Ministers' Business Meeting

By Calvin Eash, Pastor of Bowlings Creek Mennonite Church, Buckhorn, Kentucky

One thought that comes to mind when asked to do a report on a business meeting is how can one write something informative and enlightening on a "boring" meeting? Go ahead and call me strange but I personally do not find it all that boring. During the songs of worship I have a hard time deciding whether to blend my voice in praise with all the others or just sit and listen while my heart is lifted toward heaven.

By attending the business meetings one can get a feel of the pulse of the Conference. I have been sensing love and respect toward the congregations who have left or are wishing to leave by the hesitancy as the reports are read, or in the individual conversations where we ask how they are doing, or in the applause for the offer from a departing congregation to assist with future Conference meetings. I know I am a relative newcomer and it may not have always been that way before I came on board, but I am encouraged by what I have been observing since becoming a pastor. There is the heartfelt concern for the needs of others as prayer requests are dealt with personally, rather than a generic Lord-bless-all-the-sick-and-needy-amen type of prayer.

When we break for lunch we catch up on how old friends are doing, make new acquaintances, discuss agenda items, weather, farming, family, church, etc. As reports are given by representatives to other Mennonite entities such as MCC, Mennonite World Conference, or church-related colleges, I hear concern over doctrinal positions not like our own, but also see how we can be a voice for truth and change by prayer, faithfulness to the Scriptures, and living in the love of Christ. It gives one a sense of belonging to a bigger family, an identity beyond one's own church community.

The financial reports are more than just shuffling a bunch of numbers. They show we do still have sensitivity to needs and can rise to the occasion (like helping RBC finish the year in the black when things looked bleak). But it also makes us ask where our treasure (and our heart) is when our mission agency, reaching out with the love of Christ to a world headed for hell, struggles to meet budgetary demands. Many thanks to those who are doing their part. If all of us took "ownership" in the work of RMM, how much more could be done to build the kingdom of God. While Levi Miller of the Stewardship Committee may have said it in jest, perhaps we do need to offer a course in financial management at RBC.

The Home School Legal Defense Association says the price of home school freedom is constant vigilance. So it is with CMC. The price of maintaining our identity as a conference is prayerful consideration as we vote on board members, committees and representatives. And careful deliberation on how to best express amendments to the CMC Constitution; that is, does it properly communicate who we are and where we are going as a conference? I sense an underlying question of how do we ask about the old paths and walk therein (Jeremiah 6:16) while reaching out to a constantly changing world?

Is the Business Meeting all tedious discussion? No. There are moments of humor also, as when a quartet sang a "hymn" in honor of Dale Keffer's departure from the RMM board. Someone needs to encourage the talented songwriter(s) to write some hymns and choruses for use in our churches. And has Levi Miller ever considered "mentoring" someone on the art of finding tasteful cartoons to show on the overhead projector? (Thanks for helping us laugh at ourselves). Boring? I think I can find it a bit more stimulating than say . . . trying to coax a little dimpled ball out of a sand trap.

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