Members’ Meetings

Weekly Update – September 22nd, 2022

This coming Sunday night, we will have our regularly scheduled “members’ meeting” for the third quarter of the year.  Most churches call these meetings, their “business meetings” but we have opted to call them “members’ meetings” instead, in order to convey a different sort of tone for this time.  You see a “business meeting” sounds cold and informal.  It is almost as if you are here to simply cast a vote and make sure everything is in order.  That is not the atmosphere in which we want to have though.  Instead, let me try to summarize what it is we are doing in these meetings by giving you three reasons why you should come this Sunday night.

First, every member should attend the church’s “members’ meetings” to actively participate.  What occurs in the church’s members’ meetings affects the life and direction of the church as a whole.  And every member has an opportunity to participate in some form or fashion in that direction.  That is why another emphasis of our church has been to have an accurate account of who our members actually are.  During members’ meetings, we as a church vote on membership, budgets, and potentially issues that will have a major bearing on the future and direction of our church.  Members participate through their attendance every week, but a members’ meeting is where church membership becomes especially meaningful as members actively participate in the how the church lives and breathes in our community, state and even the world.

Second, every member should attend the church’s “members’ meetings” to celebrate ministry.  We don’t simply have meetings together to vote.  In fact, we don’t really vote on too many things anyway.  A majority of our meeting time together is to hear how the Lord is working through our church’s various ministries.  It is here that members are given a detailed analysis of how the Lord is working through the children, or through our home groups or through the WMU.  There may be brief updates on many ministries during our main gatherings on Sunday mornings, but members’ meetings give members an opportunity to celebrate the details of God’s goodness through the various descriptions of his workings throughout our church. 

Third, every member should attend the church’s “members’ meetings” to practice unity.  The church’s quarterly members’ meetings are not only for the heads of ministries and 18 people who want to come and vote.  Members’ meetings provide an opportunity for the church as a whole to come together to uphold the vision and mission of First Baptist and to unite with the rest of the body to protect the church’s doctrine and celebrate the Lord’s work.  Attending these meetings displays an attitude that is committed to the church as a whole over the individual ministries that only affect what one person may like. 

Business meetings may have a negative rap attached to them.  Many might think of people fighting over the color of carpet or a boring speech followed by yeas and nays.  But that is not what we are going for here.  Members’ meetings, by God’s grace, can be a warm and comfortable time to unite together as we participate in celebrating God’s goodness to us through a time of reflection in God’s working in our church.  Sure there will be times to vote on serious matters pertaining to membership or budgets, but even during these matters, we as the church have an opportunity to display God’s goodness as we act together in faithfulness to his word as one body striving to be built up together in love. 

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson