Business meetings

If that is so, isn't there a case for adding a new item (Shock! Horror!! :laugh: ) to next month's agenda: "Frequency of Business Meetings," with the suggestion that the church could manage with holding these meetings less frequently than every month?

 

Had to laugh at your acronym. Some BM's are hard and some are easy. Fiber always helps. Along with a little humor. :laugh:

 

That's a good description of business meetings at our church. So we decided to go from once a month to once every other month. If something comes up in between, the pastor calls busines meeting and we handle it.

 

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Okay, seriously now - we have monthly business meetings on the second Sunday PM, after regular services. Special called meetings are held as needed, and a group of two or maybe three, I believe, can call for one. Usually they are called by the deacon body or the trustees, although we will have a special one this Sunday PM, called, at my suggestion, by the 'Church Council' of which I am a member, to elect messengers to the SBC convention. (We let the time slip up on us, due to preparing for two mission trips, including a ten day trip, this week to New Orleans by our Youth group, with about 25 going, including adults, and one (adult) upcoming to Brazil in the middle of June.)

I happen to be the elected Moderator (only official 'job' I hold, and I am a layman, although I am also the de-facto historian, and do teach occasionally), and the Pastor is the assistant Moderator, by our constitution and by-laws. We do need a small change here (but have yet to do so), to have a second assistant Moderator, to preside, should any potential conflict-of-interest arise, as both the Pastor and Moderator are on the 'Church Council', as are the next two named by our constitution to preside, namely the Chairman of the Deacons and the Chairman of the Trustees. So far, we have handled that by me not 'voting' on the Church Council (my choice), when we have something that might come up, presenting a conflict. I will 'suggest', and participate in any discussion, but leave the room and do not participate in the 'Church Council' vote, in these instances. (The Pastor 'leads' the monthly Church Council meetings.)

Most of our meetings are fairly short, but sometimes they can have several things that come up. I usually do not know in advance, much of what may arise, and prefer it that way, since I can then preside in a totally unbiased manner.

Ed
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OK, as we do it in this bit of Australia ...

We have Members Business meetings quarterly, plus odd special ones if the pastor and diaconate think we need them for a particular purpose. We usually hold them on a Monday evening, but if needed they can be held at other times.Normally the pastor chairs the meeting, sometimes an elder or one of the deacons if it is considered more appropriate.


At the special meetings only the matter for which the meeting was called is discussed. At the regular quarterly meetings we have the usual housekeeping stuff, the reports from different areas of work in the church, sharing the good bits and the problems. This helps folk pray more intellegently, and to know where there are needs that they may be able to fulfil. It gives time to discuss plans and ideas for the future. Opertunity is given for differing viewpoints and opinions to be expressed and discussed. Although at times people hold strongly differing views I have yet to see a meeting become negative. People may not always agree but seem to come to an understanding and acceptance of the differences.

Including the prayer time the meetings usually last for about 90 minutes.

The diaconate have monthly business meetings which do most of the routine management of the church, simply reporting to the quarterly members meetings.

Regards
Bob

 

I attend a large 1100+ Sunday AM, but rural conservative country church, and our quarterly business meetings typically take 8-10 minutes. Our annual meeting usually lasts 15 minutes, but we have to pass our budget then. We always meet on Wednesdays after a regular regular mid-week worship. In fact, I think my pastor speaks longer on business nights...

We don't have any fights or disagreements, either.