Faith Formation & the Annual Meeting
Make your virtual annual meeting not just a time for business, but a time of Faith Formation. The annual meeting can be a time of discernment as a body to take stock of the past year, look at where you are now, and discern where God is leading you. We may be missing the potluck sharing, the hugs with friends, and gathering in the building, but there are gifts that a virtual annual meeting can offer. Here are some practices to faithfully listen and discern. Feel free to get creative with anything mentioned and mix and match as it best suits your community.
- Choose a scripture passage and then reflect on what that passage says about the past, the present, and the future of the congregation. Use short silences around the reading of the scripture to reflect and then share. Read the scripture three times starting with the oldest reader for the past and ending with the youngest reader for the future. Gather the words, thoughts, and images that are shared. Choose a time in the future to revisit the scripture passage as a community.
- Share some photos onscreen of the past year – both pre and post pandemic. Ask members to name the highs and lows of the past year in the life of the community. In both the highs and lows, ask members to identify God’s presence, faithfulness, or gifts during this past year. In larger meetings it’s best to move into breakout rooms for this sharing. Once in the large group, have people report back on small group sharing. Reflect together in gratitude for the community today and take the identifications of God’s presence and faithfulness into this next year.
- Ask a few members to prepare short videos on the topic of “What I have learned from the pandemic, and what I want to take forward in my church community.” Short videos could be shared throughout the Annual Meeting. Alternatively, this could be a discussion question for small break out rooms. Answers can then be shared as a word cloud using something like www.mentimeter.com. The word cloud can then be saved and shared with everyone, or perhaps revisited in 6 months, or at the next Annual Meeting.
- The pandemic has laid bare many inequalities in our communities and systems. Using this lens of Justice, have those present reflect on what they have seen and what they would like changed in their communities. Reflect on this question of how God is calling the community to engage in justice. What have you done? What could be done in the future? Use scripture as a way to engage in this work such as Psalm 106:3, Isaiah 1:16-18, Isaiah 9:7, or Amos 5:24. There are all kinds of possible verses that could be used, but let the words open up the spiritual imagination as a discernment practice. Use this discernment around justice to direct the church’s mission for the year.
- Use broad areas of church life as way to examine the lessons learned in pandemic. Break into groups focusing on one of these areas: Worship and Liturgy, Spiritual Formation and Learning, Mission and Outreach, Leadership, and the Church Community and Fellowship. In each group ask what members have learned over the last year? Have each small group report back. How might the church use what has been learned to set new goals and priorities in the coming year?
These are just ideas to get you thinking about ways to use the annual meeting not just for the required business, but for a gathering of discernment and deepening of faith. Wrap everything in prayer, scripture, and some silence to hear what God is saying to the community. Embrace the gift of virtual gatherings that can allow for widespread participation as well as an interesting intimacy in small group sharing.
Just for Fun: Consider ways to add some fun into annual meeting.
- If you film ahead for streaming your services, do you have outtakes? Could you create a funny blooper reel to laugh while acknowledging the hard work to get services online?
- Consider sending out a few recipes for those gathered to cook ahead and share together during socially distanced meetings. This is a great way to highlight a church recipe book or favorite recipes from staff or a variety of members.
- Ask people to record a short answer to the question “What do you love about this church?” and create a short movie.
- Get the children and youth to create a video: their own version of zoom worship, pictures to show in a slideshow, a gathering of their photos from the year? Perhaps there is something mentioned already that they could take on?
If you are interested in more ideas, or talking through annual meeting plans, feel free to reach out to me, amyc@diocal.org.
Blessings,
Amy Cook