Let’s Have a Meeting

I am writing my column this week on a Saturday afternoon. I usually write my column on a Monday for Thursday publication but I am needed in Atlanta on Monday for a denominational meeting.

I spend a lot of time in meetings. It seems that usually once a week or so there is some church committee meeting I must attend. Then there are meetings that the greater United Methodist Church requires me to attend. There are meetings of other organizations to which I belong. It just adds up to a bunch of meetings.

My denomination seems particularly adept at the scheduling of meetings. The story is told of a great ecumenical meeting held in giant convention center. The assembly hall was filled with representatives of many of the various Christian groups that dot our religious landscape.

A fire broke out in the convention center. It was announced to the gathering that the building was on fire. The Pentecostals said, “Fire, it’s about time we were on fire.” The Presbyterians simply shrugged their shoulders and said, “Well it was meant to be.” The Baptists said, “More water is needed.” The Episcopalians fell in line had a processional and left the assembly hall.

The Methodists on the other hand appointed a committee to study the issue of fire and to hold meetings on the subject and report back to the gathering. Indeed the only thing a Methodist loves better than a covered dish meal is a meeting.

The truth is that in the church and other walks of life meetings are sometimes necessary. Honesty compels us to say that sometimes there are meetings that drag on and accomplish little. There are other times that meetings can veer off course and serve no useful function. However, a strong chair person can usually see to it that a meeting is productive.

I cannot tell you how many meetings that I have attended in my lifetime. I’m sure the number is probably in the thousands. Some meetings have accomplished much. Some have accomplished little. I even remember one that was life changing.

In the United Methodist Church there is a meeting that is held annually in church called a “charge conference.” In this meeting the members of the church gather along with the District Superintendent (the leader of the United Methodist Church in particular area) to elect the churches officers, and do other church business matters for the coming year. One of those functions is approve candidates for the ordained ministry.

In 1987 my home church in Macon was having its charge conference. I was the church Lay Leader at the time. I had left education to work as a sales representative for a school fund raising company. It was a job I enjoyed and the money was far better than the money in education but I was left with an empty feeling that I should be doing more in life.

The superintendent in conducting our Charge Conference observed that our church had not had a candidate for the ministry in nearly 20 years. He asked us as a church to be in prayer that God would lead someone from our church into the ordained ministry. Though the superintendent was speaking to a room full of folks I felt that he was speaking to me on a very personal level. I knew what I had to do.

The balance of the story is that within six weeks my pastor and I were sitting the superintendent’s office discussing my entering the church’s ministerial candidacy program. My life changed because of a meeting.

Meetings can be boring and a drag on our time and we probably do have far too many of them. Yet, sometimes profound things can be done in a meeting.

The story is told of a fellow by the name of Colonel Davenport who was speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in the late 1700s. On May 19, 1780 the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand.

Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.”

I don’t know how the world will end or exactly how Christ’s return will play out or what will be the contours of the Day of Judgment. What I do know is that when it happens I will probably be in a meeting.