West Cocoa Chat

No, this isn't a picture of our Fellowship Room but it was the best picture of a "meeting" that I could find. Hello all, I'm back. I’ve been busy getting ready for the start of (sorry Steve) school which commences this Wednesday. Apologies for my lack of blogging.

One of the most stressful activities a church can engage in is holding an “open forum / business meeting.” It can be especially stressful for the leaders of the church that are running the meeting. I’m sure we can all relate some “horror stories” of church business meetings that we’ve participated in or have heard about second hand.

At our church we call business meetings “Family Talks.” In fact, we address our congregation almost exclusively as “Family.” You can probably gauge the “spirit of the church” by the manner in which it’s members conduct themselves. That’s probably not true in every case because I’m sure there could be some occasions where perhaps a member or two has some kind of issue that they want to take up in an “open forum” setting with the leadership. The preceding may not always be a negative experience unless said parties have by-passed the teachings of Jesus (Matt. 18:15 – 20) and, or, conduct themselves in a mean spirited way during the meeting.

I’m proud (and glad) to say that the spirit of our “Family Talk” was both positive and affirming. I asked our church family if they had any questions for us. What came back were affirmations for our leadership team and admonitions from individual members to their fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ to “get busy.” One sister said that “we” needed to move from being “consumers” to “producers” for the Lord.

As I reflect on the “sweetness” of our meeting, I want to thank our Heavenly Father for sending His Holy Spirit for it was evident that He was working in the lives of our members. I’d like to think that it helps to be open and honest as a leadership with the church.

In addition, we’ve been on a bit of a push to get our church to follow the steps of conflict resolution as laid down by Jesus in Matthew 18. We must break the cycle of sin where fellow Christians have some kind of issue with a fellow believer, whether it’s something he or she has written or said, and instead of going to that person in love, they talk around and about that individual.

The ministry of Godly conflict resolution takes time and energy but it’s benefits are a church that can be unified even when fellow members disagree.

Have a good day my fellow bloggers.