Midweek Message: "2021 Annual Congregational Meeting – Some Observations"

Week of the Third Sunday after Epiphany

Dear Friends in Christ:

On Sunday, January 24, 2021, beginning at 11:00 am, Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church conducted its first-ever Annual Congregational Meeting via Zoom, a necessity given our pandemic circumstances. As a newcomer to Resurrection Church, I am drawn to share with you what this annual meeting revealed to me as a pastor who has observed lots of congregations in action over the years.

When it became clear that an annual meeting via Zoom would involve logistical and constitutional complexities, our lay leaders’ first and healthy impulse was to seek wisdom from the wider church in consultation with synod staff who directed us to another congregation in the Metro DC Synod who had successfully held their annual meeting via Zoom. Three cheers for a churchly perspective that honors and sees value in our life together in the wider church! Many congregations in my experience are inclined simply to go it alone.

What’s also abundantly clear to me is that we have a team of very gifted lay leaders who bring to bear on our life together as a congregation their wisdom and experience from their professional careers and training. This is lay ministry at its best when gifts from secular contexts are deployed for the sake of the effective and faithful operation of the church. These gifts include expertise in computer technologies, digital communications platforms, finance, law, politics, management, personnel, and more.

Moreover, our lay leaders do not employ their gifts as virtuoso soloists, but as members of a team, seeking out the full participation of other gifted people. This teamwork includes gifted staff members who have also risen to the occasion to creatively engage their ministries remotely and on Zoom. In the organizational world, it’s a salient feature of churchly organizational life to balance the efforts of volunteers alongside staff members – many nonprofits are more staff driven – but the nature of our churchly life is to draw heavily on the time and talents of volunteers.

So, here’s to the ministry in daily life of our lay leaders and staff in pulling off what was a well-run, efficient, good spirited annual meeting in my estimation, again, based on seeing a wide array of such meetings in my years and varied calls as a pastor. The meeting lasted about an hour and forty minutes – not too long given all that was on the agenda. It was accompanied by a carefully constructed, comprehensive 75+ page annual report, which is a crucial record of our life together for archival purposes in giving a snapshot of this congregation’s history at this time. All of this adds up to a fulfillment of my favorite saying about administrative ministry – “good administration is good pastoral care.” With this in mind, I have never in my pastoral career seen a congregation where so many rank and file lay members and leaders are so knowledgeable about and concerned with the congregation’s constitution.

With lay ministry in mind, and as an aside, I want to call your attention to what will be the focus of our Lenten program this year – a series of devotional writings and Zoom presentations featuring members of our congregation who will write and speak about how their faith informs their life’s work.

Here are some additional observations about the 2021 annual meeting which shed further light on the nature of our congregation. Among the gifted elected leaders, of course, is Mike Burmeister, who had served as Congregation Council President before his family’s move to Colorado, and whom we honored at the meeting. Thanks be to God for Mike’s leadership during a season of major transitions in the life of our congregation. Stepping into Mike’s shoes, and hitting the ground running, is Interim President, Jeanne Broyhill whose tireless efforts at shepherding the annual meeting and the process leading up to it I thank God for. There are many other individuals for whom I give thanks to God, but one in particular I feel called to name here is Steve Black who managed the many complexities of our annual meeting using Zoom as a platform. Again, all of this reveals that we as a congregation are in good hands in terms of lay leadership.

We also have a full complement of gifted persons coming onto our Council who were formally elected at the meeting. This newly configured Council will soon take up their communal discernment concerning a shared vision for mission and ministry of the congregation in coming months and years. They, too, will elect from within their ranks a new Council President, and by virtue of a change to our constitution at the annual meeting, a new Vice President. Pray for God to lead and guide this discernment and election process, for the Council President and Vice President are crucial roles in our life together.

Congregation budgets are in part spiritual documents that reveal the commitments of a congregation. Part of what our carefully constructed budget reveals is this congregation’s commitment to benevolently support the wider church along with a number of local non-profits which help address the needs of the most vulnerable and marginal among us in our communities.

The annual meeting’s reporting of Resurrection’s finances reveal that our congregation’s giving has not suffered unduly because of the pandemic. Giving remains generous, though there may be some challenges in 2021 when the congregation’s expenses may be higher, assuming a return at some point this year to a higher level of congregational activity.

Finally, the annual meeting was well attended by about 85 members. We had no trouble achieving a quorum! Given the virtual format, that’s a very healthy attendance that reveals to me the interest, commitment, and engagement of a large portion of our active membership.

The long and the short of it is that the 2021 Annual Congregational Meeting via Zoom reveals that Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church has not atrophied or begun to fade away due to the pandemic’s upending of our usual routines. On the contrary, there is a wealth of resources, leaders and more that make us poised and ready to meet the challenges of and opportunities for mission and ministry in the coming season of our life together.

For that I am thankful to God indeed! And I am thankful for all of you.

Appreciatively in Christ,

Pastor Jonathan Linman

 

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