.

Annual meetings don’t get a lot of attention in our common conversation about becoming more mission-minded instead of maintenance-focused. I get it. Annual meetings are, perhaps, one of the last significant vestiges of ‘things congregations have to do,’ and there’s not a lot of imagination or creativity or, frankly, desire around them, in general.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about annual meetings, primarily for two reasons. First, ours is coming up. St. George’s Annual Meeting is on the first Sunday in December. (It makes Advent and Thanksgiving kind of crazy, but I’ve come to really appreciate having everything done – budget, vestry, officers – before the calendar year kicks in.) Second, because I’ve been looking very seriously at turning (most) everything we do into opportunities to form and send forth disciples of Jesus, I wondered if we couldn’t make our annual meeting something more, placing the emphasis instead on a celebratory, grace-filled annual gathering of disciples.

This year, then, we’re going to give it a shot in Valley Lee. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, and maybe you’d like to try this, too. I’d be interested to gather some more case-studies and, at least, some anecdotes.

St. George’s gathering will start later in the afternoon (3:00 o’clock) with appetizers and a keynote presentation, and we’ll do a lot of singing, bible study, praying, table conversation, and, of course, engaging the common work of annual meetings. We’ve invited a guest speaker: Canon Joey Rick from our Diocese of Washington will lead a conversation around navigating and managing change. The dinner will be catered – reminiscences of Mrs. Pitlock – and we’ll spend time in bible study at individual tables. Childcare will be provided, and we hope this addition will help make our gathering truly representative of the growing demographics of our congregation, encouraging younger families to also participate. We’ll likely close with sung Compline. And over the course of the evening, we’ll celebrate our outgoing vestry-members, elect a new vestry, and look at the vestry-approved budget.

Maybe it’ll give a different feel and flavor and sense, not to mention a richer, deeper spirituality to this gathering. Personally, I hope it does, not because any of our annual meetings have been necessarily ‘bad’ but, primarily, because I really do believe that everything the church does, whether it’s business or prayer, is and should be about forming and sending forth disciples of Jesus. I hope that our new Annual (Meeting) Gathering will reveal in its form, just as we speak to the function that there is only one reason why the church does any of this stuff, there’s only one reason we care about budgets, vestry, officers, etc., and that’s to form and send forth disciples of Jesus.

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