Annual Meeting January 27th: A New Vision

Our congregation's annual meeting will be held Sunday, January 27th following worship.  A couple things to know:

1.  It's a potluck this year.  Bring food if you can.

2.  This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while.  We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.

It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church.  We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other.  We've done a good job of that, I think.  We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries.  Worship is diverse and interesting.  Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling.  People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together.  Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.

Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst.  But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate.  This is the mistake many churches make.  They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose.  They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service.  Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church".  Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission.  People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve.  But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future.  The energy departs.  Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.

The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves.  Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together.  That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond.  Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive.  With vision we're always moving towards God's future.

We've done well over the past few years, but it's time.  We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other.  Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good.  We've been preparing for a journey.  The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting.  Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be.  We have plenty of work ahead of us.  It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)