I do not like meetings—I really don’t. When I hear about a meeting that I have to attend, at best I tend to see it as a necessary evil. When I think about meetings I think about something that I have to do which keeps me from doing the thing that I want to do. Yet today I find myself writing a blog on the importance of going to and participating in church business meetings. This coming Sunday our church has its next Members Meeting, and here are several reasons why I not only hope you attend but also that you would even be excited to attend:
1. Members Meetings are a privilege. While there are many activities that we do as a church which are open to everyone, our Members Meetings are different. In our Members Meetings our members get insider information on what is taking place, they get to hear reports from our missionaries, they get to help set vision, and they get to make real decisions in the life of the church. My hope is that as a church that we see Members Meetings as not something we “have” to do but are “privileged” to do.
2. Members Meetings provide accountability. We live in a fallen world and at times even people or churches that we would least expect to fall, do. While no doubt Members Meetings will not automatically ensure faithfulness for a church, they do provide helpful accountability. When we come to Members Meetings we are resetting our collective eyes on the church to ensure that the church is moving in directions that are consistent with the Scriptures.
3. Members Meetings help set direction. Red Village Church is not simply a stewardship of her elders but much more than that. RVC very much belongs to the stewardship of her members, and our meetings help provide avenues for that stewardship. When we come together at Members Meetings we all help set the track of where we are headed and the work we will be doing. Our Members Meetings are a very real and important avenue by which the saints of RVC are sent out to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4).
4. Members Meetings provide an opportunity for us to testify to what is most important to us. As a church we often confess that the wooden cross and the empty tomb mean everything and when we come together for our meetings we are testifying to that reality. When the wooden cross and empty tomb mean everything we become eager to meet with others in the body, we become eager to make important decisions and we become eager to hear how the body is doing. Because the wooden cross and the empty tomb mean everything to us we do not just want to be members of RVC—we want our hearts to long to be fully invested members.
See you on Sunday at 2:00!