Annual Congregational Meeting

June 18, 2007 by · 10 Comments
Filed under: Religion 

The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville held the Annual Congregational Meeting yesterday.

I won’t bother to comment on the many reports that were given.  In general, the church is healthy.

The only slight negative in any report was that the Stewardship Campaign for last year didn’t reach it’s goals.  Those goals were tough – a 10% increase in pledges and a 10% increase in total pledge amount.  The committee achieved a 5% increase in total pledge amount with a decrease in pledges.

The Youth and Young Adult Ministry was by far the longest and most comprehensive report – covering 2.5 pages with 9 pt. type.  I was mentioned as a youth leader several times – including being credited with being a “devoted” leader of the Jr. High group even though I attended only once.

The “Green Team” wasn’t mentioned except in passing as the sponsor of one adult education event.

The Stated Clerk’s Report rolled up the membership numbers for the year.  We started the year with 867.  There were 29 new members (13 by Profession/Reaffirmation of Faith, 14 by letter of transfer, and 2 restored to the roll).  We lost 65 members – 6 by Letter of Transfer, 11 by Death, and 48 by Session Removals (making them inactive).  If you take out the Inactives, we had a net gain of 12.  We ended the year with 831.  There were also 10 infant baptisms and one adult baptism.

The Sunday School and Youth programs total 256 youngsters.

Aside from one remark made by the pastor regarding inactive members (and which I’ve contacted him about via e-mail) there was nothing to be concerned about.  All seems to be well.

But I’m concerned.

I believe that I am guilty of the sin of envy.

The Nominating Committee nominated 5 people to serve as elders, 8 people to serve as deacons, and one person to serve the remaining two years of a term as deacon.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a youth nominated to fill that unexpired deacon term – Claire will do a great job and if I have her year in school correct she’ll be able to finish her term before going to college (which I unfortunately was unable to do so many years ago).

Three of the officers were members of the same New Members class as me.  I was very surprised to see them nominated – I figured that nobody that new would even be considered (indeed – one of the pastoral associates said something to that effect to me).  The man nominated to be an elder is actually a returning member (he moved away and then back).  All three of them are devoted members and completely appropriate for the office.
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But a voice inside me asks “Why them and not me?  Haven’t I worked hard enough?”

Another voice answers “Why does it matter?  What do you want from the church?”

Yet another voice says “If you’re upset about this, you clearly aren’t worthy anyway.”

I do make a solid contribution to the youth ministry and feel appreciated there.  I know that I made a good contribution to the Green Team and I have felt appreciation from some about that.  I try to pitch in wherever I can.

I know that I make valued contributions at camp, and they are recognized.  Camp feels like home – what I do there to help (while sometimes tiring) never feels like work.

Clearly the pastor sees a future contribution from me – it shows in his choice to ask me to lead the new task force.  This is partially offset by the fact that it’s been over 2 months since I talked to him about the task force and it still isn’t populated yet.  When last we spoke we had three members (out of a target of 8) and we had named another 8 members to ask.  Our plan for meeting before the summer went out the window – we’ll now be lucky if we can start our task in September.

So what am I looking for anyway?

Clearly, any consideration of the church as a future full-time vocation has to go on the back burner.

I feel like I’m back at square one with my discernment process.  Did I really join the church for the reasons that I thought I did?  Am I being fed?

As I said last week, there is turbulence.  Now it’s revealed to be inside my head.

In the mean time, I persevere.  I’ll keep working on things as planned.  I’ll still be at camp in about 2 weeks to help with check-in.  I’ll still work on the task force when/if it gets going.  I’ll still be working with the youth.

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