The meaning in meetings

I wish that I had had the foresight when I was young to have started a tally of church meetings that I attended—though I’m not sure if I would be impressed or depressed by the number. I started attending regular church meetings when I was in high school, when I was the youth group representative to the Christian Education Committee at First Parish Congregational Church in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Through my life in the church, and my career as a parish minister, I’ve attended a vast number of meetings.

Here in Maine—at the local church and conference levels in the United Church of Christ—there’s a lot of talk about reducing church meetings. For many churches, like the one I serve, there are fewer people to fill committee slots. People seem busier than they once were and don’t have as much time to devote to committee work. And, any younger people around clamor for doing more ministry, getting outside of the walls of the local church.

In the work that I do with my local church as well in the conference, I hear the rally cry among the younger lay people and clergy for fewer meetings. At Old South Church in Hallowell, we have begun the process of reducing committee work. At the conference level as well, we are working on a process to bring about a different way of being the wider church. For the conference, the number of meetings probably won’t change much, but the meetings will be different. Especially at the governing level, a new proposal that will be voted on next month will reduce the number of people on the council—from 25–30 to 12. The hope is that volunteer time can be better spent in other ways, in “doing ministry.”