ANNUAL CORPORATION MEETING – JANUARY 18

Dear Friends in Christ,

If you have been in a church for any time, you will probably have heard of the “80/20 Rule”.

The rule implies that 20 percent of the members do 80 percent of the work and the other 80 percent do the remaining 20 percent. Most congregations I have worked with adhere to that rule, usually unintentionally. It just happens to be the case that a minority of members are more interested and more motivated. The majority, being busy with other things, are willing to pass up the opportunities for service unless specifically asked for a particular project.

I have never been happy with that state of things, however. I am convinced that there is a link between how involved a person is in the life of a church and how much their Christian faith influences him or her in the many daily decisions of home and work and marketplace. I believe that it is too easy to keep the call of Christ at arm’s length unless a member knows, cares about, and is involved in the regular weekly activities and ministries of a church congregation. I also believe that one way to encourage people to become more active is to remind them that their opinion matters, that their gifts are needed, and that the information they need to become more involved is readily available to them.

So, what do these first two paragraphs have to do with the title of my letter?  They are my way of explaining why we are going to expand the agenda of our annual corporation meeting, and my way of encouraging you to attend.

At a session meeting recently, your elders concluded that the only reason you have traditionally had a corporation meeting is because it is required by North Carolina that any non-profit organization must meet annually as a corporation. At my urging, they also concluded that this year we would make it more worthwhile to meet. So we are going to do more this year. We are going to elect a congregational Nominating Committee. We are going to propose some goals for 2009 that the session is considering. Most significantly, we are going to review our financial performance and our ministry accomplishments of the last year. I will write an annual report on what I have concentrated on this past year. I will be asking committee chairs to comment on what their committee’s central tasks were, and we will give you copies of the treasurer’s annual report. Finally, we will renew our call to have more of you sign up to serve on committees of the church so we can have 6 effective, active teams working on all aspects of our church life.

The corporation/congregation meeting will be held on Sunday, January 18 after the 11 o’clock worship. To facilitate staying through the noon hour, I will ask the Congregational Life/Mission committee to provide a substantial snack at 10:45 for those who have come earlier for 8:30 worship or Sunday School. Please do make note of this time and date, and come prepared to ask questions and make suggestions on how our congregation can enhance its ministry, better serve our members, and have a greater impact on our community. When we overturn the 80/20 rule, and see 80% of our members doing 80% of the work, we will have taken a substantial step toward deeper discipleship to Jesus Christ. I yearn for that day.

                                                                                                                        Shalom,

                                                                                                                        Duane