The Strangest Annual Meeting Ever!

In more than 18 years here, I have been to many meetings. Elders meetings, deacons meetings, elders/deacons meetings, camp, ministerial, congregational, individual, group and any other kind of meeting that you can think of.

I have seen people get so mad that they have walked out. I have heard things said that should not come out of the mouths of sane people (mostly they came out of my mouth - sorry about that!). I have seen people break down in tears of frustration and in tears of joy. But I have never seen an Congregational Annual Meeting like the one that I saw today.

We did the normal stuff. I did a devotional about hope and what God could do among us if we let him. Various ministry leaders got up and gave updates on their 2009 plans. Dennis gave the financial report and presented the budget. All normal stuff.

Then Calvin got up. Calvin is always a good elder and a good leader, but no more so than today. He gave an open, honest speech about what it is like to be an elder and where they would like to see the congregation going and growing in the next year. Then he told people that Ron Jacobs has agreed to let his name stand as an elder. I don't have the time to explain how nice it is to see someone "step up" and help out in this way, but lets just say that it has been a long time coming and that it is good news.

Ron gave a bit of a speech and then Bill Muirhead got up - gave some "thank-you"s (To young moms who bring their kids out faithfully, to the deacons for their hard work, to the "FriendSpeak" group) and then led the closing prayer. That is when the odd part happened........

People got up and started smiling and shaking hands as if we had just won the Stanley Cup. People (the women I mean - not us guys) were hugging. Pats on the back were seen. Nice things were said to one another. No fighting. No "issues". No upset people. No fretting. Just a family - happy to be together - glad for another year and looking forward to what may come. They even offered to let me hang around for another year.

It is interesting what happens when there is hope in air. I like it. :)